USD $149.00
Municipal Freedmen and Intergenerational Social Mobility in Roman Italy
Series: - Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, Volume: 21
Author:
This book challenges prevailing models of the ways formerly enslaved individuals in Ancient Rome navigated their social and economic landscape. Drawing on the rich epigraphic evidence left behind by municipal freedmen and freedwomen, who had been owned and manumitted by the communities of Roman Italy, it pushes back against ameliorating views of slavery as a temporary condition and positive notions of a prosperous and consciously proud Roman freedman class. Manumission was a far more complex process, and it did not always put former slaves and their descendants on the straight and narrow path of upward mobility.
Jeffrey A. Easton, Ph.D. (2019), University of Toronto, is Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Southwestern University. His research and publications focus on Latin epigraphy and social, economic, and political institutions in the Roman empire.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction: Trimalchio’s Shadow: Former Slaves and Social Mobility in the Roman World
1 Social Mobility in the Roman Empire
2 The Case-Study of Roman Municipal Freedmen and Freedwomen and Their Families
1 Leaving a Mark: Municipal Freedmen and Roman Epigraphy
1 Cataloguing the Evidence
2 Former Municipal Slaves and Their Families
3 Final Methodological Thoughts
2 From Everyone’s Slave to Patronless Freedman
1 The Size of the Municipal familia publica
2 Manumission and the familia publica
3 Conclusions
3 Starting from Scratch
1 Staying Close to Home: Settlement Patterns
2 Marriage Patterns and Social Connections
3 Municipal Freedmen and the Associative Order
4 Conclusions
4 Little Fish in a Big Labor Market
1 Shallow Roots: Settlement Patterns
2 Social and Economic Mobility of the Descendants
3 Conclusions
5 Conclusions: Names on a Tombstone
Appendix 1: Demographic Estimates of Select Cities in Italy
Appendix 2: Catalogue of Municipal Freedmen and Freedwomen (L)
Appendix 3: Catalogue of Descendants of Municipal Freedmen and Freedwomen (D)
Bibliography
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction: Trimalchio’s Shadow: Former Slaves and Social Mobility in the Roman World
1 Social Mobility in the Roman Empire
2 The Case-Study of Roman Municipal Freedmen and Freedwomen and Their Families
1 Leaving a Mark: Municipal Freedmen and Roman Epigraphy
1 Cataloguing the Evidence
2 Former Municipal Slaves and Their Families
3 Final Methodological Thoughts
2 From Everyone’s Slave to Patronless Freedman
1 The Size of the Municipal familia publica
2 Manumission and the familia publica
3 Conclusions
3 Starting from Scratch
1 Staying Close to Home: Settlement Patterns
2 Marriage Patterns and Social Connections
3 Municipal Freedmen and the Associative Order
4 Conclusions
4 Little Fish in a Big Labor Market
1 Shallow Roots: Settlement Patterns
2 Social and Economic Mobility of the Descendants
3 Conclusions
5 Conclusions: Names on a Tombstone
Appendix 1: Demographic Estimates of Select Cities in Italy
Appendix 2: Catalogue of Municipal Freedmen and Freedwomen (L)
Appendix 3: Catalogue of Descendants of Municipal Freedmen and Freedwomen (D)
Bibliography
Index
Institutes, universities, libraries. General academic interest in Roman social history. Specialists in Roman slavery, economy, and law Latin epigraphers. Undergraduate and graduate students of slavery in the ancient world.