At this time of year the Romans, too, enjoyed a celebration, called the Saturnalia. It was a time of licence, the one day when slaves were free to eat, drink and be merry, and be served by their owners. One wonders what part such role-reversal played in Vedius Pollio’s villa on the Bay of Naples with its pond full of man-eating lampreys.
Once when the emperor Augustus was visiting, a slave dropped an expensive crystal glass, and Pollio ordered him to be thrown into the pond. Pollio dismissed the slave’s appeal to Augustus, at which the emperor asked Pollio to bring out all his other fine glass for him to use – and smashed the lot.
A pity Pollio did not get the treatment he ordered for the slave, but a slave was legally an item of property. One could buy and sell and throw away goods. Why not humans?
Slavery has taken many forms, yet it is the American version of it that tends to dominate our thinking over that practised in Latin America, the Barbary slave trade, and even modern slavery. Here is the Roman version.
While in parts of the USA, slavery was reserved for black people, the Romans were not racist. Their slaves came from all over the empire, mostly through war and piracy; but also, in a world of great poverty, sometimes through choice, since most slaves lived in their owner’s home, with board, lodging and medical attention provided. (We even hear of Romans who preferred slavery to freedom.) Slave women bore babies who were highly valued because slavery would be normal to them. Slaves could also be publicly owned: 700 serviced Rome’s water supply.
It is important to stress here that slaves were bought for a specific purpose, filling precisely the same range of jobs as free Romans could.
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