The Freedman in the Roman World

Mouritsen, Henrik

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511975639

Cited by 264 publications

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“…HENRIK MOURITSEN applied essentially the same calculation in an early note on the prevalence of freedmen in inscriptions from the city of Rome, estimating it at around 82 % (MOURITSEN 1988: 194 n. 228). It is a great pity that he reverted to the traditional approach in his later work (MOURITSEN 2004, MOURITSEN 2011, even to the extent of preferring the logically invalid estimate in TAYLOR 1961 to his own, better-founded calculation here (MOURITSEN 2011: 127). Essentially the same calculation was also applied by VERBOVEN 2011: 90-3 to several different datasets (though for some reason a different and erroneous method was used to estimate the presence of freedmen among the Ostian collegiati).…”

Section: A Simple Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greek names and freed status in Roman Italy: Why ancient historians can’t ignore statistics

Lavan¹

2022

2022

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The rule of thumb that an individual with a Greek name can be assumed to be of freed status is widely used in the social history of Roman Italy. This paper shows that it is based on a logical fallacy and must be abandoned. There is no valid way to use names to impute the status of individuals without knowing the mix of statuses in the population. The paper goes on to show that it possible to make inferences based on onomastics but that it requires a formal statistical model of the relationship between names and status. The method is illustrated by application to the lists of members of collegia from Roman Ostia.

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Section: A Simple Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greek names and freed status in Roman Italy: Why ancient historians can’t ignore statistics

Lavan¹

2022

2022

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“…Hutchinson 1998 for a general discussion of Cicero's letters. 87 Fabre 1981, 232-242;MacLean 2018, 35-72;Mouritsen 2011, 61-65. 88 Blänsdorf 2001.…”

Section: Cicero's Letters Of Recommendationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…D' Arms 1981; Meiggs 1960. 107 Mouritsen 2011, 61-65. See Fabre 1981, 226-242 and MacLean 2018 for a thorough discussion on fides as well as other ideals for freedmen.…”

Section: Appellata Est Enim Ex Viro Virtus; Viri Autem Propria Maxime...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Commending a freedman. Virtues and masculinities in the recommendation letters of Cicero and Pliny the Younger

Hagelin

2021

OpAthRom

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This article explores Roman freedmen’s masculine positions expressed as virtues, qualities, and ideals in the recommendation letters of Cicero and Pliny the Younger. It discusses whether there were specific freedman virtues, qualities, and ideals and what consequences their existence or absence had for freedmen’s constructions of masculinity. A critical close reading of the texts is applied, combined with theories of masculinity, where hegemonic masculinity is a key concept. It is concluded that there were no virtues or qualities that were specific or exclusive to freedmen. A distinct set of virtues for freedmen did not exist in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome, since much the same behaviour and qualities are seen as manly and desirable for freedmen as for freeborn male citizens of high birth. However, freedmen cannot comply with the hegemonic masculinity in full, since they cannot embody the Roman masculine ideal of the vir bonus and cannot be associated with the Roman cardinal virtue virtus, which was central in the construction of masculinity in the Roman world. This illustrates the complex Roman gender discourse and, on the whole, the social complexity of Roman society.

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“…6 6 For example, choice selection would include, for the ancient period: Mouritsen (2011); Brunt (2013); Harper (2011). For the early medieval period: Rio (2017); Glancy (2006); Davies (1996).…”

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confidence: 99%

Slave voices and experiences in the later medieval Europe

Skoda

2023

History Compass

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Late medieval slavery was profoundly entangled in urban life in particular. Cities all around the Mediterranean coast were implicated in the trade—although this article focuses on the Christian Mediterranean which was bound together by a general reliance on Roman law (alongside local customary laws and the canon law of the Church). Recently, scholarship on late medieval slavery has proliferated, offering a range of detailed studies primarily based on legal records. Late medieval slaves were predominantly women, and mostly worked in domestic settings. Scholars have addressed questions such as legal regulation; the ways in which racialized thinking emerged; the economics of slavery; the implications of slavery for Christian socio‐religious frameworks; the extent to which slaves were integrated into the societies in which they were trafficked; and the role of slavery in geopolitics. This article flips all these questions to explore the experiences of slaves themselves. Surviving legal records allow us to see how slaves could articulate and even, to a limited extent, shape their own experiences through law; what race meant to slaves; how they experienced labour; how they articulated their religious identities; what social integration meant to individuals; and the ways in which slaves understood the geopolitics of their situations. All slave experiences were shaped by gender.

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The Freedman in the Roman World

Cited by 264 publications

References 0 publications

Greek names and freed status in Roman Italy: Why ancient historians can’t ignore statistics

Greek names and freed status in Roman Italy: Why ancient historians can’t ignore statistics

Commending a freedman. Virtues and masculinities in the recommendation letters of Cicero and Pliny the Younger

Slave voices and experiences in the later medieval Europe

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