Dr Ulrike Roth (Staatsexamen; PhD)

Reader; Ancient History

Biography

Background

A bit like the Roman historian Livy, my turn to the study of things ancient was motivated by a desire to escape things present – then the running of my own restaurant, on the beautiful coast of West Sussex. To this end, I chose to set out on a PhD, at the University of Nottingham, on the role of enslaved women in Roman agriculture, arguing against the then standard androcentric reading of our sources for rural slavery in Roman Italy - which I completed in 2004. Later that year, I joined Classics at Edinburgh, following a fixed-term appointment as Tutor in Ancient History at the University of Wales, Swansea, which followed in turn my very first lecturing adventures at King’s College London. Having taken up the post of Lecturer in Ancient History at Edinburgh in 2004, I was subsequently promoted to a Senior Lectureship in 2012, and a Readership in 2018.

My chief research interest lies in the study of ancient slavery. At present, I work especially on child slavery in the Roman world, part of which has been funded by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2017-2020). I have also recently directed the first phase of a larger project on ‘The Roman Slave Community', supported by the University of Edinburgh's CAHSS Challenge Investment Fund, and have joined forces with Prof. Pedro López Barja (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) and Prof. Carla Masi Doria (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) on a collaborative study of Junian Latinity, including the publication of multi-disciplinary work arising from the project: Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Beyond research into slavery, I am particularly interested in how ancient historians (like Livy) constructed the past, as well as how those not given a history can be excavated from the rubble of the past – be that the various peoples of ancient Italy, Roman Italy’s rural population, or the bulk of ancient society, i.e. women and children.

In the classroom, I focus on diverse topics in ancient, especially Roman (social) history, including the complexities of Graeco-Roman slaving, encouraging our students to reflect critically on issues past and present. But whatever the topic, I seek to challenge our students to reflect on the modern world through the lens of antiquity and the full range of the surviving evidence, actively foregrounding the complexities of ancient life and the surviving documentation, thus to raise their awareness of the futility of settling on rushed and simplistic explanations to complex problems – then as now. Teaching apart, from early on in my career I have held diverse academic management roles (such as, at Edinburgh, the headship of Classics, 2011-2015, and as REF2014 co-ordinator for Classics), as well as honorary offices (serving inter alia as Honorary Secretary of the British Epigraphy Society, 2010-2022, and as Statistics Officer for the Council of University Classical Departments, 2009-2015).

Responsibilities & affiliations

Current:

Past:

Undergraduate teaching

I thoroughly enjoy teaching at undergraduate level – be it in the large first-year lecture theatre and covering the history of Rome from its beginnings to Empire, the more advanced second-year historiography and methodology courses, or in the thematically focused Honours classes - such as those listed below.

Honours:

  • Ancient Greek Slavery (option)
  • Roman Slavery (option)
  • Society and Epigraphy in Roman Italy (option)
  • Life and Labour in the Ancient World (option)
  • Law and Life at Rome (option)
  • Roman Imperialism (option)

Sub-Honours:

  • Ancient History 2a: Past and Present in the Ancient World
  • Ancient History 2b: Themes and Theories in Ancient History

Postgraduate teaching

My postgraduate teaching arises from my research – primarily into (Roman) slavery, but also into the history of what is often called ‘pre-Roman’ Italy. I very much enjoy the focused, small-group seminar atmosphere of our MSc courses – and normally teach one of the following thematic courses each year. I also contribute to our skills and methodology training in Classics at postgraduate level.

Thematic ('Option') Courses:

  • Agricultural Slavery in the Graeco-Roman World
  • Slavery, Society and Law at Rome
  • The Making of Roman Italy

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

Dr Roth welcomes inquiries from prospective doctoral students who wish to work in the areas of her research expertise, esp. the study of ancient Italy, Roman historiography and, foremost, ancient slavery.

Current PhD students supervised

Primary supervision

Hughes, Jax  (PhD / start date: 2023):  The changing lives of Roman freedwomen: ancient and modern at the crossroads in the long twentieth century

Ghiringhelli, Ambra (PhD / start date: 2016): The religious involvement and cultic activity of slaves in the Roman world [AHRC Doctoral Award, and UoE Principal Career Development Scholarship, 2016-19]

Past PhD students supervised

Primary supervision

Rolls, Madison (PhD 2023): Educating slaves: a comparative approach to education in Roman slavery [UoE College Research Award, 2018-21] 

Donati, Laura (PhD 2022): Slave 'crime and punishment': management, authority and discretion in Roman law and literature [UoE HCA PhD Studentship, 2017-21]

Thorp, Thaddeus (PhD 2021): Earning the fruits of honour: a study of social mobility among the freeborn sub-elite in the Roman west [AHRC Doctoral Award, 2017-21] 

Nutter, Rory (PhD 2020): Quo vadis? Epigraphy, language and people in the making of Roman Italy, 400-100 BC [Kerr-Fry-Doctoral Scholarship, 2016-19]

Morbidoni, Pier Luigi (PhD 2019): Freedom and citizenship in the Roman Empire: legal and epigraphic approaches to status identification [AHRC Doctoral Award, and UoE College Research Award, 2016-18] 

Bratton, Amy (PhD 2017): Between bedroom and courtroom: legal and literary perspectives on slaves and the freed in Augustus’ adultery legislation

Sandon, Tatjana (PhD 2017): The freedwoman in the Roman world: the evidence of the Latin inscriptions 

Brosgill (née Reibman), Abigail (PhD 2015): Apennine appetites: food and identity in central south Italy, c. 400-100 BC [UoE HCA McMillan Scholarship, 2011-12 and 2012-13]

Lewis, Juan (PhD 2013): Role and function of the vicariat in Roman slavery [Marie Curie Doctoral Fellowship (Universität Bielefeld), 2008-9]

Morton, Peter (PhD 2012): Refiguring the Sicilian slave revolts: from servile discontent to civic disquiet and social disorder [UoE CHSS PhD Studentship, 2008-11]

Reibman, Abigail (MScR 2011): Food and identity in the 'Roman villa' 

Morton, Peter (MScR 2009): Re-thinking the Sicilian slave rebellions [UoE HCA Masters Scholarship; and Helen Philip Memorial Scholarship, 2007-8]

Joint supervision

Jodoin, Jared (PhD 2019): Pro-slavery and the Classics in Antebellum America, 1840-1860: Thomas Cobb, Louisa McCord, George Frederick Holmes, George Fitzhugh, and James Henry Hammond under scrutiny

Zanovello, Sara (PhD 2016): From slave to free: a legal perspective on Greek manumission [Borsa di Ateneo, Università di Padova, 2013-15]

Secondary supervision

MacMaster, Thomas (PhD 2016): The transformative impact of the slave trade on the Roman world, 580-720 [UoE HCA McMillan Scholarship, 2012-13]

Research summary

Places: 

  • Europe
  • Mediterranean

Themes: 

  • Culture
  • Gender
  • Ideas
  • Labour
  • Society

Periods: 

  • Antiquity
  • Medieval

Research interests

Beside my love for ancient (and modern) Italy, my research interests lie in the study of slavery, primarily Roman, both rural and urban. In particular, I seek to understand the ways in which slavery helped satisfy Roman society's labour requirements as well as how slavery was conceptualised. But my interest in the study of slavery arises from a much wider concern with social organisation – and slavery, as a system based on force, offers an often much more accentuated picture of the roles that different folk have been allocated in a given society. What I seek to grasp is how such role-giving works, what (if any) levels of negotiation exist, and why individuals accept or break away from the roles given to them – then as now.

On the broader historical plane, my work engages with slavery’s role in the evolution of European social, economic and cultural practices, and especially those concerning class and gender relations. My working hypothesis is that the Roman ‘invention’ of slavery established a distinctive organisation of labour ‘at work’ that has in essence been maintained by European society up to and beyond the abolition of slavery: slavery made possible a division of labour based on the regular exploitation of significant numbers of labourers working typically for someone other than themselves, entailing crucial gender and status distinctions. ‘Made at Rome’, this system of labour organisation was passed on to post-classical society: slavery is the means by which a major shift in social organisation became embedded in European society, and an essential field of inquiry for understanding Western culture.

A critical dimension in my thinking about the role of slavery in this early phase of European history is the vexed question of the ‘nature’ of slavery. I reject the notion that the enslaved in the Roman world, unlike medieval serfs, lacked familial and kinship relations, and that the unfree became embedded in such relations in the course of the Roman imperial period only, moving slowly towards a serfdom-model. This transition model hinges on a distorted view of Roman slavery that I seek to revise through my work on enslaved families, women and children at Rome.

Current research activities

To challenge the standard view of the transition from Roman to medieval times, I have concentrated in past and current research activities on demonstrating that the central texts documenting Roman agricultural slavery from the middle Republic to the early Empire – c. 150 BC to AD 50 – show already the widespread exploitation of enslaved women in rural contexts and, hence, the typical existence of enslaved families in the countryside of Roman Italy (esp. Thinking Tools (2007); see also PBSR 2011; Index 2008; JRA 2005; PBSR 2004).

To demolish in its entirety the false notion that Roman slavery was not characterised by work and life in family units, it is essential to document in a separate argument the role of enslaved children, in both Republic and Empire – which is the focus of my current work, supported by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship: Enslaved Childhoods: Redefining Roman Slavery. Once it is established that child slavery was quantitatively and qualitatively a distinctive element of Roman slaving through the ages, my argument can move on to deal with the labour conditions of the enslaved, i.e. the economic relationships between enslaver and enslaved, to show their great variety besides their similarities with the economic relationships between medieval lord and serf.

This step of my work also includes detailed analysis of the representation of freedom in key texts of the Roman imperial period to expose a substantially ‘messier’ approach to slavery and freedom than widely accepted. I question the notion that the Roman elite shared an essentially uniform approach and attitude to slavery and the enslaved, arguing that Rome’s elite was affected by severe disagreements concerning the relative value of self-advancement and political service, the individual and the community, freedom and slavery. (For details see ‘Research Projects’, below). I also plan to work on medieval evidence to document the continuity of exploitation structures known to be typical of the Roman world into the Middle Ages. In this, as well as in current work on late antique and early medieval topics, my focus is on the role of the Christian Church in the continued exploitation of men, women and children as enslaved and dependent labourers, exploring the hypothesis that the Church – following the Pauline model (e.g. ZNW 2014) – was the key enabler of slavery’s transmission from the Roman to the medieval world (e.g. Antiquité Tardive 2016).

Knowledge exchange

There have never been more people subject to enslavement and forced labour than in today’s world. Slavery is, sadly, not restricted to the long gone past, but an acute issue that requires direct engagement. I hold that the historical study of slavery must inform our approach to slaving in all its forms, and that such historical study forms part of the fight against modern-day slavery. To do so engenders the question of how we study past slaveries, and how we approach the evidence – in short: whose story we choose to tell. As researchers we face the tricky challenge of often one-sided, partial and fragmentary evidence. For the ancient world, this evidence typically foregrounds the perspectives of those in socially, economically, culturally and politically dominant roles, marginalising individuals and groups subjected to slavery. It is therefore of utmost importance to explore approaches that confront the gaps in our evidence, and that bridge those gaps.

In my work on enslaved children in the ancient Roman world, for example, I seek to foreground what I call ‘the enslaved voice’, to move our perspective away from that of those who exercised the powers of ownership over these children. Doing so requires a focus on the seemingly nugatory evidence that documents those children’s lives without being buried under excessive layers of mediation at the hands of those who held these children in slavery – such as the many tombstones of enslaved boys and girls set up by their parents. But it also requires a preparedness to interpret evidence widely held to illustrate only the views of those in often excessive power over others against the grain – such as the many ancient literary texts that deal with slavery and the enslaved: these, too, contain relics of much more complex views than often acknowledged, and some can even be made to reveal a quite different, questioning take on the seemingly unproblematised Roman embrace of slavery.

This kind of shift in perspective and approach is also a quintessential requirement today in the cultural milieus that foster the enslavement of individuals, even in societies in which the legal framework denies enslavement of any human being, and in which the dominant socio-political attitude is thoroughly against any form of slavery. It follows that historians have a responsibility to bring to life again the voices of those who cannot do so any longer – and in particular those voices that others sought to silence: in this way historians join the community of action that rejects enslavement and slaving today, by giving the topic centre-stage, shifting perspectives, and providing scope for the views of those not easily heard.

Project activity

Apart from my work on Roman child slavery, ongoing projects include analyses of several texts of the Roman imperial era that conceptualise and explore different notions of Roman libertas.

First, I am working on Petronius' Trimalchio, and the construction of social death, arguing inter alia that the Satyricon is a response to the writings of (e.g.) Pliny the Younger, and also to Tacitus – thus also dating the text to the second century (CQ 2016). The book-length re-reading of Trimalchio's 'Life' is advancing in tandem with smaller studies of individual (technical) aspects (e.g. CQ 2014; Revue de Philologie 2009).

Second, in a 'parallel' project, I explore in a book-length study the senate meeting in the first book of Tacitus’ Annals – provisionally titled Tacitus and the Limits of Empire. From Paratext to Intellectual History – which offers at base a new reading of one of the most baffling sentences in ‘Augustus’ testament’, i.e. the recommendation to keep the empire within its bounds: … Augustus addideratque consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii, incertum metu an per invidiam (Ann. 1.11.4). The book explores a creative misreading of the passage to reveal a hitherto unrecognised dimension of the Tacitean approach to imperial government – and a much more complex attitude to libertas at Rome.

Finally, I have made the mistake to have got excited about Livy, and his attempt to ‘save’ the Romans from a Gallic take-over, thereby preserving Roman libertas, in Book 5. I argue in a longer study and several shorter pieces (e.g. Mnemosyne 2018; CQ 2020) that Livy knew a historiographic thread that saw Rome taken in its entirety – but that he evidently chose to offer an alternative (hi)story, thereby ‘saving Rome’ from (the shame of) slavery.

All three projects – Livy, Tacitus, Petronius – add to my argument that ‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’ were concepts (and realities) that were heavily debated by the Romans of the (early) imperial period, muddying the waters between a seemingly clear-cut Roman world of slavery and a more complex medieval world of serfdom.

Access to electronic copies of several of the listed publications can be gained via the links embedded in the individual output titles. Where a publication is subject to current OA-restrictions, final author versions can be digitally accessed instead via Dr Roth’s profile page on the EDINBURGH RESEARCH EXPLORER (‘Research output’).

 

Single-authored books

Roth, U., The Curse of Thistle and Thorn: Child Slavery in the Roman Empire (in preparation)

Roth, U., Saving libertas: Livy, the Gallic Sack of Rome, and the Shape of Roman History (Cambridge: CUP, forthcoming)

Roth, U., Thinking Tools. Agricultural Slavery between Evidence and Models (London: ICS, 2007)

 

Edited/co-authored books

Roth, U. (ed.), Enslaved Childhoods in the Roman Imperial World. Alienation, Accommodation, Approbation (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025), forthcoming

López Barja, P., Masi Doria, C., Roth, U. (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 2: Epigraphy, Papyrology, Society (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025), forthcoming

López Barja, P., Masi Doria, C., Roth, U. (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023)

Roth, U. (ed.), By the Sweat of Your Brow: Roman Slavery in its Socio-Economic Setting (London: ICS, 2010)

 

Journal articles

Roth, U., ‘Prima vicaria (CIL VI 25019/34155)’, Tyche 37 (2022 [2024]), in press

Roth, U., ‘Vicariae, not contubernales: reassessing the conjugal relationships of sub-owned women in Roman slavery’, Journal of Epigraphic Studies 7 (2024), 145-177

Roth, U., ‘Mobility, ethnicity and family in CIL III, 2006’, Epigraphica 84 (2022), 459-485

Roth, U., 'Was Camillus right? Roman history and narratological strategy in Livy 5.49.2', Classical Quarterly 70.1 (2020), 212-229

Roth, U., 'The Gallic ransom and the Sack of Rome: Livy 5.48.7-8', Mnemosyne 71.3 (2018), 460-484

Roth, U., 'Liberating the Cena', Classical Quarterly 66.2 (2016), 614-634

Roth, U., 'Slavery and the Church in Visigothic Spain: the donation and will of Vincent of Huesca', Antiquité Tardive 24 (2016), 433-452

Roth, U., 'Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus: a Christian design for mastery', Zeitschrift  für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 105.1 (2014), 102-130

Roth, U., 'An(other) epitaph for Trimalchio: Sat. 30.2', Classical Quarterly 64.1 (2014), 422-425

Roth, U., 'Textile production and gender in ancient Italy: the case of the "Oscan" loom weights', Ostraka: rivista di antichità 20 (2011 [2013]), 143-162 

Roth, U., 'Comic shackles', Mnemosyne 65.4 (2012), 746-749

Roth, U., 'in uilicationem relegauit: Petronius, Satyrica 69.3', Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes 83.2 (2009 [2012]), 253-260

Roth, U., 'Men without hope', Papers of the British School at Rome 79 (2011), 71-94

Roth, U., 'Cicero, a legal dispute, and a terminus ante quem for the large-scale exploitation of female slaves in Roman Italy: de finibus 1.4.12', Index: Quaderni camerti di studi romanistici 36 (2008), 557-565

Roth, U., 'To have and to be: food, status and the peculium of agricultural slaves', Journal of Roman Archaeology 18 (2005), 278-292

Roth, U., 'No more slave gangs: Varro, De re rustica 1.2.20-1', Classical Quarterly 55.1 (2005), 310-315

Roth, U., 'Inscribed meaning: the vilica and the villa economy', Papers of the British School at Rome 72 (2004), 101-124

Roth, U., 'Food rations in Cato's De agricultura and female slave labour', Ostraka: rivista di antichità 11 (2002 [2003]), 195-213

 

Book chapters

Roth, U., ‘Patria potestas, legal status and power relations – citizens, freedpersons and the enslaved’, in H. Platts and K. Cooper (edd.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Daily Life (Oxford: OUP, 2026), under contract

Roth, U., ‘Introduction: Child slavery in/and the Roman Empire’, in U. Roth (ed.), Enslaved Childhoods in the Roman Imperial World. Alienation, Accommodation, Approbation (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., ‘The death of future: the social approbation of enslaved boys in Roman imperial funerary imagery’, in U. Roth (ed.), Enslaved Childhoods in the Roman Imperial World. Alienation, Accommodation, Approbation (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., ‘Conclusion: Enslaved childhoods in the Roman imperial world’, in U. Roth (ed.), Enslaved Childhoods in the Roman Imperial World. Alienation, Accommodation, Approbation (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Reilly, M., Lee, N., Engmann, R., Roth, U., 'Places of agricultural labour: archaeological approaches to estates and plantations', in M. Leone and J. Webster (edd.), The Oxford Handbook of the Comparative Archaeology of Slavery (Oxford: OUP, 2025), in press

López Barja, P., Masi Doria, C. , Roth, U., ‘Introduction: The making (and unmaking) of a black hole: modern scholars, ancient laws, and an ongoing conundrum’, in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 2: Epigraphy, Papyrology, Society (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., ‘First prologue: Documenting Junian Latins', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 2: Epigraphy, Papyrology, Society (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., ‘Second prologue: The social location of Junian Latinity’, in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 2: Epigraphy, Papyrology, Society (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., ‘From merit test to citizenship drive: rethinking the function of Junian Latinity’, in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 2: Epigraphy, Papyrology, Society (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., 'The space in between: honourable slaves and the theory of natural slavery', in D. Lewis, M. Canevaro and D. Cairns (edd.), Slavery and Honour in the Ancient Greek World (Edinburgh: EUP, 2025), forthcoming

Roth, U., 'De l’Euphrate à la Graeca urbs: esclavagisme et migration à Rome. Le cas d’Herméros dans le Satyricon de Pétrone', in M. T. Schettino (ed.), Migrations, mobilité et transferts culturels: le cas des régions frontalières dans l’antiquité (Mulhouse: PU, 2024), in press

Roth, U., 'Slave labour, supply and trade', in C. Cobb and K. Shaner (edd.), Ancient Slavery and its New Testament Contexts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2025), in press

Roth, U., ‘Ecuaciones diferenciales: menores esclavizados y manumitidos en la epigrafía de Ostia y Augusta Emérita', in P. López Barja and M. L. Caldelli (edd.), Libertos y esclavos en la ciudad romana: de Ostia a Augusta Emérita (Rome: EEHAR, 2024), in press

López Barja, P., Masi Doria, C., Roth U., 'Introduction: "There was even mention of Junian Latins"', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2023), 1-12

Roth, U., 'First prologue: A millennium of legislation on Junians and other Latins', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2023), 15-20

Roth, U., 'Second prologue: The Latin literary universe of Junian Latinity', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2023), 155-159

Roth, U., 'Promoting Junian Latinity: Columella, De re rustica 1.8.19', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2023), 160-166

Roth, U., 'Reading Pliny’s Junian Latins', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2023), 167-187

Roth, U., 'The name, the garb, the cap: a plea for the renunciation of civitas', in P. López Barja, C. Masi Doria and U. Roth (edd.), Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire. Vol. 1: History, Law, Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2023), 188-202

Roth, U., 'Speaking out? Child sexual abuse and the enslaved voice in the Cena Trimalchionis', in D. Kamen and C. W. Marshall (edd.), Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity (Madison: UW Press, 2021), 211-238

Roth, U., 'When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes ... Livy (and Polybius) on the Gallic Sack of Rome', in A. Damtoft Poulsen and A. Jönsson (edd.), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 115-145

Roth, U., 'Paul and slavery: economic perspectives', in T. R. Blanton and R. Pickett (edd.), Paul and Economics. A Handbook (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017), 155-182

Roth, U., 'Peculium, freedom, citizenship: golden triangle or vicious circle? An act in two parts', in U. Roth (ed.), By the Sweat of Your Brow: Roman Slavery in its Socio-Economic Setting (London: ICS, 2010), 91-120

 

Book prefaces, discussion papers, encyclopaedia entries, feature articles

Roth, U., ‘slavery, Roman’, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 5th|e-edition (2023)

Roth, U., 'Confronting gender-based violence in ancient Rome: the sexual violation of pubescent boys', 16 Days Blogathon | Day 5 (2021)

Roth, U., 'Anything but enlightened: child slavery in the Roman world', The Historian 146 (2020), 30-33

Roth, U., 'Q&A: Were Britons taken as slaves during the Roman period? If so, would they be sent to Europe or kept in Britain?', BBC History Magazine 2|Feb (2019), 94

Roth, U., 'The politics of classical allusion? "Strong and stable leadership"', Epistula 14 (2017), 14-15

Roth, U., 'Excavating Troy ... in Roman social history: or how to date the Satyricon', Epistula 12 (2016), 7-8

Roth, U., 'Beyond Vagnari: a Small achievement', in A. Small (ed.), Beyond Vagnari. New Themes in the Study of Roman South Italy (Bari: Edipuglia, 2014), 5-6

Roth, U., 'Going astray: Classics and the NSS', CUCD Bulletin 40 (2011), 6-15

Roth, U., 'ICHOS/ISOS', in H. Heinen et al. (edd.), Handwörterbuch der antiken Sklaverei (Mainz 2006/8)

Roth, U., 'Doing the sums: a quantitative reply to the AHRC supported ERIH project', CUCD Bulletin 35 (2006), 6-24

 

Reviews and review articles

Roth, U., [Review] T. Spawforth, What the Greeks Did for Us (Yale: Yale University Press, 2023), Journal of Greek Archaeology 9 (2024), in press

Roth, U., [Review] F. Fulminante, The Rise Of Early Rome. Transportation Networks And Domination In Central Italy, 1050-500 BC (Cambridge and New York, 2023), Journal of Roman Studies 114 (2024), in press

Roth, U., [Review] O. Ilić, Late Antiquity and early Christianity in the Roman provinces of Moesia Prima and Dacia Ripensis (Oxford: BAR, 2022), Journal of Roman Studies 114 (2024), FirstView

Roth, U., [Review] M. Schermaier (ed.), The Position of Roman Slaves. Social Realities and Legal Differences (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2023), Sehepunkte 2024.04.38518

Roth, U., [Review] R. Laurence and F. Trifilò, Mediterranean Timescapes: Chronological Age and Cultural Practice in the Roman Empire (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2023), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2024.03.20

Roth, U., [Review] B. Amiri, Religion romaine et esclavage au Haut-Empire: Rome, Latium et Campanie (Rome: École française de Rome, 2021), Bonner Jahrbücher 222 (2022 [2024]), 444-448

Roth, U., [Review] K. Beerden and T. Epping (edd.), Classical Controversies. Reception of Graeco-Roman Antiquity in the Twenty-First Century (Leiden: Sidestone Press Academics, 2022), Journal of Greek Archaeology 8 (2023), 377-380

Roth, U., [Review] C. Heilig, The Apostle and the Empire: Paul's Implicit and Explicit Criticism of Rome (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2022), Journal of Roman Studies 113 (2023), 214-216

Roth, U., [Review] A. Rohnbogner, Dying Young. A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Child Health in Roman Britain (Oxford: BAR, 2022), Britannia 54 (2023), 477-479

Roth, U., [Review] J. A. Quirós Castillo (ed.), Archaeology and History of Peasantries 2: Themes, Approaches and Debates (Bilbao: Universidad del País Vasco, 2022), The Medieval Review 23.11.01

Roth, U., [Review] F. Luciani, Slaves of the People. A Political and Social History of Roman Public Slavery (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2022), Sehepunkte 2023.05.36974

Roth, U., [Review] M. Feige, Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsanlagen römischer Villen im republikanischen und kaiserzeitlichen Italien (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2023.05.02

Roth, U., [Review] J. Demaille and G. Labarre (edd.), Les associations cultuelles en Grèce et en Asie mineure aux époques hellénistique et impériale: compositions sociales, fonctions civiques et manifestations identitaires (époques hellénistique et romaine) (Besançon: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2021), Journal of Roman Studies 112 (2022), 325-326

Roth, U., [Review] A. Binsfeld and M. Ghetta (edd.), Ubi servi erant? Die Ikonographie von Sklaven und Freigelassenen in der römischen Kunst (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019), Bonner Jahrbücher 220 (2020 [2022]), 475-478

Roth, U., [Review] L. Banducci, Foodways in Roman Republican Italy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.02.07

Roth, U., [Review] I. Moyer, A. Lecznar and H. Morse (edd.), Classicisms in the Black Atlantic (Oxford: OUP, 2020), Journal of Roman Studies 111 (2021), 265-266

Roth, U., [Review] S. Gelichi and L. Olmo-Enciso (edd.), Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity: New Frontiers and New Perspectives (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2019), The Medieval Review 21.06.15

Roth, U., [Review] B. Forschner, Servus dotalis. Der Sklave in der Ordnung des klassischen römischen Mitgiftrechts (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2020), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2021.03.37

Roth, U., [Review] I. E. Ramelli, Social Justice and the Legitimacy of Slavery. The Role of Philosophical Asceticism from Ancient Judaism to Late Antiquity (Oxford: OUP, 2016), Athenaeum 108.2 (2020), 657-660

Roth, U., [Review] D. K. Pettegrew, W. R. Caraher and T. W. Davis (edd.). The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology (Oxford and New York: OUP, 2019), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2020.08.26

Roth, U., [Review] S. M. Elliott, Family Empires, Roman and Christian. Vol. 1: Roman Family Empires. Household, Empire, Resistance (Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2018), Historische Zeitschrift 309.3 (2019), 722-723

Roth, U., [Review] D. Vaucher, Sklaverei in Norm und Praxis. Die frühchristlichen Kirchenordnungen (Hildesheim: Weidmann, 2017), Historische Zeitschrift 309.2 (2019), 432-433

Roth, U., [Review] R. MacLean, Freed Slaves and Roman Imperial Culture. Social Integration and the Transformation of Values (Cambridge: CUP, 2018), Historische Zeitschrift 309.2 (2019), 430-431

Roth, U., [Review] H. Leppin, Die frühen Christen: Von den Anfängen bis Konstantin (München: C. H. Beck, 2018), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019.08.20

Roth, U., [Review] A. Rio, Slavery after Rome, 500-1100 (Oxford: OUP, 2017), Early Medieval Europe 27 (2019), 151-153

Roth, U., [Review] M. B. Kartzow, The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.12.28

Roth, U., [Review] C. Laes and J. Strubbe, Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years? (Cambridge: CUP, 2014), Journal of Roman Studies 107 (2018), 217-218

Roth, U., [Review] M. Dondin-Payre and N. Tran (edd.), Esclaves et maîtres dans le monde romain. Expressions épigraphiques de leurs relations (Rome: École française de Rome, 2017), Sehepunkte 2018.10.31830

Roth, U., [Review article] "Oscan, Greek, and more: the linguistic history of central and southern Italy from a non-Roman perspective": N. Zair, Oscan in the Greek Alphabet (Cambridge: CUP, 2016), Journal of Roman Archaeology 31 (2018), 597-602

Roth, U., [Review] K. A. Shaner, Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity (Oxford and New York: OUP, 2018), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.08.27

Roth, U., [Review] S. Roselaar (ed.), Processes of Cultural Change and Integration in the Roman World (Leiden: Brill, 2015), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.03.04

Roth, U., [Review] J. R. Harrison and L. L. Welborn (edd.), The First Urban Churches 1. Methodological Foundations (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.04.29

Roth, U., [Review] M. J. Perry, Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman (Cambridge: CUP, 2014), Ancient History Bulletin Online-Reviews 6 (2016), 104-107

Roth, U., [Review] O. Devillers (ed.), Autour du Pline le Jeune (Bordeaux: Ausonius, 2014), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.04.52

Roth, U., [Review] S. Bell and T. Ramsby (edd.), Free at Last! The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 2012), Hermathena 191 (2011 [2014]), 130-133

Roth, U., [Review] K. Harper, Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425 (Cambridge: CUP, 2011), Sehepunkte 2012.09.20599

Roth, U., [Review] S. Joshel, Slavery in the Roman World (Cambridge: CUP, 2010), Ancient History Bulletin Online-Reviews 1 (2011), 27-29

Roth, U., [Review] M. Trümper, Graeco-Roman Slave Markets. Fact or Fiction? (Oxford and Oakville, CT: Oxbow Books, 2009), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.12.20

Roth, U., [Review] H. Heinen (ed.), Menschenraub, Menschenhandel und Sklaverei in antiker und moderner Perspektive (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2008), Journal of Roman Studies 100 (2010), 262-264

Roth, U., [Review] "Plus ça change?": P. duBois, Slavery: Antiquity and its Legacy (London and New York: Taurus, 2010), BBC History Magazine 11.2 (2010), 75

Roth, U., [Review] "Reading in the dark": H. Flower (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.07.47

Roth, U., [Review article] "No perfect crime": K. Jenkins, Refiguring History. New Thoughts on an Old Discipline (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), Digressus 3 (2003), 5-10

Gerda Henkel Stiftung Scholarship, 2023-2025

Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship, 2017-2020

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