This talk is part of a larger project on the interactions between Roman visual culture and Roman slavery. I focus on the bills of sale that formalized and authorized the purchase of an enslaved person, in particular those written on wax tablets. Previous work has focused on deciphering the texts and analyzing their legal aspects; I am interested instead in their material and visual workings. During the sale, the creation of the bill of sale involved a ritualized visual performance by multiple actors; the specific mix of visibility and invisibility has analogies in what was happening to the person being sold. After the sale, these legal documents were kept by the slave-masters, carefully stored and out of sight, and they remained in effect until resale, manumission or death. Exploring the visual dynamics of these bills of sale thus illuminates the day-to-day operations of Roman slavery and, more broadly, visual constructions of public and private, person and object.
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