Slavery in Ancient Greece and Rome[1]
The helots of Sparta and Athens
The first antique civilization of which historians really know a lot is that of Greece, because of its history has been chronicled when it happened or shortly afterwards. Therefore we know that the City States Athens and Sparta could not function without the help of large numbers of slaves or helots. The helots of Sparta were members of conquered nations. They still lived on the piece of land on which they were born, the land they had inherited from their parents. Though they were forced to till their stolen land, they still had certain rights that are characteristic for agrarian societies. The helots of Sparta lived in a kind of symbiosis with their masters.
In Athens things were different. There, the legal status of slaves was linked to type of work. Slave labour in the mines was worst of all, extremely unhealthy and exhaustive. Fortunately, there were only a few mines around Athens. In Athens, the majority of slaves served in private households. As long as they maintained a good relation with their master or his wife, they could live their life in bondage quite comfortably. Female slaves had to clean the rooms, wash the linen, take care of the children or prepare the food. Heterosexual masters selected the most beautiful ones as concubine. Male slaves could make a respectful career, whether they had a homosexual or not. They could become the head of housekeeping or take care of the financial and legal affairs of their master. Yet, despite these highly responsible jobs they were always looked down upon, because the Greek upper class did not work at all, and certainly no manual labour. Wealthy Athenians had all their work done by slaves. As a consequence, they became strongly dependent on their most able slaves. Quite a few slaves used this position to get rich and powerful. Whenever this happened Greek realized that slaves are smart human beings that might get the upper hand in the economy and in politics, and that they, – just like free people – could start revolutions. They might even gain sexual favours of their masters’ wives and daughters. To control this fear and to maintain social and psychological distance, the enslaved were represented as aliens, never to be trusted. Since most of the City slaves originated from far away countries, it was not so difficult to present them as barbarians, speaking incomprehensible languages. From here, it was only a small step to think that certain categories of people were born for slavery. This latter view was propagated by renowned philosopher Aristotle. He saw them as people born with a submissive nature, lacking the potential for being good masters.[1]
“… those who are as different [from other men] as the soul from the body or man from beast — and they are in this state if their work is the use of the body, and if this is the best that can come from them — are slaves by nature. For them it is better to be ruled …”[2]
In his book Politics, Aristotle describes a natural slave as:
“anyone who, while being human, is by nature not his own but of someone else …”
Their main features include being pieces of property, tools for actions, and belonging to others.[3] The Stoics rejected this view. These philosophers thought that certain people only had been struck by bad luck to get in an enslaved position. Yet, Stoics found that all people had to accept their lot and to execute their tasks dutifully and without protest.[4]
Slavery in Ancient Rome
Ancient Greece and Rome could never have flourished without slavery.[5] However, Edward Gibbon, who has written and published more than thousand pages on the Roman Empire, devoted very few words to slavery. He only mentioned that they found themselves in ill-fated circumstances.[6] This meagre attention does not reflect the huge importance of slavery for Rome. Bonded workers were the muscles of its economy. They lowered the cost of labour and boosted production.
At the birth of the Roman Empire citizen debt bondage provided the bulk of the labor force for the wealthy. Later, slavery became more prevalent. This was reflected in law. The Twelve Tables (451-450 BCE) set out harsher punishments for thievery committed by slaves than by free persons. Slaves could be sold in Rome, but debt bondsmen could only be sold outside Rome, across the Tiber. Whether this was a helpful privilege is open for debate. In the following centuries, the rights of bondsmen were enlarged to such a degree that employers were much better off with exchanging them for slaves. This generated a growing demand and a series of wars against the people south of Rome. Roman legions defeated all nations around the Mediterranean Sea and enslaved large countless people. Thousands were brought to Rome. [7] Julius Caesar became world champion of enslavement. The total number of captives of his Gallic campaign has been estimated at one million.[8] There were other slave sources, such as piracy, international slave trade, and children abandoned by poor parents. The best estimate of the enslaved population puts the number around 25 per cent.[9]
The Romans discriminated between Greek and barbarian slaves. This made some sense. Many enslaved Greeks were well educated. They could teach Romans about rhetoric, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, physics and astronomy. Highly talented slaves became favoured singers and dancers. Thus, the Greek made a significant contribution to Roman civilization. In contrast, slaves from Africa and other European regions had to do the most cumbersome and most risky jobs.
An army led by Scipio conquered Carthage in 146 BCE. The Roman troops destroyed most buildings and killed more than a quarter of a million menwomen and children. Hundreds of healthy survivors were enslaved and brought to Rome. This mass influx led to a surplus of slaves which lowered prices. Now, also the less well off Romans could buy slaves. Of course, the rich selected the most able and highly talented ones. This pushed the prices for slaves with special skills to extreme levels. Child slaves that might develop into extraordinary good looking adolescents became a lucrative investment. Highly skilled ones got treated with great respect. Many of them became rich; in particular those that managed their master’s financial affairs. Entrepreneurial slaves bought young slaves cheaply, to train and sell them with a nice profit.[10] Rich slaves were able to buy their freedom.
Rome’s rulers forced all captured soldiers into slavery. They either became galley slaves or had to work themselves to death with the construction of roads, palaces, city walls and amphitheatres. The grandeur of Rome was created with the hard labour of numerous anonymous slaves. Mining was the foulest job of all. When Romans became wealthier, they needed more household slaves. For reasons of status, the elite “needed” a platoon of servants. Cicero criticized senator Piso not only for bad food, but also for lacking good servants. Men and women of substance ought to have proper waiters, body guards, doormen, table servants, excellent cooks, room servants, chamber maids, attendants, child nurses, hairdressers and masseurs to take care of all their extravagant needs. The rich never went outdoors without the company of a large group of attendants, just to show their wealth. The prefect of Rome employed about four hundred household slaves. Men sent into exile could take no more than twenty servants. What a shame![11]
The strongest captives were trained to become gladiators. In arenas packed with sensation seeking Romans they had to fight with each other until one of them died.[12] Spectators also loved to see lions kill untrained slaves. They relished in hearing their screams and the cracking of their bones.
As the empire got wealthier, farms grew into big agricultural holdings that needed many workers. Farm slaves had to be controlled day and night to ensure that they worked hard and took good care of crops and animals. This constant supervision could only be managed with the help of fellow slaves promoted to be overseers.[13] Farm work is synchronized with the change of the seasons. In some months little work needs to be done, while other periods demand a lot of hard and hasty work. This seasonal rhythm is typical for farming. Many estates combined the cultivation of different crops and fruit, as well as breeding cattle. Thus a complex system of division of labour emerged. Historian Columella presents a list of almost fifty specialisations such as foreman, mower, vine binder, ploughman, goat herder, bird catcher, digger, gardener, animal doctor. Cheese making, cooking, spinning and mending clothes were female jobs, though women had to work in the fields too. Usually, the manager or vilicus also was a slave. His wifedid oversee the female slaves.[14]
The Great Slave Revolt of Spartacus
Historians have found proof of several bloody slave rebellions. Hundreds enslaved fighters killed hundreds of soldiers and vice versa. In those turbulent times, a few politicians and intellectuals started to criticize the excrescences that had emerged after the strong rise in big farms or latifundias. They longed for a return to the good old days when farms were small and slaves were seen as part of the extended family. As such they were treated well. Greek historian Theopompus distinguished between good slavery “according to nature”- patriarchal and domestic, integrated into kinship ties – and a “degenerate” one, spawned by the development of trade, mining, and large scale agriculture, based on a ruthless abuse of enslaved workers. Posidonius believed that only the degenerated form triggered revolts and extreme violence fuelled by hatred and a growing desire for revenge.[15] He came to this conclusion when travelling through Spain. There, he witnessed such a pitiless organization of labor, that many miners became suicidal. Not all learned members of the elite shared his view. Strabo, the great historian and geographer of the Augustine age, found Posidonius’ take inappropriate. But others realized that there always had been slave revolts and for a reason.[16]
The first big slave insurgency took place after the second war with Carthage. This was won 146 BC. As a result, Rome suddenly received an excess of enslaved people; too much to be managed. Their number and speaking a foreign language made organizing an uprising relatively easy. It also helped that many of them had been trained as soldiers. Their military leaders were still among them and ready to lead the revolt. Under their leadership Sicilian cities were demolished; countless men and children died, and many women got raped.[17] The first slave revolt started at a local level, when land owners denied their slaves proper food. To survive and stay healthy slaves had to rob and steal. This went from bad to worse. Small bands of bolted slaves started to raid small estates, killing farmers and stealing everything. After a while, the entire island of Sicily got plundered. But this rebellion was small compared with the revolt lead by Spartacus, a revolt made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film.
Spartacus (111 – 71 BC) was a Thracian. He was captured by Roman legions, enslaved, and because of his strength, turned into a gladiator. The insurgency started in 73 BC when 70 gladiators escaped from their training school in Capua. These Thracians, Gauls, and Germans, many of them recently enslaved, killed their guards with kitchen knives and ran off with a cart load of proper weapons. The group camped first near Mount Vesuvius. Others joined them in the hope to regain their freedom. Their numbers began to grow fast. Soon they conquered Mount Vesuvius and defeated two legions sent from Rome. Roma’s response was hampered, because other Roman legions were busy countering a revolt in Hispania. At first, the Romans did not take the rebellion seriously and lost many men. After understanding their mistake they sent new troops and besieged Spartacus’ army. Spartacus and his men climbed down the cliff side of the volcano, using ropes made of vines. Then they attacked the Romans by surprise and killed most of them.[18] The rebels also destroyed a second expedition from Rome, slaying many officers and seizing all military equipment. Ever more slaves joined Spartacus’ army. They spent the following winter training.
At some point in time, the rebels totalled 70,000 troops.[19] Spartacus realized that even such a big army could be defeated by the imperial troops. So, he looked for a way out. He led his army to the north with the intention to cross the Alps and to travel back to Thracia. Other ethnic groups could return to Gaul or Germany. Unfortunately, Spartacus lost control over his loosely coupled troops. His followers dispersed all over Italy, plundering and looting everywhere. This time, the alerted Senate took things very serious. They sent two legions to stop Spartacus and Crixus, the other rebel leader. Initially they were successful and defeated Crixus, but Spartacus vanquished both Roman legions.
The alarmed Senate appointed Rome’s richest man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, to command a successful counterattack. He was put in charge of eight legions, totalling approximately 40,000 well trained soldiers. Still furious about the cowardice of the two defeated legions and the loss of their weapons, he first made clear that he tolerated no retreat, nor cowardice. To make his point, he used the method of decimation. This meant that within two of his legions one in ten was chosen to be killed by the other nine. Now every potential defector realized that he could be killed by his fellow soldiers. After this ultimate horror show of totally unjustified random killing. After this brutal show of power his soldiers were prepared to give it all, realizing they could be next. Crassus pushed Spartacus back. The latter failed to cross the Strait of Messina to Sicily, where he had hoped to find reinforcements. Spartacus organized a counterattack but failed again. His rebel army was slaughtered by Pompey’s legion. Spartacus got killed too. Six thousand insurgents got captured. Crassus ordered to crucify them and to expose their corpses along the long road from Rome to Capua. From then on, very few slaves dared to contemplate a new revolt.[20]
[1] This is chapter 3 of my book project: From Ancient Slavery to the Abolition.
[1] Blackburn quotes Peter Garnsey: Ideas of Slavery from Aristotle to Augustine, Cambridge 1996, p 126
[2] Aristotle: Politics. 1254 b16–21.
[3] Karbowski, Joseph (2013). Aristotle’s Scientific Inquiry into Natural Slavery, Journal of the History of Philosophy. 51.3
[4] Idem: pp 118-55, 206-142
[5] Rodney Stark: o. c. p. 295
[6] Edward Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.1994, London: Allan Lane: The Penguin Press.
[7] Sandra R. Joshel: Slavery in the Roman World. Cambridge University Press: 2010. pp 53-54
[8] Between 58 and 51 BCE
[9] Idem, o. c.; p, 55
[10] F.R. Cowell: Everyday life in Ancient Rome. London: Batsford, 1961. Chapter IV
[11] Sandra R. Joshel, o.c.; pp 183-184
[12] Successful gladiators could gain glittering prizes and regain their freedom.
[13] Sandra R. Joshel, o.c.; p 56-57
[14] Idem, p.166-167.
[15] Aldo Schiavone: Spartacus, Harvard University Press; Cambridge Mass. 2013. pp 80-81
[16] Idem, p 79
[17] Marcus Sidonius Falx with Jerry Toner: How to manage your slaves. Profile Books Ltd.: London, 2015. pp141-143
[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus. Retrieved: 9 October 2015
[19] Scholars of history claim time and again that it is highly likely that the recorded numbers tend to be exaggerated. Nonetheless, we can be sure that Spartacus had gathered and organized a really big army.
[20] Duncan Hill: Rome: Een wereldrijk uit oude dagen. Bath: Parragon, 2008. p 68 (Orig. Ancient Rome: From the Republic to the Empire)