Book contents
- Freed Persons in the Roman World
- Freed Persons in the Roman World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Table
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliographical Note
- Introduction
- 1 Permissu decurionum
- 2 Freed Public Slaves in Roman Italy and the Western Provinces
- 3 Fitting in by Decree
- 4 Doubling Up
- 5 The Cost of Ingratitude
- 6 Between Moral Slavery and Legal Freedom
- 7 Framing the Freed Person
- 8 Novel Evidence for Ancient Freed People
- 9 The Affects of Manumission
- General Bibliography
- Index
- References
4 - Doubling Up
Patronal and Familial Designations on Epitaphs*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2024
Book contents
- Freed Persons in the Roman World
- Freed Persons in the Roman World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Table
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliographical Note
- Introduction
- 1 Permissu decurionum
- 2 Freed Public Slaves in Roman Italy and the Western Provinces
- 3 Fitting in by Decree
- 4 Doubling Up
- 5 The Cost of Ingratitude
- 6 Between Moral Slavery and Legal Freedom
- 7 Framing the Freed Person
- 8 Novel Evidence for Ancient Freed People
- 9 The Affects of Manumission
- General Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
On a well-known epitaph from first-century CE Rome, one man commemorates another as his “fellow freedman and, at the same time, dearest companion” (conlibertus idem consors carissimus) (CIL 6, 22355a). The phrase reveals that the men are connected in two ways: by their involuntary legal subjection to the same patron and by their mutual camaraderie. It is the relationship between these two ties, expressed by the Latin idem, that I investigate in this chapter. Over 100 epitaphs employ a form of idem to communicate two distinct but simultaneous bonds, the majority of which were formed through the processes of enslavement and liberation. Employing this corpus of inscriptions, I explore the entanglement of interpersonal ties experienced by freed persons in Roman households. I show that the word libertus/a (freed person), which we often read as a marker of status, is employed on these epitaphs as a relational term, interchangeable and sometimes overlapping with interpersonal ties generated by very different social and legal phenomena, including affection, birth, marriage, and testation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Freed Persons in the Roman WorldStatus, Diversity, and Representation, pp. 119 - 140Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Bodel, J. 2016. “Death and Social Death in Ancient Rome.” In On Human Bondage: After Slavery and Social Death, ed. Bodel, J. and Scheidel, W., 81–108. Malden, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borbonus, D. 2014. Columbarium Tombs and Collective Identity in Augustan Rome. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borrello, S. 2018. “Enim vocata est mamma: Affettività e appartenenza famigliare nell’epigrafia Latina.” ZPE 206: 217–24.Google Scholar
Bradley, K. R. 1985. “Child Care at Rome: The Role of Men.” Historical Reflections|Réflexions historiques 12: 485–523.Google Scholar
Bradley, K. R. 1991. Discovering the Roman Family: Studies in Roman Social History. New York.Google Scholar
Eck, W. 2007. “Zwei lateinische Grabinschriften, wohl aus Ostia und Rom.” ZPE 163: 252–54.Google Scholar
Evans Grubbs, J. 1993. “‘Marriage More Shameful than Adultery:’ Slave-Mistress Relationships, ‘Mixed Marriages,’ and Late Roman Law.” Phoenix 47: 125–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flory, M. B. 1978. “Family and Familia: A Study of Social Relations in Slavery.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Yale University.Google Scholar
Gregori, G. L. 2017. “Domnulo optimo et carissimo: La dedica funeraria di un tata per il suo pupillo (Roma, via Flaminia).” In Esclaves et maîtres dans le monde romain: Expressions épigraphiques de leurs relations, ed. Dondin-Payre, M. and Tran, N., 243–52. Rome.Google Scholar
Herrmann-Otto, E. 1994. Ex ancilla natus: Untersuchungen zu den “hausgeborenen” Sklaven und Sklavinnen im Westen des römischen Kaiserreiches. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Huemoeller, K. 2020. “Freedom in Marriage? Manumission for Marriage in the Roman World.” JRS 110: 123–39.Google Scholar
Joshel, S. R. 1986. “Nurturing the Master’s Child: Slavery and the Roman Child-Nurse.” Signs 12: 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joshel, S. R. 1992. Work, Identity and Legal Status at Rome: A Study of the Occupational Inscriptions. Norman.Google Scholar
Keegan, P. 2014. “Roman Gaia and the Discourse of Patronage: Retrograde C in CIL VI.” In Ancient Documents and Their Contexts, ed. Dimitrova, N. and Bodel, J., 152–73. Leiden.Google Scholar
Laird, M. L. 2015. Civic Monuments and the Augustales in Roman Italy. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacLean, R. 2018. Freed Slaves and Roman Imperial Culture: Social Integration and the Transformation of Values. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinn, T. A. J. 2002. “The Augustan Marriage Legislation and Social Practice: Elite Endogamy versus Male ‘Marrying Down.’” In Speculum Iuris: Roman Law as a Reflection of Social and Economic Life in Antiquity, ed. Aubert, J.-J. and Sirks, A. J. B., 46–93. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Penner, L. R. 2013. “The Epigraphic Habits of the Slaves and Freed Slaves of the Julio-Claudian Households.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Calgary.Google Scholar
Saller, R. P. 1984. “Familia, Domus, and the Roman Conception of the Family.” Phoenix 38: 336–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, B. D. 2002. “‘With Whom I Lived’: Measuring Roman Marriage.” AncSoc 32: 195–242.Google Scholar
Sturtevant, E. H. 1907. “Some Unfamiliar Uses of Idem and Isdem in Latin Inscriptions.” CP 2: 313–23.Google Scholar
Treggiari, S. 1991. Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges From the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vlassapoulos, K. 2016. “Does Slavery Have a History? The Consequences of a Global Approach.” Journal of Global Slavery 1: 5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierschowski, L. 2001. Fremde in Gallien – “Gallier” in der Fremde: die epigraphisch bezeugte Mobilität in, von und nach Gallien vom 1. bis 3. Jh. n. Chr. (Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare). Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Zelenai, N. 2016. “‘Libertae isdem coniugi T. Licinius.’ Az idem névmás megkövesedésének problematikája.” Antik tanulmányok - studia antiqua 60: 159–72.Google Scholar