https://www.peren-revues.fr/eugesta/834 Entrées d’index fr 0 https://www.peren-revues.fr/eugesta/832 This paper explores evidence for third party manumissions, indicated in the sources by forms of λυέσθαι and λυτρώσασθαι. It considers the procedure followed and the legal status of slaves freed in this manner, but the focus is on conceptions of this method of manumission and social mentalities toward it. The paper concludes that this practice was an informal procedure of manumission used to free prostitutes. Oratory and comedy employ it as an example of youthful extravagance and to comment on an opponent’s negative mental state. It also highlights a common stereotype of prostitutes as manipulative and scheming. While the procedure of third party manumission supports arguments for different classes of freed slaves, it also questions the idea that masters imposed formal conditions on the freedom of ex-slaves in classical Athens. mar., 14 juin 2022 10:14:10 +0200 mer., 18 oct. 2023 11:22:55 +0200 https://www.peren-revues.fr/eugesta/832 https://www.peren-revues.fr/eugesta/908 In the late 2nd century CE, Marcia, a “god-loving woman” and the principal concubine of the Roman Emperor Commodus, interceded with her lover to free a number of Christian prisoners who had been sentenced to slave labor in the mines of Sardinia (Hippolytus, Philosophumena, 9.2.12.). Such an act of charity and clemency might have been expected to earn her a place among the Catholic saints. On the other hand, Marcia’s patronage of a persecuted and despised minority might have led to her public execution in the Roman arena. However, Marcia was neither particularly honored by the Christians nor condemned by the Roman authorities for her actions. This devaluation of Marcia in both pagan and Christian sources reveals its own story about the nature of early church politics, the complex intrigues of an Emperor’s court at the end of the high empire, and the ability of a lowly concubine to exert political influence and change the course of Western history. mar., 14 juin 2022 12:32:19 +0200 ven., 24 févr. 2023 15:41:25 +0100 https://www.peren-revues.fr/eugesta/908