ENSLAVED AT HOME. Spaces of Slavery in Tacitus’ Agricola

Abstract

Relying on previous studies, ancient literature, and Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theory (1974), this study discussed how Tacitus employs space as a tool in his examination of liberty and slavery in four passages of the Agricola, both within the narrative of the Agricola and when the Agricola is considered in its historical context. The first passage treats of Domitian’s commission to burn books that eulogize virtue; the second passage describes Agricola’s exhortation to erect cities in Britannia; and the third and fourth passage is the speech of the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus and Agricola, respectively.

It was concluded that slavery is at least outwardly completed in both Rome and Britannia by means of control over movement in space; that reversals of one’s opponents’ conception of space recurrently occur; and that both the amenability and resistance in Britannia conform to the history of contact with the Romans, while Calgacus’ resistance also displays some divergence out of an imperial perspective.