Las esclavas en la regulación jurídica. Algunas notas desde el Digesto

Abstract

There can be no doubt that the study of legislation offers the opportunity to analyse the functioning of slavery in Roman society. However, even jurists point out that the word slave not only includes male but also female slaves. The use of this term –which nowadays can be regarded as sexist- can be problematic when focusing the female slave population since it is not possible to differentiate between both sexes. Nevertheless, terms such as ancilla or serva are sometimes used to establish a difference. Regardless of the apparent homogeneity which characterises the slave class, my research focuses on finding female slave population in one of the biggest legal resources in Roman law, the Digest. My aim is to study the particularities that might have affected female slaves due not only to their belonging to a particular class but also to a particular gender.