Greek and Roman Slaveries

6 Free and Slave

The distinction between free and slave was fundamental for ancient societies (6.1). The ability of the masters to exercise power over their slaves was reliant on the support provided by free people and political communities (6.2–3, 6.6). Slavery was fundamental for the sexual economy of ancient societies and the distinction between free honorable women and women without honor, who could be sexually exploited (6.5). The free–slave distinction operated in various ways: it determined who could be physically punished and who couldn’t (6.7, 6.10) – or who could participate in honorable activities such as athletics (6.9). But making the distinction between free and slave too visible had dangers of its own (6.11).

The community of the free helped masters with recovering their fugitive slaves (6.12) and imposed horrific punishments on recalcitrant slaves (6.13). At the same time, the political community could intervene in the master–slave relationship to enforce its own priorities and interests. This could have negative consequences for slaves (6.16), but it could also offer them significant opportunities by limiting what masters could do to their slaves (6.14–5) or providing places of asylum (6.17). State interests could allow slaves to gain their freedom to enhance the manpower of the community (6.21, 6.23), while competition among the free and civil wars offered slaves both opportunities and dangers (6.24–5). Ancient political systems could have unintended consequences ...