In contemporary America, bosses are expected to treat their workers in a certain way, just as customers are supposed to treat workers in a certain. Bosses who threaten or harass their employees can expect legal punishment. Customers who don’t tip can expect bad will and angry mutterings. While you can argue that these aspects of those particular relationships are purely the results of economic factors, I would argue that they are in part determined by culture, in part because as Americans we take the way people act in these relationships as evidence of their character.
I see a similar kind of culture at work among Roman slave masters: how they treat their slaves is evidence of their character. The best example of this is Seneca’s Letter 47, addressed to a fictitious Lucilius. In this letter, Seneca demands that Lucilius treat his slaves in a kind way. For Seneca, this kindness meant not asking that slaves perform ridiculous or humiliating tasks as part of elaborate banquets. Seneca had no comment on the morality of beating slaves, although he would have considered beating slaves in front of guests rather gauche.
Seneca lived under the Roman Emperor Nero and is therefore outside the scope of my dissertation. However I was thinking of Seneca when I read this bit from Plautus’ Amphityron:
“I think as whole a slave should stick to this rule:
Be as like your master as possible. If he looks sad,
pull a long face; if he’s cheerful, be cheerful too.”
(trans. Constance Carrier, Act 3, Scene 1)
This is a fascinating anecdote about the expectations of slaves, as told by the slave character Sosia. As he talks to himself, Sosia frames it as advice that a slave might give to another, indicative of how slaves would exchange such maxims as knowledge that can help them survive.
Of course, we must be careful here. The Amphityron is a play that is very concerned about acting and dissemblance. The central plot is that Jupiter transforms himself to look like the eponymous character Amphityron so that he can sleep with Amphityron’s wife Alcmene. To add to the confusion, Plautus doubles the amount of dissemblance by having Mercury transform himself to look like Sosia.
The idea of a god disguised as a slave is a fascinating bit of theology, an idea that has resonances in many places in Greek literature and in the Hebrew Bible. Unsurprisingly then Christians would make use of this idea and language, such as when Paul describes Jesus as assuming the form of a slave and suffering a slavish death (Philippians 2:6-11).
I see a similar kind of culture at work among Roman slave masters: how they treat their slaves is evidence of their character. The best example of this is Seneca’s Letter 47, addressed to a fictitious Lucilius. In this letter, Seneca demands that Lucilius treat his slaves in a kind way. For Seneca, this kindness meant not asking that slaves perform ridiculous or humiliating tasks as part of elaborate banquets. Seneca had no comment on the morality of beating slaves, although he would have considered beating slaves in front of guests rather gauche.
Seneca lived under the Roman Emperor Nero and is therefore outside the scope of my dissertation. However I was thinking of Seneca when I read this bit from Plautus’ Amphityron:
“I think as whole a slave should stick to this rule:
Be as like your master as possible. If he looks sad,
pull a long face; if he’s cheerful, be cheerful too.”
(trans. Constance Carrier, Act 3, Scene 1)
This is a fascinating anecdote about the expectations of slaves, as told by the slave character Sosia. As he talks to himself, Sosia frames it as advice that a slave might give to another, indicative of how slaves would exchange such maxims as knowledge that can help them survive.
Of course, we must be careful here. The Amphityron is a play that is very concerned about acting and dissemblance. The central plot is that Jupiter transforms himself to look like the eponymous character Amphityron so that he can sleep with Amphityron’s wife Alcmene. To add to the confusion, Plautus doubles the amount of dissemblance by having Mercury transform himself to look like Sosia.
The idea of a god disguised as a slave is a fascinating bit of theology, an idea that has resonances in many places in Greek literature and in the Hebrew Bible. Unsurprisingly then Christians would make use of this idea and language, such as when Paul describes Jesus as assuming the form of a slave and suffering a slavish death (Philippians 2:6-11).