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INTRO TO ANCIENT ROME
Outline for
Lecture 14: Slavery (iii)
The Slave Trade
- constant need to replenish the servile population
- from 60-30 BCE
- about 100,000 new slaves per year were needed in
Italy
- about 500,000 were needed for the empire as a whole
- complex business network maintained slave supply
- Greek island of Delos an important slave
emporium or marketplace
- Delos turned over as many as 10,000 slaves per day
Becoming a Slave
- there were several different an individual might become
a slave:
i) Vernae
- those born to slavery
- these were generally preferred by Romans
- but the slave population was never self-propagating
ii) War Captives (POW's)
- important source but unreliable, especially during pax
Romana
iii) Foreign Slave Markets
- purchase of slaves from over the boundaries of the
empire
iv) Kidnapping
- many people, even citizens, kidnapped and sold into
slavery
- standard plot element in Roman comedy
v) Selling the Family
- sale of their own offspring by parents in hard times
vi) Selling Yourself
- to become a Roman citizen (e.g. the Greek Himeros in
Petronius' Satyricon); or as debt-payment
vii) Slavery as Punishment
- a limited source of new slaves
viii) Foundling Slaves
- abandoned infants made slaves
- probably a significant source
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