Slavery and Roman Identity in the Fifth-Century Mediterranean

In late antiquity, contemporary observers such as the North African bishop Augustine of Hippo argued that their world was becoming ever more tightly unified culturally and socially behind a common Roman identity.  Yet from at least the fifth century onward, bishops throughout the Mediterranean—including Augustine—found themselves confronted with the problem of free (or freed) Roman citizens being captured by slave traders and sold into bondage to their fellow Romans within the territory of the late Roman state.  Such actions raise a question of fundamental importance to our understanding of the unity of the Roman world on the eve of its disintegration: How deeply did a sense of common “Romanness” penetrate late antique society?  Drawing on letters, sermons, and conciliar and legal texts, this paper will examine what evidence we have for the mechanics of the fifth-century trade in enslaved Roman citizens: their social profile, where and under what circumstances they were captured, where they were sold, and what possibilities existed for their redemption.  The paper will also consider the extent to which contemporaries themselves believed issues of Roman identity were implicated in this illicit slave trade, and explore the complex of prejudices and cultural attitudes – with respect to barbarians and rural populations, language, religion, skin color, class, gender, and the vagaries of war – that may have contributed to the justification of the practice in the minds of some Romans.  Most critically, the paper will look at what this illegal slave trade reveals about attitudes toward “Romanness” among different sectors of the population, including not only the merchants, slave-owners, and those elements in the imperial administration who engaged in or condoned the trade, but also the bishops who condemned it, and the rural populations who sought redress against it.