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Roman slaves were many things at once. In legal terms they could be defined as ‘tools with voices’; but at the same time they were often trusted servants, lovers, friends, professional advisers and potential citizens. This course begins by examining the various roles played by slaves in Roman society, both en masse and as individuals, from their appearances in law and literature to their presence in everyday life. It then makes use of modern theory to ask how slaves were understood by the Romans themselves, and how we might understand Roman slavery today.
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