Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome

Sandra R. Joshel

• 15 maart 1993
• 9780806124445

Samenvatting:

What was daily life like for a working man or woman in the Roman Empire? This text examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities.



In Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome, Sandra R. Joshel examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the first and second centuries A.D. to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves, and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities. The inscriptions indicate the significance of work-as a source of community, a way to reframe the conditions of legal status, an assertion of activity against upper-class passivity, and a standard of assessment based on economic achievement rather than birth.

Drawing on sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and women's history, this thoroughly documented volume illuminates the dynamics of work and slavery at Rome.