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Freedmen Tombs of Pompeii |
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written
by julia625 / 10.12.2005 |
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Slavery in Ancient Rome |
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Introduction |
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Although the exact onset of slavery in Rome is unknown, the concept has always been part of Roman society. In the early ages, slavery was primarily limited to farms. Most manual labor was done by free laborers who would hire themselves out to the landowners. Unfortunately, Rome was always in constant battle and the wealthy Romans frequently lost their free laborers when they were called off to fight and were left with no one to tend to their fields. These wars, however, brought plenty of foreign slaves into the country. Slavery quickly blossomed and practically all manual labor was soon done by slaves. After a few hundred years, virtually any Roman citizen who was not a slave owned a slave. The slave trade flourished and was fed with a constant supply of war captives sold into slavery by generals. Since most slaves were captured during war, the slave trade soon expanded into more then just the buying and selling of manual laborers. Along with the field hands, many educated were captured as well. These men (and occasionally women) were sold to Romans who needed the specific skill the slave possessed. Skilled slaves were often allowed to pursue whatever their field may be with the profits going straight to the master. Sometimes these slaves were even allowed to start their own business with only an annual stipend owed to the master. Slaves played a part in virtually all aspects of Roman life from field hands, to cooks, to seamstresses, to physicians. To provide some perspective, in the daily life of a wealthy land owner in ancient Rome, a slave would wake him, dress him, feed him, drive him, write correspondence for him, tend to his fields and animals, feed and take care of his family, teach his children, and do the shopping for his wife. Slaves were a very integral part in the life of an ancient Roman family and often became part of the family. This very close relationship between slave and master became fairly common in Roman society.
Most slaves, despite this relationship with their master, always kept their hopes set on freedom. There were only two ways a slave could be set free. Either he could purchase freedom from his master by means of his collective savings, or he could be set free as a reward by his master. This act of freeing a slave was known as manumission and was an official handing over of ownership done in front of a witness. Once freed, the slave was part of a roman class of freed slaves known as libertini. Even though the slave was now a freedman, a relationship of mutual aid often remained between ex slave and master. The close ties built during slavery were hard to break and some slaves even preferred to stay with their master and his family once freed. Although some of the freedmen were educated, most of this class took the trade jobs looked down upon by the upper classes. These jobs varied significantly but included baker, blacksmith and butcher. Despite the fact that the freedman could, and often did, become powerful men, they could never attain true social equality with the free born citizen. Many freedmen dedicated their lives to becoming as wealthy and powerful as their old masters and strove to fit in as equals with the freeborn citizens. This desired to be seen as noble and equal followed them to their graves and is evident in the way that many freedmen decorated their tombs in the style of a man of noble birth.
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