Review: Slavery in the Roman World

Slavery in the Roman World by Sandra R. Joshel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book while trawling for books around Christmas and just got around to reading it. Joshel offers a good overview of Roman slavery, without getting too bogged down in the controversies and other distractions in the topic. She presents a variety of historical, legal and epigraphic texts to tease out what slavery meant in the Roman world, but the strength of the book really is in the attempt to understand how it look at it from the slave point of view. It is an occupational hazard in the study of the ancient Greek and Roman world that most of our sources are elite sources, so it is harder work to tease out what is happening to everyone else. And slaves are among the most invisible of the invisible.

Joshel also considers Roman slavery with other forms. Her point that there really was no 'North' to run to or really any secure place to escape is a good one, and, I think, crucial for the development of Roman slavery. Her discussion on resistance to slavery as shown by elite criticisms of slaves as lazy or dishonest or unreliable is a good one and one I'll be incorporating into my Latin classes in the fall.

This is a slim volume and a good overview. Obviously, there is much more to say about the topic. However, this is an excellent place to start.

View all my reviews