Universal, Vicious Slavery
From our perspective, slavery is one of the most controversial institutions of the past. We see slavery as an inhumane, immoral, and intolerable business, an unacceptable human flesh for cash type of business that none of us could tolerate. For the ancients, however, slavery was part of the everyday landscape, a completely recognized social institution smoothly integrated into the overall social fabric.
What follows is a list of 10 interesting facts about slavery in ancient Rome, including several firsthand accounts so we can hear the voices and views of the ancients on this controversial matter.
10 Slave Population
Ancient Roman society had a high proportion of slave population. Some have estimated that 90 percent of the free population living in Italy by the end of the first century BC had ancestors who had been slaves (McKeown 2013: 115).
The proportion of slaves was so significant that some Romans left written accounts on the dangers of this situation: “It was once proposed in the Senate that slaves should be distinguished from free people by their dress, but then it was realized how great a danger this would be, if our slaves began to count us” [Seneca, On Mercy: 1.24].
Modern estimations on slave population in Italy give us a figure of about 2 million by the end of the Republican period, a slave-to-free ratio of about 1:3 (Hornblower and Spawforth 2014: 736).
9 Slave Revolts
There are many slave uprisings recorded in Roman history. A Syrian slave named Eunus was the leader of one of these revolts during the 135–132 BC period, which took place in Sicily. It is said that Eunus presented himself as a prophet and claimed to have a number of mystical visions.
According to Diodorus Siculus [The Library: 35.2], Eunus managed to persuade his followers with a trick that made sparks and flames come out of his mouth. The Romans defeated Eunus and crushed the revolt, but this example might have inspired another slave rebellion in Sicily in 104–103 BC.
The most famous slave uprising in ancient Rome is the one led by Spartacus. The Roman army fought Spartacus’s force for two years (73–71 BC) before they could put the rebellion down.
8 Versatile Lifestyles
The living conditions and expectations of slaves in ancient Rome were versatile, strongly linked to their occupations. Slaves involved in exhausting activities such as agriculture and mining did not enjoy promising prospects. Mining, in particular, had a reputation of being a brutal activity.
Pliny [Natural History 33.70] reports the arduous conditions of this activity: “Mountains are hollowed out by the digging of long tunnels by the light of torches. The miners work in shifts as long as the torches last and do not see daylight for months at a time. [ . . . ] Sudden cracks appear and crush the miners so that it now seems less perilous to dive for pearls and purple mollusks in the depths of the sea. We have made dry land so much more dangerous!”
Household slaves, on the other hand, could expect a more or less humane treatment, and in some cases, they had opportunities to keep and manage some money and other forms of property for themselves. This property, known as “peculium,” would legally be owned by the slave’s master, but in practical terms, the slave would be allowed to use the money for his or her own purposes.
Eventually, if the slave had enough property, he could try buying his own freedom and becoming a “freedman,” a social class in between the slaves and the freemen. As a freedman, the slave would still be legally part of his or her master’s household.
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