Romans and slavery

 

 

In the 1st Century AD all societies had slaves but the Romans took it to another level and exploited slaves on an industrialised scale. The Roman army partly paid for its self by invading new lands and then taking huge numbers of captives who then were forcibly worked to feed Roman citizens and build the infrastructure that held the Roman Empire together. It’s estimated that in the 1st Century up to one third of the population were slaves.

Unlike the slavery that existed in the 17th to 19th Centuries in the Americas, Roman slavery had little to do with race. There were slaves of many different nationalities from across and outside the Roman Empire including Romans. Some people had been born into slavery whilst others had been taken hostage during warfare, some became slaves after getting in debt and some were even sold into slavery by their own family. This meant it was difficult to distinguish runaways from private citizens and so many slave owners branded or tattooed their slaves.

One thing all slaves had in common was that they had almost no rights. In the 1st Century masters had the right of life and death over what they considered their property. Slaves could not legally marry although some slave owners effectively let their slaves live together as husband and wife. Slaves could not even testify in court unless they had been subjected to torture.

How slaves were treated varied enormously depending on their position and their master. Some household slaves were treated as effectively part of the family and some would have lived more comfortable lives than poor citizens. Others would have been treated much more worse, especially those forced into prostitution or made to work in huge work gangs on farms or in mines. Mines were considered especially harsh for slaves and most were worked to death within a couple of years and this is where most soldiers captured in battle would have been sent.

There had been previous slave rebellions, probably the most famous being that of Spartacus in 73BC. This led to strict punishments meted out to runaways who would usually face crucifixion, a slow drawn out death. If a slave struck their master they had to be executed and if a slave killed their master then the whole household of slaves would be put to death.

Slaves were looked down upon by most of Roman society including poor citizens who saw them as inferior. In some rare cases slaves would be freed by their masters, but even then the former slave would be called a freedman and still most of society would look down on them.