How to Tell a Slave

Abstract

After pointing out the significant differences between ancient slavery and modern racialized slavery, this chapter considers the manifold difficulties entailed in distinguishing between enslaved and free persons in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It stresses the social, economic, and legal importance of maintaining these distinctions even as it acknowledges their elusive nature. It goes on to describe the ways in which behaviours, bodies—often scarred or tattooed, sometimes tortured—dress, disguise, names, and language, revealed or disguised the status of enslaved persons. It ends with a brief discussion of a dramatic text that stages the complexities of policing the boundaries between enslaved and free persons.