Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman

Matthew J. Perry

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781107040311
• eBook ISBN:
  9781107497160
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman examines the distinct problem posed by the manumission of female slaves in ancient Rome. The sexual identities of a female slave and a female citizen were fundamentally incompatible, as the former was principally defined by her sexual availability and the latter by her sexual integrity. Accordingly, those evaluating the manumission process needed to reconcile a woman's experiences as a slave with the expectations and moral rigor required of the female citizen. The figure of the freedwoman - fictionalized and real - provides an extraordinary lens into the matter of how Romans understood, debated, and experienced the sheer magnitude of the transition from slave to citizen, the various social factors that impinged upon this process, and the community stakes in the institution of manumission.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Gender, Sexuality, and the Status of Female Slaves
• 2 Gender, Labor, and the Manumission of Female Slaves
• 3 The Patron-Freedwoman Relationship in Roman Law
• 4 The Patron-Freedwoman Relationship in Funerary Inscriptions
• 5 The Slavish Free Woman and the Citizen Community
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Approximate Dates for Jurists Mentioned in the Text
• Appendix B : Inscriptions from CIL 6 Commemorating “Patrons” and “Husbands”
• Appendix C : Inscriptions from CIL 6 Commemorating an Individual as “Patron and Husband” or “Freedwoman and Wife”
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index of Sources
• Subject Index