Introduction

Abstract This essay introduces the section that considers the role of aesthetics in the formation of the mentalities of both the enslaved and the enslaving. “Aesthetics” is here understood in both its traditional and its extended senses, the latter associated particularly with Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht—that is, the realm of the senses and the emotions as distinct from the semiotic. Javal Coleman and Dan-el Padilla Peralta consider the position of the manumitted in ancient rhetoric. Tom Geue explores the Roman imperial obsession with textual abbreviation and condensation. Christopher J. Londa considers how Cicero’s Letters, that masterpiece of authorial self-monumentalization, incorporates numerous acknowledgments of the co-agency of the enslaved.