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Social structure
Roman society had three groupings: freeborn, freedmen and freedwomen, and slaves.
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Freeborn (ingenue)
Freeborn Romans were those who were born free.
The wealthiest owned huge estates, and dominated the political system.
The middle class included artisans, shopkeepers, businessmen and farmers who owned
their own land.
The poor worked for others as urban or farmer labourers.
Freeborn men could participate in politics.
2. Freedmen and freedwomen (liberti)
 These were former slaves who had either bought their freedom or been given it.
 Most freedmen in Pompeii worked as craftsmen, traders, shopkeepers, bakers, innkeepers or owners of other small businesses. Often they worked for their former
masters, and many still lived in their former owners’ homes.
 A well-known freedman was Scaurus, the former slave of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, the
main producer of garum (fish sauce) in Pompeii. While still a slave, he had run his
master’s business. Following his manumission (freedom), he took his master’s name,
and continued to run the business. Then, when his master died, he inherited some
money from him, and invested it in the cloth dyeing business, becoming wealthy in the
process. Scaurus went on to become a slave-owner himself.
 Some freedmen rose so high that they became important figures in the imperial
household.
Slaves (servi)
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People became slaves by being captured in territories conquered by Rome, by being
convicted of a crime, or by being born into slavery. People could also sell themselves
into slavery in order to pay off debts.
As the Roman Empire expanded, so did the number of slaves. In the 1st century AD, it is
estimated that up to 40 percent of the population of Italy were slaves.
Most slaves in Pompeii and Herculaneum worked as domestic servants – washers,
cooks, entertainers, nurses, tutors, clerks, physicians. Those living in the countryside
worked on agricultural estates ploughing fields, harvesting crops, tending vines and
picking grapes.
There was a rigid hierarchy within the slave class. Educated slaves who worked as
tutors, clerks and physicians were at the top; labourers were at the bottom.
Slaves had no legal rights. They could not object to how their owners treated them, nor
were they allowed to marry. The children of slaves belonged to the slave-owner.
Any society with slavery needed a system to prevent the slaves from running away or,
worse, rising up against their masters. One method was to segregate the slaves by race,
so that runaways could not hide among the freeborn population. This was the case in
the South of the United States before the Civil War. Another method was to instil fear in
the slaves – also the case in the US.
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Rome could not segregate slaves by race, as it was a multiracial society. The method it
used was to offer slaves the possibility of freedom if they served their masters loyally.
This gave slaves an incentive to work hard and to behave themselves. Slaves could also
buy their freedom, though most could not afford to do so. Another incentive was that
freed slaves could rise up the social ladder and become wealthy. Former slaves could
become slave-owners, as was the case with Scaurus.
Another incentive for slaves to behave was that those who rebelled were dealt with
ruthlessly. Following Spartacus’ rebellion in 71 BC, the Romans crucified six thousand
runaway slaves. They lined both sides of the Appian War, the main road leading into
Rome. (The vast majority of those who joined Spartacus were killed in battle by the
Roman Army.)
Women
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Roman women did not have equal rights to men, but they did have rights. They could
inherit money, but not dispose of their property.
Some women became rich by inheriting the estates of husbands who had died in battle
while still young and childless.
The role of women was to look after the household. However, many women worked as
shopkeepers, cloth dyers, tailors, butchers, barmaids, midwives and prostitutes. Women
could also go into business for themselves.
Women could not vote, but could support male candidates. They could also become
priestesses, with responsibility for overseeing public temples.
Women could marry at 12; men at 14. They did not have sex until the onset of puberty,
which in those days came later than it does now.
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