Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy Series ; Volume 21
Summary note
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.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Source of description
Description based on print version record.
Language note
English
Contents
Intro
Contents
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
Chapter 1 Leaving a Mark: Municipal Freedmen and Roman Epigraphy
1 Cataloguing the Evidence
1.1 Municipal gentilicia and Status
1.1.1 Chronological Considerations
1.1.2 Morphology and Etymology
1.1.3 Electoral Tribes
1.2 Municipal Freedmen with Private gentilicia
1.3 The Publicii
2 Former Municipal Slaves and Their Families
3 Final Methodological Thoughts
Chapter 2 From Everyone's Slave to Patronless Freedman
1 The Size of the Municipal familia publica
2 Manumission and the familia publica
2.1 Demography in the familia publica: Sex Ratio
2.2 Demography in the familia publica: Family Groups
2.3 Practical Concerns of Manumission
2.4 The Practice of Manumission in the familia publica
3 Conclusions
Chapter 3 Starting from Scratch
1 Staying Close to Home: Settlement Patterns
2 Marriage Patterns and Social Connections
3 Municipal Freedmen and the Associative Order
3.1 Trying to Get Ahead in the Augustales
3.2 Professional and Voluntary Associations and the Urban Labor Market
3.3 A familia publica Civic Association
4 Conclusions
Chapter 4 Little Fish in a Big Labor Market
1 Shallow Roots: Settlement Patterns
1.1 Freeborn Children and Former Personal Slaves
1.2 Descendants
2 Social and Economic Mobility of the Descendants
2.1 The Imperial Elite
2.1.1 Senatorial Order
2.1.2 The Case of M. Arrecinus Clemens
2.1.3 The Campanii of Capua
2.1.4 Equestrian Order
2.1.5 M. Publicius Sextius Calpurnianus of Brixia
2.1.6 The Lucii Publicii of Picenum.
2.2 The Municipal Elite
2.2.1 Decurions and Their Family Lines
2.2.2 Status in the Town Council
2.2.3 Setting for Advancement to the Decurionate
2.3 Social Mobility and the Roman Army
2.3.1 Citizen Legions
2.3.2 Auxiliary Cohorts
2.3.3 Praetorian Guard and Urban Cohorts
2.3.4 Vigiles in Rome
2.4 Urban Associations, Occupations, and the Wider Economy
Chapter 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 of Sources
General Index.
ISBN
9789004686359
9004686355
Doi
110.1163/9789004686359
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