Prof Andrea Giardina
Slavery in Ancient Rome

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To be enslaved in Rome at the times of Scipioni, of emperor Tiberio, and of the Severi: how did it change their condition and their social status?

The main regarding transformation of the slavery job in ancient Rome happened at the age between the last centuries of the republic and first of the empire, as for the passage from the system of the slavery villa (see above) to another system, where the slaves were used in various ways. In the system of the villa, the supply of slavery labor was guaranteed above all from the capture of prisoners of war, men, women and children. We have to consider that the conquest of Gallia from Iulius Caesar determined the deportation of approximately one million of individuals that were sold like slaves. These prisoners of war became prize of the soldiers or were sold by auction from the public authorities.
In the Italy of this period, and also in provinces like Sicily, there were individuals that possessed thousands of slaves; but every free citizen who was not in condition of absolute poverty possessed at least one slave. Another source of supplying was the free market economy. It seems that in the main place of slaves sale, the Greek island of Delos, were put in sale up to 10.000 slaves a day.
In the first imperial age, the age of the great conquests can be told virtually ended: the slavery labor, consequently, does not come anymore from booties of war, but mainly from other sources. The most important of these sources was the breeding of the slaves. They reproduced themselves in the property of the lord.
The slaves born in this way were assigned to renew the force job of the lord, once reached the correct age, or were put in sale. The slaves with their own family did not work anymore according to the previous regimen of the convict-prison, typical of the system of the villa, but had their own dwelling, apparently similar to the small peasants’ one. They used to live undoubtedly in better conditions, above all from the moral point of view. But the italic economy lost the dynamism of the previous period.