The Role of Slavery in Roman Comedy

During the Roman Republic, Ancient Rome was at its very beginnings and a civilization was just being created. Like any other civilization there were different levels of status between classes and several positions of power in which people could obtain. Subsequently, just as there were people of power and wealth, there were also people of little to no power and poverty. The Ancient Romans utilized the institution of slavery to help promote their civilization and became a major factor in the economy of the Roman Republic. In a way slaves helped shape Rome into what it is today. Without slavery in Ancient Rome, history could have been written differently when considering Rome as a powerful city and civilization.

During the end of the 3rd Century, the Playwright Plautus wrote many of the first Roman comedies. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical comedy film adaptation of Plautus's comedies.Set in ancient Rome, many aspects of Roman theatre, including stock characters, were included in the film’s production. While the film is based off of multiple comedies, Plautus's Pseudolus character Calidorus is nearly identical to the film’s Hero. During the time Pseudolus was written, the Crisis of the Third Century led to up to 25% of Roman population being comprised of slaves(Southern). Of the many stock characters Platus included in his comedies, Calidorus/Hero, the son of Pseudolus’s owner and the stock character adulescens, best

Description: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Roman_collared_slaves_-_Ashmolean_Museum.jpg/220px-Roman_collared_slaves_-_Ashmolean_Museum.jpgAncient Rome was fundamentally a slave society, built up from the slaves. As the lowest tier of the Roman hierachy they were by defnition without human rights. As Aristotle wrote, slaves were considered; ‘a slave is a live article of propert.y’ (Aristotle, Politics, Section 1253b. 4) Providing usually unpaid labour and considered the property and under complete control of their master, slaves were an integral part of Ancient Rome’s economy and way of life. Slaves had

Roman slavery was a very big part of the Roman lives. Slavery was an important feature of the roman world. Prisoners of war and those who sold themselves to pay off debts usually became slaves. Slaves in Ancient Rome had few rights and couldn't chose what they wore or where they lived. Slaves were usually the people with less money. Many more wealthy people owned slaves. Not all slaves were treated badly at this time, but many were.

Slavery was the practice of taking a human being and making them do the work of another by force. This was practiced through out the ancient world and especially in Rome and Greece. Slaves were nothing more than just property to the ancient peoples. They didn't have the rights of citizens nor were they able to do what they want in most cases. Slaves had many tasks that they had to do, many of which included taking care of the masters house and kids, cooking and cleaning that house, herding the cattle for the farming families, being guards for some prisons, fighting for entertainment of the masses, and more common was sexual activities with the slaves.

Terence in his plays was attempting to bring the “New Comedy” of Greece to a Roman audience. “Old Comedy” was usually more blatant with sexual humor. The phallus was typically over displayed, with a protagonist obtaining the woman of his desires, with a finale of uninhibited party and celebration. This was not what Terence was introduced to his audience. Although women of “Old Comedy” were a reward. The “New Comedy” was developing women as characters, not just a sexual prize. Erich Segal emphasizes, “Terence has put a few new wrinkles on… traditional figures, often adding touches of originality and realism, creating such novelties as… an honest prostitute.” Yet these were still the stock characters who defined comedy in plays, and did not represent women well.

Menander, Plautus and Terence are playwrights who are recognized for their unique depictions of slave stock characters. Plautus and Terence from Rome and Menander from Greece, were all part of new comedy, which was mainly characterized by communal issues and family relationships in comparison to old comedy which disregarded slavery and focused on political and philosophical criticism. Thus, the innovative focus of new comedy gave insight into Greek and Roman slave cultures through the actions and portrayal of slave characters. However, it is often debated whether or not these playwrights truly portrayed slavery within their comedies, due to their comedic exaggerations.

Slavery, a word described as the state of one bound in servitude as the property of a household. This description, along with sadness and disbelief gets brought into peoples’ minds as the chilling sensation of the explanations begins to be sought out. The New Testament brings us many different views on how we percept our personal beliefs upon Slavery, and different problems arising as aspects on this topic are perceived by Paul the Apostle in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

Previous Roman actions have raised the question whether they recognized their slaves as things or people. Of course, there are economic advantages in support of slavery. However, when human lives are under constant danger and torture, the economic advantages must be forgotten. Although the slaves of Ancient Rome played a pivotal role in the society, their actions were never approved. After careful consideration, it is evident that the Romans recognized slaves as things rather than people. This conception is mainly due to three factors. They include: slaves being put on the market, the physical cruelty towards the slaves, and the slaves being mistreated to the point of revolt.

The stock character of the leno, or brothel-keeper or pimp, is a character that many, if not all, Romans would have immediately recognized. The leno is represented in Plautus’ Pseudolus by a character named Ballio. He owns the love interest of Calidorus, master of Pseudolus, and is known for his greed and physical harshness towards his slaves. He is seen in the play constantly beating his slaves, and he calls them names such as “whip-spoilers” (139), which indicates that Ballio beats them so much that his whip becomes spoiled. Ballio fits the classic definition of a leno, as he is extremely greedy and only cares about money. He compromises his morals constantly in order to make more money, and he almost seems proud to accept his bad character. The most important example of this is when he sells Phoenicium, Calidorus’ love interest, to a

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The experiences of enslaved women differed from the experience of enslaved men in ancient Rome; slavery within ancient Rome can be traced back to the first century BCE and was based primarily on the chattel slave system. Slavery within the ancient roman society was highly normalised as it was considered a part of roman culture. Slavery within ancient Rome was so heavily normalised that it is considered to be described as a “slave society” Joshel (2010, p. 6) states that “For slaves living in the Roman world, there was no outside – no place without slavery and no movement that declared slavery wrong. Slavery was a normal part of life, and this was true not only for the Romans but for every neighbouring ancient culture”. Not only was

In The Comedy of Errors Shakespeare adds a frame story. Egeon plays the doting father of the lost twins, only appearing in the first and final acts, but is incredibly important as a device to frame the action of the play. Though the play is a comedy, Egeon grounds the action in tragedy. Subsequently, because the conceit of the play is so complicated, Shakespeare has the characters speak to each other in an indirect way, so they don’t get to the heart of all the confusion until the play’s resolution. Their content is not often relevant to their conversation partner, but it's usually sharp and clever enough that they could be thought to be punning or otherwise joking around. There's enough playfulness in what is said, that the confused character often dismisses the confusing messages because of the light way in which they’re communicated. This veiled style of speaking allows the interactions to occur on different levels, one of which makes sense to each conversation partner, even if it doesn't make for coherent conversation. In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare adds vital social commentary regarding slavery. The rough treatment of the Dromios and their ambiguous servant/slave status reflect similar features of Elizabethan servitude. In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare constructs the Dromios so as to condense the potential slavishness of sixteenth-century English service. The play's focus on slavery widens to encompass the institution of marriage and the individual's ordering

Madam shall we go to the theatre now so that we can get good seats?"

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