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Roman Slavery


It was cheaper to purchase new slaves than to breed more, and so the slave auctions were always highly populated and well attended.
             Slaves were divided into categories of either public or private servants. The public slaves served the governmental state or the public. They were jailers, executioners, slaves to the magistrates and priests, and construction workers of public buildings. The private slaves included those slaves who served in the household or in the fields. The household slaves were organized into a hierarchy of duty and position. The ordinarii were the heads of housekeeping in the house, and the stewards and butlers worked under their command. The vulgares provided any other service needed in the house, and the educated slaves, or literati, were the readers and translators. In the beginnings of the slave trade, there were a small number of slaves used for personal and household attendants. These slaves were used mainly for the purposes of the fieldwork, but as the Empire grew, the use of domestic slaves increased rapidly.
             The Roman slaves were treated as members of the family unit in the earlier days of slavery; their punishments were mild, and they were given holidays from their regular duties on certain occasions and festivals. "On the Festival of Saturn, the slaves were allowed to wear the badge of freedom for the day, they were given freedom of speech, a banquet where their masters served them, and they were given the clothes of their masters to wear" (Barrow p 53). Slaves were often buried in the familial plots of their masters, and masters would be punished severely for the murder of their slaves. Families of slaves could not be separated, but there was no legal relation between a father and his son. "The children born to a slave mother were also slaves, and slaves could hold no property as all their acquisitions belonged to their master" (Barrow 41). It was beneficial for the masters to treat their slaves well.


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