Rethinking Work in the Graeco-Roman World
Location:
TBC
Date/time
-
We are pleased to announce a postgraduate conference dedicated to the study of labour and employment in the Graeco-Roman world (sixth c. BC – sixth c. AD). The event aims to bring together PhD students and early career researchers working on the definition, practices and structures of work in antiquity from a socio-economic and legal perspective.
The aim is to facilitate a dialogue among scholars from different disciplines and historical backgrounds, enabling the development of a transhistorical, interdisciplinary and intersectional perspective on ancient work. The objective of this conference is to rethink inherited assumptions and ask how different ancient societies constructed, valued, and represented labour diachronically across the ancient world.
The workshop welcomes contributions that engage with the lived realities of labour and production in the ancient world, from the organisation of workshops and the conditions of employment to the legal frameworks governing labour relations. Papers are encouraged to explore broader cultural and ideological dimensions, including the role of professional associations, the legal status of workers, and the identities – social, civic, and professional – that shaped and were shaped by work in antiquity.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Realities of employment (e.g. remuneration; seasonality and mobility; supply and demand of labour; organisation of workshops and worksites);
- Legal regulation of labour (e.g. contracts; liability and accountability; legal distinction between categories of workers);
- Labour markets (e.g. free and slave labour; contracted work; misthotoi, misthophoroi, mercennarii);
- Associations and professional communities (e.g. membership; functions and economic role of associations; craft workers, ownership and expertise);
- Technē, ars, banausia (e.g. definitions; self and popular perception; manual worke, skilled work and professionalism);
- Popular working culture (e.g. religion; folklore; reputation; working-class habitus; oral knowledge, practical expertise, and the transmission of skills).
Presentations should be delivered in English and not exceed 20 minutes.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words (pdf format, bibliography excluded), along with a brief bio (max 150 words), should be submitted by the 30th of September 2026 to the email address tap.conference2027@gmail.com. Any queries should be directed to the same address.
While we regret that we are unable to provide financial assistance for travel or accommodation, we are committed to assisting participants in finding suitable accommodation in the city centre.
Organising and Scientific Committee:
Veronica Capriotti, Giulia Fanesi, Giulia La Cognata, Will Higgins, Panayiotis Karageorgopoulos. Dr. David Lewis, Prof. Paul J. Du Plessis, Prof. Mirko Canevaro.
Registration 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
2:00 pm: Greetings and introductory remarks
Paul Du Plessis, Mirko Canevaro, David Lewis (Edinburgh)
Veronica Capriotti, Giulia Fanesi, Giulia La Cognata, Will Higgings, Panayiotis Karageorgopoulos (Edinburgh)
First Session: Legal regulation of labour
2:30 pm Fabrizio Sommaini (University of Tuscia), “Who Gets the Credit, Who Takes the Blame? Architecti, Redemptores and Professional Visibility on the Roman Building Site”
3:00 pm Tommaso Mantoan (University of Padua), “Inside the House: Workers’ Theft in Roman Law”
3:30 pm Costanza Indiveri (University of Cagliari), “Servus in opus publicum non datur: slave labour in light of D. 48.19.34”
4:00 pm Isabella Zambotto (University of Padua), “Freedmen’s operae and the Legal Construction of Labour”
Coffee break
5:00-6:00 pm Keynote (Roman) Paul Du Plessis and Tommaso Beggio (University of Trento)
Dinner
9:00 am Keynote (Greek)
Second Session: Spaces of Labour
10:00 am Alessandro Perucca (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), “Selling on the Edge: Retailers and Rural Trade in Hellenistic Macedonia”
10:30 am Ramón Díaz de Mayorga Arias (University of Sevilla), “Identifying Retail Expertise and Labour in Greek Wine Shops (5th– 1st c. BC)”
Coffee break
Third Session: Working in a Political Landscape
11:30 am Matteo Serra (UC Louvain – University Paris Nanterre), “Conceptualising Labour as Market Transaction: Agoranomoi and the Regulation of Work in Hellenistic Greece”
12:00 am Agata Otranto (University of Bari), “Politicians, slaves and freedmen during the work-break. The involvement of the slaves and freedmen in voting the lex Manilia de libertinorum sufragiis during the Compitalia”
12:30 am Roberto Russo (University of Edinburgh), “Nαυτικὴ τέχνη in fifth century Syracuse: development, growth, innovation”
Lunch
Fourth Session: Realities of Employment
2:00 pm Maylla Bisson (University of Edinburgh), “A matter of scale: labour organisation and type of specialisation in the metal workshops of Archaic and Classical Greece”
2:30 pm Francesco Trespidi (University of Padua), “Slavery of Gold in the Ptolemaic Mines of Nubia Historiography of Labour in Agatharchides of Cnidus”
3:00 pm Adela Duclos Bernal (University of Zaragoza), “Writing at Work: Craft, Literacy and Everyday Writing in Roman Hispania”
Coffee break
Fifth Session: Associations and Professional Identities
4:00 pm Roberto Di Tuccio (Institute of Classical Studies of London), “I’m Yours, if You Pay Me: Sex Work as Hidden Labour between Imperial Literature and Law”
4:30 pm Andrea Faraci (University of Bologna), “A Type of Company or a New Value for Work? The Working Partner in the Roman Socio-Economic Context”
5:00 pm Carla Capizzi (University of Padua), “Sycophants as Professional Accusers? Work, Status, and the Limits of a Category in Classical Athens”
Closing Remarks