Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman

This book explores the institution of manumission - the freeing of slaves - in ancient Rome.

Matthew J. Perry (Author)

9781107040311, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 October 2013

275 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.52 kg

'This book is an excellent interdisciplinary answer to a narrow question. It engages with the multiple subfields of Roman slavery studies, gender studies, and legal history.' Anise K. Strong, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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.

1. Gender, sexuality, and the standing 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.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]