Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:20:00.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The Cost of Ingratitude

Freed Persons, Patrons, and Re-enslavement*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

By
Nicole Giannella
Edited by
Sinclair W. Bell ,
Dorian Borbonus  and
Rose MacLean
Sinclair W. Bell
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
Dorian Borbonus
Affiliation:
University of Dayton, Ohio
Rose MacLean
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access

Summary

In book 3 of De beneficiis, Seneca the Younger notes the common use of a law punishing ingratitude in rhetorical training and debates the merits of introducing a comparable law into Roman civil law. Ultimately, he dismisses the need for such a law outside of the school setting (Ben. 3.6–17.3). Scholars have been quick to point out that Seneca is not exactly correct: legal cases were brought for certain instances of ingratitude. I would like to consider one such instance, the fate of the liberti legally rendered ingrati. The penalties for ingratitude varied as the forms of ingratitude did, but I will focus on the extreme penalty of re-enslavement. This chapter takes as its premise the debate in Tacitus’ Annales (13.26–27) on allowing re-enslavement to become a standard penalty for a freed person’s ingratitude. The re-enslavement supporters fail to win over Nero, but the emperor allows that individual cases for re-enslavement could be heard. I will argue that this lack of statutory regulation for this penalty paradoxically reveals the precarity of the freed person, their citizenship, and their freedom. This precarity is emphasized using the language of social relations rather than the law to describe the situation of the freed person and their former owner. This chapter will contribute to the study of the nature of Roman freedom by considering the following questions: did freed persons share in the same liberty as freeborn citizens? And if that liberty is different, to what extent can a freed person be integrated into the “free” population?

Keywords

re-enslavementingratitudeactio ingratibeneficiumiudexarbiter
Type
Chapter
Information
Freed Persons in the Roman World
Status, Diversity, and Representation
 , pp. 141 - 163
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bablitz, L. 2016. “Roman Courts and Private Arbitration.” In The Oxford Handbook in Roman Law and Society, ed. du Plessis, P., Ando, C., and Tuori, K., 234–44. Oxford.Google Scholar
Basore, J. W., trans. 1935 . Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Moral Essays. Volume III: On Benefits. Loeb Classical Library 310. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Bellincioni, M. 1984 ‘“Clementia liberum arbitrium habet’ (Clem. 2,7,3).” Paideia 39: 173–82.Google Scholar
Berger, A. 1953. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, P., and Descheemaeker, E., ed. 2014. The Law of Obligations. The Collected Papers of Peter Birks. Oxford.Google Scholar
Braund, S., ed. 2009. Seneca, De Clementia. Oxford.Google Scholar
du Plessis, P. J. 2010. Borkowski’s Textbook of Roman Law, 5th ed. Oxford.Google Scholar
Gardner, J. F. 1993. Being a Roman Citizen. London.Google Scholar
Giannella, N. 2019. “The Freedom to Give: The Legal Basis of Seneca’s Treatment of Slaves in De beneficiis.” CP 114: 79–99.Google Scholar
Griffin, M. 2013. Seneca on Society: A Guide to De Beneficiis. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunderson, E. 2003. Declamation, Paternity, and Roman Identity: Authority and the Rhetorical Self. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, K. 2011. Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inwood, B. 2005. “Moral Judgement in Seneca.” In Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy in Rome, 201–23. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koops, E. 2013. “Masters and Freedmen: Junian Latins and the Struggle for Freedom.” In Integration in Rome and in the Roman World, ed. de Kleijn, G. and Benoist, S., 105–26. Leiden.Google Scholar
Manning, C. E. 1986. “‘Actio ingrati’ (Seneca, De Benef. 3, 6–17): A Contribution to Contemporary Debate?” SDHI 52: 61–72.Google Scholar
Miller, W., trans. 1913. Cicero. On Duties. Loeb Classical Library 30. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Mouritsen, H. 2011. The Freedman in the Roman World. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholas, B. 2008. An Introduction to Roman Law, rev. Metzger, E.. Oxford.Google Scholar
Treggiari, S. 1969. “The Freedmen of Cicero.” G&R 16: 195–204.Google Scholar
Waldstein, W. 1986. Operae Libertorum: Untersuchungen zur Dienstpflicht freigelassener Sklaven. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Watson, A., ed. 1985. The Digest of Justinian. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Wellesley, K. 1986. Cornelii Taciti libri qui supersunt. Tomus I pars secunda: ab excessu divi Augusti libri XI–XVI. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Woodman, A. J., trans. 2004. Tacitus: The Annals. Indianapolis.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×