Page 36 - UD Research Magazine Vol5-No2

Lauren Petersen studies the remains of a bakery
in Pompeii. The bakeries were among the most grueling places for a slave to work.
would be their path to the dining room? What would it mean to carry trays there? In a number of writings, slaveholders complain about slaves being idle, of shirk- ing work, of working too slowly. So what would that look like in this house?”
The authors’ resulting “Plan of the House of the Menander”—among the book’s 186 figures, photos and maps— marks the routes for possible slave “shirk- ing tactics” during a banquet in the dining room. The area within the slave owner’s view is marked, along with the servant stations and possible shirking routes. Path- ways are identified for “interrupting slaves” who might interrupt the festivities and divert the slave owner’s attention, allowing a fellow slave to slip out into the street.
After 9 p.m. in ancient Pompeii,
the realm of speculation really sets in, Petersen says. “People were moving around, going to the bars, the taverns,
the brothels. In the bigger houses, slaves might have made certain agreements with the doorkeeper to slip out into the night.”
Roman history also tells of objects fall- ing from rooftops at night, injuring and sometimes killing people walking below. Could slaves have been the perpetrators?
“The second stories of these buildings are a big mystery because most of them were destroyed long ago,” Petersen says.
Roman archaeology holds tight to its truths, according to Petersen. But in inter- twining the practices of art history, archae- ology and history, she and Joshel offer the
conservative classics a new approach to exploring and preserving the past.
Petersen was a business major in college with her sights set on the junior executive program at Macy’s when she says she learned a great lesson: “Let life happen to you.”
On a study abroad program to Assisi in her junior year, she developed a passion for Italy. In her senior year, she took two art history classes. Two days before grad- uation, she listened closely as one of the commencement speakers urged, “Go and give something back.”
“It was then that I decided I didn’t want to sell clothes to rich kids,” Petersen says. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to be an art historian and focus on Italian art.’”
After completing her master’s at Florida State University and a doctorate at the University of Texas, Austin, Petersen joined the UD faculty in 2000. She’s since written numerous articles, has co-edited the book Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome (2012), and authored another book, The Freedman
in Roman Art and Art History (2006). She also is director of graduate studies for the Department of Art History.
“My interest has always been in giving a voice to people silenced,” Petersen says. “My hope, wish, desire is for people to go to Pompeii and Rome, and when they tour those ancient cities and villas, understand who made that life of luxury possible.”
34 | UD RESEARCH
A Slave’s Lot in Life
Slavery in ancient Roman times wasn’t based on race, ethnicity or eco- nomic status. It followed a simple,
punishing rule: Whomever the Romans conquered became their slaves.
A long list of nations that make up present-day Europe, Africa and the Middle East got consumed by the Roman Empire, which began with the founding of Rome in 753 B.C. and fell more than seven centuries later in A.D. 476. The human spoils of these conquests built the empire’s economy with their backs. In the countryside, some poor souls were bred for a life of servitude.
Under Roman law, slaves were property. They had no rights. Although owners were required to provide their slaves with food and shelter, UD’s Lauren Petersen says it’s questionable if the law was policed.
“A slave’s life was filled with long days of hard work. Many were beaten regularly and subjected to other brutality,” Petersen says.
Although slaves could not legally marry, many did. These unions were not recognized in court, and their children became slaves at birth. Such families could be split up at any time.
The slaves’ purpose in life was to keep their owners satisfied, whether growing wheat on farms outside the cities, mining gold and silver, cutting marble for the luxury two-story villas of the wealthy elite, carrying water home from the fountains, working in the disease-infested brothels.
House of the Menander
in Pompeii is named for this fresco, believed to portray the Greek playwright Menander. His- torians speculate that the house, which spans nearly a city block, may have been owned by a very wealthy man at the time of
Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption in A.D. 79.
SANDRA JOSHEL