Sorry for the absence. I’ve been traveling, working on grants, giving and grading mid terms. All of this means that I haven’t really had time to post or work on other parts of my dissertation.
So the topic today is prompted by two different scenes in Plautus. In Plautus’ Rudens, there is a shipwreck, causing a trunk full of gold coins to fall into the sea. A slave, Gripus, then recovers the trunk. When he recovers the trunk, he begins to fantasize about what the trunk will allow him to do:
What is particularly interesting about this slave and his plans is that he is a foil to the loyal slave in the play, Trachalio. We can see Gripu’s disloyalty when he plans on not revealing his treasure to his master. Trachalio on the other hand is working hard to help his master, mainly by correctly identifying a slave as his master’s daughter. Nonetheless, by the end of the play, both Gripus and Trachalio are freed. The Rudens therefore provides a fascinating counter example of a male slave who is freed despite not being completely loyal to his master. Instead, he is freed because he had the fortune to find a great deal of treasure.
The other example comes from Plautus’ play Aulularia, or Pot of Gold. In this play, a number of cooks have been ordered to prepare a wedding feast in the home of a notorious miser, Euclio. As these cooks learn about the infamous niggardliness of their temporary host, one of them asks “You suppose we might hit him for one thousand smackers
Down payment on our freedom from this old spender?”(trans. Palmer Bovie). This question suggests to me that it was common for slaves to afford manumission primarily by borrowing money from friends and contacts, rather than by saving up money.
There is some connection to this idea in a court speech from 4th century Athens called Against Neaira. In this speech, Apollodorus gives the biography of a successful prostitute who started her life as a slave in Corinth. Two of her clients pool their money to purchase her from her madam owner Nikarete. Later, these two clients offer to sell Neaira her freedom if she pays them 2000 drachmas. For sake of comparison, in another court speech we learn that slaves in a shield factory are sold for 300-600 drachmas. Apollodorus then explains that Neaira can afford her freedom only by borrowing money from her clients.
So the topic today is prompted by two different scenes in Plautus. In Plautus’ Rudens, there is a shipwreck, causing a trunk full of gold coins to fall into the sea. A slave, Gripus, then recovers the trunk. When he recovers the trunk, he begins to fantasize about what the trunk will allow him to do:
What is particularly interesting about this slave and his plans is that he is a foil to the loyal slave in the play, Trachalio. We can see Gripu’s disloyalty when he plans on not revealing his treasure to his master. Trachalio on the other hand is working hard to help his master, mainly by correctly identifying a slave as his master’s daughter. Nonetheless, by the end of the play, both Gripus and Trachalio are freed. The Rudens therefore provides a fascinating counter example of a male slave who is freed despite not being completely loyal to his master. Instead, he is freed because he had the fortune to find a great deal of treasure.
The other example comes from Plautus’ play Aulularia, or Pot of Gold. In this play, a number of cooks have been ordered to prepare a wedding feast in the home of a notorious miser, Euclio. As these cooks learn about the infamous niggardliness of their temporary host, one of them asks “You suppose we might hit him for one thousand smackers
Down payment on our freedom from this old spender?”(trans. Palmer Bovie). This question suggests to me that it was common for slaves to afford manumission primarily by borrowing money from friends and contacts, rather than by saving up money.
There is some connection to this idea in a court speech from 4th century Athens called Against Neaira. In this speech, Apollodorus gives the biography of a successful prostitute who started her life as a slave in Corinth. Two of her clients pool their money to purchase her from her madam owner Nikarete. Later, these two clients offer to sell Neaira her freedom if she pays them 2000 drachmas. For sake of comparison, in another court speech we learn that slaves in a shield factory are sold for 300-600 drachmas. Apollodorus then explains that Neaira can afford her freedom only by borrowing money from her clients.