The Child Face of Roman Slavery

The project will provide the first comprehensive study of child slavery in the Roman world, covering a period of half a millennium, c. 200 BC to AD 300, and the full geographical extent of the Roman empire across the Mediterranean. Based on extensive quantitative and qualitative study, combining demographic modelling with close source analysis, the project will assess the economic role of child slavery at Rome. The project will also ask whether child slavery was the most widespread form of slave exploitation in the Roman world. Comparison with more recent slave societies will enable meaningful contextualisation of the Roman example, and its historical legacy.