Transcript The Roman Slave Supply

The Roman Slave Supply
Problems
Do not have exact numbers – cannot
quantify - only estimate
 Evidence is scattered over time and in
terms of type of evidence – literature,
legal, archaeological
 Evidence often anecdotal
 Almost all evidence from slave-owning
class
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Scale of Slave Trade
Between 65 BCE to 30 BCE c. 100,000
new slaves needed annually in Italy
 From 50 BCE to 150 CE over 500,000
needed per year
 Compare: New World slavery c. 28,000
per annum with maximum of 60,000 at
height of slave trade
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The Sources of slaves
Warfare
 Natural reproduction (breeding)
 Infant exposure
 Trade
 Piracy and brigandage
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Warfare
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Warfare a constant for most of Rome’s history
Early Republic – conquest of Italy
Mass enslavements – early 4th century, Etruscan city of
Veii – perhaps 10,000 slaves (sources not reliable)
during central period – most slaves came from outlying
regions
91-82 BCE Social War (between Rome and Italian allies,
Italians became slaves again
M. Aurius of Larinum (Cicero’s home town) captured at
Asculum became slave of Roman senator Q. Sergius and
worked in ager Gallicus at Northern Adriatic coast.
War captives outside Italy
Conquest of the Mediterranean
First Punic War, 256 BCE, siege of Aspis –
20,000 captives
 146 BCE destruction of Carthage – 55,000
enslaved
 25 BCE against the Salassi (Alps) 44,000.
 198 CE emperor Septimius Severus siege
of a Parthian city – 100,000
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What happened to the war captives?
Decision left to commanding general:
some were allowed to be ransomed
 Others sold off on the spot to traveling
dealers hanging around the army
 Others distributed to the soldiers as
payment or bonus
 Not all ended up in Italy
 Many slave markets all over Mediterranean
world
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War captives
War Captives
Long-Distance Slave Trade
Independent from expansion warfare
 Regions around Black Sea supplied
Mediterranean since 7th century BCE
 In 6th century CE, Procopius (de Bello
Persico 2.15.5) mentions Roman traders
exchanging salt and grain for slaves from
Colchis (eastern Black Sea)
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From a Trader’s Handbook
(1st century CE)
ports of Malao and Opone (modern
northern Somalia) exported slaves
 Some were sent to Egypt where they were
redistributed
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Historian Ammianus Marcellinus (16.7.5)
about the eunuch Eutherius from Armenia:
“His parents were free, but at an early age
he was captured by members of a
neighbouring hostile tribe, who castrated
him and sold him to some Roman
merchants, by whom he was brought to
Constantine’s palace.”
In the West, Gaul, Germany, Britain
Last 2 centuries BCE as many as 15,000
slaves from Gaul exchanged for Italian
wine,
 From German tribes; Danube basin, etc.,
 Supplied to traders by local rulers who
exchanged captives or even members of
their own community in exchange for
goods (bronze, cooking pots, wine, other
luxury goods found by archaeologists)
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Piracy and Brigandage
another major source for new slaves
200 BCE pirates of Cilicia – conducted large
scale kidnapping and trafficking (Wiedemann #
106).
 Large slave market on island of Delos –
 Augustine in a letter (Epistulae 10) talks of
pirates along coast of North Africa raiding rural
villages, murdering all the men, and selling free
women and children as slaves to itinerant slave
dealers (mangones)
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Augustine’s comments continued
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Some locals supplied pirates, story of a woman
who traded in young girls from interior;
Poor parents sold their children;
One Christian sold his wife because he preferred
the money
Christian communities tried to buy back as many
as possible,
While others tried to resell the released
individuals back to the slave traders
Piracy and Brigandage in
Italy itself
Italy unsafe for travelers
 Private slave prisons (ergastula) in country
side
 travelers kidnapped
 See Wiedemann # 111, Suetonius,
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Augustus
Pliny, Ep. 6.25
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YOU send me Word, that Robustus a Roman
Knight, of considerable Rank, took a Journey
with Attilius Scaurus, my Friend, as far as
Ocriculum, and then disappear'd. You desire me
to send for Scaurus, and get some Information
from him, in order to enquire about it. He shall
come hither, but I am much afraid it will be to
no Purpose. For I suspect, that something has
befallen Robustus, like an Accident, that
happen'd once to a Towns-man of mine, Metilius
Crispus. I had procur'd him a Command in the
Army, and has presented him with 400000
Sesterces for his Equipage and Conveniencies:
….continued
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Nor did I afterwards receive a Letter from
him, or any News of his Death. It is
doubtful whether he was cut off by his
own Servants, or with them: Certain it is,
that neither he nor his Servants made
their Appearance afterwards. I wish we
may not find the same Cafe in Robustus;
yet, let us send for Scaurus.
The Slave Trade:
Where to buy a slave in Rome
Some could conveniently be bought in the
Roman Forum near Temple of Castor
 Upscale shops located near Saepta Julia
 Elite also used agents to acquire slaves for
them
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Who were the slave traders?
Despised by elite – for unscrupulous
business methods
 Some were ex-slaves themselves
 Many were itinerant – traveling throughout
empire and beyond, often following armies
 Traded with local tribal leaders at the
fringes and beyond Roman Empire in
Britain, Germany, Black Sea, etc.,
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Tombstone of a wealthy slave trader
Sale of slave
Discussion
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Wiedemann # 108