The Slavery during the Times of the Roman Republic - Case Study Example

SLAVERY DURING THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 2007 Outline: A) Sources of slavery B) Slave employment C) Slavery impact on economy D) Slave rebellions Slavery thrived in ancient world and particularly in Rome. It played a decisive role in the economy of Rome and its further history. Expansionist wars and large scale use of cheap slave labor undermines free citizen labor reflecting on the economic situation of the Roman Republic. In this paper we concentrate on the slavery during the times of Roman Republic – its sources, uses of slaves, slave rebellions and impact of slavery on economy. From the very foundation of Roman Republic there were slaves employed mainly by well-to-do citizens. As few literary sources suggest before 352 B.C the slavery was not widespread, generally employed in agriculture.1 They worked along with their owners in the field or were employed in domestic sphere. While from the early days of Rome the number of slaves was few, by the third century B.C. their number grew steadily to an incredible size. The expansion of Roman Republic was due to constant wars – first Italian peninsula and then Carthaginians wars, which drew Rome outside Italy. The conquests supported the constant flow of slaves mainly from Italian countryside and Latin colonies all over Europe. Immediately after military campaigns captured people were sold into slavery first to slave traders following Romans in their ‘war tours.’ Some were given to commanding officers and the soldiers as a bonus. Expansionist wars became the greatest source of slaves. In 210 BC Livy reports that Rome enslaved Capua people, in 167 BC Aemilius Paullus captured 150 000 people in Epirus, in 146 BC after the destruction of Carthage its people in a number 30 000 men and 25 000 women were enslaved. 2 The first centuries of Rome witnessed no such flow of slaves as after the conquest of Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, Greece, and the Orient. In the time of Cato and even Plutarch buying a slave was rather costly and not everyone could allow a slave. When the conquests brought up a steady flow of slaves into the country, robust men of Spain, Thrace, and Sardinia could be bought for the price of an ox. Educated Greek and Eastern slaves had a higher price. 3 Of course, the majority of slaves were provided by war. On the other hand, the regular source of slave supply was the slave-trade with a chief centre at Delos. Men captured by sea or land were sold in the Delian slave-market, which put free voyagers in constant danger of enslavement. 4 In peace times Romans relied also on vernae or home-born slaves. With warfare as the greatest source of slaves during Republic breeding was also relied upon as a steady source of new slaves. Neither warfare nor trade could guarantee a constant flow of slaves over a long period of time.5 On the other hand, Harris’ research suggests, that children born in slavery were not a reliable source as slave fertility was rather low. The major reason of low reproduction was imbalance of the sex-ratio of the slave population with males outnumbering females. Even in domestic service sphere male slaves outnumbered females to surprisingly great extent. The other factor which hindered slave population from active reproduction was the fact that two-parent families were not allowed in Rome unlike in American nineteenth century slavery system.6 There were two laws related to slavery - the Law of Nations and the Civil Law. The "Law of Nations" regulated capture as a source of slaves. It concerned not only war captives but ‘any strangers who had no treaty with the Roman government.’ The "Civil Law" regulated different modes of slavery in different periods. In the early period foreigners, deserters, recruiting officers, creditors, insolvent debtors, robbers could be sold into slavery.7 The sources of slavery which thrived into Roman Empire were children born to slave-mothers, provincial or frontier war prisoners and persons imported across the frontiers, self-enslaved and abandoned infants.8 The reasons for self- enslavement were evident: “life-threatening poverty and the desirability in the eyes of many people in the position of slave actor who handled financial transactions” pushed free citizens into slavery. Threat of hunger in bad harvest years induced people not only into self-sale but quite frequent child abandonment. Scheidel (in Harris) writes shocking statistics that every other mother [or rather, every other mother who survived to menopause] would have exposed one of her children 9 In the times of early Republic when the number of slaves was rather small, the relations between a master and a slave were far closer than in later period. Besides, protection from cruel masters was provided by the law. Ill-treatment of slaves was checked by the Censor. However, in reality the mechanisms of this protection were not worked out and effective examination of masters’ cruelty was not available.10 First the appointment of censors for eighteen months at intervals of four or five years meant there were gaps of three and a half years in every five years when the cruelty of masters could not be checked. The second problem was that slaves had no access to censors as well as to other officials or judges. How could slaves complain of master’s cruelty if they were in their physical control? The only possibility was a complaint made by a free citizen witnessing cruelty. However, this was not the case. First ill-treatment should be public which was not in majority of cases. Second out of class or group solidarity citizens could not report of slaves ill-treatment.11 So slaves were unprotected ‘property’ of their masters, important first of all as a workforce on plantations. However, Roman slaves of different origins from the Italian tribes till Carthage, Greece, Macedonia, Gaul and the eastern provinces were employed in different spheres from agriculture to education and medicine depending on their ethnicity. Slave work was widespread in public spheres in Rome. Thousands of them were employed to clean streets and public baths, to build roads and aqueduct system, to work in factories and shops. Greek slaves were valued for their transmission of culture. Many were engaged into managerial jobs. Slaves performed the work of copyists and amanuenses. They were employed in subordinate professions in the government, police and engaged in the manufacture of arms and munitions of war, building of navies. The priests also had their familiae of slaves. 12 In Augustus’ time slaves served as financial managers who controlled private investments of their owners. Crassus had special training service for slaves to acquire the knowledge of secretarial, accounting and managerial business. Slaves had better training which explains their widespread use on these positions. A few moved upward to the high position in the Empire like secretary of petitions taken by Callistus under Claudius Caesar and Doryphorus under Nero. It was the time when attitudes towards slaves changed into more mild and humane treatment. 13 Well-educated slaves served as teachers, physicians and architects or managers of agricultural estates, what allowed them to save up enough money to buy them from slavery. Great number of Roman slaves bought their freedom or were granted one by their masters out of generosity. So slaves could become free Roman citizens. (Hopkins, 1993) Slaves and freedmen dominating most of the free professions, contributed greatly to ‘the brain power’ of the Empire which Republic turned into. Greek slaves brought their culture. Later during the reigns of Caligula, Claudius and Nero in the times of Roman Empire freedmen served as ‘powerful elements in the managerial elite.’ Cicero writes that an industrious slave could get freedom in 6 year of hard work.14 In the times of Augustus Caesar slaves were advanced into departmental work in the city administration – “public slaves” worked in the departments of water supply and fire control. In 22 B.C. Augustus established a regular fire department consisting of 600 slaves for the capital of the Empire. Slaves fire brigades existed until 6 A.D. when they turned over to lower class citizens.15 Rich men had a full range of slaves of different professions - weavers, carvers, embroiderers, painters. Arritine pottery widespread in the period of 25 B.C to 25 A.D was produced by slaves. The composition and decorative elements of pottery suggest high skills of craft technicians of Arretine pottery. Slave potters were aware of their importance as artists and they were valued by their masters, though their names never appeared on the ware. 16 Such broad engagement of slaves in skilled occupations meant no vacancies for lower-class Romans who suffered greatly from unemployment. Roman citizens could not rely on stable sources of income depending more and more on their patrons. Poor citizens released from agricultural work rushed to Rome to find work. This brought up new problems – overpopulation accompanied by epidemics, food shortages, violence and fires.17 Slave villas contributed greatly to the processes of urbanization encouraging migration to the cities and at the same time derived profits from this process by providing urban supplies. Separate peasant households lived below the poverty line depending on the harvest and were more likely to fall into crisis, selling land and moving to the city, to the army and to overseas colonies which was characteristic feature of late Republic. 18 As Roman economy depended on slave labor, the technology in production means was little developing. Much of the republic resources were distributed on military as a control method of slaves, as a tool of conquest and supply of new slaves. The problem for free farmers was also in preindustrial state of Roman agriculture which was non-mechanized and without artificial fertilisers giving relatively low yields and productivity. Though historians are uncertain if slave labour was more productive than free, there’s no doubt that slave-run villa “could produce a much larger marketable surplus than a group of peasant farms of comparable size.” 19 Roman conquest wars which expanded the state borders were bringing ruin and deterioration from inside. Free men who formed the backbone of the Roman army were the first to suffer from the empire expansion. Free Roman legionaries found their own degradation in their victories. Victories provided the aristocrats and wealthy plebeians with cheap labour of slaves who substituted free farmers and capable artisans.20 Starting from Italy and spreading all over Roman state, farms used slave labour on a large scale. The value of the slave was increasing while a free labourer was looking for the way to survive. So peasants and craftsmen who contributed greatly to Rome strength in early day were pressed back and their occupation was regarded inferior, slave-work. The growth of free citizens and pressures on land made free labourers eager for full- or part-time job. However, the Roman elite did not use the situation for its advantages preferring cheap slave labour which was considered more productive and easily controllable as well as status conferring. Elite was market hostile and suspicious towards any market transactions considering slavery was the best way to cultivate an estate.21 A large scale employment of slave labour caused the abandonment of agriculture for stock raising. Later on the pasture lands were used as pleasure grounds and land cultivated for more pleasure than for the necessaries of life. The plebeians, the descendants of the ancient plebeian families, became ‘brutalized by poverty, debauchery, and crime’ turning into beggars and vagabonds unable to sustain themselves from labour. 22 The employment of slave-gangs ‘tended to degrade labour and to drive free labour out of the market.’ The poor Roman freeman could not compete in skilled work with slaves trained in arts and trades brought from old civilization. Besides, the employment of slaves as herds had devastating results on the country side. Being equipped with arms to guard the property of the master, slaves on the pastures robbed peaceful travellers, terrorizing rural Italy for centuries. 23 Widespread slavery urges lower classes into revolts. Slaves themselves also revolted. From the very beginning of Roman slavery Romans were living in a fear of the uprising of their slaves. Their misgivings expressed in the cruelty which they exhibited towards the slaves. As conquest wars ensured a constant flow of slaves, the feeling of the panic was spreading over the Roman citizens. The possibility of sudden revolts of suppressed slaves was evident and the legislation which impresses with its inhumanity is a vivid example that the dominant class was quite aware of it. Slave-owners were very careful as to any slave groupings and took measures to prevent any slave attacks. Slave-owners were well-organized in this respect and they made it almost impossible for slaves to rally together, to get arms and stand out against police and soldiery. For these reasons it was almost impossible to make successful upheaval of the masses. Even when a possibility came and leaders of the oppressed classes had success, it was a temporary phenomenon because of ‘jealousy, bribery, treachery and the want of any definite policy of social reconstruction.’24 The Romans established the cruelest machine for oppression of other humans ever seen. The majority of slave revolts happened in the times of Roman Republic. The greatest and the most prominent revolt was led by Spartacus. When majority of provinces of the Republic was in revolt against its worldwide domination, in 73 B.C. in Italy servile insurrection under Spartacus occurred. It was the best time for upheaval - Roman armies were occupied in east and west, Italians of the south were if not ready to help but at least not obstruct tired in the so-called “social war and Rome itself being preoccupied by class wars.”25 Before Spartacus upheaval, slave-risings and small outbreaks were quite often. Usually they were quickly suppressed. For example, in 134 a war broke out in Sicily, in hill-town Enna. Slaves, in their majority from Syria roused by great brutality, massacred wealthy masters, seizing the town. Thousands of rustic slaves routed Roman forces. Slaves from a second rising in the West were combined with the first one forming an army of 200,000 able-bodied men. They held most of the island for almost two years but finally Enna fell and rebels were punished - tortured or crucified.26 In the far part of Roman dominions unrest had other causes. No standing army and no forces at the disposal of provincial governors made it impossible to withstand risings or invasion. Unprotected Spain invaded by the Cimbri rebelled. Between 102 and 94 risings in Lusitania and in central (Celtiberian) Spain were suppressed and brutal peace restored. 27 Bibliography Brooks, Roy L. “Ancient slavery versus American slavery: A distinction with a difference.” The University of Memphis Law Review 33 no.2 (Winter, 2003): 265 Harris, W. V. “Demography, Geography and the Sources of Roman Slaves.” The Journal of Roman Studies 89, (1999): 62-75. Heitland, W. E. A Short History of the Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911. 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