Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world
<p>This thesis is a study of Greek manumission inscriptions, their contexts and their functions. In total, more than 2,000 documents on stone recording the release of enslaved persons have been identified at dozens of sites across the Greek world. The majority of these cluster around the centr...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | Greek, Ancient (to 1453) English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1797111196915073024 |
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| author | Hewitt, M |
| author2 | Crowther, C |
| author_facet | Crowther, C Hewitt, M |
| author_sort | Hewitt, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis is a study of Greek manumission inscriptions, their contexts and their functions. In total, more than 2,000 documents on stone recording the release of enslaved persons have been identified at dozens of sites across the Greek world. The majority of these cluster around the central and northern Greek mainland, and belong to the second and first centuries BCE. The procedures recorded are often cloaked in religious forms, and attest to the involvement of civic institutions. The primary aim of this study is to come to a better understanding of the motivations behind this peculiar epigraphic phenomenon.</p>
<p>The Introduction outlines some of the key conceptual and legal problems involved in the freeing of slaves, and provides an overview of the scholarship on manumission in ancient Greece. Chapter 1 sets some parameters for defining a manumission inscription, and for identifying shared cultural features in the practice and recording of manumission across the sites which produced these inscriptions. Chapter 2 explores the performances of the act of manumission which lie beneath our epigraphic texts, revealing the ceremonies and procedures, as well as the locations and the occasions at which Greek slaveowners effected the release of their slaves. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the documentary habits which accompanied the epigraphic evidence, and probes the extent to which the inscriptions themselves were considered valid and consultable documents. It concludes with a summary of the physical aspects of these inscriptions: the material upon which they were inscribed, their appearance and legibility, and their relationship with other epigraphic genres, are crucial factors to understanding the purpose of these objects. Chapter 4 details the multifunctionality of manumission inscriptions: in line with recent approaches to a variety of epigraphic documents, which have stressed both the practical and symbolic elements of Greek inscriptions, I argue that documents of manumission also served a number of overlapping purposes. Alongside the traditional explanations of their functions as being those of proof and publicity, they can be interpreted as reflecting certain values and ideals belonging to the individuals and communities which produced them. Chapter 5 is a case study of the manumission inscriptions from Seleukid Iran, which are broadly contemporary with our evidence from the Greek mainland, but present some interesting particularities.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:05:24Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:9a039209-d851-4d3a-ac23-6193ece57ec9 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | Greek, Ancient (to 1453) English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:05:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:9a039209-d851-4d3a-ac23-6193ece57ec92023-10-25T10:09:34ZInscribing manumission in the Hellenistic worldThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:9a039209-d851-4d3a-ac23-6193ece57ec9Central Greece and Euboea (Greece)InscriptionsEnslaved persons--EmancipationGreek, Ancient (to 1453)EnglishHyrax Deposit2023Hewitt, MCrowther, C<p>This thesis is a study of Greek manumission inscriptions, their contexts and their functions. In total, more than 2,000 documents on stone recording the release of enslaved persons have been identified at dozens of sites across the Greek world. The majority of these cluster around the central and northern Greek mainland, and belong to the second and first centuries BCE. The procedures recorded are often cloaked in religious forms, and attest to the involvement of civic institutions. The primary aim of this study is to come to a better understanding of the motivations behind this peculiar epigraphic phenomenon.</p> <p>The Introduction outlines some of the key conceptual and legal problems involved in the freeing of slaves, and provides an overview of the scholarship on manumission in ancient Greece. Chapter 1 sets some parameters for defining a manumission inscription, and for identifying shared cultural features in the practice and recording of manumission across the sites which produced these inscriptions. Chapter 2 explores the performances of the act of manumission which lie beneath our epigraphic texts, revealing the ceremonies and procedures, as well as the locations and the occasions at which Greek slaveowners effected the release of their slaves. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the documentary habits which accompanied the epigraphic evidence, and probes the extent to which the inscriptions themselves were considered valid and consultable documents. It concludes with a summary of the physical aspects of these inscriptions: the material upon which they were inscribed, their appearance and legibility, and their relationship with other epigraphic genres, are crucial factors to understanding the purpose of these objects. Chapter 4 details the multifunctionality of manumission inscriptions: in line with recent approaches to a variety of epigraphic documents, which have stressed both the practical and symbolic elements of Greek inscriptions, I argue that documents of manumission also served a number of overlapping purposes. Alongside the traditional explanations of their functions as being those of proof and publicity, they can be interpreted as reflecting certain values and ideals belonging to the individuals and communities which produced them. Chapter 5 is a case study of the manumission inscriptions from Seleukid Iran, which are broadly contemporary with our evidence from the Greek mainland, but present some interesting particularities.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Central Greece and Euboea (Greece) Inscriptions Enslaved persons--Emancipation Hewitt, M Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world |
| title | Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world |
| title_full | Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world |
| title_fullStr | Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world |
| title_short | Inscribing manumission in the Hellenistic world |
| title_sort | inscribing manumission in the hellenistic world |
| topic | Central Greece and Euboea (Greece) Inscriptions Enslaved persons--Emancipation |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hewittm inscribingmanumissioninthehellenisticworld |