Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 BCE–300 CE

This thematically organized volume exposes the ways that power dynamics denigrate and erase enslaved contributors, as well as how language barriers, gender difference, and disability created dependence on enslaved workers. The central role of enslaved workers in practical work like bookkeeping, education, and divination is explored, in addition to the unseen labor of enslaved collators, note-keepers, editors, and curators. Enslaved workers were a constitutive part of the Roman knowledge economy; their roles in allowing others to read and write, in producing ancient literature, and in staffing the bureaucratic structures of the Roman empire were profound. Roman literature, technology, and knowledge depended on the labor and expertise of enslaved literate workers, and these chapters argue that they influenced just about every aspect of Roman life.