Slavery in the Roman World (Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization)

Rome was a slave society. Beyond the thousands of slaves who worked and lived in the heartland of the Roman Empire, slavery fundamentally shaped Roman society and culture. In this book, Sandra Joshel offers a comprehensive overview of Roman slavery. Using a variety of sources, including literature, law, and material culture, she examines the legal condition of Roman slaves, traces the stages of the sale of slaves, analyzes the relations between slaves and slaveholders, and details the social and family lives of slaves. Richly illustrated with images of slaves, captives, and the material conditions of slaves, this book also considers food, clothing, and housing of slaves, thereby locating slaves in their physical surroundings – the cook in the kitchen, the maid in her owner’s bedroom, the smith in a workshop, and the farm laborer in a vineyard. Based on rigorous scholarship, Slavery in the Roman World serves as a lively, accessible account to introductory-level students of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Sandra Joshel is Professor of History at the University of Washington in Seattle. A scholar of Roman slavery, women, and gender, she is the author of Work, Identity and Legal Status at Rome: A Study of the Occupational Inscriptions and editor (with Sheila Murnaghan) of Women and Slaves in Greco-Roman Culture: Differential Equations and (with Margaret Malamud and Donald T. McGuire) Imperial Projections: Ancient Rome in Modern Popular Culture.