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Slavery was a widely accepted practice in ancient Greece, as it was in contemporaneous societies. [2] The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, as domestic servants, or even as a public utility, as with the demosioi of Athens.
Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become plebeian citizens. [1] The act of freeing a slave was called manumissio , from manus , "hand" (in the sense of holding or possessing something), and missio , the act of releasing.
Some well-qualified public slaves did skilled office work such as accounting and secretarial services: "the greater part of the business of Rome seems to have been conducted through slaves." [469] Often entrusted with managerial roles, they were permitted to earn money for their own use, [470] and they were paid a yearly stipend from the ...
Besides manual labor, slaves performed many domestic services, and might be employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Teachers, accountants, and physicians were often slaves. Greek slaves in particular might be highly educated. Unskilled slaves, or those condemned to slavery as punishment, worked on farms, in mines, and at mills.
Freedmen in ancient Rome existed as a distinct social class (liberti or libertini), with former slaves granted freedom and rights through the legal process of manumission. The Roman practice of slavery utilized slaves for both production and domestic labour, overseen by their wealthy masters. Urban and domestic slaves especially could achieve ...
The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of slaves have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places. [1]
Romans practised slavery extensively, but slaves in Ancient Rome were part of various different ethnic groups and were not enslaved because of their ethnic affiliation. [109] According to the English historian Emma Dench , it was "notoriously difficult to detect slaves by their appearance" in Ancient Rome. [ 105 ]
However, the end of the Servile Wars seems to have coincided with the end of the period of the most ubiquitous use of slaves in Rome and the beginning of a new perception of slaves within Roman society and law. Certainly the revolt had shaken the Roman people, who "out of sheer fear seem to have begun to treat their slaves less harshly than ...