Roman Slavery

Roman Slavery Slavery in Imperial Rome was an advantage point for the Empire as they kept the people entertained with debauchery, such as the gladiatorial games, to control the masses; however, many slave revolts occurred, causing the citizens to begin to question the authority and true intent of the Emperors.

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The gladiatorial arena wasn’t just a meat grinder for male slaves with rippling abs. In fact, many of the people who participated in history’s most notorious blood sport were volunteers – trained soldiers and politicians looking for a little extra street cred. And, as it turns out, plenty of gladiators were women. Written records of female gladiators are persistent, but sparse, almost as if the Romans didn’t think the concept was so bizarre that they needed to specify when the combatants were women. Lady gladiators weren’t the result of some particularly progressive emperor who believed in gender equality in death sports, either. It was quite the opposite – women’s participation was the norm for 200 years, with evidence of various restrictions (no direct female relatives of a general or a senator could be recruited as gladiators, for instance) until Emperor Septimius Severus finally banned it, possibly because he had a cousin or something that got his ass chopped off by Lucretia the Crusher.

5 Ancient Discoveries That Prove Modern Men Are Sexist

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Ancient Roman scale armor (lorica squamata), Royal Ontario Museum.

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au where spatacus doesn’t make the mistake of turning back south and instead heads north out of italy, winning the third servile war by simply leading his followers to freedom and establishing an independent kingdom north of the danube. in this au a fourth servile war later occurs in which slaves revolt on saturnalia by taking advantage of the inverted social norms to seize all their masters’ weapons and running off. this leads to a general social agreement that slavery should be phased out and no new slaves should be taken in war slaves who can’t afford their own manumission are purchased by the government and sent to work on public works projects for a fixed period of time to earn their freedom all children born to slaves are freed upon reaching the age of majority fighting to the death in gladiatorial games is strictly reserved for criminals sentenced to capital punishment, rather than also submitting war captives to such a punishment.

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i’ve never been more offended

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#xena needs to check her feudal lord privilege (via partysoft)

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Gladiatorial Games

The Emperors believed that holding the gladiatorial games was a good way to keep the people of Ancient Rome happy and satisfied with the how the city was being ruled (Trueman, C., 2000). These shows were free to the public and the government provided free bread – the combination that they believed would keep the unemployed people of Rome happy (Trueman, C., 2000). 

This ultimately was extremely successful. The citizens of Rome never questioned the government and barely voiced any unhappiness. They took pleasure in watching the slaves fight and die, because it gave them a sense of power themselves. 

Cicero in 50BC wrote, “The wild beast hunts, two a day for five days, are magnificent. There is no denying it. But what pleasure is there in seeing a puny human mangled by a powerful beast or a splendid animal killed with a hunting spear” (Trueman, C., 2000). This is quite contradicting as Cicero is expressing his displeasure in the slaves’ fights. Perhaps because he was more scholarly than regular citizens, he might have recognised the meaning behind the games. However, even to Cicero’s distaste, the Gladiatorial games were successful in completely the purpose they were made for, although making life harder for slaves and in turn causing revolts.

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Revolts

The mistreatment of the slaves ultimately ended in revolts. Although the living conditions of the slaves did get better once Rome turned into an Empire.

If a slave was sick, maimed, or aged, etc., there was no leniency toward them in terms of rest, although they were compelled by threats in their labour, until they died through ill-treatment in the midst of their tortures (Cavazzi, F., 2012). Appian elucidates in Roman Civil Wars, “The slaves did not liberate the peasant farmer to take part in democratic politics, but to fight and conquer an empire.” (Kamm, A. 2009). As this source states, the slaves did not fight to become equals, they fought for their own freedom. 

This poor treatment of the slaves led to rebellion and several Slave Wars, the most famous being the revolt led by the gladiator slave, Spartacus (Alchin, L. 2015). 

The Gladiatorial games were a successful tool in not only keeping the citizens of Rome happy but also keeping the slaves in place.

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Citizens

Initially the slaves were used to help and entertain the people of Rome in a distraction to keep them from questioning the true motives of the Empire. Although since there were so many slaves being brought into Rome, it was beginning to have a bad effect for the citizens. Many Roman farmers lost their jobs because there were so many slaves, some of the poor were released from agricultural work (Manson, M.K., 2013). 

This caused horrific over population problems; food shortages, violence, disease, and the widespread problems of housing and fires (Kamm, A. 2009). Also, reliance on slave labour led to the deterioration in morals, values and ethics (Alchin, L. 2015). This was because the citizens of Rome saw the slaves as tools and barely treated them like they were human, punishing them as if they were animals. 

Although using the slaves in the Gladiatorial games was extremely successful because it did in fact not only keep the people of Rome happy but kept them busy as well.

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Slaves: Punishment and Gladiators

Life for Roman slaves during the Republic was harsh, but their living conditions became better during the Imperial time. It was quite ironic how the slaves were seen as luxuries but never got any themselves. By definition slavery was brutal, violent and dehumanising, where slaves were seen at the same level as animals (Bradley, K. 2011). 

These slaves were often beaten for disobedience or if something was done, properly or quick or well enough. Not much could be done since the master had absolute power, so physical punishment and sexual abuse were common (Bradley, K. 2011 & William, C. M., 1996). Some slaves were treated well, but no mercy or break of any kind was given to any man who was ill, injured, or aged, but they were still forced to persevere in their labour, until in the midst of their tortures they died (William, C. M., 1996).

In the 1960 film, Spartacus, in a conversation between himself and Tigranes Levantus, Spartacus said 

“All men lose when they die and all men die. But a slave and a free man lose different things. When a free man dies, he loses the pleasure of life. A slave loses his pain. Death is the only freedom a slave knows. That's why he's not afraid of it. That's why we'll win.” (Spartacus, 1960). 

Slaves looked forward to death, and like the Spartacus quote states; it was their escape from pain. They were subjected to beatings at Augustus’ (Rome’s first emperor) command, or set free (Woolf, G. 2012). Both options just as opposite as to the other. These slaves could be brutally beaten or even crucified if a magistrate allowed it (Conroy, J. el.al, 1994). 

There were many revolts in Republic Rome, explicitly in 196BC, 185BC-184BC and 135BC (Yavetz, Z., 1988).Over time, the living conditions of these slaves became more bearable, and the introduction of the Gladiatorial games aided in keeping not only the people of Rome in place, but the slaves as well. Although the treatment of these captured people was still really bad; it led to rebellion and several Slave Wars, the most famous being the revolt led by the gladiator slave, Spartacus (Alchin, L., 2015).

Marcus Licinius Crassus: Did you truly believe 500 years of Rome could so easily be delivered to the clutches of a mob? Already the bodies of 6000 crucified slaves line along the Appian Way. (Spartacus, 1960).

In 73-71 BC the gladiator Spartacus eminently led a revolution of thousands of slaves in central Italy, formed an army that defeated numerous Roman legions, and at one point threatened Rome itself (Bradley, K. 2011).

Although they were successful, Spartacus and his army did not succeed. The penalty of this: 6000 of Spartacus’ supporters being crucified along the main road leading to Rome. Their bodies were left as a reminder to slaves not to oppose their owners (Conroy, J. el.al, 1994).

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Empire

The Roman Empire was extremely powerful and often raged war on surrounding territories for land, loot and captives. Foreign wars and mass enslavements provided great amounts of land, as soldier-farmers were being displaced from farms and with plights in Rome escalating, the practice of expanding their colonies grew (Du Bois, P., 2009).

The Empire was formed during the time of the Roman Republic and dominated not just their own city but a vast territory beyond it (Cavazzi, F., 2012).Throughout the Punic War 264 BC to 146 BC, many slaves were captured from overseas; Rome’s population grew to over 1 million (Du Bois, P., 2009).

Hopkins, a modern historian, made the observation that, “the military conquest and the subsequent introduction of incredible wealth and slaves into Italy had the same effects as widespread and rapid as technological innovations” (Du Bois, P., 2009).

This meant that the effect of the Romans was absolutely huge. To be put into perspective, the number of slaves to owners was about the same ration to the number of people who have iPhone’s and who don’t, respectively.

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Roman bronze gladiator’s helmet. 1st century BC