Papers by Sarah Levin-Richardson
Levin-Richardson, Sarah. 2023. “Domestic Violence and Servile Vulnerability in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 66 (special issue on Roman Domestic Violence, ed. E. Cowan and T. Parkin): 97–110., 2023
Sometime in the first century CE, the sexual services of enslaved woman named Eutychis were adver... more Sometime in the first century CE, the sexual services of enslaved woman named Eutychis were advertised in the entranceway to the House of the Vettii at Pompeii: “Eutychis, homeborn slave with charming ways, for 2 asses” (CIL 4.4592 Add. p. 1841; Eutychis / vern<a> a(ssibus) II / moribus bellis). This graffito raises important questions: How did homeborn slaves (vernae), presented in Roman literature as beloved by their owners, come to be prostituted? What experiences did Eutychis have in the House of the Vettii, whose décor was as violent as it was luxurious? With only this graffito (and a similar one on the same wall) attesting to Eutychis’s existence, traditional approaches fall short. I thus present Saidiya Hartman’s methodology of critical fabulation (Hartman: 2007, 2008)—used by her to re-animate the voices of captives on the trans-Atlantic slave route—as one way to work with the omissions that characterize ancient evidence. I use this approach to write from the perspective of Eutychis, of an enslaved doorman, of an enslaved cook, of a freeborn daughter, and of a mater familias, creating short stories using the evidence from the house, from Roman culture, and from comparative material. Through these narratives, I explore multiple potential life histories of Eutychis and the emotional implications of Eutychis having been born into slavery and then prostituted.
Levin-Richardson, Sarah. 2024. “Emotional Labor in Antiquity: The Case of Roman Prostitution.” In Valuing Labor in Antiquity, ed. K. Bowes and M. Flohr. Brill, 109–130., 2024
Emotional labor, “the process by which workers are expected to manage their feelings in accordanc... more Emotional labor, “the process by which workers are expected to manage their feelings in accordance with organizationally defined rules and guidelines” (Wharton 2009: 147), has been labeled a phenomenon of modern capitalism (Brents and Hausbeck 2010: 9). Using archaeological, epigraphic, and literary evidence concerning sexual labor in Greco-Roman antiquity, I argue that emotional labor existed in antiquity too – if never labelled as such. After a short overview of emotional and affective labor, Pompeii’s purpose-built brothel forms the first case study, with sexual laborers proclaiming concern for their clients, boosting their egos, and drinking with them. Expanding to representations of sexual laborers in Greco-Roman literature more broadly finds the performance of emotional labor a common literary trope. We read of historical and fictional sexual laborers performing care (sometimes authentic, sometimes not) for their clients, and of sexual laborers using this labor to mitigate economic precarity or for upward mobility. If the value of emotional labor is hard to quantify, as revealed by study of Pompeii’s forty-five graffiti with sexual acts and prices, it may have provided a competitive advantage in attracting or retaining clients in a competitive market. I end by suggesting other places to look for emotional labor in antiquity, including among individuals enslaved in domestic households, where it may have been a survival strategy.
The Classical Quarterly, 2023
Vernae-often but not exclusively taken to be home-born slaves-are usually thought to have had a p... more Vernae-often but not exclusively taken to be home-born slaves-are usually thought to have had a privileged role within the ancient Roman household. While previous studies have highlighted how these individuals were represented with affection or as surrogate members of the freeborn family, this article uses epigraphic evidence from Pompeii to argue that the reality for at least some vernae was much more grim. A full examination of Pompeian attestations of the word verna reveals that there was a connection to prostitution in over seventy per cent of extant appearances of the noun. Furthermore, contextualizing this phenomenon within the corpus of prostitution-related graffiti more broadly reveals that verna was the single most commonly used descriptor in advertisements for sexual services at Pompeii. Ultimately, the epigraphic evidence from Pompeii suggests that vernae were not safe from sexual exploitation, and it may have been their status as vernae that made them attractive to those wishing to purchase sex.
Kamen, D. and S. Levin-Richardson (2022). “Epigraphy and Critical Fabulation: Imagining Narratives of Greco- Roman Sexual Slavery,” in E. Cousins (ed.), Dynamic Epigraphy: New Approaches to Inscriptions, 201-221. Oxford: Oxbow Books., 2022
Inscriptions, by their very nature, 'set in stone' a particular moment in time. Simultaneously, t... more Inscriptions, by their very nature, 'set in stone' a particular moment in time. Simultaneously, they are only one stage in a longer process, from the situation that caused the act of inscription in the first place, to the scenarios that might be called into being afterwards. Employing Saidiya Hartman's (2008) concept of 'critical fabulation'-used by her to tell stories of individuals on the transAtlantic slave route (2007; see more below) and Black women in early twentieth-century New York and Philadelphia (2019)-we propose a model that imagines, sometimes in multiple and conflicting ways, the other moments on this timeline. This approach is especially important for accessing the lived experiences of individuals whose presence is fleeting in the epigraphic record, such as enslaved individuals and other marginalized groups. 1 In her work on slavery, Hartman responds to the problems she identifies in the archive in general, and archives pertaining to the transAtlantic slave trade in particular: first, that the archive is full of gaps and fissures (
In Material Girls, ed. M. Lee and L. Hackworth Petersen. Arethusa 53: 61–67., 2020
In Les lectures contemporaines de l’esclavage: problématiques, méthodologies et analyses depuis les années 1990, ed. A. Pałuchowski. Besançon: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, 25–45., 2022
doulos athanatos-cet esclave qui est immortel puisqu' on a tellement besoin de lui ..
transcription, translation, and location information of each can be found in the appendix. The ap... more transcription, translation, and location information of each can be found in the appendix. The appendix also includes all other examples of calos writing in either Latin or Greek at Pompeii that are known to me, such as wall graffi ti in which the word does not modify a proper name (CIL 4.2253 and CIL 4.4839) and appearances of the word in other media . The word calos is not declined in these graffi ti, even when modifying a female name; see further E. R. Smothers, ΚΑΛΟΣ in Acclamation, Traditio 5, 1947, 1-57, 19. All translations are my own unless otherwise noted. Calos may also be a transliteration of the adverbial form καλῶς, though Smothers, ΚΑΛΟΣ, at least, does not identify impersonal uses until the mid 2 nd century CE (49-52). 2 I have chosen here and throughout to translate calos as "beautiful"; for the full range of meanings of the Greek original, see LSJ s.v. καλός. Note that several sources take calos Edone impersonally (CIL; TLL 3.183.53-54 [fortasse]; E. Woeckner, Women's Graffi ti from Pompeii, in L. J. Churchill, P. R. Brown and J. E. Jeffrey (eds.), Women Writing Latin from Roman Antiquity to Early Modern Europe, volume 1, New York 2002, 67-84, 82n2). 3 E.g., G. Fiorelli, Giornale degli scavi di Pompei, Naples 1862, 50. 4 Discussion in scholarship is minimal. L. Richardson, Jr., Pompeii: The Casa dei Dioscuri and its Painters, Rome 1955, notes (about CIL only, "the transliterated Greek word calos is uncommon in Pompeii" (93); J. L. Franklin, Jr., Pantomimists at Pompeii: Actius Anicetus and His Troupe, AJP 108, 1987, 95-107 offers, "the transliterated calos [is] common to many of these theatrical graffi ti" (99); A. Varone, Erotica Pompeiana: Iscrizioni d'amore sui muri di Pompei, Rome 1994, says in a footnote, "L'acclamazione calos […] rivolta ai giovanetti in fi ore è mutuata di peso dalla lingua e dalla cultura greca, dove è frequentamente impiegata già sui vasi dei ceramografi attici del VI e V secolo a.C." (124n203), and lists only Varone, Erotica, 123. I do not attempt to track through other Pompeian graffi ti any of the individuals described as calos, since a town of 10-20,000 inhabitants would have had multiple individuals with the S. Levin-Richardson bling. 50 As such, they were subject to social and legal restrictions, from bans on marrying freeborn Romans or serving in the army, to a loss of the right to vote and ability to make accusations against others. 51
This article argues that Roman women could contest their expected role as passive sexual objects ... more This article argues that Roman women could contest their expected role as passive sexual objects through writing and reading sexual graffiti. Building from evidence of female literacy in the Roman world, I first examine how Pompeian women claimed themselves as sexual subjects and agents in graffiti they wrote about themselves. I then explore how they could temporarily experience sexual agency through reading aloud graffiti that defamed men as penetrated or polluted sexual objects. Finally, I suggest that through these graffiti, women simultaneously resisted and reinscribed their marginalization within the dominant sexual paradigm.
Book Reviews by Sarah Levin-Richardson
In her new book, Milnor explores the roles of literary elements (quotations of canonical literatu... more In her new book, Milnor explores the roles of literary elements (quotations of canonical literature, as well as literary language, content, and form) in Pompeian graffiti, applying literary criticism to graffiti studies and the material study of graffiti to literary studies. Each chapter investigates a handful of metrical graffiti on a particular theme, allowing Milnor to combine her skill at critical reading1 with comparisons to other graffiti and literature, and examination of physical context. Ultimately finding that individuals remixed elements of oral and written culture in graffiti for their own artistic and social purposes, Milnor advances our understanding of what literature meant to the general populace, while contributing to recent scholarship on the social and material contexts of ancient graffiti.2
Books by Sarah Levin-Richardson
Un-Roman Sex explores how gender and sex were perceived and represented outside the Mediterranean... more Un-Roman Sex explores how gender and sex were perceived and represented outside the Mediterranean core of the Roman Empire.
The volume critically explores the gender constructs and sexual behaviours in the provinces and frontiers in light of recent studies of Roman erotic experience and flux gender identities. At its core, it challenges the unproblematised extension of the traditional Romano-Hellenistic model to the provinces and frontiers. Did sexual relations and gender identities undergo processes of "provincialisation" or "barbarisation" similar to other well-known aspects of cultural negotiation and syncretism in provincial and border regions, for example in art and religion? The 11 chapters that make up the volume explore these issues from a variety of angles, providing a balanced and rounded view through use of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence. Accordingly, the contributions represent new and emerging ideas on the subject of sex, gender, and sexuality in the Roman provinces.
As such, Un-Roman Sex will be of interest to higher-level undergraduates and graduates/academics studying the Roman empire, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world and at the Roman frontiers.
In this book, Sarah Levin-Richardson offers the first authoritative examination of Pompeii's purp... more In this book, Sarah Levin-Richardson offers the first authoritative examination of Pompeii's purpose-built brothel, the only verifiable brothel from Greco-Roman antiquity. Taking readers on a tour of all of the structure's evidence, including the rarely seen upper floor, she illuminates the subculture housed within its walls. Here, prostitutes could flout the norms of society and proclaim themselves sexual subjects and agents, while servile clients were allowed to act as 'real men'. Prostitutes and clients also exchanged gifts, greetings, jokes, taunts, and praise. Written in a clear, engaging style, and accompanied by an ample illustration program and translations of humorous and haunting graffiti, Levin-Richardson's book will become a new touchstone for those interested in the history of women, slavery, and prostitution in the classical world.
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Papers by Sarah Levin-Richardson
Book Reviews by Sarah Levin-Richardson
Books by Sarah Levin-Richardson
The volume critically explores the gender constructs and sexual behaviours in the provinces and frontiers in light of recent studies of Roman erotic experience and flux gender identities. At its core, it challenges the unproblematised extension of the traditional Romano-Hellenistic model to the provinces and frontiers. Did sexual relations and gender identities undergo processes of "provincialisation" or "barbarisation" similar to other well-known aspects of cultural negotiation and syncretism in provincial and border regions, for example in art and religion? The 11 chapters that make up the volume explore these issues from a variety of angles, providing a balanced and rounded view through use of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence. Accordingly, the contributions represent new and emerging ideas on the subject of sex, gender, and sexuality in the Roman provinces.
As such, Un-Roman Sex will be of interest to higher-level undergraduates and graduates/academics studying the Roman empire, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world and at the Roman frontiers.
The volume critically explores the gender constructs and sexual behaviours in the provinces and frontiers in light of recent studies of Roman erotic experience and flux gender identities. At its core, it challenges the unproblematised extension of the traditional Romano-Hellenistic model to the provinces and frontiers. Did sexual relations and gender identities undergo processes of "provincialisation" or "barbarisation" similar to other well-known aspects of cultural negotiation and syncretism in provincial and border regions, for example in art and religion? The 11 chapters that make up the volume explore these issues from a variety of angles, providing a balanced and rounded view through use of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence. Accordingly, the contributions represent new and emerging ideas on the subject of sex, gender, and sexuality in the Roman provinces.
As such, Un-Roman Sex will be of interest to higher-level undergraduates and graduates/academics studying the Roman empire, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world and at the Roman frontiers.