|
Manumit
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing slaves by their owners. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that the most widely used term is gratuitous manumission, "the conferment of freedom on the enslaved by enslavers before the end of the slave system". The motivations for manumission were complex and varied. Firstly, it may present itself as a sentimental and benevolent gesture. One typical scenario was the freeing in the master's will of a devoted servant after long years of service. A trusted bailiff might be manumitted as a gesture of gratitude. For those working as agricultural labourers or in workshops, there was little likelihood of being so noticed. In general, it was more common for older slaves to be given freedom. Legislation under the early Roman Empire put limits on the number of slaves that could be freed in wills (''lex Fufia Caninia'', 2 B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libertus
Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the economy. Unskilled or low-skill slaves labored in the fields, mines, and mills with few opportunities for advancement and little chance of freedom. Skilled and educated slaves—including artisans, chefs, domestic staff and personal attendants, #Gladiators, entertainers, and prostitutes, entertainers, business managers, accountants and bankers, educators at all levels, secretaries and librarians, civil servants, and physicians—occupied a more privileged tier of servitude and could hope to obtain freedom through one of several well-defined paths with protections under the law. The possibility of #Manumission, manumission and subsequent citizenship was a distinguishing feature of Rome's system of slavery, resulting in a significant and influential number of freedpersons in Roman society. At all levels of employment, free working people, former slaves, and the enslaved mostly did the same kinds of jobs. Elite Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of effective sole rule in 27 BC. The Western Roman Empire, western empire collapsed in 476 AD, but the Byzantine Empire, eastern empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By 100 BC, the city of Rome had expanded its rule from the Italian peninsula to most of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilised by List of Roman civil wars and revolts, civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the Wars of Augustus, victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching military power () and the new title of ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Fufia Caninia
The ''lex Fufia Caninia'' of 2 BC was a law passed under Augustus, the first Roman emperor, concerning the manumission of slaves. The law placed limits on the number of slaves that could be formally released from slavery by means of a will. Testamentary manumission had been established in early Rome as one of three procedures recognized in Roman law as not only granting ''libertas'' (liberty) to the formerly enslaved person but also full citizenship. Provisions According to the jurist Gaius, the law prescribed the number of slaves who could be freed by a will in proportion to the size of the estate. * An estate holding only one or two slaves was excluded from the law, and the testator had free discretion in manumission. *For an estate holding three and up to ten slaves, no more than half could be manumitted; :* over ten and up to thirty, a third; :* over thirty and up to hundred, a fourth; :* over one hundred and up to five hundred, a fifth, with a cap of one hundred rega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pasion
Pasion (also Pasio; ; 440 – 370 BC) was a slave who rose to become a successful banker and Athenian citizen in Ancient Athens in the early 4th century BC. Life Pasion was born some time before 430 BC. It is unknown where Pasion came from nor when he arrived in Athens. It is widely presumed that he originated from Syria and the Levant, 440 BC when vast numbers of Syrian slaves were brought to Greece through Phoenician ports, Tyre and Sidon. In Athens, he was owned by the bankers Antisthenes and Archestratus, who had a bank at the Piraeus, the harbour five miles out of Athens. During his slavery, he quickly rose to chief clerk ( Argyramoibos) in charge of a money-changing table at the port, and proved so valuable that by 394 BC, he had been manumitted and granted resident alien status as reward for his faithful service. When his owners retired, Pasion inherited the bank and established a shield factory. The gifts he provided Athens included one thousand shields and a tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pileus (hat)
The pileus (, ; also or in Latin) was a brimless felt cap worn in Ancient Greece, Etruria, Illyria (especially Pannonia), later also introduced in Ancient Rome. The pileus also appears on Apulian red-figure pottery. The pilos together with the petasos were the most common types of hats in Archaic and Classical era (8th–4th century BC) Greece. In the 5th century BC, a bronze version began to appear in Ancient Greece and it became a popular infantry helmet. It occasionally had a horsehair crest. The Greek pilos resembled the Roman and Etruscan pileus, which were typically made of felt. The Greek () and Latin were smaller versions, similar to a skullcap. Similar caps were worn in later antiquity and the early medieval ages in various parts of Europe, as seen in Gallic and Frankish dress. The Albanian traditional felt cap, the plis, worn today in Albania, Kosovo and adjacent areas, originated from a similar felt cap worn by the ancient Illyrians. A pointed version call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact, between 60 and 30 BC. The history is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Europe. The second covers the time from the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC. ''Bibliotheca'', meaning 'library', acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors. Life According to his own work, he was born in Agira, Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira). With one exception, classical antiquity, antiquity affords no further information about his life and doings beyond his written works. Only Jerome, in his ''Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andronicus, the innovator of Latin literature. The word Plautine () refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his. Biography Not much is known about Titus Maccius Plautus's early life. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina, a small town in Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, around 254 BC.''The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature'' (1996) Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers, Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference Online According to Morris Marples, Plautus worked as a stage-carpenter or scene-shifter in his early years. It is from this work, perhaps, that his love of the theater originated. His acting talent was eventually discovered; and he adopted the nomen "Maccius" (from Maccus, a clownis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persius
Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satire, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his poetic contemporaries. His works, which became very popular in the Middle Ages, were published after his death by his friend and mentor, the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus. Life According to the ''Life'' contained in the manuscripts, Persius was born into an equestrian family at Volterra (Volaterrae, in Latin), a small Etruscan city in the province of Pisa, of good stock on both parents' side. When he was six years old he lost his father; his stepfather died a few years later. At the age of twelve Persius came to Rome, where he was taught by Remmius Palaemon and the rhetor Verginius Flavus. During the next four years he developed friendships with the Stoic Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, the lyric poet Caesius Bassus and the poet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on good terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and was a friend of Augustus. Livy encouraged Augustus’s young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, to take up the writing of history. Life Livy was born in Patavium in northern Italy, now modern Padua, probably in 59 BC. At the time of his birth, his home city of Patavium was the second wealthiest on the Italian peninsula, and the largest in the province of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). Cisalpine Gaul was merged into Italy proper during his lifetime and its inhabitants were given Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar. In his works, Livy often expressed his deep affection and pride for Patavium, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Murray (publishing House)
John Murray is a Scottish publisher, known for the authors it has published in its long history including Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, Edward Whymper, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and Charles Darwin. Since 2004, it has been owned by conglomerate Lagardère Group, Lagardère under the Hachette Livre, Hachette UK brand. History The business was founded in London, England, in 1768 by John Murray (1737–1793), an Edinburgh-born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the ''English Review (18th century), English Review''. John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper ''The Star (1788), The Star'' in 1788. He was succeeded by his son John Murray II, who made the publishing house important and influential. He was a friend of many leading writers of the day and launched the ''Quarterly Review'' in 180 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoninus Pius
Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. He married Hadrian's niece Faustina the Elder, Faustina, and Hadrian adopted him as his son and successor shortly before his death. Antoninus acquired the cognomen Pius after his accession to the throne, either because he compelled the Roman Senate, Senate to Roman imperial cult, deify his adoptive father, or because he had saved senators sentenced to death by Hadrian in his later years. His reign is notable for the peaceful state of the Empire, with no major revolts or military incursions during this time. A successful military campaign in Geography of Scotland, southern Scotland early in his reign resulted in the construction of the Antonine Wall. Antoninus was an effective administrator, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vicesima Libertatis
The ''Vicesima libertatis'', also known as the ''Vicesima Manumissionum'' was an ancient Republican Roman tax on freed slaves. It is unclear how the tax was collected. One possibility is that, if the master freed the slave the government would tax the master for 5% of the slaves value, while if the slave freed themselves they would be taxed. Another possibility is that the tax was for registering a slave as free, not for freeing them in the first place. Evidence dating back to the Republic suggests that the collection of the tax was likely farmed out to the '' publicani''. By the time of the empire, collection of the tax likely was controlled by the emperor themselves. According to Livy, it was established in 357 BCE by the Consul Gnaeus Manlius. It is possible that this tax was instituted to compensate for the deprivation of the Roman treasury, known as the aerarium Saturni. Livy stated that the wealth garnered from the tax, which totaled around four thousand pounds of gold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
