Free At Last The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire [Hardcover]

How did freed slaves reinvent themselves after the shackles of slavery had been lifted? How were they reintegrated into society, and what was their social position and status? What contributions did they make to the society that had once - sometimes brutally - repressed them? This collection builds on recent dynamic work on Roman freedmen, the contributors drawing upon a rich and varied body of evidence - visual, literary, epigraphic and archaeological - to elucidate the impact of freed slaves on Roman society and culture amid the shadow of their former servitude. The contributions span the period between the first century BC and the early third century AD and survey the territories of the Roman Republic and Empire, while focusing on Italy and Rome.

A collection of essays on Roman freedmen in the Roman Republic and Empire.

Introduction - Teresa Ramsby, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Locating the Grapevine in the Late Republic: Freedom and Communication - Pauline Ripat, University of Winnipeg
The Face of the Social Climber: Roman Freedmen and Elite Ideology - Babara Borg, University of Exeter
The Freedman Economy of Roman Italy - Koenraad Verboven, University of Ghent
Deciphering Freedwomen in the Roman Empire - Marc Kleijwegt, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Feasting the Dead Together: Household Burials and the Social Strategies of Slaves and Freed Persons in the Early Principate - Carlos R. Galvao-Sobrinho, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
'Reading' the Freed Slave in the Cena Trimalchionis - Teresa Ramsby, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Between Fame and Infamia: The Image and Influence of Roman Charioteers - Sinclair Bell, Northern Illinois University
'Saintly Souls:' White Teachers' Instruction of Greek and Latin to African American Freedmen - Michele Ronnick, Wayne State University
Response - Eleanor W. Leach, Indiana University
Index

Sinclair Bellis Assistant Professor of Art History, NorthernlSS