Enslaved Women During Slave Revolts with Assistant Professor Katharine Huemoeller

We were thrilled to sit down and talk with Assistant Professor Katharine Huemoeller about her research into the representation of enslaved women during slave revolts in ancient Rome. This conversation reveals plenty of food for thought about the representation of women in the ancient world as well as exploring the way women go on to be represented in later eras. Special Episode - Enslaved Women during Slave Revolts with Assistant Professor Katharine Huemoeller The Slaves are Revolting And rightly so. Conditions for enslaved people in ancient Rome could vary widely from difficult manual roles such as mining and agriculture to the challenges of proximity to enslavers in the domestic sphere. Human trafficking also has a significant role to play in understanding gladiators. Assistant Professor Huemoeller takes us through some of the main ways to consider slavery in Rome before turning our attention to three key slave revolts: * Revolt of Volsinii (265 BCE) * First Sicilian Slave War (135-132 BCE) * Third Slave War/ Spartacus Slave War (73-71 BCE) These examples offer the opportunity to consider enslaved women a little more closely and it's here that the conversation gets really interesting. A coloured mosaic depicting two lovers together surrounded by attendants (likely slaves). One pour liquid from a vessel; one attends beside the bed. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Taken in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria) Things to Listen Out for * The role of menstruation during Spartacus' war against Rome! * The agricultural uprising in Sicily and the ways in which slaves treated free women * The challenges of reading with and against the evidence when it comes to the Volsinii * And no conversation about Spartacus would be complete without a deep dive into the representation of women in Kirk Douglas' Spartacus (1960) and the more recent Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand A painting called 'The Slave Market' by Gustave Boulanger (1886) which shows a range of enslaved people waiting to be sold. Most wear discs around their neck indicating their enslaved status. Music Thanks to the glorious Bettina Joy de Guzman for our theme music. Readings * Huemoeller, Katharine P. D. 2021. 'Sexual Violence in Republican Slave Revolts' in Kamen, D., Marshall, C. W. (eds.) Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity (University of Wisconsin Press), 159-173. * Huemoeller, Katharine P. D. 2020. 'Freedom in Marriage? Manumission for Marriage in the Roman World' The Journal of Roman Studies 110: 123-139. * Huemoeller, Katharine P. D. 2021. 'Captivity for All? Slave Status and Prisoners of War in the Roman Republic' TAPA 151.