Slavery in the Roman Empire

Primary Sources
(1) Apuleius, describing a group of slaves in his novel, The Golden Ass (c. AD 165)

Their skins were seamed all over with the marks of old floggings, as you could see through the holes
in their ragged shirts that shaded rather than covered their scarred backs; but some wore only loin-
cloths. They had letters marked on their foreheads, and half-shaved heads and irons on their legs.

(2) Bill of sale from the Roman province of Dacia (c. AD 142)

Dasius has bought and received the slave Apalaustus, nationality Greek, for six hundred denarii
from Bellicus son of Alexander... This slave is guaranteed... free from theft and not a wanderer,
fugitive or epileptic.

(3) Columella, Agriculture (c. AD 50)

Women slaves ought to be rewarded for the bearing of a certain number of children. I have granted
exemption from work and sometimes even freedom after they have reared many children.

(4) Inscription on Roman slave collar (c. AD 65)

You will get a gold solidus if you return me to my master Zoninus.

(5) In his book Natural History, Pliny the Elder described gold mining by Roman slaves. (c. AD 77)

By the light of lamps long tunnels are cut into the mountains... The miners carry the ore out on their
shoulders, each man forming part of a human chain working in the dark, only those at the end
seeing the daylight... men may not see daylight for months on end.

(6) Cato the Elder, Origins (c. 170 BC)

You have as many enemies as you have slaves.

(7) Florentius, Institutes (c. AD 150)

Slavery is an institution... by which a person is put into the ownership of somebody else. Slaves are
so called because commanders generally sell the people they capture and therefore save them
instead of killing them.

(8) Seneca, On Clemency (c. A.D. 40)

On one occasion a proposal was made by the Senate to distinguish slaves from free men by their
dress; it then became apparent how great would be the danger if our slaves could count our
numbers.
1. Explain why the Romans were so keen to buy slaves.

2. Imagine you are a historian who wants to find out how the Romans defended their right to have
slaves. Which of the sources in this unit would help you answer this question?

3. Give as many reasons as you can why some Romans allowed their slaves to buy their freedom.
Which of these reasons would have been the most common?

4. What kind of sources would you need to look at if you wanted to find out what slavery was like in
Ancient Rome?