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2 - Freed Public Slaves in Roman Italy and the Western Provinces

Legal Status and Social Integration*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

By
Franco Luciani
Edited by
Sinclair W. Bell ,
Dorian Borbonus  and
Rose MacLean
Sinclair W. Bell
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
Dorian Borbonus
Affiliation:
University of Dayton, Ohio
Rose MacLean
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Summary

This chapter focuses on the legal status and social position of public freed persons in the Roman world, with a particular focus on Italy and the western provinces. It primarily aims to test the idea that public slaves enjoyed a better social condition in comparison to other groups of enslaved persons, by investigating their prospects to gain freedom and build social relationships. The first section considers the legal status of public freed persons, by describing the process of their manumission in self-governing towns in the light of chapter 72 of the Lex Irnitana and discussing the related modern debate about the possible condition that was granted to public freed persons in the municipium of Irni, Baetica (cives Latini or Latini Iuniani?). The second section examines whether, how and why public freed persons could integrate into urban society, based on the extant inscriptional evidence in Italy and the western provinces.

Keywords

public slavespublic freed personsLex IrnitanaRoman citizenshipLatin citizenshipLatin epigraphyRoman ItalyRoman western provinces.
Type
Chapter
Information
Freed Persons in the Roman World
Status, Diversity, and Representation
 , pp. 56 - 85
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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