engleski

Roman slavery in non-legal texts – how to sell a slave with a defect?

The aim of this presentation is to show how was the slavery perceived and displayed in non-legal texts written in the era of ancient Roman culture, with emphasize on the slaves with certain defects. Many authors, whether they dealt with law or they were artists, wrote on the topic of slavery and slaves, with different approach. Since slavery was socially acceptable in ancient times, the idea of this presentation is to compare how the playwrights and other authors observed and wrote about it. It can be debated how the sale of slaves actually looked like, and more importantly, the declaration of defects of the slaves. Cicero claims (Cic. de Off. III.17) that in the sale of slaves every form of deception on the vendor's part is disallowed. This paper will examine in which way the conflict was resolved if declaration was false, or in case it did not occur at all. Curule aediles had an important role in this matter, especially with their Edict, which is not preserved in the original form. Yet, there are certain non-legal texts, which allow exploring this question. One such is Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae (Liber IV, II) where he explains the difference between a disease and a defect (morbus et vitium), and the force of those terms in the aediles' edict. In addition, he gives interesting examples on this topic, and debate whether eunuchs and barren women could be returned, if the buyer did not know that kind of ‘’defect’’ of slaves. On these examples, the paper will discuss how non-legal sources help to understand certain institutes of Roman law and Roman legal tradition. By doing so, this paper will demonstrate the connection between law and humanities, and the necessity to use other sources beside legal one.

emptio venditio ; slave ; morbus et vitium

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