The aim of this paper is to examine John Chrysostom’s advice to slaveholders, and specifically asks how this relates to wealth-management and social status in the Chrysostomian imaginaire. Slaveholders are advised on proper Christian conduct toward slaves, and a strategy for manumission is given. Slaveholders are also admonished not to display their slaves as status- and wealth-indicators, but rather to live with little or no aid from slaves. Even though humane treatment of slaves is encouraged by Chrysostom, his discourse with slaveholders functions primarily on a level of wealth-management and social status. His advice is typically in line with his greater polemic against civic benefaction and the accumulation of wealth.
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