Roman Slavery

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Roman Slavery
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Republic Roman farmers, shepherds, and laborers
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Republic foreign conquest brought foreign
slaves and changed the labor market
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Empire slaves outnumbered free citizens
(Handout, 1 2)
Horace says that a man of modest means should
have at least ten slaves. Tacitus mentions a
magistrate with 400 slaves at his city house.
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All manual labor, much professional labor
performed by slaves.
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Supply

• War captives sold by Quaestor to wholesale
  dealers and auctioned in Rome
• Rome one of largest slave markets in the world
• Prices ca. 100 for male worker
• ca. 28,000 for educated
  grammarian
• Top prices went for beautiful children or
  for the unusual.
• (Handout, 3)

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Status

• Public Slaves working under Quaestors and
  Aediles
• Private Slaves Familia Urbana
• Familia Rustica
• Factories were organized for production by
  skilled slaves e.g., bed makers, book copiers.
• Peculium traditionally a sum for
  slaves use to bankroll personal projects
  (Handout, 4)

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Dominica Potestas masters power, generally
termed, also manus

• Escaped slaves branded or collared
• F (Fugitivus)
• Fugi. Tene me. Cum revocaveris me,
• d. m. Zonino, accipies solidum
• Punishments flogging, beating, furcifer, sent
  to farms/mines, crucifixion (Handout, 5 6)
• Common curse I ad crucem!

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Manumission legal freeing of slave
1st Generation Freedmen 2nd Generation
Free eligible for office and to rise in
social status Freedmen often resented by native
plebians and lampooned In literature as noveau
riche.
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Ultimately, under the empire slavery Laws were
ameliorated Handout 6
Household slaves tend hair of the mistress.