Roman Slavery

Slavery is an institution of the common law of peoples by which a person is put into the ownership of somebody

else, contrary to the natural order. Slavery was commonly practiced throughout all ancient history, but no other people

in history owned so many slaves and depended on them so much as the Romans. Slavery was accepted as a part of life

in ancient Rome by the slaves themselves and by the society. However, slavery was both beneficial and disastrous to

ancient Rome.

In Roman times, slaves were primarily prisoners of war. Indeed, war was "good business" because of the profits

from slavery. Entire cities were captured and sold as slaves. Others became slaves when they couldn 't pay their debts;

sometimes the children of the debtors were given as slaves to cancel the debt. Criminals also became slaves to the

Roman government. Children of slaves were also slaves. Many Roman families owned a few slaves. One rich leader

named Crassus owned 20,000! The Roman emperors owned even more than that. In the Roman system of slavery, the

tasks of slaves, such as farming, businesses, and public buildings all contributed to the wealth of the Roman economy.

On the farms, slaves produced the food and other materials on which the cities depended. Some of the most

important crops produced by slaves were wheat, olives, vines and grapes which were eaten and used for making wine.

The Roman farm products such as wine, oil, tools, meat were exported to other counties. This gave Rome its

greatest source of economic wealth. Not only were the slaves working on the farms and households, they were also

involved in business, such as shops and public buildings. They were in charge of duties like shopkeeping, lending of

money, buying and selling of merchandise. While the slaves were managing the shops, the masters concentrated on

establishing new businesses which resulted in their being very successful and consequently wealthy.