The first in-depth account of the lives and careers of educated slaves and freedmen in ancient Rome
Slaves and freedmen played an important yet understudied role in the literary culture of the Roman Republic. Though their work went largely uncredited, they fulfilled vital roles as editors, researchers, and collaborators in the service of Rome's literary and political elite. Intellectual Property tells the stories of these gifted and highly educated young men, from Licinius the flute-player, who shaped the rhetorical style of the orator Gaius Gracchus, to the grammarian and teacher Tyrannio of Amisus, who was brought to Rome as a war captive.
Highlighting the unique social prestige of literary production and intellectual performance in a society pervaded by slave labor, Harriet Flower shows how the exorbitant prices paid for the highly educated encouraged a complex system of training young boys for the marketplace or acquiring educated captives as booty, and how they were treated as valuable assets to be deployed as prizes, gifts, or investments that could bestow financial and cultural capital. She demonstrates how enslaved and manumitted intellectuals, far from being menial workers, shared close relationships with leading Romans of the day. They came from a variety of backgrounds and were relied on as coauthors and collaborators in a range of genres, with some gaining fame as authors themselves.
With lively case studies and insightful new interpretations of the ancient sources, Intellectual Property paints a more nuanced picture of enslaved labor in ancient Rome, revealing how the contributions of enslaved intellectuals were closely linked to the ambitious development of Latin literary culture and the dissemination of knowledge. Harriet I. Flower is the Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics at Princeton University. Her many books include The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: Religion at the Roman Street Corner and Roman Republics (both Princeton). "This splendidly lucid, wide-ranging, deeply learned, and nuanced book sheds a fresh light on the foundations upon which the literary culture of the Roman world rested. Flower shows us the many roles enslaved and formerly enslaved persons had in shaping the way elite Romans functioned in public and how they made significant contributions of their own to the intellectual life of their times as educators and authors."-David Potter, author of The Origin of Empire: Rome from the Republic to Hadrian
"Flower offers a wonderful series of discussions that illuminates a neglected aspect of Roman culture and showcases her preeminence as a cultural historian of republican Rome. Exceptionally wide-ranging, Intellectual Property is a most important contribution."-Catherine Steel, University of Glasgow
"Intellectual Property is a fascinating history full of new insights about the Roman Republic and its literary scene. Harriet Flower expertly highlights the lives of enslaved intellectuals and reveals just how much leading politicians relied on their services."-Josiah Osgood, author of Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome
"Required reading on the subject. Flower demonstrates how the major freeborn intellectual and political figures of the Late Republic depended heavily on the intellectual labor of enslaved knowledge workers and argues that only by charting the lives of these enslaved intellectuals can we fully appreciate the careers of the thinkers who are the more typical focus of attention in classical studies."-Joseph Howley, Columbia University
