An Enslaved Mauretanian Woman in Oxyrhynchus

By A. Benaissa

Volume LXXXVI of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (2021) presents a substantial body of new evidence on slavery in the Roman world. Unsurprisingly, given the status of the enslaved as dehumanized commodities, most of the documents concern their sale. The volume includes twelve new contracts for the sale of slaves, which now complement the fifty or so already known. These documents provide valuable information to economic, social, and legal historians, for instance on slaves’ origins, given names, ages at the time of sale, and prices; on the social backgrounds of buyers and sellers; and on the different legal instruments and procedures available.

Among these contracts, the most noteworthy concern slaves brought from outside Egypt. Such sales are relatively uncommon, as most slaves in Roman Egypt were native-born. Two of the new contracts were in fact concluded outside Egypt, one in Lycia in modern-day southern Turkey, the other in an unknown municipium in the Near East. These documents presumably reached Oxyrhynchus along with the slaves concerned when they were resold. In other sales concluded within Egypt, we encounter slaves brought from Crete, Mauretania, and Phrygia, and another of uncertain origin. Besides serving as stark examples of the deracination of slaves in the Roman world, such sales show the extent to which the Egyptian market became integrated in the Mediterranean-wide slave trade, especially from the second century onwards. Citizens of Alexandria played a key role in such transactions, mediating between the Egyptian hinterland and the wider Roman world.

A concrete example of how far the enslaved could be uprooted and displaced in the Roman empire is P.Oxy. LXXXVI 5569 (18 June 295 CE):

‘Under the consuls Nummius Tuscus and Annius Anullinus. To Aurelius Hermanubis alias Ammonius, archidicastes and superintendent of [the] chrematistae and the other courts, [from] Aurelius Andronicus son of Maximus from the splendid and most splendid city of the Oxyrhynchites and from Marcus Aurelius Erotianus alias Dioscorus, councillor of the most splendid city of the Alexandrians, son of Erotianus, former beneficiarius of the prefect of Egypt, the son of NN, of the Sosicosmian tribe [and] Althaean deme, and jointly guaranteeing this conveyance and enjoining that it be (done) with his own assurance Marcus Aurelius Gaius alias Marcellus son of Herminus alias —ammonius, of the Sosicosmian tribe and Althaean deme.

‘Aurelius [Erotianus] alias Dioscorus, with his co-guarantor Aurelius Gaius alias Marcellus, agrees and acknowledges that he has sold [and] conveyed to Aurelius Andronicus his slave called Lesbula surnamed Maura, Mauretanian by birth, imported by sea, without warranty and being free from epilepsy [and] leprosy, for the price agreed upon of 20(?) talents [and] three thousand drachmas of silver of Imperial coinage, which Aurelius Erotianus alias Dioscorus has received thereupon [from] Aurelius Andronicus in full [from] hand to hand, so that from now on Aurelius [Andronicus], having taken delivery of the slave Lesbula surnamed Maura, who was examined [in accordance with] what has been ordained, and having paid for the slave the tax [due] on slaves, possesses and owns her [and] has [the right] to sell her to others and to deploy her [and to make use of her] as he pleases without hindrance, whilst no (claim on the slave is left) to the seller … [in] any way, the guarantee resting upon the seller [and the guarantor] perpetually. Anyone who proceeds (against Aurelius Andronicus) in any [way] whatsoever or makes a claim on account of the slave, they by [mutual guarantee and] either of them will at once repel and prosecute at [their own] expense. Otherwise, they shall forfeit the principal of the price [which] they have received [together with] all [the damages and] expenses, as if [in consequence of a legal decision]. The slave is about thirty(+) years old … [with scars] between the eyebrows [and on] the lower lip as far as the middle of … on the wrist of the [right] hand and on the side of the shin of the [right] foot, [in respect of whom] the seller has delivered to the buyer the (deed of) sale that had been made to him [and the certificate of examination which they have completed (?)] also … under which the sailing … on the twenty-[nth] (day), … of Marcus Aurelius Agathus … [The buyer Aurelius Andronicus] asked [whether this had been rightly and] fairly done, and the seller Aurelius Erotianus [alias Dioscorus and the guarantor Aurelius Gaius] alias Marcellus [gave their assent]. We request (registration). In the eleventh [and tenth] year [of our lords] Diocletianus and Maximianus and [the third] year [of Constantius and Maximianus the most noble Caesars] Augusti, Pauni 24.’

(Second hand) ‘Aurelius Adelphius. It has been registered. Year 11 and [10 of our lords Diocletianus and Maximianus] Augusti and 3 of Constantius [and Maximianus the most noble Caesars] …’ 

Here Aurelius Andronicus, a citizen of Oxyrhynchus, purchases a slave named Lesbula alias Maura from Marcus Aurelius Erotianus alias Dioscorus, who was a councillor of Alexandria. The seller has as his guarantor another Alexandrian citizen, Marcus Aurelius Gaius alias Marcellus. The document is in the form of a synchoresis addressed to the archidicastes (an Alexandrian official), which indicates that it was drawn up in Alexandria and brought to Oxyrhynchus by the buyer. (This is incidentally the latest known example of this type of contract.) An official subscription, written in a large and highly stylized cursive hand, confirms the registration of the contract in the Alexandrian archives.

Origin

The enslaved woman is said to be Mauretanian (Maura in Greek), that is, an indigenous inhabitant of North-West Africa, probably one of the two Roman provinces called Mauretania or a neighbouring region, an area that roughly corresponds to modern Morocco and Algeria and was up to 3,000 km away from Oxyrhynchus. This is not the first Mauretanian slave attested in Egypt: one appears in another third-century sale concluded in Rhodes and found in Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy. L 3593), and another one is commemorated in a funerary inscription from Alexandria (CIL III 6618); both are also female. This tallies with other evidence which suggests that the region was an important source of slaves for the empire. For example, a fourth-century geographical survey says that Mauretania is especially known for its trade in clothes and slaves (Expositio totius mundi §60).

Name

The enslaved woman has a double name, Lesbula surnamed Maura. Such double names are fairly common for slaves, as many of them were given different names by successive owners. Slaves were, of course, never in control of their own identity. The name Lesbula is attested here for the first time and is a diminutive form of ‘Lesbia’, which was commonly given to slaves in the western empire. The name has erotic connotations (the Greek island of Lesbos was associated with female beauty and of course the poetry of Sappho), a reminder of the sexualisation of female slaves and their sexual exploitation. The slave’s second name, Maura, simply duplicates her ethnic (‘Mauretanian’).

Age

Maura was in her thirties: her exact age is uncertain, as only the number in the tens is preserved. Most female slaves in Egypt were sold in their teens and twenties, but a significant number were still sold up to their mid thirties. This agrees with the evidence of the census returns, where females far outnumber males among slaves above 30 years of age. The reason for this discrepancy is that men tended to be freed earlier and slave women were retained and exploited until the end of their period of fertility. The physical description of the slave, given towards the end of the document, typically includes scars as distinguishing features.

The Seller

The seller in this document is an Alexandrian citizen: he is a member of the city council and the son of a beneficiarius, a senior soldier attached to the staff of the prefect. He was therefore a member of the city’s mid to upper socio-economic stratum. As mentioned earlier, Alexandrians were key intermediates between the wider empire and the rest of Egypt in the importation of foreign slaves. Erotianus himself must have acquired Maura by purchase, because a reference is made to the handing over of the prior deed of sale to the new buyer in line 29. Was he himself a professional slave trader, buying slaves abroad and reselling them in Egypt? This is a difficult question to answer without further evidence.