University of Cambridge
Politicising Manumission and Freedmen in the Late Roman Republic and the Augustan Principate
Abstract
dc:description.abstractEnslaved and formerly enslaved persons were an integral part of Roman society. Our surviving sources, however, paint a deeply hostile view of freedmen in particular and this warped representation of reality has often been accepted by scholars without further examination. This thesis argues that we can only fully understand the socio-political realities of freedmen during the Late Roman Republic and the Augustan Principate by reinterpreting the literary and legal evidence and critically questioning the distorted narratives presented by our biased sources. This reassessment is in line with recent developments in two areas of Roman studies. First, recent work in Roman demography strongly suggests that Romans did not free nearly as many slaves as has often been thought. Second, there is an increasing awareness that many politically active and influential freedmen were attached not only to the traditional political class but also to wealthy patrons outside of the senatorial elite. By examining each episode in its immediate socio-political context, this thesis shows that very few political actions in relation to freedmen during the Late Republic and the Augustan Principate were concerned with the level of manumission or the number of freedmen in and of itself. Republican legislators were far more interested in wealthy freedmen with wealthy patrons and how they were connected to and mobilised by the political centre. On the other hand, Augustus’ legislation was concerned with how to integrate freedmen and their patrons into the imperial regime, both ideologically and pragmatically.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2024
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Zhao, Dan Qing
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Patterson, John R
Subjects
dc:subject × 4Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- DOI dc:identifier.doi
- https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.114783
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/378308