The main source of slavery in Rome. Roman slaves. Life in shackles

Roman society was never homogeneous. The status of the inhabitants of the empire varied depending on their place of birth and condition. The main division between freemen and slaves did not abolish the thousands of minor gradations within these two main groups. Free people could be called citizens, or they could bear the name of pilgrims - representatives of other cities in Italy, and later - other peoples that were part of the empire. Slaves could be public or private, prisoners of war, bought at the market or born in the house. The latter were especially valued, since, on the one hand, they knew no other life, and on the other, they were perceived by the owners as family members - surnames.

Roman slavery was noticeably different from Greek: it, like everything in the Latin world, bore the imprint of legal.

Slavery in Rome

Before the law, a slave had no rights. All slaves who lived under the master's roof were subject to the death penalty if the owner was killed in the house. However, during the imperial era, punishments were also introduced for owners for cruelty to their slaves. A slave could occupy a privileged position, such as a butler or a favorite concubine. The merits of a slave to his master were often grounds for emancipation. Emancipation by master's will for private slaves or by act of a magistrate for public slaves was widespread. In some cases, a slave who became rich acquired his own slaves. And freedmen, engaged in trade, sometimes acquired an exceptionally high position in Roman society. All this did not cancel the plight of the masses of slaves who worked in the Roman household, but it showed the ways by which a clever, quick-witted or simply devoted slave could gain freedom.

Social life and citizenship in Rome

The social life of Rome was much more complex and intense compared to Greek. The Romans, even in the republican period, gravitated towards the all-embracing state power. During the Republic, Rome was governed by a whole army of elected officials: consuls, praetors, quaestors, censors, tribunes, aediles, prefects... Their functions were clearly defined and did not overlap. Unlike neighboring peoples, and primarily the Hellenes, they willingly shared their citizenship not only with pilgrims, but also with freedmen. At the same time, obtaining citizenship was tantamount to obtaining nationality. Blood didn't matter. The main thing was a common way of life for all citizens and obedience to common laws. Convinced of their own exclusivity, even messianism, the Romans were nevertheless not nationalists in the sense in which, for example, one can call the Athenians nationalists, who even looked at them as second-class citizens. For the Roman, the line between a civilized person and a barbarian lay in the way of life and was defined quite simply. A cultured person lives in a city, wears a toga, owns slaves, and obeys the laws. The barbarian lives in the forest, wears pants made of animal skins, he will be very lucky if he falls into slavery and can serve to strengthen Rome. if he works well and internalizes Roman ideals, the owner will set him free, and lo and behold, he will help him obtain citizenship. So, gaining civil rights- this is literally a remelting in the crucible of another culture.

However, it would be wrong to see in Roman citizenship some kind of analogue of modern citizenship. Citizenship - belonging to the city - for a long time could not become a national institution in Rome. The inhabitants of other Italian cities had their own citizenship, although they lived in the same country as the Romans. An intermediate stage on this path was the provision of dual citizenship, for example, Rome and Capua, Rome and Mediolanum, etc. But this did not solve all the problems. The Romans understood that the stability of their state was directly related to the expansion of the number of citizens. By the beginning of the new era, of the 50 million subjects of Rome, only about a million had the status of citizen. Emperor Caracalla in 212, in the so-called Antonine Constitution, gave Roman citizenship to all free people, regardless of nationality, living in the territory of the empire. Roman citizen usually had three names: personal (Gai), family (Julius) and family or nickname (Caesar). A freed slave received the personal and family name of his master. Thus, the slave and close friend of Cicero - Tyrone, freed in 53 BC. e., became known as his master, Marcus Tullius, and acquired Roman citizenship.

Roman society was characterized by high social mobility. Belonging to one or another class was determined depending on the property qualification. City authorities, in accordance with the assessment of their condition, assigned residents to classes that were not inherited. Thus, a rich artisan could slip into the equestrian class, don a gold ring and a white toga with a thin purple stripe.

Read also other articles in the section:

Slavery existed already at the dawn of Roman history. Among the oldest Roman slaves there were many farmers who did not pay their debt to the moneylender and were obliged to work it off. The position of these indentured slaves was not much different from the position of foreigners captured and turned into slaves. During the long struggle of the plebeians against the patricians, indentured servitude was abolished for Roman citizens. A Roman who failed to pay off his debt lost his property, but not his freedom. But those who had Roman citizenship were still turned into slaves for failure to pay debts or taxes.

Prisoners of war also became slaves.

The mass sale of captives into slavery was often a punishment for rebellion against Roman rule. But, of course, tens of thousands of captives were sold not only to intimidate the conquered peoples. Owning slaves was profitable. Slaves saved the Romans from exhausting labor in the mines and fields. The exploitation of slave labor brought large profits to slave owners.

At the same time, slave labor was characterized by extremely low productivity. The slave worked under pressure and was not interested in the results of his work. He did not receive any benefit from the fact that he worked better, and therefore, as soon as supervision over him ceased, he quit work, damaged tools, and mutilated livestock. This explains the extremely slow development of technology during the period of slavery. Some technical inventions were used only in military affairs and construction. Slaves were given only the crudest tools that were difficult to damage.

A society based on slavery was fraught with irreconcilable contradictions that led to its destruction. The exploitation of slaves in the ancient world knows no limits. It leads to the physical extermination of a huge mass of people engaged in productive labor necessary for society. From this it is clear that for the existence of such a society a constant influx of slaves is necessary.

The heyday of the slave system in Rome was the 3rd century. BC e. - II century n. and, this is a time of endless wars that ensured the supply of masses of slaves to the markets. The burden of wars was borne on their shoulders by free peasants and artisans who served in the army or gave their sons as soldiers. The dominance of slave labor in agriculture and crafts leads to the ruin of the free population of the empire engaged in production. At the same time, the Roman army fell into decay. Victories are replaced by defeats, wars of conquest are replaced by defensive ones. The source of constant replenishment of slaves has dried up. The inherent negative aspects of slave labor are becoming more and more apparent. There is a general decline in production. Cities fall into disrepair, trade is disrupted.
Slave owners begin to set slaves free, as their labor becomes unprofitable. The number of freedmen is growing. A new layer of workers appears, occupying an intermediate position between free and slaves - the colons, formerly free small farmers who became dependent on large landowners and were obliged to bear a number of duties in their favor.
Thus arose the historical need to replace the slave system with another, more advanced social system. However, the slave-owning class stubbornly defended its rights and advantages! The slave state remained, guarding the interests of the ruling class. To destroy the slave-owning system it was necessary to break the resistance of the slave-owners and destroy the slave-owning state. This was done by the masses who rose up to fight against the oppressors. Blows from the inside were combined with blows from the outside. The “barbarians” invaded the empire and, together with the colonists and slaves, destroyed the slave state. All obstacles to a new, more advanced social system have disappeared.

4. Slavery

When Schopenhauer (Parerga, xi, 217) says that there is a wealth of evidence, old and new, to support “the belief that man is superior to the tiger and the hyena in cruelty and ruthlessness,” he could find much of the same evidence in the accounts of the Roman treatment of slaves . The renowned scholar Birt went to great lengths to prove that, on the whole, life for a slave in Rome was not too terrible. But we must conclude that the picture he painted, although correct, still suffers from one-sidedness. We should not make the same mistake, but with the opposite sign, so we are obliged to admit the justice of everything that has been said about the better sides of Roman slavery, which at times may have been quite easy. But now we will show the other side of the life of a slave in Rome.

Of course, it is obvious that no one would torture such valuable property as a slave continuously - and least of all in ancient times, when each person had several slaves, next to whom his whole life passed. It has been established that the first slaves in Rome were prisoners of war. Perhaps, as Mommsen believes, this is where the bonds of sacred duties that bind master and slave originate. Thus, a slave was never allowed to testify against his master. On the other hand, the state always protected the owner from the slaves, sent officials to search for runaway slaves and sentenced all slaves in the house to death if one of them killed the owner. This is dealt with in a famous passage from Tacitus (Annals, xiv, 42), and we must consider it in detail, since it illuminates the true attitude of the law towards slaves, no matter how gently their masters treat them. Here is this passage: “The prefect of the city of Rome, Pedanius Secundus, was killed by his own slave, either because, having agreed to release him for a ransom, Secundus refused him this, or because the murderer, overcome by passion for the boy, did not tolerate a rival in the person of his master. And when, in accordance with the ancient institution, all the slaves who lived under the same roof with him were gathered to be led to execution, the common people came running, standing up for so many innocent people, and it came to street riots and gatherings in front of the Senate, in which there were also resolute opponents of such exorbitant severity, although the majority of senators believed that the existing order could not be changed.”

The famous lawyer Gaius Cassius gave an impassioned speech in defense of the cruel law. Tacitus continues: “No one dared to speak out against Cassius, and in response to him only indistinct voices were heard regretting the fate of so many doomed, most of whom undoubtedly suffered innocently, and among them were old people, children, women; Nevertheless, those who insisted on execution prevailed. But this sentence could not be carried out, since the gathered crowd threatened to take up stones and torches. Then Caesar, having scolded the people in a special decree, set up military barriers along the entire route along which the condemned were to follow to execution.”

The brilliant scholar Star, in his remarkable translation of Tacitus, rightly points out that the behavior of the crowd demanding an end to the brutal execution of 400 innocent people stands in stark contrast to the cowardice and cruelty of the rich and noble senators. It was the fear of millions of slaves suffering under the yoke of the rich that forced them to insist on such a terrifying sentence.

The inexorable law made the situation of slaves in Rome intolerable. A slave was not a person, but a thing that its owner could handle at his discretion. In Gaius's Institutions (i, 8, i) it is said: “Slaves are at the mercy of their masters; among all nations, masters have power over the life and death of slaves.”

We should not be surprised, therefore, that few masters felt obliged to care for old and sick slaves. Cato the Elder advises selling “old oxen, spoiled cattle, spoiled sheep, wool, skins, an old cart, scrap iron, a decrepit slave, a sick slave, and generally sell everything that is unnecessary.” Cicero once said that in a moment of danger it is better to lighten the ship by throwing an old slave overboard than a good horse. It is true that the most heinous cruelties towards slaves took place in the later era, when huge numbers of slaves were in the possession of individuals; hence the saying “One hundred slaves - one hundred enemies.” But Plautus, who lived about two centuries before Christ, shows that flogging and constant fear of crucifixion were always present in the life of a slave.

Appian writes about the treatment of slaves in a besieged city (Civil Wars, v, 35). We are talking about Perusia around 38 BC. BC: “Having calculated how much food was left, Lucius forbade giving it to the slaves and ordered to ensure that they did not run away from the city and did not let the enemies know about the difficult situation of the besieged. Slaves wandered in crowds in the city itself and near the city wall, falling to the ground from hunger and eating grass or green leaves; Lucius ordered the dead to be buried in oblong pits, fearing that the burning of the corpses would be noticed by enemies, and if they were left to decompose, stench and disease would begin.”

If slaves in general were treated as human beings, then there would not be those slave rebellions that escalated into real wars. Diodorus, who understood this, writes: “When excessive power degenerates into atrocities and violence, the spirit of conquered peoples comes to extreme despair. Anyone who has been given the lot of a subordinate position in life calmly cedes the right to glory and greatness to his master; but if he does not treat him like a human being, he becomes the enemy of his cruel master.”

These uprisings were replete with examples of incredible cruelty. Let us note a few particularly interesting points. We read from Diodorus describing the revolt in Sicily around 240 BC. e. (xxxiv, 2): “For about sixty years after Carthage lost power over the island, the Sicilians flourished. Then a slave revolt broke out, and this is what caused it: since the Sicilians acquired enormous property and accumulated colossal wealth, they bought many slaves. Slaves were brought in from prisons in droves and immediately branded with special marks. The young were assigned to livestock herding, the rest received suitable occupations. Their work was very hard, and they were given almost no clothing or food. The majority found their livelihood through robbery; Murders took place everywhere, gangs of robbers roamed the country. The governors tried to put an end to this, but could not punish these slave-robbers, since their masters were too powerful. They could only watch powerlessly as the country was plundered. The owners were mostly Roman horsemen, and the governors were afraid of them, since they were invested with the power to judge all officials convicted of crimes. The slaves could no longer tolerate their desperate situation and frequent, causeless punishments; At every opportunity, they gathered and talked about rebellion and, finally, having gained determination, moved on to action.”

The history of this uprising amazes us with its boundless horror. Diodorus (ibid.) describes the actions of the rebel slaves this way: “They broke into houses and killed everyone. At the same time, they did not spare even infants, but tore them out of the hands of their mothers and smashed them to the ground. Not a single language would dare describe all the monstrous atrocities that were committed against women in front of their husbands.”

Diodorus mentions the Roman landowner Damophilus and his wife Megallis, who were famous for their exceptional cruelty. (A curious and important fact: all the evidence we have is unanimous in speaking about the cruel treatment of slaves by women.) Diodorus writes that “Damophilus treated his slaves with extreme cruelty; his wife Megallis did not lag behind him in punishing the slaves, subjecting them to all sorts of atrocities.” And further: “Since Damophilus was an uneducated and ignorant man, the irresponsible possession of enormous wealth led him from arrogance to cruelty, and as a result he brought destruction on himself and on the country, buying many slaves and treating them brutally: he branded those who were born free, but were captured and enslaved. He chained some and kept them in prison, others he sent to graze cattle, without giving them either normal food or necessary clothing. Not a day passed without him punishing one of the slaves without due reason, so ferocious and merciless was he by nature. His wife Megallis took no less pleasure in inflicting horrific punishments on her maids and slaves who were under her supervision.”

All the hatred of the rebel slaves was first poured out on Damophilus and Megallis. The latter was given to the slaves, and after torture they threw her alive from a cliff; Damophilus was hacked to death with swords and axes. With amazing speed, more and more people went over to the side of the rebels - Diodorus writes about 200 thousand rebels. They won several battles with the Roman regular army, but, being besieged in several cities (where they suffered such terrible hunger pangs that they began to devour each other), they finally surrendered. Prisoners were tortured in the old fashion and then thrown off the cliffs.

Everyone knows about the Spartacus uprising. It was marked by similar horrors. In the end, the last surviving rebels - about 6 thousand people - were captured and died a painful death on crosses placed along the Appian Way.

We have already noted that Roman women became famous for their cruelty to slaves. Let us cite several important passages as proof. Ovid speaks about it this way (Science of Love, iii, 235 ff.):

Hair is another matter. Comb them freely

And spread them over your shoulders in front of everyone.

Just be calm, restrain yourself, if you get angry,

Don't make them endlessly unravel and weave!

Let your servant not be afraid of reprisals from you:

Don’t tear her cheeks with your nails, don’t prick her hands with a needle, -

It’s unpleasant for us to watch a slave, in tears and in pricks,

Curls should curl over the hated face.

He, speaking about the hair of his beloved, writes this in “Love Elegies” (i, 14):

They were obedient, - add, - capable of hundreds of twists,

They never caused you pain.

They did not break off from the pins and comb teeth,

The girl could clean them up without fear...

Often the maid dressed her up in front of me, and never

Snatching the hairpin, she did not prick the slave’s hands.

Juvenal paints an even more repulsive picture (vi, 474 ff.):

It's worth the effort to thoroughly study what wives do,

What do they do all day long? If at night her back

The husband turns around, the housekeeper is in trouble, take it off, cloakroom attendant,

Tunic, the porter arrived late, supposedly, that means

Must suffer for someone else's guilt - for a sleepy husband:

The rods are broken on that one, this one is striped to blood

Lash, whip (some people hire executioners for a year).

They beat the slave, and she smears her face and her friend's

Listens or looks at the gold embroidered dress;

They flog - she reads the cross lines on the abacus;

They spank until the mistress screams to the exhausted whippers

A menacing “get out!”, seeing that this massacre was completed.

The wife's household management is no softer than the court of Phalaris.

Since she has a date, she should dress up

Better than ordinary days - and hurries to those waiting in the park

Or, perhaps, rather, at the sanctuary of the bawd - Isis.

Unlucky Pseka tidies her hair - she herself

She was all disheveled from the dragging, and her shoulders and chest were exposed.

“Why is this curl higher?” And then the belt punishes

This hair is to blame for the criminally incorrect curling.

If a slave dropped a mirror on her mistress’s feet, she would immediately face severe punishment. Galen, in his treatise On the Passions and Their Cure, talks about a master who, in a fit of anger, bit slaves, punched and kicked them, gouged out their eyes or mutilated them with style. There is evidence that the mother of Emperor Hadrian beat her slaves in anger. Chrysosom mentions a mistress who undressed her maid, tied her to a bed and flogged her so hard that people passing along the street could hear the wretched girl’s screams. The punished girl showed everyone her bloody back when she accompanied her mistress to the bathhouse.

The fact that especially cruel owners fed lamprey slaves in their cages is not fiction, but reality. Seneca writes on this subject (“On Mercy,” i, 18; “On Wrath,” iii, 40): “Although everything is permitted in relation to slaves, the law common to all living beings prohibits acting in a certain way against anyone. Any person should hate Vedius Pollio even more than his slaves hated him, for he fed moray eels with human blood and ordered anyone guilty to be thrown into a reservoir, which was nothing more than a pit with snakes. He deserved thousands of deaths, regardless of whether he fattened moray eels for his table by throwing slaves at them, or kept moray eels only to feed them in this way.”

The second passage is more clear: “August... dined with Vedius Pollio. One of the slaves broke the crystal bowl; Vedius ordered to seize him, intending him for a by no means ordinary execution: he ordered him to be thrown to the moray eels, which he kept in his huge pool. Who can doubt that this was done to satisfy the whim of a man pampered by luxury? It was brutal cruelty. The boy broke free from the hands of those holding him and, throwing himself at Caesar’s feet, begged for only one thing: that he be allowed to die any other death, just not to be eaten. Alarmed by hitherto unheard-of cruelty, Caesar ordered the boy to be released and all the crystal bowls to be broken in front of his eyes, filling the pool with fragments. So he used his power for good.”

But the gentle treatment of slaves, to which the humane Seneca calls, has always been an exception, as we see from his own words: “In relation to slaves, everything is permitted.” Unfortunately, the words of Galen (“On the Judgments of Hippocrates and Plato,” vi, extr.), apparently, do not sin at all against the truth: “Such are those who punish their slaves for offenses with burns, cut off and mutilate the legs of fugitives, deprive thieves hands, gluttons - stomachs, gossipers - tongues..." (see Cicero's speech in defense of Cluentius, the episode with the severed tongue (66, 187), "... in short, punishing that part of the criminal's body that served as the weapon of the crime." And Seneca himself advises Lucilius the following (“Letters to Lucilius,” 47): “Love does not coexist with fear. Therefore, in my opinion, you are doing the right thing when, not wanting your slaves to fear you, you punish them with words. You teach dumb animals with beatings.” Columella and Varro speak in the same vein, but the reports of ill-treatment of slaves are much more numerous, and, of course, the suspicion and severity of the masters increased with the increase in the number of slaves, and therefore ever more refined tortures were constantly invented.

As for the number of slaves in Rome, the following figures can be given: Aemilius Paulus, according to some sources, brought 150 thousand captives to Rome, and Marius brought 60 thousand Cimbri and 90 thousand Teutones. Josephus claims that at the end of the 1st century AD. e. There were up to a million slaves in Rome. The Mediterranean became the scene of a vibrant slave trade, and pirates practiced kidnapping coastal inhabitants and selling them into slavery.

Finally, we must not forget that Roman law prohibited the torture of a free person, but always encouraged this cruel method of extracting testimony from slaves. The slave's testimony, given not under torture, was not taken into account at all. Torture necessarily accompanied the interrogation of any person who was not freeborn. It included all types of flogging, as well as monstrous tortures, borrowed by the Middle Ages from Rome and used for centuries in every important investigation. The instruments of torture included fidiculae– ropes for tearing joints, equuleus- goats on which they sat a slave and twisted his limbs from their joints either with a collar or with weights tied to his legs; Hot metal plates were placed on the bare skin of the slaves, and terrible leather whips, equipped with spikes and knuckles, were also used to enhance the effect. To extract a confession, investigators did not hesitate to torture even slaves. Tacitus (Annals, xv, 57) describes the torture of a slave girl from whom they sought testimony about a conspiracy against Nero: “Meanwhile, Nero, remembering that, following the denunciation of Volusius, Proculus was imprisoned by Epicharides, and believing that the female body would not endure pain, orders her to be tormented with painful torture. But neither the whips, nor the fire, nor the bitterness of the executioners, irritated by the fact that they could not cope with the woman, broke her and did not wrest her confession. So, on the first day of interrogation they did not get anything from her. When the next day they dragged her to the dungeon in a stretcher-chair to resume the same tortures (mutilated on the rack, she could not stand on her feet), Epicharis, pulling off the bandage from her chest and attaching a noose made from it to the back of the chair, stuck her neck through it and, leaning down with all the weight of her body, stopped her already weak breathing.”

Valery Maxim talks about a slave, “almost a child,” who was subjected to terrible torture - he was flogged, burned with metal plates, and his limbs were torn out of their joints. The author cites this case as an example of the loyalty of slaves. From his story, as well as from that of Tacitus, we see how little attention was paid to the sex and age of the tortured, unless they were freeborn. It is very interesting to trace how the Roman state, from the time of the empire, tried to take action against the most flagrant cases of cruelty towards slaves. No doubt this was partly due to changing social conditions; but perhaps the spread of humane ideas, such as we find primarily in Seneca and later in Christian writings, also played a role. Soon after the founding of the empire, a law was passed prohibiting masters from condemning their slaves to fight wild animals and transferring this right to official judges (Digests, xlviii, 8, II, 2). Since the time of Antoninus Pius, a slave who believed that he was being treated too harshly could complain to the municipal judge, and under certain circumstances could be sold to another owner. Claudius decreed that slaves abandoned by their masters due to illness became free. Adrian deprived the owners of the right to kill slaves at their own discretion and sell them to circuses, and Constantine equated the deliberate murder of a slave with the murder of a free person (“Digests”, i, 12, I; Spartian. Adrian, 18; Code of Justinian, ix, 14). A significant formula dates back to the era of Hadrian: patria potestas in pietate debet, non atrocitate consistere(“paternal authority should be expressed in love, not in cruelty”).

We must not forget that the spread of these humane views is due in no small measure to changing economic conditions. Once the Romans lost the ability to carry out further conquests and limited themselves to improving the organization and management of their colossal empire, the most important sources of slaves (importation of prisoners of war and kidnappings) decreased significantly. It is known that the number of slaves peaked at the beginning of the imperial era.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book History of Slavery in the Ancient World. Greece. Rome by Vallon Henri

VOLUME II – SLAVERY IN ROME Chapter One. FREE LABOR AND SLAVERY IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF ROME The conclusions we have reached from studying the history of social relations in Greece regarding the influence of slavery can be verified and will find confirmation in the history of Rome. Number

From the book Sexual Life in Ancient Rome by Kiefer Otto

4. Slavery When Schopenhauer (Parerga, xi, 217) says that there is a wealth of evidence, old and new, in support of “the belief that man is superior to the tiger and the hyena in cruelty and ruthlessness,” he could find a lot of similar evidence in the stories of conversion Romans with

From the book From Slavery to Slavery [From Ancient Rome to Modern Capitalism] author Katasonov Valentin Yurievich

Chapter VIII. Social Slavery and Spiritual Slavery Just as those who have shackles on their feet cannot walk comfortably, so those who collect money cannot ascend to heaven. St. John Climacus The slavery of wealth is worse than any torment, as all those who have been rewarded know well.

From the book History of Russia from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century author Froyanov Igor Yakovlevich

Slavery Along with dependent peasants, slave slaves belonged to privately owned farms. Slaves who received a small plot of land from their master were called stradniks (strada - agricultural work). Their main responsibility was

From the book Vote for Caesar by Jones Peter

Slavery Slavery was quite common in the ancient world. Most slaves were acquired in slave markets - men, women and children captured during wars or captured by pirates and then resold. They were just like you and me, with different interests.

From the book The Greatness of Babylon. History of the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia by Suggs Henry

Slavery There were slaves (in the usual sense), but they never constituted the majority of the population, and the work of the entire community never depended on them. In the Early Dynastic period they were not an important social element and consisted mainly of prisoners of war. Such slaves

From the book Colonial Era author Pharmacist Herbert

III. Slavery and capitalism The first region outside Europe that evoked the righteous sighs of pious missionaries, attracted the favorable gaze of greedy merchants and the consecrated swords of gracious sovereigns, was the land mass that was located

From the book Suicide of Ukraine [Chronicle and analysis of the disaster] author Vajra Andrey

7. Slavery Currently, Ukraine is the leader in Eastern Europe in terms of the number of people in slavery. Every year, 117 thousand people become victims of the slave trade in the country! Our “Svidomo” rulers are very fond of talking about the fact that a certain Ukrainian people

From the book World History. Volume 2. Bronze Age author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Slavery During the Shang (Yin) period, slaves did not have their own name, but there were several hieroglyphs to designate slaves, which was especially characteristic of the early period of slave society. For example, the hieroglyph “well,” denoting the concept of “slave,” depicted a person

From the book Pandora's Box by Gunin Lev

From the book of Varvara. Ancient Germans. Life, Religion, Culture by Todd Malcolm

SLAVERY Slavery existed in ancient Germany, but it is difficult for us to determine how widespread it was. Some areas had more slaves than others: for example, the Marcomanni in the 2nd century. and among the Alamanni in IV. These areas were close to the Roman borders:

author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Slavery During the Western Zhou period, slaves constituted a fairly large segment of society. Originally, the hieroglyph “min” meant “slave.” Later, the following words were used to designate: “limin”, “tsin-li”, “miaomin”, “wanming”. In a slave society, slaves

From the book World History. Volume 3 Age of Iron author Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Slavery Slavery of the Homeric period differs significantly from slavery of later times. At its core, it was patriarchal in nature, as evidenced by the terms denoting their “household members,” since in Homeric times slaves were actually part of the family

From the book Man in Africa author Turnbull Colin M.

Chapter 7. Slavery Obi n'kyere obi ase (No man has the right to reveal the origin of another) Akan proverb Sometimes, in defense of the European slave traders who operated in West Africa, it is said that the Africans themselves were also slave owners. Even if this is the case, it

From the book Mission of Russia. National doctrine author Valtsev Sergey Vitalievich

Slavery Recently, in the center of Moscow, opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a monument to Emperor Alexander II was erected, on which the following words are inscribed: “He abolished serfdom in Russia in 1861 and freed millions of peasants from centuries-old slavery.”

From the book Life and Manners of Tsarist Russia author Anishkin V. G.

Plan
Introduction
1 General characteristics of slavery in Ancient Rome
1.1 Sources of slaves
1.2 Functions of slaves
1.3 Position of slaves
1.4 Legal aspect

2 Transformation of slavery in the history of Ancient Rome
2.1 "Patriarchal slavery" of the early republic

3 The Rise of Slavery
4 The role of slaves in class battles
5 Disappearance of mass slavery
6 Introduction of serfdom
Bibliography

Introduction

Slavery in Rome reached the greatest extent compared to other ancient states and manifested itself in the most disgusting forms.

1. General characteristics of slavery in Ancient Rome

1.1. Sources of slaves

The main source of slaves was the capture of prisoners. It was captive foreigners who made up the overwhelming majority of slaves in Ancient Rome, as evidenced by the analysis of numerous written sources, in particular, tombstone inscriptions. For example, as the famous French historian S. Nicolet points out, the majority of slaves in Sicily at the end of the 2nd century. BC. (when slavery on the island reached its greatest extent) were natives of Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, who had been captured by Rome shortly before.

In the understanding of the Romans, the historian writes, a slave was associated with a foreigner. Just as the ancient Greeks considered all barbarians to be an inferior race whose natural state was slavery, the same views were shared by the Romans. For example, Cicero wrote about the popular belief that certain races were destined for slavery.

Another source of slaves was sea robbery, which reached its climax during the era of the first triumvirate (mid-1st century BC), which in certain periods of Roman history also significantly contributed to the increase in the number of slaves.

The third source of slaves was the right of a creditor to enslave his debtor. In particular, such a right was legalized by the laws of the twelve tables (5th century BC). Upon expiration of the loan term, the debtor was provided with one month of benefits; if the debt was not paid, the court handed the debtor over to the creditor (jure addicitur) and the latter kept him in chains at home for 60 days. The law determined for such cases the amount of bread that the prisoner received (at least 1 pound per day) and the weight of the shackles (no more than 15 pounds). During the conclusion, the creditor could bring his debtor to the market three times and announce the amount of the debt. If no one expressed a desire to ransom him, he turned into a slave (servus), whom the creditor could sell, but only outside Roman territory. The same laws of the twelve tables gave the father the right to sell his children into slavery.

At the same time, in the 4th century. BC. In Rome, the Petelian Law was adopted, which prohibited the enslavement of Roman citizens - from now on only foreigners could be slaves, and only in exceptional cases (for example, the commission of a serious crime) could citizens of Rome become slaves. According to this law, a Roman who publicly announced his insolvency (bankruptcy) was deprived of all his property, which was taken away to pay debts, but retained personal freedom. S. Nicolet writes in this regard about the “abolition of debt slavery” in Rome in 326 BC. Although there are references to the fact that this law was subsequently circumvented, historians believe that this is not about debt slavery, but about some forms of working off the debt, without formal slavery.

During the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC. Debt slavery again became an important source of replenishment of slaves - but at the expense of the inhabitants of the conquered countries. There are many known cases of mass enslavement in territories conquered by Rome for failure to pay high Roman taxes (see below).

There were also cases when the state subjected a citizen to maxima capitis diminutio, that is, turned him into a slave, for the crimes he committed. Criminals condemned to execution were classified as slaves (servi poenae), because in Rome only a slave could be handed over to the executioner. Later, for some crimes, the punishment was commuted, and the “punishment slaves” were sent to the mines or quarries.

If, finally, a free woman entered into a relationship with a slave and did not stop it, despite the master’s threefold protest, she became the slave of the one who owned the slave.

To all the listed sources of slavery, one must also add the natural increase in the unfree population. Due to the slowness of this growth, the slave trade was established. Slaves were imported to Rome partly from Africa, Spain and Gaul, but mainly from Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia and Syria. This trade brought great income to the treasury, since the import, export and sale of slaves were subject to duties: 1/8 of the value was charged from the eunuch, 1/4 from the rest, and 2-4% were charged on sales. The slave trade was one of the most profitable activities; it was practiced by the most notable Romans, for example. Cato the Elder, who recommended buying and training slaves for resale for greater profitability. The first place in the slave trade belonged to the Greeks, who had the advantage of experience. Numerous measures were taken to protect the interests of buyers. The prices of slaves fluctuated constantly depending on supply and demand. The average cost of a slave under the Antonines was 175-210 rubles; but in some cases, such as for beautiful young slaves, up to 9,000 rubles were paid.

1.2. Functions of slaves

The Dutch scientist Pomp (“Titi Pompae Phrysii de operis servorum liber”, 1672) counted 146 functions performed by slaves in the house of a rich Roman. Currently, after new research, this figure has to be increased significantly.

The entire composition of slaves was divided into two categories: familia rustica and familia urbana. In each estate, at the head of the familia rustica there was a manager (villicus), who monitored the performance of the slaves’ duties, sorted out their quarrels, satisfied their legitimate needs, encouraged the hardworking and punished the guilty. Managers often used these rights very widely, especially where the masters either did not interfere in the matter at all or were not interested in the fate of their slaves. The manager had an assistant with a staff of overseers and foremen. Below were numerous groups of workers in the fields, vineyards, shepherds and cattlemen, spinners, weavers and weavers, fullers, tailors, carpenters, joiners, etc. On large estates, each such group was divided, in turn, into decuria, at the head of which stood the decurion. Sometimes the familia urbana was no less numerous, divided into management personnel (ordinarii), who enjoyed the confidence of the master, and personnel to serve the master and mistress both in the house and outside it (vulgares, mediastini, quales-quales). Among the first were the housekeeper, cashier, accountant, managers of rental houses, buyers of supplies, etc.; the second group included the gatekeeper, who replaced the watchdog and sat on a chain, watchmen, doorkeepers, furniture keepers, silver keepers, cloakroom attendants, slaves who brought in visitors, slaves who lifted the curtains for them, etc. A crowd of cooks and bakers crowded into the kitchen bread, pies, pates. One service at the table of a wealthy Roman required a considerable number of slaves: the duty of some was to set the table, others to serve food, others to taste, and others to pour wine; there were those on whose hair the gentlemen wiped their hands; a crowd of beautiful boys, dancers, dwarfs and jesters entertained the guests while eating. For personal services, valets, bathers, house surgeons, and barbers were assigned to the gentleman; in rich houses there were readers, secretaries, librarians, scribes, parchment makers, teachers, writers, philosophers, painters, sculptors, accountants, commercial agents, etc. Among the shopkeepers, peddlers, bankers, money changers, moneylenders there were many slaves who were engaged in this or that business for the benefit of their master. When a master appeared anywhere in a public place, a crowd of slaves (anteambulanes) always walked in front of him; another crowd brought up the rear (pedisequi); nome n clator told him the names of those he met who were to be greeted; distributores and tesserarii distributed handouts; there were also porters, couriers, messengers, handsome young men who formed the lady’s honor guard, etc. d. The mistress had her own guards, eunuchs, midwife, nurse, lullers, spinners, weavers, seamstresses. Betticher wrote a whole book (“Sabina”) specifically about the state of slaves under the mistress. Slaves were mainly actors, acrobats, and gladiators. Large sums were spent on training educated slaves (litterati) (eg Crassus, Atticus). Many masters specially trained their slaves for this or that task and then placed them at the disposal of those who wanted them for a fee. Only poor houses used the services of hired slaves; The rich tried to have all the specialists at home.

In addition to slaves owned by private individuals (servi privati), there were public slaves (servi publici), owned either by the state or a separate city. They built streets and water pipelines, worked in quarries and mines, cleaned sewers, served in slaughterhouses and in various public workshops (military weapons, ropes, gear for ships, etc.); They also occupied lower positions under the magistrates - messengers, messengers, servants in courts, prisons and temples; they were state cashiers and scribes. They also formed a retinue that accompanied each provincial official or commander to his place of office.

1.3. Position of slaves

Ancient writers have left us many descriptions of the terrible situation in which Roman slaves found themselves. Their food was extremely meager in quantity and unsuitable in quality: just enough was given out so as not to die of hunger. Meanwhile, the work was exhausting and lasted from morning to evening. The situation of slaves was especially difficult in mills and bakeries, where a millstone or a board with a hole in the middle was often tied to the slaves’ necks to prevent them from eating flour or dough, and in mines, where the sick, maimed, old men and women worked under the whip until did not collapse from exhaustion. If a slave fell ill, he was taken to the abandoned “island of Aesculapius,” where he was given complete “freedom to die.” Cato the Elder advises selling “old oxen, sick cattle, sick sheep, old carts, scrap iron, an old slave, a sick slave, and in general everything unnecessary.” Cruel treatment of slaves was sanctified by legends, customs, and laws. Only during Saturnalia could slaves feel somewhat free; they put on the cap of freedmen and sat down at the table of their masters, and the latter sometimes even showed them honors. The rest of the time, the arbitrariness of their masters and managers weighed heavily on them. The chain, shackles, stick, and whip were in great use. It often happened that the master ordered the slave to be thrown into a well or oven or placed on a pitchfork. The upstart freedman Vedius Pollio ordered a slave to be thrown into a tank with moray eels for a broken vase. Augustus ordered the slave who killed and ate his quail to be hanged from the mast. The slave was seen as a rude and insensitive creature, and therefore punishments for him were invented as more terrible and painful as possible. They ground him in millstones, covered his head with resin and tore the skin from his skull, cut off his nose, lips, ears, arms, legs, or hung him naked on iron chains, leaving him to be devoured by birds of prey; he was finally crucified on the cross. “I know,” says the slave in Plautus’s comedy, “that my last home will be the cross: my father, grandfather, great-grandfather and all my ancestors rest on it.” If the master was killed by a slave, all slaves who lived with the master under the same roof were subject to death. Only the position of slaves who served outside the master's house - on ships, in shops, as heads of workshops - was somewhat easier. The worse the life of the slaves was, the harder the work, the harsher the punishments, the more painful the executions, the more the slaves hated the master. Aware of the feelings the slaves had for them, the masters, as well as the state authorities, cared a lot about preventing danger from the slaves. They tried to maintain disagreements between slaves and to separate slaves of the same nationality.

Throughout the history of mankind, many cases have been recorded when laws were applied to certain categories of people that equated them to objects of property. For example, it is known that such powerful states as Ancient Egypt were built precisely on the principles of slavery.

Who is a slave

For thousands of years, the best minds of humanity, regardless of their nationality and religion, fought for the freedom of every individual and argued that all people should be equal in their rights before the law. Unfortunately, it took thousands of years before these requirements were reflected in the legal norms of most countries of the world, and before that, many generations of people experienced for themselves what it means to be equated with inanimate objects and deprived of the opportunity to manage their lives. To the question: “Who is a slave?” You can answer by quoting the UN. In particular, it states that such a definition is suitable for any person who does not have the ability to voluntarily refuse to work. In addition, the word “slave” is also used to refer to an individual who is owned by another person.

How did slavery arise as a mass phenomenon?

No matter how strange it may sound, historians believe that the development of technology served as a prerequisite for the enslavement of people. The fact is that before an individual was able to create with his labor an amount of product greater than what he himself needed to maintain life, slavery was not economically feasible, so those who were captured were simply killed. The situation changed when, thanks to the advent of new tools, farming became more profitable. The first mention of the existence of states where slave labor was used dates back to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Researchers note that we are talking about small kingdoms in Mesopotamia. Numerous references to slaves are found in the Old Testament. In particular, it indicates several reasons why people moved to the lower rung of the social ladder. Thus, according to this Book of Books, slaves are not only prisoners of war, but also those who were unable to pay a debt, married a slave, or thieves who were unable to return what was stolen or compensate for the damage caused. Moreover, the acquisition of such a status by a person meant that his descendants also had practically no legal chance of becoming free.

Egyptian slaves

To date, historians have not yet come to a consensus regarding the status of “unfree” people in the Ancient Kingdom ruled by the pharaohs. In any case, it is known that slaves in Egypt were considered part of society and were treated quite humanely. There were especially many people of forced labor there during the era of the New Kingdom, when even ordinary free Egyptians could have servants who belonged to them by right of ownership. However, as a rule, they were not used as agricultural producers and were allowed to start families. As for the Hellenistic period, slaves in Egypt under the rule of the Ptolemies lived in the same way as their fellow sufferers in other states that formed after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great. Thus, it can be stated that until about the 4th century, the economy of the most powerful of the countries located in the north of the African continent was based on the production of agricultural products by free peasants.

Slaves in Ancient Greece

Modern European civilization, and even earlier the ancient Roman one, arose on the basis of the ancient Greek one. And she, in turn, owed all her achievements, including cultural ones, to the slave-owning mode of production. As already mentioned, the status of a free person in the ancient world was most often lost as a result of captivity. And since the Greek city-states constantly waged wars among themselves, the number of slaves grew. In addition, this status was assigned to insolvent debtors and meteks - foreigners who were hiding from paying taxes to the state treasury. Among the occupations that most often included the duties of slaves in Ancient Greece are housekeeping, as well as work in mines, in the navy (rowers) and even service in the army. By the way, in the latter case, soldiers who showed exceptional courage were released, and their owners were compensated for the loss associated with the loss of a slave at the expense of the state. Thus, even those who were born unfree had a chance to change their status.

Roman slaves

As historical documents that have survived to this day testify, in Ancient Greece, the majority of people deprived of the right to manage their lives were Greeks. Things were completely different in Ancient Rome. After all, this empire was constantly at war with its many neighbors, which is why Roman slaves were predominantly foreigners. Most of them were born free and often tried to escape and return to their homeland. In addition, according to the Laws of the Twelve Tables, which are completely barbaric in the understanding of modern man, a father could sell his children into slavery. Fortunately, the latter provision lasted only until the adoption of the Petelian Law, according to which slaves in Roman law are anyone, but not Romans. In other words, a free man, a plebeian, and even more so a patrician could in no case become a slave. At the same time, not all people in this category had a bad life. For example, domestic slaves were in a rather privileged position and were often perceived by their owners as family members. In addition, they could be released according to the will of the master or for services to his family.

The most famous Roman slave revolts

The desire for freedom lives in every person. Therefore, although the owners believed that their slaves were something between inanimate tools of labor, they often rebelled. These cases of mass disobedience were usually brutally suppressed by the authorities. The most famous event of this kind - recorded in historical documents - is considered to be the slave uprising led by Spartacus. It took place between 74 and 71 AD, and was organized by gladiators. Historians attribute the fact that the rebels managed to keep the Roman Senate at bay for about three years to the fact that at that time the authorities did not have the opportunity to send trained military formations against the slave army, since almost all the legions fought in Spain, Asia Minor and Thrace. Having won several high-profile victories, the army of Spartacus, the backbone of which was made up of Roman slaves trained in the martial arts of that time, was nevertheless defeated, and he himself died in the battle, presumably at the hands of a soldier named Felix.

Revolts in Ancient Egypt

Similar events, but, of course, much less well-known, took place many centuries before the founding of Rome, on the banks of the Nile, at the end of the era. They are described, for example, in the “Teachings to Noferrehu” - a papyrus that is kept in the St. Petersburg Hermitage. True, this document notes that the uprising was raised by poor peasants, and only then slaves, mostly from and the privileges of the rich. This means that the slaves believed that the unjust laws of Egypt, which divided people into free and slave, were to blame for their plight. Like the Spartacus uprising, the Egyptian rebellion was also suppressed, and most of its participants were mercilessly destroyed.

Ancient Roman laws regarding slaves

As you know, modern laws in many countries are based on Roman law. So, according to it, all people were divided into two categories: free citizens (the privileged part of society) and slaves (this is the lowest, so to speak, caste). According to the law, an unfree person was not considered an independent subject of law and did not have legal capacity. In particular, in most situations - from a legal point of view - he acted either as an object of legal relations, or as a “speaking instrument”. Moreover, if a slave married a free woman or a slave married a free man, they could not claim freedom. In addition, for example, all slaves who lived with their master under the same roof had to be executed if their master was killed within the walls of the house. To be fair, it must be said that during the era of the Roman Empire, i.e. after 27 BC, punishments were introduced for masters for cruel treatment of their own slaves.

Laws Regarding Slaves in Ancient Egypt

The attitude towards slaves in the state ruled by the pharaohs was also formalized legally. In particular, there were laws that prohibited the killing of slaves, guaranteed them food, and even required payment for some types of slave labor. It is interesting that in some legal acts slaves were called “dead family members,” which researchers associate with the characteristics of the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt. At the same time, the children of a free man born by a slave could, at the request of their father, receive the status of free and even claim a share of the inheritance on an equal basis with legitimate offspring.

Slavery with the USA: the legal side of this issue

Another state whose economic prosperity at an early stage of development was based on the use of slave labor is the United States. It is known that the first black slaves appeared on the territory of this country in 1619. Negro slaves were imported into the United States until the mid-19th century, and scholars estimate that a total of 645,000 people were transported to this country by slave traders from Africa. Interestingly, most of the laws affecting such “reluctant emigrants” were passed in the last decades before the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. For example, in 1850, the US Congress passed an act worsening the legal status of slaves. According to it, the population of all states, including those where slavery had already been abolished at the time of its adoption, was ordered to take an active part in the capture of fugitive slaves. Moreover, this law even provided for punishment for those free citizens who helped blacks who ran away from their masters. As you know, despite all the attempts of planters from the Southern States to preserve slavery, it was still prohibited. Although for about a century, various US states had segregation laws that were humiliating for the black population and infringed on their rights.

Slavery in the modern world

Unfortunately, the desire to enjoy the fruits of other people’s labor for free has not been eradicated to this day. Therefore, information is received daily about the identification of more and more cases of trafficking - buying, selling and exploiting people. Moreover, modern slave traders and slave owners sometimes turn out to be much more cruel than, for example, Roman ones. After all, thousands of years ago the legal status of slaves was specified, and they were only partially dependent on the will of their masters. As for the victims of trafficking, very often no one knows about them, and unfortunate people are toys in the hands of their “masters.”