Have you ever wondered how slaves fit into Roman society? Did you ever think that slaves were more than just gladiators in ancient Rome? This lesson paints a more realistic picture of the convoluted world of slavery in ancient Rome. Related...
slaves, and foreign residents, known as “metics.” Metics, though often integral to the Athenian economy as artisans, merchants, and skilled laborers, lacked political rights and could not own land. Similarly,slaves—who made
How did the Roman Empire consolidate power? What does SPQR stand for in ancient Rome? What helped citizens of the Middle Ages understand democracy? How did the poor live in Ancient Rome? How were laws made in the Roman Republic? How did people become slaves in ancient Rome?
Romans did not necessarily consider slaves to be intellectually inferior. Many were highly autonomous in decision-making, and served as doctors, tutors, midwives, business managers, accountants, architects, property managers, and even ship captains. Paradoxically, though...
Many slave owners treated their slaves well, many did not. They forced their slaves to live in deplorable conditions. Malnutrition and overworking often led to death. If you were a slave, would you risk it all and try to run away? You might not have a choice if you wanted to stay ...
In addition, “there were moves several times in Athenian crisis history to…free large numbers of slaves to make them citizens, or at least make them resident aliens, on the argument that [Athens] needed more people who were full participants in the war effort,” Ober says. However, “the...
Artemis was not only the patron goddess of the temple but also a beacon of comfort for her city. Escaped slaves slept in her shadow and pilgrims traveled long distances to see Artemis. The statue was so popular that the local economy was largely supported by the temple's tourists and the ...
In addition, with the Punic Wars, Roman history itself was rewritten to justify the imperialist conquest, against the laws of the Republic so the winners rewrote it for precedent: why most believe they didn't live up to their model, when in fact the generals no doubt did away with...
Ancient Roman book publisher sometimes sold as many as 5,000 copies of a book that had been copied by slaves. But copying a book took so much time and was so expensive that often only a few copies of each book were made. As a result, usually only a small percentage of the population...
emerge, the creditors were called big men, absorbing the land of their debtors. If rulers would have let that happen, they would have done what oligarchies did in classical Greece and Rome. They would have used their money to take their labor that was working for them and overthrown the ...