'Voluntarium et naturale'? Slave onomastics in ancient Italy Katherine McDonald (Durham)
This is a School of Classics Event.
**Abstract**
This paper turns a critical eye on the naming of enslaved people in ancient Italy, using Latin, Etruscan and Oscan evidence. It has long been recognised that the predominance of ‘Greek' names among Italian slaves does not necessarily indicate the origins of individual slaves, though the tendency to assume Greek, or at least Eastern, origins for many slaves sometimes persists. Using Varro's statement that slaves' names were voluntarium and not naturale (De Lingua Latina 8.9) as a starting point, I will examine examples of slave onomastics in Italy which might not fit our expectations, and examine what this could change about our understanding of the experience of being enslaved.
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