Keith Bradley

Animalizing the Slave: the Truth of Fiction *

In his discussion of natural slavery in the first book of the Politics (1254a17–1254b39), Aristotle notoriously assimilates human slaves to non-human animals. Natural slaves, Aristotle maintains (1254b16–20), are those who differ from others in the way that the body differs from the soul, or in the way that an animal differs from a human being; and into this category fall ‘all whose function is bodily service, and who produce their best when they supply such service’. The point is made more explicit in the argument (1254b20–4) that the capacity to be owned as property and the inability fully to participate in reason are defining characteristics of the natural slave: ‘Other animals do not apprehend reason but obey their instincts. Even so there is little divergence in the way they are used; both of them (slaves and tame animals) provide bodily assistance in satisfying essential needs’ (1254b24–6). Slaves and animals are not actually equated in Aristotles views, but the inclination of the slave-owner in classical antiquity, or at least a representative of the slave-owning classes, to associate the slave with the animal is made evident enough. It appears again in Aristotles later statement (1256b22–6) that the slave was as appropriate a target of hunting as the wild animal.

Slavery in the Roman Republic

INTRODUCTION The Republican period of Romes history occupied half a millennium, from the late sixth century to the late first century bc . It was characterised by a form of government that distributed public rights and responsibilities among a group of interdependent entities – magistrates, senate, citizens – in a cohesive system intended to prevent the monopolisation of political power by a single individual. At the beginning of the period Rome was a small city-state, comparable to and no more distinctive than many other communities in peninsular, especially central, Italy. By the end of the period it was by far the largest city in the ancient Mediterranean world – larger than any other European city until the modern era – with a population conventionally estimated at close to one million. It controlled a vast empire embracing much of continental Europe, parts of North Africa, and regions in the Near East, and indirectly its influence extended further still. The preservation of political freedom within the civic community was a hallmark of Republican government, but it did not deter or prevent Romans from subjecting others to their will. There are no contemporary sources to show with any certainty how the Republican form of government was instituted. Later Romans believed that it came into existence as a reaction against tyrannical rule exercised in the sixth century by a sequence of overlords of foreign, especially Etruscan, origin (which modern scholarship denies). At no point, however, was the constitution given written form.

Slaves in Greek literary culture

INTRODUCTION Slaves are as conspicuous in the culture of the classical Greeks as they were important in their society. The action of the Iliad begins with a quarrel over a captive slave woman. In the Odyssey , Odysseus must re-establish his relationship with his slaves as well as with his wife to complete his homecoming. Philosophers and tragedians explored the relationship of luck and character using enslavement as a paradigm of catastrophe. The ‘clever slave’ in New Comedy took over important and subversive aspects of the comic hero of Old Comedy. Only in the genre of history with its increasingly narrow focus on politics and war were slaves largely absent. But even Greek historiography – and political discourse in general – though mainly devoid of actual slaves, cannot be understood without reference to the central concepts of political freedom or slavery. And politics was not the only place: Greeks used the metaphor of slavery in an astonishingly wide variety of contexts. This mass of evidence is, however, obviously one-sided. The surviving literature of classical Greece was almost all written by slave masters and for its free, male citizens. Slaves – like women – are represented, especially in epic and drama, but they do not represent themselves. Even if we confine ourselves to the views and attitudes of the free and of masters, the burning questions modern interlocutors would ask do not find ready answers: how did they justify and defend slavery?

Slavery in the ancient Near East

DEFINING SLAVERY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST The study of the ancient Near East, the modern Middle East from Iran to Turkey to Egypt, has been pursued in the last two centuries in societies of Europe and the Americas that have themselves been mired in industrial slavery. Scholars of the ancient region have consequently been quick to point out that nowhere do we see the kind of mass exploitation that we find since the sixteenth century of our era. Some have tried to deny that there even were slaves in the ancient Near East and have suggested that we should not call some of the dependent people slaves. It is true that there were other kinds of dependency in the ancient Near East besides slavery, and ancient law-givers and others who reflected their societies were not concerned clearly to define lowly statuses that they took for granted. But there is no question that persons could be and were bought and sold from a very early period, such transactions fitting with a traditional definition of what slavery is. Patterson (1982), however, questions whether this is sufficient. He argues that in societies with a wide range of documentation, a more general component of the lives of enslaved peoples was systematic dishonour from the enslaving group. He speaks also of natal alienation, meaning that the enslaving group went to lengths to deny the actual family relationships of the enslaved and to create a new subservient identity for them, engineering their social death to their former lives in freedom.

Slavery in the Hellenistic world

INTRODUCTION When Alexander of Macedon conquered the former Persian empire in the last third of the fourth century bc , the different forms of dependence that he found there seem likely to have exceeded those familiar to the Greek world from which he came. Following this conquest much was left in place, but the spread of Greek-style chattel slavery represented a real change in the Hellenistic world. While attempting, therefore, to place chattel slavery within a wider context of dependence, this chapter will in part be concerned with one particular aspect of the impact of Greek rule on new areas of the East – the introduction of chattel slavery to areas where previously it had not formed part of the culture. The geographical scope of this inquiry is of necessity wide, since the new Greek-speaking world stretched from Sicily in the west to Afghanistan and the bounds of India in the east. The old world of mainland Greece, the islands of the Aegean and the coasts of Asia Minor and the Black Sea remain relevant, but changes there were of lesser note than those in the new Macedonian kingdoms of the East – in Seleucid Asia, Attalid Pergamum and Ptolemaic Egypt. From Egypt, papyri preserved in the dry desert sands provide an ever-expanding source of information on the role played by slavery in at least this one of the Hellenistic kingdoms.

Slavery and economy in the Greek world

This chapter assesses the location of slavery within the ancient Greek economy with a focus on slaves in agriculture and industry, and on household slaves. The Helots were a Greek population subjected to bondage through conquest of their land by other Greeks. Greek slavery ultimately depended upon war and violence. Slaves never owned land and only made decisions about it when they became bailiffs in control of other slaves. The Greek economy was a slave economy, because a significant proportion of its labour power was exploited to a degree that free labour power could never be within its social, political and military systems. Chattel slavery sharpened the social structure of Greek cities. Possessing slaves made leisured lives possible and secured the position of slave-owners in the social structure. Thus, by securing the dominance of the dominant classes, slavery was the principal mode of production in the classical Greek world.

Slavery and Society at Rome

1. Confronting slavery at Rome 2. The slave society of Rome 3. The Roman slave supply 4. Slave labour 5. Quality of life 6. Resisting slavery 7. Change and continuity 8. Slavery and progress 9. To be a slave Bibliographical essay List of works cited Index.

Discovering the Roman Family: Studies in Roman Social History.

These essays on family life in ancient Rome offer a timely and provocative new characterization of how this most elementary component of Roman society was structured. Recognizing that a traditional nuclear model is necessary for an understanding of Roman family organization, Keith R. Bradley argues that a broader, more extensive context must be established if this structure is to be fully appreciated. A seminal contribution to Roman social history, this book is essential reading for all interested in how the Roman family worked and lived.

Approaches to the Roman Empire: A Perspective

MIRIAM T. GRIFFIN. Nero: The End of A Dynasty. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. 320.

The Economy of the Roman Empire

25 (US); RICHARD J.A. TALBERT. The Senate of Imperial Rome. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. Pp. xviii, 583.