CLASSICS 219: THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Precept 4: Slavery

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Readings
• WARD pp. 325-334
• Tacitus Annals Book 14, sec. 42-45 (Penguin pp. 332-334), Book 16, sec. 18-19 (Penguin pp. 389-390)
• Petronius "Dinner with Trimalchio": xeroxed, in Reserve Reading Room = Petronius Satyricon, sec. 26-78 (=chs. 5-10 of E-text) = 45-88, Sullivan trans. (Penguin) = pp. 38-84, Arrowsmith trans. (New American Library)
• L&R 76-77, 81-82, 86-90, 109, 167-168, 170-182, 269-270, 280-281, 500

This week we consider the place of slavery in Roman society. BE PREPARED TO CITE ORIGINAL SOURCES in all answers.
Titus Petronius Niger was a senator and consul, the "Arbiter of Elegance" at Nero's court, and almost certainly the author of the amazing Satyricon, a huge novel satirizing contemporary life which has survived only in fragments. The longest of these is "Dinner with Trimalchio". Trimalchio is a successful ex-slave, and most of his guests are successful ex-slaves, but they are observed by a down-at-heels but freeborn narrator. Can we use his dinner as a historical source?

1. Define slavery.
   It's not as simple as you might think: can there be partial slavery? voluntary slavery?
   Is a slave a person or property, or both?
2. From the master's point of view, the main problem of slavery is the question of humanity.
   Why and in what ways do most masters dehumanize slaves?
   Why did most people accept slavery, despite humanitarian arguments?
3. A slave may react in a variety of ways to a life of slavery: what are they, and why are these ways chosen? Why are there no slave rebellions under the Roman Empire?
4. How does society (especially as represented by Petronius) view its former property, its freedmen/women? Compose a list of Trimalchio's character traits, however exaggerated, and explain them.
5. Stereotypes aside, how does it feel to be a freedman/woman? That is, what particular hopes and fears would one have, and why? What are the effects of manumission on society?
6. What are the major contributions of the Flavian dynasty (71-96) to the development of the Augustan principate?

NB: Paper 1 is due in your preceptor's mailbox by 5:00 PM on Friday, October 21st. Click here for details: Paper 1

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Last Updated: 2005-10-13

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