University of Leicester 2022 PhD International Scholarships in Clerics and Domestic Slavery in the Latin West, UK

This doctoral research project examines the relationship between the clergy of the Christian Church and the people enslaved within domestic contexts in the Latin-speaking West, AD 400–600. The Roman world has been described as a ‘slave society’, largely due to the wide use of unfree labour as a mode of production. But Roman society also enslaved people within the home, where they served to fulfil more than just those tasks necessary for the quotidian operation of the household. Domestic slaves, who were mostly (but not exclusively) women and children, also fulfilled what might be called ‘superfluous’ or ‘luxury’ tasks that ultimately served to display and confirm the status of the free members of the family. This aspect of slave ownership often included the use of enslaved people for sexual purposes, creating a powerful dynamic within the home that impacted wider society in ways yet to be fully discerned by scholars.