Slaves as Active Subjects
Individual Strategies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23416931 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Hunt (0000-0002-7227-5623, Classics, University of Southern California, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Publication date | 2017-08-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199575251.013.19 |
| OpenAlex | W2756135413 |
| ISBN | 9780199575251 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 19 |
This chapter considers the strategies that ancient Greek and Roman slaves adopted in response to the conditions of their enslavement. Some of these involved collaboration with their masters, since slaves could ease their oppression most easily and predictably through compliance and hard work and masters relied on systems of rewards and punishment to control their slaves. Such collaborative strategies were common, but the interests of slaves and masters were hardly congruent. So some slaves acted contrary to their masters’ interests: stealing food, avoiding work or doing it slowly, and asserting themselves to the greatest extent possible. Other slaves gained their freedom by running away rather than by working diligently towards manumission. Of course, these contrary strategies cannot be understood without considering the countermeasures available to masters, whose resources and power were far superior to those of slaves. Finally, some strategies depended on the involvement of people outside the slave–master dyad.
Dyad · Oppression · Political science · Power (physics) · Punishment (psychology) · Sociology · Work (physics) · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classical Antiquity Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Engineering · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
Slaves, warfare, and ideology in the Greek historians
Slaves and masters in the Roman Empire
Ideal models of slave management in the Roman world and in the ante-bellum American South
Resistance among chattel slaves in the classical Greek world
The comparative economics of slavery in the Greco-Roman world
Roll, Jordan, roll
Xenophon, Oeconomicus
The Material Life of Roman Slaves
Familia Caesaris
Bond of Iron
Slavery and Supervision in Comparative Perspective
Runaway Slaves
Slavery and Social Death
Greek and Roman Slavery
A Personal Letter Found in the Athenian Agora
The Torture of Slaves in Athenian Law
Versions of Slavery in the Captivi of Plautus
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |