Ulrike Roth

Liberating the Cena

That the extraordinary narrative experiment known as the Satyricon has regularly stimulated scholarly investigation into the relationship between status and freedom is not surprising for a work, the longest surviving section of which features an excessive dinner party at the house of a libertus . Much of the discussion has concentrated on the depiction of the dinners host and his freedmen friends. Following the lead of F. Zeitlin and others in seeing the depiction of a ‘freedmens milieu’ in the Cena , J. Bodel argued in a seminal paper published twenty years ago that the Cena opens a window onto the ‘freedmans mentality’. The last ten years or so have seen a revival of the theme, with much emphasis on the display of an open society in the Cena , even a Saturnalian world-view, based on a suspension or reversal of the traditional social hierarchies, all framed by a general air of excessive liberality: whatever satirical lens the Satyricon ’s author is seen to have projected onto Trimalchio and his freedmen friends, they are understood as celebrating ‘freedoms defining difference’. In the light of such a unifying conceptualization of the Cena ’s motley crew, it is not surprising that scholars have come to understand the libertine assemblage as a reflection of ‘the social class of the “freedmen” in first-century a.d. Italy’. After all, ‘class’ can be defined as ‘a number of individuals (persons or things) possessing common attributes’, and, with specific regard to human society, as ‘a division of society according to status’.

Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus: a Christian design for mastery

Abstract: Dieser Beitrag erklärt das Verhältnis zwischen Paulus und Onesimus im Brief an Philemon als das zwischen (reellem) Herrn und (seinem) Sklaven. Zentral für diese These ist eine duale Interpretation der κοινωνία, die den Brief prägt – sowohl was das theologische Denken des Paulus anbelangt, als auch bzgl. einer ganz konkreten Abmachung zwischen Paulus und Philemon, wie sie im Privatbereich häufig eingegangen wurde, die praktische Konsequenzen für das Besitzverhältnis über den Sklaven hatte. Die Erkenntnis, dass Paulus durch die Verbindung in κοινωνία mit Philemon zum Mitbesitzer des Sklaven wurde, erhellt darüber hinaus die Argumentationsweise des Apostels im Brief ganz allgemein. Der Brief ist daher Zeuge dafür, dass Paulus die Sklaverei nicht nur im christlichen Gedankengut, sondern auch in der Realität der christlichen Mission aktiv nutzte.

The Gallic ransom and the Sack of Rome: Livy 5.48.7-8

The article challenges the widespread view that the Gallic ransom mentioned in a number of sources for the events traditionally known as the Sack of Rome in 390 BC should be understood as evidence that the Gauls did not take Rome in its entirety. The article shows in contrast that, whatever happened in the night when the geese suffered from insomnia on the Capitoline Hill, a ransom is a perfectly suitable element in a story of a Gallic take-over of Rome—hill and all; and that it cannot be taken as evidence that an alternative narrative to the successful defence of the Capitoline Hill never existed.

Slavery and the Church in Visigothic Spain: the donation and will of Vincent of Huesca

L’article a pour objet le reexamen du temoignage fourni par la donation et le testament de Vincent de Huesca (VIe siecle) a propos de l’esclavage. Afin d’arriver a une vision renouvelee de la pratique de l’esclavage dans l’Espagne wisigothique, la discussion porte essentiellement sur le peculium et la structure des familles serviles. En particulier, en comparant le document avec les sources d’epoque romaine, on demontre que la servitude des esclaves mentionnes dans la donation et le testament est de meme nature que celle des esclaves romains. On ne peut donc pas considerer ce document comme la preuve d’un changement dans les conditions du travail agricole des serui, ni ces serui comme des paysans independants ou des fermiers. Au contraire, les perspectives que le document ouvre a notre comprehension de la nature de l’esclavage dans l’Espagne wisigothique conduisent a nuancer l’idee d’une convergence, souvent postulee, du statut des esclaves et de celui des pauvres de condition libre, dans cette region a c...

An (other) epitaph for Trimalchio: Sat. 30.2

Trimalchios fabulous epitaph, recited in full by Petronius’ colourful host towards the end of the Cena ( Sat . 71.12), has long attracted abundant comment. Similarly, allusions to the underworld in much of the decoration leading to and in Trimalchios dining room have been the object of intense scholarly discussion of the freedmans morbid characterization. In consequence, it is now accepted that epitaph and funereal allusions make for a deliberate mirage of the netherworld – so much so that ‘… Trimalchios home is in some sense to be regarded as a house of the dead’. As John Bodel has shown, ‘Petronius signalled his intention to portray Trimalchios home as an underworld earlier in the episode’. Examples for this include the procession from the baths to Trimalchios house that preceded the banquet ( Sat . 28.4–5) – ‘resembling nothing so much as a Roman cortege’, and the wall paintings in the porticus of Trimalchios house which made Encolpius stop and pause, as Aeneas had done at the Temple of Apollo at Cumae ( Sat . 29.1). The example of the pairing of the Cerberus-like watchdog encountered by Encolpius and friends during their escape ( Sat . 72.7) and the painted dog in Trimalchios vestibule that frightened Encolpius upon his arrival ( Sat . 29.1) makes it moreover clear that Petronius engaged in some elaborate ring composition concerning Trimalchios portrayal as a dead man walking. It is surprising, then, that Petronius should have failed to square the circle as regards Trimalchios epitaph: Sat . 71.12 appears to lack an earlier match – and this despite the fact that a visitor to a Roman tomb might well expect to be informed about the name of the deceased, and perhaps a few other details, at the moment of entering the tomb.