Yesterday I mentioned how the comparative high status of the slave woman Adelphasium reminded me of the descriptions of the enslavement of philosophers. Specifically, like Adelphasium, these people seem to avoid the stigma of slavery that normally appears to linger with freedmen. In Adelphasium’s case, she appears to avoid this stigma because of three reasons:
1) Her incredible beauty
2) Her intelligence
3) Her native citizenship to Carthage
In his account of the lives of the philosophers Plato and Diogenes of Sinope, Diogenes Laertius similarly does not present any stigma attach to these philosophers having been sold into slavery but then being manumitted. Very likely their intelligence and their native citizenship contributed to this treatment.
On the other hand there were thinkers like Epictetus, who grew up a slave (likely was born a slave, but the sources aren’t clear) but he was eventually manumitted and then founded a school in Greece. We know about Epictetus through the writings of his student Nikodemus, who wrote up the lectures that Epictetus gave his students. For the most part these lectures are focused on philosophical topics, as Epictetus was a Stoic. However, he does mention some parts of his enslavement, such as how his master helped procure his education prior to his manumission. Unlike Plato and Diogenes, however, Epictetus appears very much marked as a slave after his manumission. Epictetus was lame in one leg, likely the result of a harsh punishment that he received.
Even though Epictetus had the status as a serious philosopher and intellectual, he didn’t easily in habit the role of a Roman citizen because of how his body was marked.
Hmm... My thoughts today seem a bit hazy. Tomorrow I’ll try to be more focused when I talk about Aristotle’s will and testament.
1) Her incredible beauty
2) Her intelligence
3) Her native citizenship to Carthage
In his account of the lives of the philosophers Plato and Diogenes of Sinope, Diogenes Laertius similarly does not present any stigma attach to these philosophers having been sold into slavery but then being manumitted. Very likely their intelligence and their native citizenship contributed to this treatment.
On the other hand there were thinkers like Epictetus, who grew up a slave (likely was born a slave, but the sources aren’t clear) but he was eventually manumitted and then founded a school in Greece. We know about Epictetus through the writings of his student Nikodemus, who wrote up the lectures that Epictetus gave his students. For the most part these lectures are focused on philosophical topics, as Epictetus was a Stoic. However, he does mention some parts of his enslavement, such as how his master helped procure his education prior to his manumission. Unlike Plato and Diogenes, however, Epictetus appears very much marked as a slave after his manumission. Epictetus was lame in one leg, likely the result of a harsh punishment that he received.
Even though Epictetus had the status as a serious philosopher and intellectual, he didn’t easily in habit the role of a Roman citizen because of how his body was marked.
Hmm... My thoughts today seem a bit hazy. Tomorrow I’ll try to be more focused when I talk about Aristotle’s will and testament.