WEEK TWO
ANCIENT
IDEAS OF SLAVERY
Sources: Wiedemann Sourcebook chs. 1, 4, 12
Aristotle: Wiedemann no. 2 (Politics 1.2 =
1253b-1255b = Saunders 1995 I.iii-vii pp. 4-10, with commentary), Garnsey 1996
esp. ch. 8; Brunt 1993; Cambiano 1987 in Finley 1987; Deslauriers 2003;
Scofield 2005; Millett 2007
Seneca: Wiedemann nos. 190, 196-7, 237, 238 (Letter 47), 239 (De Beneficiis 3);
Dio Chrysostom, Oration 15
(Wiedemann no. 235); with Brunt 1973
Plato: Calvert 1987; Vlastos 1960/1968 and 1968
Marcus Aurelius: Brunt 1998
Epictetus: Hershbell 1995
NOTE: There will be discussion of the passage from ARISTOTLE, POLITICS
BK ONE
REMEMBER, FOR ALL ANCIENT SOURCES, CHECK THAT YOU
KNOW WHEN AND WHERE AUTHORS WERE WRITING, AND THEIR STATUS/CONTEXT; AS ALSO OF THEIR SOURCES IF APPROPRIATE.
Questions to think about:
What sort of categories/dichotomies between people do you regard as
significant for yourself? Are these
simply dichotomies or gradations?
Which seem to have been important to ancient writers, including
slave/free?
How does Aristotle attempt to define natural slavery and what
difficulties does this make for him?
Is Seneca really concerned about slaves, individually or as an
institution? If not, what is he
concerned about?
Do any ancient writers see slaves as capable of virtue or honour? Are any particular virtues or vices seen as
typical of slaves?
How are slaves identified or distinguished from other sections of the
population? What issues does this raise
regarding attitudes to slaves?
Other bibliography to read:
Bradley 1994 ch. 2; Du Bois
2003
Harris 2001, esp. chs. 12-13 (ideology of anger)
Hunt 1998 and 2006 (use of slaves in warfare)
Raaflaub 2004; Rosivach 1999
Robertson 2008
Saller 1991, and Saller 1996 in Bush 1996
de Ste Croix 1981 ch. VII/ii and
iii ; Golden
1985
Gardner 1986; Wiedemann 1996;
Wiedemann and Gardner 2002, incl. George 2002
Demand 1998 in Joshel and Murnaghan 1998, and McKeown 2002 (on
medicine)
For slavery in ‘novels’, see Bradley 2000 and Kenney 2003 (Apuleius)
and