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48 T HEMES INW ORLD H ISTORY Controlling Workers Slavery was an institution deeply rooted in the ancient world, both in the Mediterranean and in the Near East, and not even Christianity when it emerged and triumphed as the state religion (in the fourth century) seriously challenged this institution. It does not follow that the bulk of the labour in the Roman On the Treatment of Slaves economy was performed by slaves. That may have been true of large parts of Italy in the Republican ‘Soon afterwards the City Prefect, period (under Augustus there were still 3 million Lucius Pedanius Secundus, was murdered by one of his slaves. After slaves in a total Italian population of 7.5 million) but the murder, ancient custom it was no longer true of the empire as a whole. Slaves were an investment, and at least one Roman required that every slave residing under the same roof must be agriculturalwriteradvisedlandownersagainstusing executed. But a crowd gathered, them in contexts where too many might be required eager to save so many innocent (forexample,forharvests)orwheretheirhealthcould lives; and rioting began. The be damaged (for example, by malaria). These senate-house was besieged. Inside, considerations were not based on any sympathy for there was feeling against excessive the slaves but on hard economic calculation. On the severity, but the majority opposed other hand, if the Roman upper classes were often any change (….) [The senators] favouring execution prevailed. brutal towards their slaves, ordinary people did However, great crowds ready with sometimes show much more compassion. See what stones and torches prevented the one historian says about a famous incident that occurred in the reign of Nero. order from being carried out. Nero rebuked the population by edict, As warfare became less widespread with the and lined with troops the whole establishmentofpeaceinthefirstcentury,thesupply route along which those of slaves tended to decline and the users of slave condemned were taken for labour thus had to turn either to slave breeding* or execution.’ to cheaper substitutes such as wage labour which – Tacitus (55-117), historian of the was more easily dispensable. In fact, free labour was early empire. extensively used on public works at Rome precisely because an extensive use of slave labour would have beentooexpensive.Unlikehiredworkers,slaveshad *The practice of to be fed and maintained throughout the year, which increased the encouraging female slaves and their cost of holding this kind of labour. This is probably why slaves are not partners to have widely found in the agriculture of the later period, at least not in the more children, who eastern provinces. On the other hand, they and freedmen, that is, slaves who had been set free by their masters, were extensively used would of course also be slaves. as business managers, where, obviously, they were not required in large numbers. Masters often gave their slaves or freedmen capital to Opp page: Mosaic at run businesses on their behalf or even businesses of their own. Cherchel, Algeria, early third centuCE, The Roman agricultural writers paid a great deal of attention to the with agricultural management of labour. Columella, a first-century writer who came scenes. from the south of Spain, recommended that landowners should keep Above: Ploughing and a reserve stock of implements and tools, twice as many as they needed, sowing. Below: Working in so that production could be continuous, ‘for the loss in slave labour- vineyards. time exceeds the cost of such items’. There was a general presumption Reprint 2026-27