Roman Slavery and Roman Comedy

Paper Summary:

This paper examines, through a literature review of such works as Plautus?s two comedies, ?The Pot of Gold? and ?Pseudolus?, how Roman drama is not a seamless construction of slave identity, or even a seamless construction of a world of upside-down power relations between master and servant. It shows how it is an uncertain negotiation of real life tensions where harsh realities and punishments of slaves existed simultaneously with portrayals of individuals in the Roman media of the day who were clearly human.

From the Paper:

"Clearly, slavery in the ancient Roman world was socially stigmatized. However, what is so fascinating about the Roman's version of this "peculiar institution," as slavery was often called in the American South, was that slaves did not occupy a stigmatized racial class, as they did in the American South. That is to say that in the racist, antebellum South, a free black man was still stigmatized by his race. However, in Rome, an individual who was a slave might be highly regarded as well as treated like chattel, if he or she possessed special educational or artistic skills. Slaves were often captured prisoners of war, and valued for their social contributions as well as socially despised."

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