{{Short description|Female domestic slave}} {{italictitle}} [[File:Funerary relief from Neumagen depicting a woman's hair being dressed by her slaves, circa 220 AD, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, Germany (34626922225).jpg|thumb|Four ''ancillae'' assisting their mistress, on a funerary relief from Roman Germany (ca. 220 AD)]] [[File:Roman_jewellery_from_Pompeii.jpg|thumb|Gold armilla from Moregine, near Pompeii, with inscription {{lang|la|Dominus ancillae suae}}, "The master to his slavegirl."]] '''''Ancillae''''' (plural) (singular, '''''ancilla''''') were female house slaves in ancient Rome, as well as in Europe during the Middle Ages.<ref name=":0">Judith M. Bennett & Amy M. Froide, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=B0ns0Y0m5c8C&dq=ancillae+slaves&pg=PA106 Singlewomen in the European Past, 1250-1800]''</ref>
In medieval Europe, slavery was gradually replaced by serfdom, but a small number of female slaves were imported as household servants for the wealthy, most commonly in Italy, Spain and France.<ref name=":0"/>
==Ancient Rome== {{Main|Slavery in ancient Rome}} {{See also|Contubernium}} ''Ancilla'' was the common word for a female slave in Ancient Rome. The more general word for a female slave was ''serva''. An ''ancilla'' in an upper class household might serve like a lady's maid.<ref>Amy Richlin, ''Slave Theater in the Roman Republic: Plautus and Popular Comedy'' (Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 24–25.</ref> ''Ancillae'' in this setting might be specialized in attending to the upkeep, storage, and readiness of the mistress's wardrobe or jewelry.<ref>Marice E. Rose, "The Construction of Mistress and Slave Relationships in Late Antique Art," ''Woman's Art Journal'' 29:2 (2008), p. 41</ref> For example, one inscription records an ''ancilla'' named Phoebe assigned ''ad speculum'', "to the mirror".<ref>Susan Treggiari, "''Contubernales'' in ''CIL'' 6," ''Phoenix'' 35:1 (1981), pp. 47, 64, citing ''CIL'' VI 7297.</ref>
The Roman law of slavery pertained to both male and female slaves, and was specific to ''ancillae'' primarily in regard to socially gendered issues arising from motherhood and marriage. Since the status of slaves was defined by the lack of legal personhood, ''ancillae'' could not enter into forms of marriage recognized in Roman law; however, ''ancillae'' like other household slaves might form a heterosexual union ''(contubernium)''<ref>Mina Petrova, "Single as a ''Lena'': The Depiction of Procuresses in Augustan Literature," in ''The Single Life in the Roman and Later Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press, 2019), p. 171.</ref> that expressed an intention to marry if both partners were manumitted and obtained citizen rights.<ref>Judith Evans-Grubbs, "'Marriage More Shameful Than Adultery'": Slave-Mistress Relationships, 'Mixed Marriages', and Late Roman Law," ''Phoenix'' 47:2 (1993), pp. 129–130.</ref> A master who wanted to marry an ''ancilla'' could free her for this purpose. A man of senatorial rank could not legally marry a freed woman but might enter into monogamous concubinage ''(concubinatus)'' with her.<ref>Beryl Rawson, "Roman Concubinage and Other De Facto Marriages," ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'' 104 (1974), p. 282.</ref>
In general, children of ''ancillae'' were born into slavery as ''vernae''.
==Medieval Europe== As the Roman Empire became Christianized, enslaving Christians was banned but still permitted for non-Christians. Similarly, it was banned to make Muslims slaves in the Muslim world, but permitted to take non-Muslims as slaves. This created a slave trade in which slaves from the Muslim world were sold to Christian Europe, and slaves from Europe were sold to the Muslim Middle East.<ref name=":0"/>
The biggest source of ''ancillae'' for Italy and Spain was the Balkan slave trade and the Black Sea slave trade. The merchants of this slave trade were often Venetian: the Balkan slave trade was a part of the Venetian slave trade, and the Black Sea slave trade was particularly Venetian, partially Genoese.
The slaves normally converted to the Christianity or Islam of their respective masters after they had been bought, but were still kept in slavery. While it was legal for an ''ancilla'' to marry, she as well as her children were still slaves. Because this status caused legal confusion between the legal guardianship of a husband towards his wife and children, marrying an ''ancilla'' was not encouraged, which created a need for continuing slave import to uphold the recruitment of new ancillae, since there were few born into slavery.
Most medieval ''ancillae'' came from the Greek Orthodox Balkans, and although they were Christians, they were not recognized as such by the Catholic Church{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}; hence taking them as slaves was considered legal.<ref name=":0"/>
Among the ancillae slaves where Maddalena, mother of Carlo de' Medici (1428–1492), who is noted to have been a Circassian slave bought in 1427 in Venice.<ref>Cleugh, J. (1990). The Medici: A Tale of Fifteen Generations. Storbritannien: Dorset Press. p93</ref>
The occurrence of enslaved ancillae disappeared in South Europe when the Balkan slave trade and the Black Sea slave trade to Europe stopped in the mid 15th-century.
==See also== * House slave
==References== {{reflist}} * {{cite book|jstor=j.ctv16t6ckk |title=That Most Precious Merchandise |title-link=That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260-1500 |last1=Barker |first1=Hannah |year=2019 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=9780812251548 }} * David Eltis, Keith R. Bradley, Stanley L. Engerman, Craig Perry, Paul Cartledge, David Richardson, Seymour Drescher: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DskwEAAAQBAJ&dq=bosnia+slave+trade&pg=PA118 The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 2, AD 500-AD 1420]'' {{Expand Swedish|topic=hist|Ancillae|date=December 2019}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancillae}} Category:House slaves Category:Women's history Category:Medieval women Category:Slavery in Europe Category:Medieval slaves Category:Slavery in ancient Rome Category:Women in ancient Rome Category:Ancient Roman slaves and freedmen Category:Women slaves Category:Slavery in the Middle Ages