My project explores the range, reception, and regularity of the sexual exploitation of slaves in late antiquity. Specifically, the ways in which it is discussed within the moral framework of Christianity in the works of the Church Fathers.
I am particularly interested in continuities and disruption between earlier Graeco-Roman thoughts on exploitation and conceptions of it in late antiquity. The sexual abuse of slaves was built into the social mechanics of sexuality in the Graeco-Roman world and analysing how the new Christian moral framework - with its distinct sexual ethics - engaged with this reality, is at the forefront of my research.
