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Writing, enslavement, and power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 BCE-300 CE / edited by Jeremiah Coogan, Candida R. Moss, Joseph A. Howley.

Oxford Scholarship Online: Classical Studies Available online

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Format:
Book
Contributor:
Coogan, Jeremiah, editor.
Moss, Candida, 1978- editor.
Howley, Joseph A., editor.
Series:
Cultures of reading in the ancient Mediterranean.
Oxford scholarship online.
Cultures of reading in the ancient Mediterranean
Oxford scholarship online
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Latin literature--Themes, motives.
Latin literature.
Slavery in literature.
Enslaved persons' writings.
Slavery--Rome--History.
Slavery.
Slavery--Mediterranean Region--History--To 1500.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (382 pages)
Edition:
1st ed.
Place of Publication:
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]
Summary:
This volume assembles twenty-two scholars from the fields of classics and early Christian studies to interrogate the intersections between writing and enslavement around the Roman Mediterranean. Drawing upon methods developed in scholarship on book history and Atlantic slavery, the authors demonstrate the myriad ways in which the material and intellectual contributions of enslaved literary workers were vital to the composition, editing, copying, circulation, reading, and preservation of Roman texts.
Contents:
Cover
Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 bce -300 ce
Copyright
Contents
List of Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Map
Acknowledgments
1: Introduction
Method and Approach
The Roman Mediterranean
Roman Writing
Roman Slavery
Comparative Intersections
Part One: Writing Power/lessness
3: Despotics
The Ancient Arts of Mastery
Mastery and Reading
Writing (and) Enslavement
Conclusion
4: Gender
Enslavement, Gender, and Erasure
Archival Imbalances: The Death of the Lectrix
Enslavement, Gender, and the Aesthetics of the Roman Book
Coda: Gender and Over-Reading
5: Disability
Elite Impairment and Enslaved Accommodators
Prosthetic Pains
Textual Accommodations
6: Language and Ethnicity
Linguistic Difference
Navigating Multilingualism
Language and Literary Production
Part Two: Doing Things with Writing
7: Introduction: Banausia
8: Grammar
Enslaved Individuals and Grammatical Skills
Enslaved People as a Grammatical Curiosity
Enslaved Names as a "Mediterranean Grammar"
9: Numeracy
Rhetoric vs. Reality
Rhetoric and Reality
10: Divination
Divination, Writing, and Roman-ness
Writing and Enslavement in Mantic Contexts
Enslaved Diviners and Ambiguous Power
11: Justice
How Can God(s) Enact Justice for the Enslaved?
Legal Writings, Critical Race Theory, and Ancient Enslavement
The Letters of Paul: Justice, Righteousness, and the Enslaved Paul
Callirhoe : A Petition to an Unjust Goddess
Curses, Justice, and Injustice
Conclusions
Part Three: Doing Things to Writing
13: Notes
Epistemologies of Bureaucracy
Extensibility and Its Failures
Fragmentation
14: Maintenance.
The Mistreatment of Books
Preventing and Remedying the Decay of Books
Storage, Transportation, and Use of Books
Who Maintained Books?
15: Editing
Loyal Slaves and Faithful Editions
Enslaved corpora and the Editor's Masterly Hand
Erasing the Enslaved Editor
16: Collection
Enslaved Knowledge Workers
Archives of Enslavement
Unfree Collectors?
Conclusion: Enslavement, Collection, and Empire
Part Four: Writing Aesthetics
18: Rhetorics
The Block Is Hot: Slavery and Manumission in Demosthenes 36
Rhetoric, Writing, and Power in the Roman World: Controlling Acte
19: Letters
Letters in Hand
Letter-Carriers
On the Road: Gaps and Surveillance
Scenes of Delivery
Letters on Arrival
Conclusion: Blending In
20: Brevity
Afterword: Untimeliness
The Rememory of Domination, the Book, and the Enslaved
The Untimeliness of the Study of Slavery
A Positive Good?
Glossary
Bibliography
Index Locorum
Subject Index.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on July 14, 2025).
ISBN:
0-19-776997-7
0-19-776998-5
0-19-776999-3
OCLC:
1527804616

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