Ancient History Dissertation

Hey, I'm trying to think of a topic I'd like to cover for my dissertation. I've got plenty of time to decide, I thought I'd just try and get some ideas though.

My main interests so far are Roman women and slavery/freedmen. I was thinking of looking at the plays of Terence and how he portrays women, but I'm not sure if that's already been done to death. I'm also really interested in epigraphy and numismatic evidence.

Any ideas/thoughts?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

Cleisthenes

How about looking at the extent to which freedmen and even slaves could rise to wealth and status above that of citizens? Looking at the late Empire and the decline in slavery for that period would be especially interesting, and a great book to read for this topic would be the Ancient Economy by MI Finley. His writing style is a bit convoluted but it provides nearly unparalleled analysis and insight.

Reply 2

username2244141

Original post

by Cleisthenes

Those are really interesting ideas, thank you! I'll definitely have a look at those.
I was also considering looking at how the playwright Terence writes/portrays women, since he was a slave.