This book deals with the ways in which the ancient Roman literary imagination explored the phenomenon of slavery. It asks what the free imagination made of the experience of living with slaves, beings who both were and were not fellow humans. The book covers the full range of Roman literature, and is arranged thematically. It discusses the ideological relation of Roman literature to the institution of slavery, and also the ways in which slavery provided a metaphor for other relationships and experiences, and in particular for literature itself.