The Past and Present Society Novel Evidence for Roman Slavery Author(s): Keith Hopkins Source: Past & Present, No. 138 (Feb., 1993), pp. 3-27 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/651186 Accessed: 19-02-2018 21:03 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Oxford University Press, The Past and Present Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Past & Present This content downloaded from 205.175.118.209 on Mon, 19 Feb 2018 21:03:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms NOVEL EVIDENCE FOR ROMAN SLAVERY* This is an article about Roman slavery, and an experiment with method. Substantively my objective is to sketch the slave's experi- ence of slavery, and the fears and anxieties which slavery evoked in Roman masters. I am interested here in thoughts and feelings. Methodologically I am trying a new tack by experimenting at length with lies, whereas most Roman history is purportedly aimed at the discovery of truths, through establishing facts or describing events which are known to have occurred.' This article is built around a single source, which is an inventive fiction, a pack of lies, an anonymous accretive novella, composed and revised, as I suspect, over centuries, as a vehicle for comedy and manners.