MDS1TRW The Roman World: Myth and Empire Slaves and Conquerors
Rhiannon Evans The End of the Roman Monarchy
• Mythic History: Roman Monarchy: 753-510 BCE • 7 kings • Tarquinius Superbus (Etruscan) – – ‘Tarquin the Proud’ = LAST Roman king
• 510 BCE Lucre a raped by Sextus Tarquinius -> Tarquin overthrown
• End of monarchy: REPUBLIC h p://www.museicapitolini.org/collezioni/percorsi_per_sale/appartamento_dei_conservatori/sala_dei_trionfi/bruto_capitolino
Lucius Iunius Brutus, the ‘Liberator’ Capitoline Museum, Rome Founding the Republic
• Late 6th century poli cal change • Represented in Roman myth by: – 510 BCE overthrow of Tarquin ‘the Proud’ – 509 BCE Roman Republic founded – first consuls: Brutus and Colla nus Rome: the Republic
•Consuls: 2 men hold supreme power •Both hold veto power •Elected annually • Year named a er consuls who are in charge that year • e.g. 63BCE - ‘when Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius were consuls’ THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT magistrates: holders of poli cal office – Including 2 consuls, elected annually, who hold imperium – imperium - supreme power – right of life and death over Roman ci zens – right to put Roman armies in the field THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT
• magistrates: holders of poli cal office – 2 consuls – also 6 praetors (imperium) – and 10 quaestors. ! THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT ! Senate: top level of Roman society - property qualifica on of 400 000 sesterces – powerful advisory body of elite Romans, magistrates and ex-magistrates – acted as major law court of Roman state – originally only patricians (patres) – so plebeians (plebs) represented by Tribunes of the Plebs THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT
• magistrates: holders of poli cal office – consuls, praetors, quaestors • Senate: powerful advisory body of elite Romans, magistrates and ex- magistrates • people: Roman men, vote in assemblies to elect magistrates • The Senate and People of Rome • SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanus Rome: the Republic
• Democracy? • male ci zens vote in assemblies Rome: the Republic: Vo ng
• Male ci zens vote in assemblies • Aristocracy has legisla ve and execu ve power • Oligarchy - ‘rule of few’ • Electoral college system • College determined by property ownership • Colleges of high-property owners have more votes Where did slaves come from?
• Captured in warfare
• Born into slavery: vernae [singular verna] • Conubium - denied to slaves • Deracina on - slaves taken from country and kin http://library.artstor.org/library/iv2.html?parent=true
Where did slaves come from?
• Captured in warfare
• Born into slavery: vernae [singular verna] • Conubium - denied to slaves • Deracina on - slaves taken from country and kin • Foreigners - but not based on race – (vs Transatlan c slave trade) Was Rome a ‘slave-society’?
Only a handful of human socie es can properly be called ‘slave socie es’, if by slave society we mean a society in which slaves play an important part in produc on and form a high propor on (say over 20%) of the popula on. There are only two well established cases from an quity: classical Athens and Roman Italy.
Keith Hopkins Conquerors and Slaves (1978: 99) Was Rome a ‘slave-society’?
Only a handful of human socie es can properly be called ‘slave socie es’, if by slave society we mean a society in which slaves play an important part in produc on and form a high propor on (say over 20%) of the popula on. There are only two well established cases from an quity: classical Athens and Roman Italy. Keith Hopkins Conquerors and Slaves (1978: 99)
• late 1st c.BCE: around 2 million slaves in Italy • quarter of popula on The Slave Owner
• Most households - familia • Status marker • Male and female owners • Slave is property of owner
Buying" Slaves ‘Vegetus, assistant slave! of Montanus the slave of the august Emperor, has bought the girl Fortunata, by nationality a Diablintian, for 600 denarii. She is warranted healthy and not liable to run away’
Wooden tablet receipt for a Gallic (French) slave from around 100 CE: the first slave tablet found in Britain (Museum of London)
h p://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/a-history-of-london-in-10-archaeological-objects-object-3/
instrumentum vocale the slave as ‘a tool which speaks’! there are various tools for farming, some that speak, some that half-speak and some that are mute: the speaking include slaves; the half- speaking include oxen; and the the mute include ploughs. Varro Res Rus ca 1.17.1 (1st c.BCE)
Slave occupa ons
• Household slaves - familia • Imperial household • Farming – la fundia • Mines – lautumiae
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/mv-NV2w/spartacus_film_spartacus_is_sold/
Diodorus Siculus 5.38.1 (1st c.BCE)
The slaves engaged in the opera on of the mines secure for their masters profits in amounts which are almost beyond belief. They themselves however are physically destroyed, their bodies worn down from working in the mine sha s both day and night. Many die because of the excessive maltreatment they suffer. They are given no rest of break from their toil, but rather are forced by the whiplashes of their overseers to endure the most dreadful of hardships; thus do they wear out their lives in misery…although they o en pray more for death than for life because of the magnitude of their suffering. Resistance
•135-32 BCE & 104-101: Sicilian slaves on farm estates (la fundiae) •Spartacus- ‘Slave Wars’: 73-71 BCE •Slave army : 70-120,000 •6,000 crucified •Aim of slave revolts - end of slavery? •No common iden ty Resistance
• running away • slave collars
!
http://humweb.ucsc.edu/gweltaz/courses/history/hist_5B/Lectures/13_slavery.html
Roman slave collar inscrip on
I am Asellus, slave of Praeiectus, who is an administra ve officer in the Department of the Grain Supply. I have escaped from my post. Capture me, for I have run away. Return me to the barber's shop near the Temple of Flora. ILS 8727 Resistance
• running away • slave collars • fugi varii - slave catchers ! Manumission
• Freeing slaves in will • peculium - money slave owns • freedman – libertus • freedwoman - liberta Sources for Slaves & Freedmen: Petronius
• Petronius Arbiter Satyricon (‘Dinner with Trimalchio) • emperor Nero’s court • ridicules freedmen • slaves and freedmen as ‘muted groups’ • silence in literary texts ! ! Slave Rela onships
• Contubernium - ‘tent sharing’
• Slave epitaph: To the spirits of the dead, Panope the hairdresser, slave of Quintus Volusus, lived 22 years and Phoebe, her assistant, lived 37 years. Spendo made this [tomb] for himself and his contubernales (‘tent-sharers’) who well deserve it. ILS 7418
Slave Rela onships
• Slave epitaphs also some mes claim coniunx (spouse), uxor (wife), vir (husband) • Slave-master rela onships: freedmen/ women marry ex-mistress/master Epitaph to Child Nurse
To the Spirits of the Dead. To Servia Sabina, freedwoman of Servius. Servius Cornelius Dolabella Me llianus made this [tomb] for his nurse and mummy, who well deserved it. CIL 6.16450 The Roman World Next Lecture
The Republic: History and Literature http://0.tqn.com/d/ancienthistory/1/G/B/h/2/Scipio.jpg http://factsanddetails.com/world.php?itemid=2094 http://www.the-romans.co.uk/new_gallery_seven.htm