This book explores the presence of slaves and slavery in Roman literature and asks particularly what the free imagination made of the experience of living with slaves, beings who both were and were not fellow humans. As a shadow humanity, slaves furnished the free with other selves and imaginative alibis as well as mediators between and substitutes for their peers. As presences that witnessed their owners' most unguarded moments they possessed a knowledge that was the object of both curiosity and anxiety. The book discusses not only the ideological relations of Roman literature to the institution of slavery, but also the ways in which slavery provided a metaphor for a range of other relationships and experiences, and in particular for literature itself. It is arranged thematically and covers a broad chronological and generic field.

‘A supple and mature enquiry into an impossibly all-encompassing topic … the literary imagination on display in this little book packs in incisive laceration along with clear-cut analysis.’

Source: Journal of Roman Studies

‘In short, an attractive and provocative work. In the estimate of the reviewer, it is one of the best in an outstanding series that has already established itself as an essential part of modern Latin studies.’

Brent Shaw Source: Phoenix 55