WEEK SEVEN

MANUMISSION AND FREEDMEN AT ATHENS

MANUMISSION AT ROME

Sources: Wiedemann Sourcebook ch. 3 and Gardner/Wiedemann, Roman Household ch. 7.

[Demosthenes], Oration 59 Against Neaira (translation by C. Carey in Aris and Phillips edition (1992), or in Trials from Classical Athens (1997) [electronic copy available via library “digital readings” list]; also available in the Loeb, and Oratory of Classical Greece series); good extended treatment/discussion in Hamel 2003; see now also Henry 2006

Athens: EVERYONE to read and MAKE NOTES on Against Neaira, and be prepared to talk about it in class, for the light it throws on Athenian attitudes to male/female, slave/free, citizen/metic and anything else relating to law and society that you can think of! What problems are there in interpreting the speech, given its genre and context? Who wrote it and who delivered it? What does it set out to prove, and is it successful in its aim?

Rome: What were the methods and procedures for granting freedom to a slave? How did the different methods affect the freed slave’s status? How frequently was freedom granted? Who was most/least likely to be freed? What reasons/motives might a slave owner have had for granting freedom? What are the chief contrasts in the attitude to manumission between Roman law and the Athenian or other legal systems?

Bibliography:

On Freedmen in general with comparative focus, see essays in Kleijwegt 2006.

Rome:

Bradley 1987 ch. 3 and 1994 ch. 8

For law, check Watson 1987 (cf. Watson 1967 chs. 16-19) or Buckland 1908;

Hopkins 1978 chs. 2-3; Wiedemann 1985; Kleijwegt 2009

Weaver 1986, 1990, 1991, 1997

Gardner 1993 ch. 2; also 1991

Duff 1928 (early empire, now rather dated); Treggiari 1969 (late republic)

Lopez de Quiroga 1998

Greece:

Zelnick-Abramovitz 2005 and 2009; Todd 1993; McLean 2002 ch. 12; Tod 1901/2

Paramone agreements: Wiedemann nos. 23-7; Horsley/Kearsley 1997 (Roman imperial example); see Hopkins 1978 ch. 3 on Delphi

Trevett 1992 ch. 1 (Pasion), Cohen 1992

Harrison vol. 1 1968, chs. 7 and 8

MacDowell 1978 pp. 82-3

Whitehead 1977, esp. 114-16 (and manumission in index)

Hunter and Edmondson 2000, especially Hunter ch. 1 and Osborne ch. 4

Jewish manumission material:

Gibson 1999; Levinskaya 1996 Appendix 3; Hezser 2005