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  • Essay / Slavery in the Roman Empire - 574

    Slavery is present when one person has absolute power over another individual. The slave in this case has no control over his life, liberty and fortune. When it came to Roman law, slavery was quite common and accepted by the people. As slavery was practiced by most citizens of ancient Rome, there had to be rules and regulations that these citizens had to follow in order to maintain order. Since Roman law was practically made up of codes, it was right to have a set of rules regarding the rights of slaves, the rights and responsibilities of slave owners, and the treatment of slaves themselves. As far as work was concerned, slaves did virtually everything; from manual work to professional work which required a lot of skill and precision. On the other hand, there were also unskilled slaves who did quite uncomfortable jobs, in dangerous environments, etc. These slaves were usually those under punishment who had to be slaves by force and not by choice. Slavery was such a common thing in ancient Rome that it almost didn't seem unfair to those who suffered. It was never considered something bad but on the contrary, it was considered a necessity. A person would become a slave when captured after losing a battle, or could also be born a slave given that the individual's mother was also a slave. In slavery, a person would gain the status of a slave but completely lose their dignity. In fact, there were slave markets which, as the name suggests, were markets where signs were given to slaves to show their virtues and abilities. Here, prospective slave owners would wander around trying to find the most suitable slave based on their preferences. Additionally, the number of slaves varied depending on the status of the slave owner; for example, ordinary slave owners, like business owners, would have one or two slaves, but on the other hand, wealthy slave owners could have up to a hundred slaves for different purposes . The more slaves an individual had, the better. Slaves were seen only as a status symbol and not as people: they had no rights. Slaves did not live, they simply existed. Just to give an example of the fact that slaves did almost every job in existence, slaves could be found working in mines, vineyards, education, accounting, the military, construction and much more..