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A review by gilroi
The Roman Guide to Slave Management: A Treatise by Nobleman Marcus Sidonius Falx by Jerry Toner
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.0
I don't really expect much of books titled and marketed like this, which is a shame, because this kind of book is exactly my preferred kind of pop history. Following with the trend of Ian Mortimer's 'Time Traveler's Guide' books, this takes a similar tract, and introduces a (fake) Roman who somehow still lives in (some period of) Rome and is writing to the (real) author of this book as though he were only the translator. It's a fun conceit to get someone familiar with the subject and comfortable reading more. This guide is doubly valuable because it illuminates an issue very few people think much of-- the millions of enslaved people who existed in the Roman Empire.
One star off simply because the book over-generalizes at times; if you're using this with the intention of researching facts for a specific period, the book moves around in time quite a bit, so you can easily get facts mixed up. Was it legal for slave owners to torture their own slaves during the republic, the early empire, the late empire? If you're looking for those kinds of concrete answers from this book, you're liable to end up confused. But if you're looking for a general introduction, a place to start your research, so you can know what questions to ask, this little history is perfect.
Just try not to fantasize about strangling Marcus Sidonius Falx too much; it'll distract you from the text, and, after all, he isn't real. (Cato the Elder, however, was very real, and it's to history's great shame that he was capable of dying only once.)
An end note for moralists: The book is itself very obviously anti-slavery, but it seeks to illuminate not only the methods and means of slavery within the Roman empire, but also the attitudes of patricians with regards to slavery. This perspective is valuable as the overwhelming majority of information on slavery is from a patrician perspective; anyone researching further into the subject will encounter people like Falx. Just in case this isn't clear from the 'Falx's' writing, however, each chapter has an endnote written by Tobler in-character as himself that dispels many of the myths and biases 'Falx' trucks in. If you want a more even-keeled work that cuts out the opinions of the Roman ruling class, check out Popular Culture by the same author.
One star off simply because the book over-generalizes at times; if you're using this with the intention of researching facts for a specific period, the book moves around in time quite a bit, so you can easily get facts mixed up. Was it legal for slave owners to torture their own slaves during the republic, the early empire, the late empire? If you're looking for those kinds of concrete answers from this book, you're liable to end up confused. But if you're looking for a general introduction, a place to start your research, so you can know what questions to ask, this little history is perfect.
Just try not to fantasize about strangling Marcus Sidonius Falx too much; it'll distract you from the text, and, after all, he isn't real. (Cato the Elder, however, was very real, and it's to history's great shame that he was capable of dying only once.)
An end note for moralists: The book is itself very obviously anti-slavery, but it seeks to illuminate not only the methods and means of slavery within the Roman empire, but also the attitudes of patricians with regards to slavery. This perspective is valuable as the overwhelming majority of information on slavery is from a patrician perspective; anyone researching further into the subject will encounter people like Falx. Just in case this isn't clear from the 'Falx's' writing, however, each chapter has an endnote written by Tobler in-character as himself that dispels many of the myths and biases 'Falx' trucks in. If you want a more even-keeled work that cuts out the opinions of the Roman ruling class, check out Popular Culture by the same author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking
Moderate: Pedophilia
Minor: Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy