Slave agency in Livy's history of Rome

Abstract

This chapter analyses the theme of slave agency in Livy’s history of Rome. The main argument is that Livy is notably concerned with discussing the limits of the loyalty (fides) of slaves in view of their positions not just in the domus, but in the res publica as well. The historian argues that loyalty to the state should prevail over loyalty to one’s own master or mistress. Slave agency could thus at the same time disrupt an important sphere of Roman society, the private one, to preserve public order. The analysis throughout the chapter is not focused so much on discussing if Livy’s account contains traces of certain historical events, but on how the Roman historian regards his contemporary audience when dealing with the theme of slavery, manumission and public order. The author of the chapter sustains that this case study of slave agency in Livy can be related to some central issues of the writing of history from below, as the relationship between structure and agency. Livy’s historical narrative, with its emphasis on how slaves used conflicts within the elite to carry out their own personal interests, as the quest for freedom, may permit an approach towards some aspects of the political dimension of slave agency in antiquity.