Roman Inequality
Affluent Slaves, Businesswomen, Legal Fictions
Seiten
2023
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-768734-5 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-768734-5 (ISBN)
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In the first and second centuries CE a small elite of affluent slaves and wealthy free persons prospered in Rome amidst a mass of impoverished free inhabitants and impecunious enslaved people. Roman Inequality reconstructs the role that slaves and women played in this economy.
Roman Inequality explores how in Rome in the first and second centuries CE a number of male and female slaves, and some free women, prospered in business amidst a population of generally impoverished free inhabitants and of impecunious enslaved residents. Edward E. Cohen focuses on two anomalies to which only minimal academic attention has been previously directed: (1) the paradox of a Roman economy dependent on enslaved entrepreneurs who functioned, and often achieved considerable personal affluence, within a legal system that supposedly deprived unfree persons of all legal capacity and human rights; (2) the incongruity of the importance and accomplishments of Roman businesswomen, both free and slave, successfully operating under legal rules that in many aspects discriminated against women, but in commercial matters were in principle gender-blind and in practice generated egalitarian juridical conditions that often trumped gender-discriminatory customs. This book also examines the casuistry through which Roman jurists created "legal fictions" facilitating a commercial reality utterly incompatible with the fundamental precepts--inherently discriminatory against women and slaves---that Roman legal experts ("jurisprudents") continued explicitly to insist upon. Moreover, slaves' acquisition of wealth was actually aided by a surprising preferential orientation of the legal system: Roman law--to modern Western eyes counter-intuitively--in reality privileged servile enterprise, to the detriment of free enterprise.
Beyond its anticipated audience of economic historians and students and scholars of classical antiquity, especially of Roman history and law, Roman Inequality will appeal to all persons working on or interested in gender and liberation issues.
Roman Inequality explores how in Rome in the first and second centuries CE a number of male and female slaves, and some free women, prospered in business amidst a population of generally impoverished free inhabitants and of impecunious enslaved residents. Edward E. Cohen focuses on two anomalies to which only minimal academic attention has been previously directed: (1) the paradox of a Roman economy dependent on enslaved entrepreneurs who functioned, and often achieved considerable personal affluence, within a legal system that supposedly deprived unfree persons of all legal capacity and human rights; (2) the incongruity of the importance and accomplishments of Roman businesswomen, both free and slave, successfully operating under legal rules that in many aspects discriminated against women, but in commercial matters were in principle gender-blind and in practice generated egalitarian juridical conditions that often trumped gender-discriminatory customs. This book also examines the casuistry through which Roman jurists created "legal fictions" facilitating a commercial reality utterly incompatible with the fundamental precepts--inherently discriminatory against women and slaves---that Roman legal experts ("jurisprudents") continued explicitly to insist upon. Moreover, slaves' acquisition of wealth was actually aided by a surprising preferential orientation of the legal system: Roman law--to modern Western eyes counter-intuitively--in reality privileged servile enterprise, to the detriment of free enterprise.
Beyond its anticipated audience of economic historians and students and scholars of classical antiquity, especially of Roman history and law, Roman Inequality will appeal to all persons working on or interested in gender and liberation issues.
Edward E. Cohen is Professor of Classics and Ancient History (Adjunct) at the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in the economic and legal history of ancient Greece and Rome, and is the author of many books and articles on this subject, including Athenian Prostitution: The Business of Sex (also Oxford University Press).
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Inequality
Chapter 2 Fiction: Reconciling Economic Reality and Juridicial Principles
Chapter 3 Opportunity: From Freedom to Slavery-From Slavery to Freedom
Chapter 4 Businesswomen: In Servitude and in Freedom
Chapter 5 Servile Imperialism: In Power, In Servitude
Works Cited
General Index
Index of Passages Cited
| Erscheinungsdatum | 27.05.2023 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 163 x 237 mm |
| Gewicht | 553 g |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte |
| Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike | |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-768734-2 / 0197687342 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-768734-5 / 9780197687345 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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