Servus: How Slavery Built the Roman Empire with Dr Emma Southon
About this episode
Dr Emma Southon is no stranger to this show, but just in case you have somehow missed her many previous appearances, here’s what you need to know!
Emma holds a PhD in Ancient History and is the author of a number of fabulous books about the ancient world. This includes: A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women, A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore. Not only a writer, Emma also co-hosts the History is Sexy podcast. Besides all this, she’s an all round fabulous human and cat-lover.
In this episode, we were fortunate enough to chat to her about her latest book, Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire - or, if you are based in the US, the alternative title is Not Built in a Day: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire.
Along with deep research into the source material, Emma considers the emotional experience of being an enslaved person in various contexts within the Roman world. This can be a challenging topic to study, and not only because of how truly awful it was. We just don’t have as much as we would like from the perspective of enslaved people, or about their lives in general. Enslaved people were not considered to be suitable subjects for long biographies.
Things to Look Out For:
- ‘Best’ and ‘worst’ case scenarios for an enslaved person
- How slavery evolved throughout Rome’s history
- Resistance to slavery
- Manumission
- Freedmen and women
- Family relationships
- Slave rebellions (hey Spartacus!)
- Some of the most appalling behaviour we have seen from the Romans yet!
You can add Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire to your bookshelf now! Sold wherever good books are sold, and of course we suggest supporting independent booksellers.
Sound Credits
Our music is by Bettina Joy de Guzman.
For our full show notes and edited transcripts, head on over to https://partialhistorians.com/
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