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Roman Slavery
I’ts not nice business!
Punishment
Roman slaves were seen as property under
Roman Law and had no legal personhood. Unlike
citezens, slaves could be subject to corporate
punishment such as torture and summary
execution. The testimony of a slave could not be
accepted in a court of law unless the slave was
tortured.
Warfare
In certain periods, a great number of slaves for
the Roman market were acquired through
warfare. The Roman soldiers brought back
captives to use as slaves
Types of work
Though you may think that slaves would only do
housework like scrubbing the floor or doing the
dishes. Roman slaves had jobs that varied a lot.
Accountants, even teachers were often slaves.
Slaves worked in a wide range of occupations
that can divided into five categories: household
or domestic; imperial or public; urban crafts and
services; agriculture; and mining.
Household slaves
Epitaphs record at least 55 different jobs a
household slave might have, including barber,
butler, cook, hairdresser and handmaid. A large
elite household might be supported by a staff of
hundreds.
Service slaves
• In urban workplaces, the occupations of slaves
included fullers, engravers, shoemakers,
bakers, mule drivers, and prostitutes. Roman
agricultural writers expect that the workforce
of a farm will be mostly slaves, managed by a
vilicus (a slave who had the superintendence
of the villa), who was often a slave himself.
Miner slaves
Slaves numbering in the tens of thousands were
condemned to work in the mines or quarries,
where conditions were notoriously brutal. Miner
slaves were convicts who lost their freedom as
citizens, forfeited their property to the state,
and became slaves as a legal penalty. They were
expected to live and die in the mines.
Q&A