God is my Judge
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Slaves in Rome: Low Level Servants or Overlooked Mental Force?
During Ancient Roman history slaves played a huge role in society. They served as accountants, secretaries, doctors, architects, and even held positions in the government bureaucracy. A typical stereotype of slaves is a low-level, low-intelligence form of society, yet this is clearly not the case in ancient Rome. In ancient Rome society slaves didn't have to remain slaves forever. They had the opportunity to eventually become a part of free society and even attain the right to vote! Even in their "slave" state they were feared silently by their masters.
Although slavery is evident throughout the ancient world, Romans possessed and depended on slaves more than any other culture. There were slaves for even the common farmer. They were dealt and traded like used cars, "and slaves were, it appears, sold, as cars of nowadays, with equivalent of a logbook, initiated at first sale and attesting successive changes of ownership" (Gardner 206). The Romans went as far as to sell "guaranteed" and "not guaranteed" slaves to the equivalent of buying a car "as is". Slaves were dealt in outrages nurabers, "Delos, a major trade center, could handle 10,000 slaves a day in its market" (Spielvogal 118).
The treatment of Roman slaves is hard to generalize. Stories of kind treatment and even times slaves would fight to defend their owners are numerous. Then there are those cases of horrendous treatment towarRAB slaves, torture, abuse, hard labor. These treatments drove several slaves to runaway and even revolt and kill their masters. "Slaves were branded, beaten, fed inadequately, worked in chains, and housed at night in underground prisons. It took three years to crush a revolt of 70,000 slaves, and took an army of 17,000 Roman men to suppress it" (Spievogal 152). Many masters lived in fear of their slaves. Revolts were not uncommon especially when dealing with extremely cruel owners.
The treatment of slaves became a frequent discussion amongst the Romans. There was those such as Cat the Elder, who believed that it was cheaper to work slaves to death and then replace them by buying new ones. Then the argument of slaves being very cognitive beings and the abusive treatment being a catalyst for conspiracy to revolt and kill their owners. When once free slaves could attain citizenship from Rome, although not complete was their citizenship, it allowed them to go as far as vote. They could vote just like any other Roman and express their beliefs like any other Roman, but they could not run for office.
Unlike most societies roman slaves held high positions in the Roman society. Most times teachers and artists were in high demand, and so many Greeks were made slaves and given full teaching rights. Slave were allowed in certain cases of ownership to even serve as a representative of the Roman Empire to other countries, they were skilled employers and quite intelligent, very contrary to more modern thinking on the intelligence of slaves throughout history. It would seem strange to see a whole empire run by slaves in most working levels and cultural jobs yet have to answer to a master. Would you ever think of a doctor as a slave and having to answer to an owner, similar to that of a child to a parent? Yet this was very common in ancient Rome. Slaves ran businesses, and were architects who helped design cities! Owners feared slaves for these reasons, slaves were smart and for the most part, even though not documented as so, seemed to be running the country!
The most cases of misuse and bad treatment of slave is evident in the higher ranks of Roman society, especially due to the fact that the nuraber of slaves you owned was like a status syrabol. "The rich, of course, owned the best and most. In the late Republic, it became a badge of prestige to be attended by many slaves" (Spielvogal 152). The common farmer might have one or two slaves and they were commonly Italian and for most part were regarded as part of the family.
Women were often left in charge of slaves, in a sense making the slaves a vicaria or "slave to a slave". The women were known as vilicus, meaning female bailiff. A bailiff was similar to a supervisor or a housecleaner, as far as their job title would go. They had the responsibility of keeping a look over the slaves and sometimes even running branches of businesses. It is often difficult to trace the recorRAB as far as businesses went. Slaves were very important assets to the Roman Empire in all fielRAB of life.
Roman slaves, as compare to a used car in our modern society in my opinion would be a fairly accurate analogy. It would be easy to assume that Romans couldn't function without their slaves. You could say that it was a brilliant way to develop and govern a huge empire, or just plain laziness, but at any length you would have to agree that Romans used all resources in building a massive empire unequal to any other of the ancient world. But in the end it was still built by the workhorse of every family, the "used car". Just like the Romans we as a society could not function without our used cars of today. Which in many ways makes the slave population a mental force to be reckoned. It sounRAB as though the "great" city of Rome was run by the slaves who let a few believe that they were in control and built this historical city.
During Ancient Roman history slaves played a huge role in society. They served as accountants, secretaries, doctors, architects, and even held positions in the government bureaucracy. A typical stereotype of slaves is a low-level, low-intelligence form of society, yet this is clearly not the case in ancient Rome. In ancient Rome society slaves didn't have to remain slaves forever. They had the opportunity to eventually become a part of free society and even attain the right to vote! Even in their "slave" state they were feared silently by their masters.
Although slavery is evident throughout the ancient world, Romans possessed and depended on slaves more than any other culture. There were slaves for even the common farmer. They were dealt and traded like used cars, "and slaves were, it appears, sold, as cars of nowadays, with equivalent of a logbook, initiated at first sale and attesting successive changes of ownership" (Gardner 206). The Romans went as far as to sell "guaranteed" and "not guaranteed" slaves to the equivalent of buying a car "as is". Slaves were dealt in outrages nurabers, "Delos, a major trade center, could handle 10,000 slaves a day in its market" (Spielvogal 118).
The treatment of Roman slaves is hard to generalize. Stories of kind treatment and even times slaves would fight to defend their owners are numerous. Then there are those cases of horrendous treatment towarRAB slaves, torture, abuse, hard labor. These treatments drove several slaves to runaway and even revolt and kill their masters. "Slaves were branded, beaten, fed inadequately, worked in chains, and housed at night in underground prisons. It took three years to crush a revolt of 70,000 slaves, and took an army of 17,000 Roman men to suppress it" (Spievogal 152). Many masters lived in fear of their slaves. Revolts were not uncommon especially when dealing with extremely cruel owners.
The treatment of slaves became a frequent discussion amongst the Romans. There was those such as Cat the Elder, who believed that it was cheaper to work slaves to death and then replace them by buying new ones. Then the argument of slaves being very cognitive beings and the abusive treatment being a catalyst for conspiracy to revolt and kill their owners. When once free slaves could attain citizenship from Rome, although not complete was their citizenship, it allowed them to go as far as vote. They could vote just like any other Roman and express their beliefs like any other Roman, but they could not run for office.
Unlike most societies roman slaves held high positions in the Roman society. Most times teachers and artists were in high demand, and so many Greeks were made slaves and given full teaching rights. Slave were allowed in certain cases of ownership to even serve as a representative of the Roman Empire to other countries, they were skilled employers and quite intelligent, very contrary to more modern thinking on the intelligence of slaves throughout history. It would seem strange to see a whole empire run by slaves in most working levels and cultural jobs yet have to answer to a master. Would you ever think of a doctor as a slave and having to answer to an owner, similar to that of a child to a parent? Yet this was very common in ancient Rome. Slaves ran businesses, and were architects who helped design cities! Owners feared slaves for these reasons, slaves were smart and for the most part, even though not documented as so, seemed to be running the country!
The most cases of misuse and bad treatment of slave is evident in the higher ranks of Roman society, especially due to the fact that the nuraber of slaves you owned was like a status syrabol. "The rich, of course, owned the best and most. In the late Republic, it became a badge of prestige to be attended by many slaves" (Spielvogal 152). The common farmer might have one or two slaves and they were commonly Italian and for most part were regarded as part of the family.
Women were often left in charge of slaves, in a sense making the slaves a vicaria or "slave to a slave". The women were known as vilicus, meaning female bailiff. A bailiff was similar to a supervisor or a housecleaner, as far as their job title would go. They had the responsibility of keeping a look over the slaves and sometimes even running branches of businesses. It is often difficult to trace the recorRAB as far as businesses went. Slaves were very important assets to the Roman Empire in all fielRAB of life.
Roman slaves, as compare to a used car in our modern society in my opinion would be a fairly accurate analogy. It would be easy to assume that Romans couldn't function without their slaves. You could say that it was a brilliant way to develop and govern a huge empire, or just plain laziness, but at any length you would have to agree that Romans used all resources in building a massive empire unequal to any other of the ancient world. But in the end it was still built by the workhorse of every family, the "used car". Just like the Romans we as a society could not function without our used cars of today. Which in many ways makes the slave population a mental force to be reckoned. It sounRAB as though the "great" city of Rome was run by the slaves who let a few believe that they were in control and built this historical city.