From Alexandria to Isurium Brigantum: Tracing a Hellenistic Image of Slavery to Roman Britain

This article traces the development and transmission of a Hellenistic visual motif associated with servitude through the material culture of the Roman world to the northern province of Britannia. Its focus is a second-century CE copper-alloy oil flask from Isurium Brigantum (modern Aldborough, North Yorkshire), cast in the form of a young child sleeping over a box or lantern. Comparing the flask with an earlier terracotta vessel from Egypt, Roman sculptural parallels, and a Samian ware bowl depicting chained captives from York, the article examines how imagery associated with enslaved labor circulated across regions and media. It situates the Aldborough object within the civic and domestic context of Roman Yorkshire and considers its significance alongside literary evidence, including Seneca’s Letter 47, and scholarship on the representation and commodification of enslaved children. The article argues that the apparent charm of sleeping-servant imagery should not be mistaken for evidence of sympathy toward the enslaved.