A diadem is a type of crown , specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty .
105-624: Eunus (died 132 BC) was a Roman slave from Apamea in Syria who became the leader and king of the slave uprising during the First Servile War (135 BC–132 BC) in the Roman province of Sicily . According to the historian Florus , his name is remembered due to the severe defeats he inflicted on the Romans. Eunus rose to prominence in the movement through his reputation as
210-521: A diadem , and subsequently took the name Antiochus, a name used by the Seleucids who ruled his homeland Syria. Eunus' ascension, following a military victory, mirrors the traditional acclamation of Hellenistic Kings by their armies. During the slaughter of the inhabitants of Enna, Eunus allowed citizens who could aid his war effort, such as blacksmiths, to live. He soon raised an army of 6,000 slaves, took on bodyguards and personal servants, and formed
315-421: A familia , the body of a household's dependents—a word especially, or sometimes limited to, referring to the slaves collectively. Pliny (1st century AD) was nostalgic for a time when "the ancients" lived more intimately in a household with no need for "legions of slaves"—but still imagined this simpler domestic life as supported by the possession of a slave. All those belonging to the familia were subject to
420-504: A fugitive slave managed to be elected praetor, his legal acts would remain valid if his true status were discovered, because the Roman people had chosen to entrust him with power. Limitations were placed only on the former slaves themselves and did not apply to their sons. During the early Imperial period, some freedmen became very powerful. Those who were part of the emperor's household (familia Caesaris) could become key functionaries in
525-419: A peculium had a far better chance of obtaining liberty. With this business acumen, certain freedmen went on to amass considerable fortunes. Slaves were released from their master's control through the legal act of manumissio (" manumission "), meaning literally a "releasing from the hand" (de manu missio) . The equivalent act for the releasing of a minor child from their father's legal power ( potestas )
630-703: A prophet and wonder-worker and ultimately declared himself king. He claimed to receive visions and communications from the goddess Atargatis , a prominent goddess in his homeland whom he identified with the Sicilian Demeter and the Roman Ceres . Some of Eunus' prophecies, namely that the rebel slaves would successfully capture the city of Enna and that he would be a king some day, came true. Eunus and his revolt were successful for several years, repeatedly defeating praetorian armies and requiring consuls from 134–132 BC to be sent against him. He
735-594: A wreath worn around the head. The ancient Persians wore a high and erect royal tiara encircled with a diadem. Hera , queen of the Greek gods , wore a golden crown called the diadem. The "Priest King" statue made by the Indus Valley civilization ( c. 3300 – c. 1300 BCE ) wore a headband that is possibly a diadem. By extension, "diadem" can be used generally for an emblem of regal power or dignity. The Roman emperor 's head regalia worn, from
840-502: A Roman citizen enjoyed not only passive freedom from ownership, but active political freedom ( libertas ), including the right to vote. A slave who had acquired libertas was thus a libertus ("freed person", feminine liberta ) in relation to his former master, who then became his patron ( patronus ). Freedmen and patrons had mutual obligations to each other within the traditional patronage network , and freedmen could “network” with other patrons as well. An edict in 118 BC stated that
945-582: A church, in AD 316 and 323, though the law was not put into effect in Africa till AD 401. Churches were allowed to manumit slaves among their membership, and clergy could free their own slaves by simple declaration without filing documents or the presence of witnesses. Laws such as the Novella 142 of Justinian in the 6th century gave bishops the power to free slaves. A male slave who had been legally manumitted by
1050-450: A command and supply structure capable of sustaining his forces in the field for long periods. This is thought to explain how Eunus' armies were repeatedly successful against the Romans. The sanctuary of Demeter in Enna provided Eunus' revolt a religious and anti-Roman aspect, something probably intentionally mirrored in his coinage. Green believes it is significant that Eunus based his rule on
1155-486: A council of advisors. Eunus also called his followers, who numbered in the tens of thousands, Syrians , and had his wife named queen. Diodorus reports scornfully that Eunus was chosen as king by the slaves not for his courage, but for his skill in wonderworking and role in initiating the revolt. Eunus' name, meaning "the Benevolent one" apparently also influenced the slaves into choosing him as their leader. Damophilus
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#17327733854661260-434: A crime, imprisoning them, or sending them involuntarily to a gladiatorial school ( ludus ) or condemning them to fight with gladiators or wild beasts —if manumitted were counted as a potential threat to society along with enemies defeated in war, regardless of whether their master's punishments had been justified. If they came within a hundred miles of Rome, they were subject to reenslavement. Dediticii were excluded from
1365-476: A figure as the wonderworker Eunus before him". Eunus was held as an example of the threat slaves could pose to Roman society even in the times of the late Roman Empire . Morton believes that the strategy employed by Eunus in the First Servile War was sound, systematic, and suited to the land (attacking supply lines and conquering important cities) contrasting the less focused, scattered fighting of
1470-451: A growing body of laws, in the imperial period a master could face penalties for killing a slave without just cause and could be compelled to sell a slave on grounds of mistreatment. Claudius decreed that if a slave was abandoned by his master, he became free. Nero granted slaves the right to complain against their masters in a court. And under Antoninus Pius , a master who killed a slave without just cause could be tried for homicide. From
1575-429: A heterosexual union with a partner that was intended to be lasting or permanent, within which children might be reared. Such a union, either arranged or approved and recognized by the slave's owner, was called contubernium . Though not technically a marriage, it had legal implications that were addressed by Roman jurists in case law and expressed an intention to marry if both partners gained manumission. A contubernium
1680-578: A message that soldiers should fight to victory or die. Hannibal then sold these prisoners of war to the Greeks, and they remained slaves until the Second Macedonian War , when Flamininus recovered 1,200 men who had survived some twenty years of slavery after Cannae. The war that most dramatically escalated the number of slaves brought into Roman society at the same time had exposed an unprecedented number of Roman citizens to enslavement. In
1785-415: A more privileged tier of servitude and could hope to obtain freedom through one of several well-defined paths with protections under the law. The possibility of manumission and subsequent citizenship was a distinguishing feature of Rome's system of slavery, resulting in a significant and influential number of freedpersons in Roman society. At all levels of employment, free working people, former slaves, and
1890-418: A perpetual minor. A slave could not be sued or be the plaintiff in a lawsuit. The testimony of a slave could not be accepted in a court of law unless the slave was tortured—a practice based on the belief that slaves in a position to be privy to their masters' affairs should be too virtuously loyal to reveal damaging evidence unless coerced, even though the Romans were aware that testimony produced under torture
1995-447: A reward, slaveholders could navigate the moral issues of enslaving people through placing the burden of merit on slaves—"good" slaves deserved freedom, and others did not. Manumission after a period of service may have been a negotiated outcome of contractual slavery , though a citizen who had entered willingly into unfree servitude was barred from full restoration of his rights. There were three kinds of legally binding manumission: by
2100-515: A slave's use was called a peculium . Isidore of Seville , looking back from the early 7th century, offered this definition: “ peculium is in the proper sense something which belongs to minors or slaves. For peculium is what a father or master allows his child or slave to manage as his own.” The practice of allowing the slave a peculium likely originated on agricultural estates in setting aside small parcels of land where slave families could grow some of their own food. The word peculium points to
2205-609: A solid, profitable business began during enslavement. A few freedmen became very wealthy. The brothers who owned the House of the Vettii , one of the biggest and most magnificent houses in Pompeii , are thought to have been freedmen. Building impressive tombs and monuments for themselves and their families was another way for freedmen to demonstrate their achievements. Despite their wealth and influence, they might still be looked down on by
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#17327733854662310-478: A stop to creditors enslaving a defaulting debtor as a private action, though a debtor could still be compelled by a legal judgment to work off his debt. Otherwise, the only means of enslaving a freeborn citizen that the Romans of the Republican era recognized as lawful was military defeat and capture under the ius gentium . The Carthaginian leader Hannibal enslaved Roman war captives in large numbers during
2415-480: A thin, semioval gold plate called a mind ( Old Irish ) as a diadem. Some of the earliest examples of these types of crowns can be found in ancient Egypt, from the simple fabric type to the more elaborate metallic type, and in the Aegean world. A diadem is also a jewelled ornament in the shape of a half crown, worn by women and placed over the forehead (in this sense, also called tiara ). In some societies, it may be
2520-424: A trance. In one of these trances, Eunus claimed to have received a dream that he would one day become a king, and told his master Antigenes; Antigenes found this amusing and had him mention this at a banquet to guests. The guests asked Eunus how he would run his kingdom, and after Eunus answered at length gave him some meat and asked him "to remember their kindness when he came to be king". After he became king, Eunus
2625-399: A wealthy household or country estate might be given a small monetary peculium as an allowance. The master's obligation to provide for the slave's subsistence was not counted as part of this discretionary peculium . Growth of the peculium came from the slave's own savings, including profits set aside from what was owed to the master as a result of sales or business transactions conducted by
2730-423: A will at times also received a bequest , which might include transferring ownership of a contubernalis (informal marriage partner) to him or her. Heirs might choose to complicate testamentary manumission, as a common condition was that the slave had to buy his freedom from the heir, and a slave still fulfilling the condition of his freedom could be sold. If there was no rightful heir, a master might not only free
2835-487: Is no evidence to suggest that Eunus sought a widespread repealing of slavery across all of the Roman Republic. Rather, Eunus and his associates "had nothing against slavery as an institution, but objected violently to being enslaved themselves". Green concludes that it is ironic Eunus chose two traditionally counter-revolutionary systems, religion and kingship, as bases of his revolt, but that "The tragedy and moral of
2940-512: Is recognized by the ius gentium in which someone is subject to the dominion of another person contrary to nature" ( Institutiones 1.3.2, 161 AD). Ulpian (2nd century AD) also regarded slavery as an aspect of the ius gentium , the customary international law held in common among all peoples ( gentes ). In Ulpian's tripartite division of law, the "law of nations" was considered neither natural law , thought to exist in nature and govern animals as well as humans, nor civil law ,
3045-435: Is said to have spared these guests, and the daughter of Antigenes who had always treated the slaves kindly, while killing Antigenes, Pytho, and many other slaveowners. Eunus was approached, maybe as early as 138 BC, by disgruntled slaves who were planning a revolt due to their mistreatment at the hands of a slaveowner named Damophilus; they asked him whether their revolt had divine approval. Eunus approved, and prophesized
3150-519: Is scant that they were. As the Roman Empire was becoming Christianized, Constantine II (emperor AD 337–340) barred Jews from owning Christian slaves, converting their slaves to Judaism, or circumcising their slaves. Laws in late antiquity discouraging the subjection of Christians to Jewish owners suggest that they were aimed at protecting Christian identity, since Christian households continued to have slaves who were Christian. In Roman law,
3255-493: Is unclear how much of Sicily came under Eunus' control, however; Agrigentum, Enna, Tauromenium were certainly taken, Catana as well, and Morgantina . Eunus' kingdom was largely focused in eastern Sicily, and encompassed roughly half of the island at its greatest extent. By 134 BC, consuls had begun being sent against Eunus. Eunus' success inspired slave revolts across the Mediterranean , and his army grew to number in
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3360-400: The domus , the "house" of his extended family, as master (dominus) ; patriarchy was recognized in Roman law as a form of household-level governance. The head of household was entitled to manage his dependents and to administer ad hoc justice to them with minimal oversight from the state. In early Rome, the paterfamilias had the right to sell, punish, or kill both his children ( liberi ,
3465-405: The paterfamilias , the "father" or head of household and more precisely the estate owner. According to Seneca , the early Romans coined paterfamilias as a euphemism for the relationship of a master to his slaves. The word for "master" was dominus as the one who controlled the domain of the domus (household); dominium was the word for his control over the slaves. The paterfamilias held
3570-414: The toga praetexta , ordinarily reserved for those of higher rank, for ceremonial functions and their funeral rites. In the towns ( municipia ) of the provinces and later in towns with the status of colonia , inscriptions indicate that former slaves could be elected to all offices below the rank of praetor —a fact obscured by elite literature and ostensible legal barriers. Ulpian even holds that if
3675-490: The Battle of Edessa in AD 260. According to hostile Christian sources, the aging emperor was treated as a slave and subjected to a grotesque array of humiliations. Reliefs and inscriptions located at the sacred Zoroastrian site of Naqsh-e Rostam , southwest Iran, celebrate the victories of Shapur I and his successor over the Romans, with emperors in subjection and legionaries paying tribute. Shapur's inscriptions record that
3780-456: The Etruscan city of Veii in 396 BC. Defensive wars also drained manpower for agriculture, increasing the demand for labor—a demand that could be met by the availability of war captives. From the sixth through the third centuries BC, Rome gradually became a “slave society,” with the first two Punic Wars (265–201 BC) producing the most dramatic surge in the number of slaves. Slavery with
3885-511: The Imperial era , when individual escape was a more persistent form of resistance. Fugitive slave-hunting was the most concerted form of policing in the Roman Empire. Moral discourse on slavery was concerned with the treatment of slaves, and abolitionist views were almost nonexistent. Inscriptions set up by slaves and freedpersons and the art and decoration of their houses offer glimpses of how they saw themselves. A few writers and philosophers of
3990-736: The Roman Republic , and, according to ancient sources, the largest of its kind in antiquity . Eunus' revolt inspired slave uprisings in Rome and Italy, which later slave leaders, including Spartacus in the Third Servile War , were unable to replicate. Salvius Tryphon of the Second Servile War followed Eunus' example by declaring himself king in the Seleucid fashion, though he "never seems to have become as charismatic
4095-566: The Roman military standards lost at Carrhae motivated military minds for decades, “considerably less official concern was expressed about the liberation of Roman prisoners.” Writing about thirty years after the battle, the Augustan poet Horace imagined them married to "barbarian" women and serving the Parthian army, too dishonored to be restored to Rome. Valerian became the first emperor to be held captive after his defeat by Shapur I at
4200-497: The Second Punic War . Following the Roman defeat at the Battle of Lake Trasimene (217 BC), the treaty included terms for ransoming prisoners of war. The Roman senate declined to do so, and their commander ended up paying the ransom himself. After the disastrous Battle of Cannae the following year, Hannibal again stipulated a redemption of captives, but the senate after debate again voted not to pay, preferring to send
4305-414: The universal grant of Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire made by Caracalla in AD 212. Diadem The word derives from the Greek διάδημα diádēma , "band" or "fillet", from διαδέω diadéō , "I bind round", or "I fasten". The term originally referred to the embroidered white silk ribbon, ending in a knot and two fringed strips often draped over the shoulders, that surrounded
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4410-530: The Mediterranean at risk of illegal enslavement, to which the children of poor families were especially vulnerable. Although a law was passed to ban debt slavery quite early in Rome's history, some people sold themselves into contractual slavery to escape poverty. The slave trade, lightly taxed and regulated, flourished in all reaches of the Roman Empire and across borders. In antiquity, slavery
4515-645: The Roman era were former slaves or the sons of freed slaves. Some scholars have made efforts to imagine more deeply the lived experiences of slaves in the Roman world through comparisons to the Atlantic slave trade , but no portrait of the "typical" Roman slave emerges from the wide range of work performed by slaves and freedmen and the complex distinctions among their social and legal statuses . Classical , 2nd century BC–2nd century AD Imperial 27 BC–AD 313 Christianization beginning AD 313 From Rome's earliest historical period, domestic slaves were part of
4620-454: The Roman troops he had enslaved came from all reaches of the empire. A Roman enslaved in war under such circumstances lost his citizen rights at home. His right to own property was forfeited, his marriage was dissolved, and if he was head of a household his legal power (potestas) over his dependents was suspended. If he was released from slavery, his citizen status might be restored along with his property and potestas . His marriage, however,
4725-479: The Romans and raise rebellious sentiments in the town. When another slave named Cleon revolted on the other side of Sicily, the Romans hoped the two slave armies would destroy each other. Instead, Cleon became a subject of Eunus and served him thereafter. Cleon may have communicated with Eunus long before they joined forces and even attacked Agrigentum on his order, though he is typically held to have revolted independently after being inspired by Eunus' success. It
4830-437: The Romans. Since Eunus was a defeated enemy of Rome , their accounts of both the slave uprising and its leader were likely biased. Morton notes that ancient sources refer to him as "Eunus" while numismatic evidence suggests he called himself, and wanted his subjects to refer to him as, King Antiochus. Broadly, the negativity of the sources means "it is difficult to say anything definitive about [Eunus]". Like Eunus, Posidonius
4935-497: The Second Servile War. This, in turn, merited a greater and more rapid response from Rome to the actions of Eunus than those of Salvius. Due to the lack of precise knowledge of when Eunus' revolt began, it has been speculated his actions may have been somewhat responsible for "actual or feared" grain shortages in Rome, which in turn influenced the legislative programs pursued by both Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus . There
5040-420: The Seleucid monarchy of Syria, and that he may have been a descendant or bastard of the Seleucid house. In any case, "That he [Eunus] believed in his own kingship seems certain: a calculating charlatan seldom gets the hold over men which Eunus quite clearly did". Enna was the capital of Eunus' slave kingdom. When the slave revolt was growing, he did not allow his followers to pillage farmhouses and fields, knowing
5145-463: The addition of livestock ( pecus ). Any surplus could be sold at market. Like other practices that encouraged agency among slaves in furthering their skills, this early form of peculium served an ethic of self-sufficiency and might motivate slaves to be more productive in ways that ultimately benefitted the slave owner, leading over time to more sophisticated opportunities for business development and wealth management for enslaved people. Slaves within
5250-477: The compendium of Roman law known as the Digest . A master who left his rural estate to an heir often included the workforce of slaves, sometimes with express provisions that slave families—father and mother, children, and grandchildren—be kept together. Among the laws Augustus issued pertaining to marriage and sexual morality was one permitting legal marriage between a freedwoman and a freeborn man of any rank below
5355-562: The consequences for status from war (bellum) and from banditry ( latrocinium ) may be reflected in the similar Jewish distinction between a “captive of a kingdom” and a “captive of banditry,” in what would be a rare example of Roman law influencing the language and formulation of rabbinic law . The legal process originally developed for reintegrating war captives was postliminium , a return after passing out of Roman jurisdiction and then crossing back over one's own “threshold” (limen) . Not all war captives were eligible for reintegration;
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#17327733854665460-400: The disposal of the peculium -holder; in this sense, inscriptions not infrequently record that a slave "belonged to" another slave . Property otherwise could not be owned by the dependents of a household, defined as someone subordinate to the potestas of the paterfamilias —including not only slaves, but adult sons who remained minors by law until their father's death. All wealth belonged to
5565-399: The enemy were brought back into possession and restored to their former slave status under their Roman owners. Fundamentally, the slave in ancient Roman law was one who lacked libertas , liberty defined as “the absence of servitude." Cicero (1st century BC) asserted that liberty “does not consist in having a just master (dominus) , but in having none.” The common Latin word for "slave"
5670-543: The enslaved mostly did the same kinds of jobs. Elite Romans whose wealth came from property ownership saw little difference between slavery and a dependence on earning wages from labor. Slaves were themselves considered property under Roman law and had no rights of legal personhood. Unlike Roman citizens , by law they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation, torture, and summary execution. The most brutal forms of punishment were reserved for slaves. The adequacy of their diet, shelter, clothing, and healthcare
5775-483: The existence of which is taken as a given. But there are mentions of manumission and the status of freedmen, who are referred to as cives Romani liberti , "freedmen who are Roman citizens," indicating that as early as the 5th century BC, former slaves were a significant demographic that the law needed to address, with a legal path to freedom and the opportunity to participate in the legal and political system. The Roman jurist Gaius described slavery as "the state that
5880-522: The fact that he was born in Apamea , Syria. He was probably trafficked by pirates to Sicily, eventually being sold by his previous owner Pytho to a Greek man of Enna named Antigenes. As a household slave with a wife, Eunus was in a privileged position compared to other slaves in Sicily. Eunus was reputed in Enna to be an oracle who received visions from the gods when he was both awake and asleep. He
5985-416: The fall of Enna to the rebel slaves. Early in the spring of 135 BC, the slaves, numbering 400, took Enna in a midnight attack, probably with internal help from the city. Eunus participated: Diodorus describes him standing in the front ranks of the assault, blowing fire from his mouth. After the capture of the city and slaughter of many of its inhabitants and slaveowners, Eunus crowned himself king, wearing
6090-441: The father's governance of his children and of his slaves is put bluntly by Cicero: the master can expect his children to obey him readily but will need to "coerce and break his slave." Although slaves were recognized as human beings ( homines , singular homo ), they lacked legal personhood (Latin persona) . Lacking legal standing as a person, a slave could not enter into legal contracts on his own behalf; in effect, he remained
6195-401: The freedman was legally responsible only for services or projects (operae) that had been spelled out as stipulations or sworn to in advance; money could not be demanded, and certain freedmen were exempt from any formal operae . The Lex Aelia Sentia of AD 4 allowed a patron to take his freedman to court for not carrying out his operae as outlined in their manumission agreement, but
6300-567: The government bureaucracy. Some rose to positions of great influence, such as Narcissus , a former slave of the emperor Claudius . Their influence grew to such an extent under the Julio-Claudian emperors that Hadrian limited their participation by law. More typical among freedmen success stories would be the cloak dealership of Lucius Arlenus Demetrius, enslaved from Cilicia, and Lucius Arlenus Artemidorus, from Paphlagonia , whose shared family name suggests that their partnership toward
6405-458: The greatest chance for manumission, allowing her to marry and bear legitimate, free children, though in general women might not have expected manumission until their reproductive years had passed. A slave who had a large enough peculium might also buy the freedom of a fellow slave, a contubernalis with whom he had cohabited or a partner in business. Neither age nor length of service was automatic grounds for manumission; "masterly generosity
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#17327733854666510-472: The head of household except for that owned independently by his wife, whose slaves might operate with their own peculia from her. The legal dodge of peculium enabled both adult sons and capable slaves to manage property, turn a profit, and negotiate contracts. Legal texts do not recognize a fundamental distinction between slaves and sons acting as business agent ( institor ) . However, legal restrictions on making loans to unemancipated sons, introduced in
6615-496: The head of the king to denote his authority. Such ribbons were also used to crown victorious athletes in important sports games in antiquity. It was later applied to a metal crown , generally in a circular or " fillet " shape. For example, the crown worn by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was a diadem, as was that of a baron later (in some countries surmounted by three globes). The ancient Celts were believed to have used
6720-727: The later Republic and during the Imperial period, thousands of soldiers, citizens, and their slaves in the Roman East were taken captive and enslaved by the Parthians or later within the Sasanian Empire . The Parthians captured 10,000 survivors after the defeat of Marcus Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, and marched them 1,500 miles to Margiana in Bactria , where their fate is unknown. While thoughts of returning
6825-440: The legal code particular to a people or nation. All human beings are born free ( liberi ) under natural law, but since slavery was held to be a universal practice, individual nations would develop their own civil laws pertaining to slaves. In ancient warfare, the victor had the right under the ius gentium to enslave a defeated population; however, if a settlement had been reached through diplomatic negotiations or formal surrender,
6930-582: The legal right to break up or sell off family members, and it has sometimes been assumed that they did so arbitrarily. But because of the value Romans placed on home-reared slaves ( vernae ) in expanding their familia , there is more evidence that the formation of family units, though not recognized as such for purposes of law and inheritance, was supported within larger urban households and on rural estates. Roman jurists who weigh in on actions that might break up slave families generally favored keeping them together, and protections for them appear several times in
7035-455: The magistrate confirmed it. The owner might also free the slave simply by having him entered in the official roll of citizens during census-taking; on principle, the censor had the unilateral power to free any slave to serve the interests of the state as a citizen. Slaves could also be freed in their owner's will ( manumissio testamento ), sometimes on condition of service or payment before or after freedom. A slave rewarded with manumission in
7140-534: The manumission of slaves younger than thirty years of age, with some exceptions. Slaves of the emperor's own household were among those most likely to receive manumission, and the usual legal requirements did not apply. By the early 4th century AD, when the Empire was becoming Christianized, slaves could be freed by a ritual in a church, officiated by an ordained bishop or priest. Constantine I promulgated edicts authorizing manumissio in ecclesia , manumission within
7245-514: The mid 1st century AD, made them less useful than slaves in this role. Slaves with the skills and opportunities to earn money might hope to save enough to buy their freedom. There was a risk to the still-enslaved person that the master would renege and take back the earnings, but one of the expanded protections for slaves in the Imperial era was that a manumission agreement between the slave and his master could be enforced. While very few slaves ever controlled large sums of money, slaves who managed
7350-403: The mid to late 2nd century AD, slaves had more standing to complain of cruel or unfair treatment by their owners. But since even in late antiquity slaves still could not file lawsuits, could not testify without first undergoing torture, and could be punished by being burnt alive for testifying against their masters, it is unclear how these offenses could be brought to court and prosecuted; evidence
7455-425: The necessity of provisions for his war effort. A small bronze coin, minted at Enna, bears the inscription "King Antiochus", this being likely Eunus. His armies took several other cities in central and eastern Sicily , including Tauromenium . During the siege of one of these cities, Eunus staged a re-enactment of the slave revolt's seizure of Enna and killing of slaveowners outside of bowshot, probably intending to mock
7560-403: The people were by custom to be spared violence and enslavement. The ius gentium was not a legal code , and any force it had depended on "reasoned compliance with standards of international conduct". Although Rome's earliest wars were defensive, a Roman victory would still result in the enslavement of the defeated under these circumstances, as is recorded at the conclusion of the war with
7665-465: The possibility of manumission became so embedded in Roman society that by the 2nd century AD, most free citizens in the city of Rome are likely to have had slaves "somewhere in their ancestry." In early Rome, the Twelve Tables permitted debt slavery under harsh terms and made freeborn Romans subject to enslavement as a result of financial misfortune. A law in the late 4th century BC put
7770-519: The possible penalties—which range in severity from a reprimand and fines to condemnation to hard labor—never include a return to enslavement. As a social class, freed slaves were libertini , though later writers used the terms libertus and libertinus interchangeably. Libertini were not entitled to hold the " career track " magistracies or state priesthoods in the city of Rome, nor could they achieve senatorial rank . But they could hold neighborhood and local offices which entitled them to wear
7875-604: The power of life and death (vitae necisque potestas) over the dependents of his household, including his sons and daughters as well as slaves. The Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1st century AD) asserts that this right dated back to the legendary time of Romulus . In contrast to Greek city-states , Rome was an ethnically diverse population and incorporated former slaves as citizens. Dionysius found it remarkable that when Romans manumitted their slaves, they gave them Roman citizenship as well. Myths of Rome's founding sought to account for both this heterogeneity and
7980-403: The rod, by the census, and by the terms of the owner's will ; all three were ratified by the state. The public ceremony of manumissio vindicta ("by the rod") was a fictitious trial that had to be performed before a magistrate who held imperium ; a Roman citizen declared the slave free, the owner did not contest it, the citizen touched the slave with a staff and pronounced a formula, and
8085-469: The role of freedmen in Roman society. The legendary founding by Romulus began with his establishment of a place of refuge that, according to the Augustan-era historian Livy , attracted "mostly former slaves, vagabonds, and runaways all looking for a fresh start" as citizens of the new city, which Livy considers a source of Rome's strength. Servius Tullius , the semi-legendary sixth king of Rome ,
8190-513: The senatorial, and legitimizing their heirs. A master could free a slave for the purpose of marrying her, becoming both her patron and her husband. Roman women, including freedwomen, could own property and initiate divorce , which required the intention of only one of the partners. But when marriage had been a condition of the freedwoman's manumission agreement, she lacked these rights. If she wanted to divorce her patron and marry someone else, she had to obtain his consent; provide evidence that he
8295-527: The slave but make him the heir. A formal manumission could not be revoked by the patron, and Nero ruled that the state had no interest in doing so. Freedom might also be granted informally, such as per epistulam , in a letter stating this intention, or inter amicos , "among friends," with the owner proclaiming a slave's freedom in front of witnesses. During the Republic, informal manumission did not confer citizen status, but Augustus took steps to clarify
8400-432: The slave had no kinship —no ancestral or paternal lineage, and no collateral relatives . The lack of legal personhood meant that slaves could not enter into forms of marriage recognized under Roman law , and a male slave was not a father as a matter of law because he could not exercise patriarchal potestas . However, slaves born into the familia and "upwardly mobile" slaves who held privileged positions might form
8505-404: The slave, and anything given to a slave by a third party for "meritorious services". The slave's own earnings could also be the original source of the monetary peculium rather than a grant by the master, and in inscriptions slaves and freedpersons at times assert that they had paid for the dedication "with their own money." The peculium in the form of property could include other slaves put at
8610-422: The status of those so freed. A law created "Junian Latin " status for these informally manumitted slaves, a sort of "half-way house between slavery and freedom" that, for example, did not confer the right to make a will. In 2 BC, the lex Fufia Caninia limited the number of slaves that could be freed through a master's will in proportion to the size of the estate. Six years later, another law prohibited
8715-473: The tens of thousands. Ancient sources report exaggerated figures of 70,000 or even 200,000. Eunus was successful in defeating Roman forces sent against him for several years through "strong and vigorous leadership". The character of the war, preserved by ancient sources and suggested by its length, indicates it was hard-fought. However, after his armies were defeated by the Romans under the leadership of Marcus Perperna and Publius Rupilius in 132 BC, Eunus
8820-435: The terms of a treaty might permit the other side to retain captives as servi hostium , “slaves of the enemy.” A ransom could be paid to redeem a captive individually or as a group; an individual ransomed by someone outside his family was required to pay back the money before his full rights could be restored, and although he was a freeborn person, his status was ambiguous until the lien was lifted. An investigative procedure
8925-540: The traditional aristocracy as a vulgar nouveau riche . In the Satyricon , the character Trimalchio is a caricature of such a freedman. Although in general freed slaves could become citizens, those categorized as dediticii held no rights even if freed. The jurist Gaius called the status of dediticius "the worst kind of freedom." Slaves whose masters had treated them as criminals —placing them in chains , tattooing or branding them, torturing them to confess
9030-564: The whole episode is that no conceivable alternative existed". Slavery in ancient Rome Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the economy. Unskilled or low-skill slaves labored in the fields, mines, and mills with few opportunities for advancement and little chance of freedom. Skilled and educated slaves—including artisans, chefs, domestic staff and personal attendants, entertainers , business managers, accountants and bankers, educators at all levels, secretaries and librarians, civil servants, and physicians—occupied
9135-414: The “free ones” in the household) and the slaves of the familia . This power of life and death, expressed as vitae necisque potestas , was exercised over all members of the extended household except his wife — a free Roman woman could own property of her own as a domina , and a married woman's slaves could act as her agents independently of her husband. Despite structural symmetries, the distinction between
9240-509: Was emancipatio , from which the English word " emancipation " derives. Both manumission and emancipation would involve transferral of some or most of any peculium (fund or property) the slave or minor had managed, less the self-purchase cost of the slave buying his freedom. That the two procedures are parallel in undoing the control of the paterfamilias is indicated by the legal fiction through which emancipatio occurred: technically, it
9345-446: Was not mentally competent to form intent; or show that he had broken their commitment by planning to marry someone else or taking a concubine . Because they were themselves property (res) , as a matter of law Roman slaves could not own property. However, they could be allowed to hold and manage property, which they could use as if it were their own, even though it ultimately belonged to their master. A fund or property set aside for
9450-567: Was servus , but in Roman law , a slave as chattel was mancipium , a grammatically neuter word meaning something "taken in hand," manus , a metaphor for possession and hence control and subordination. Agricultural slaves, certain farmland within the Italian peninsula, and farm animals were all res mancipi , a category of property established in early Rome's rural economy as requiring a formal legal process ( mancipatio ) for transferring ownership. The exclusive right to trade in res mancipi
9555-404: Was a defining aspect of Roman citizenship in the Republican era; free noncitizen residents ( peregrini ) could not buy and sell this form of property without a special grant of commercial rights. The Roman citizen who enjoyed liberty to the fullest extent was thus the property owner, the paterfamilias who had a legal right to control the estate. The paterfamilias exercised his power within
9660-441: Was a sale ( mancipatio ) of the minor son three times at once, based on the archaic provision of the Twelve Tables that a son sold three times was freed of his father's potestas . Slaves of the emperor's household (the familia Caesaris ) were routinely manumitted at ages 30 to 35—an age that should not be taken as standard for other slaves. Within the familia Caesaris , a young woman in her reproductive years seems to have had
9765-409: Was besieged at Enna. He fought his way out of the city with a bodyguard of 1,000, and eventually took refuge in a cavern with members of his court, where he was subsequently captured. He was sent to prison, where he died of illness before he could be punished. Eunus may have been kept in prison rather than crucified out of fear of creating a martyr . Eunus' revolt was the first mass slave uprising in
9870-497: Was dependent on their perceived utility to owners whose impulses might be cruel or situationally humane. Some people were born into slavery as the child of an enslaved mother. Others became slaves. War captives were considered legally enslaved, and Roman military expansion during the Republican era was a major source of slaves. From the 2nd century BC through late antiquity , kidnapping and piracy put freeborn people all around
9975-470: Was eventually defeated, dying in captivity in 132 BC. Most of the literary evidence for Eunus and the First Servile War comes from the writings of Diodorus Siculus , who used Posidonius as his primary source. Florus' Epitome , which provides excerpts from lost portions of Livy , is the most detailed account in Latin. Diodorus, Posidonius, and especially Florus were anti-slave and thus sympathetic to
10080-472: Was from the Syrian town of Apamea. He likely based his details about Eunus' worship of Atargatis in his personal knowledge of the goddess's priests. Despite all existing sources being negative, Urbainczyk notes that "the sources attributed to [Eunus] all the powers, abilities, wisdom, and cunning that challenges to the status quo had to have in order to succeed". Eunus' life prior to slavery is not known, besides
10185-523: Was killed by Eunus' subordinates. When one of Eunus' followers, a man named Achaeus, protested the excessive killings of slaveowners, Eunus, remarkably, welcomed the advice and promoted him to the ruling council of his new kingdom. Eunus organized the slaves and seems to have attempted to build a state independent of Rome, a "Seleucid Kingdom of the West which would recall the great days of Antiochus III ", minting his own coins, entrenching his rule, and evolving
10290-418: Was normally a cohabitation between two slaves within the same household, and contubernia were recorded along with births , deaths, and manumissions in large households concerned with lineage. Sometimes only one partner (contubernalis) obtained free status before the death of the other, as commemorated in epitaphs. These quasi marital unions were especially common among imperial slaves . The master had
10395-409: Was not automatically renewed; another agreement of consent by both parties had to be arranged. The loss of citizenship was a consequence of submitting to an enemy sovereign state; freeborn people kidnapped by bandits or pirates were regarded as seized illegally, and therefore they could be ransomed, or their sale into slavery rendered void, without compromising their citizen status. This contrast between
10500-426: Was not the driving force behind the Romans' dealings with their slaves." Scholars have differed on the rate of manumission. Manual laborers treated as chattel were least likely to be manumitted; skilled or highly educated urban slaves most likely. The hope was always greater than the reality, though it may have motivated some slaves to work harder and conform to the ideal of the "faithful servant." Dangling liberty as
10605-416: Was put in place under the emperor Hadrian to determine whether returned soldiers had been captured or surrendered willingly. Traitors, deserters, and those who had a chance to escape but made no attempt were not eligible for postliminium restoration of their citizenship. Because postliminium law also applied to enemy seizure of mobile property, it was the means by which military-support slaves taken by
10710-431: Was said to have been the son of a slave woman, and the cultural role of slavery is embedded in some religious festivals and temples that the Romans associated with his reign. Some legal and religious developments pertaining to slavery thus can be discerned even in Rome's earliest institutions. The Twelve Tables , the earliest Roman legal code , dated traditionally to 451/450 BC, do not contain law defining slavery,
10815-454: Was seen as the political consequence of one group dominating another, and people of any race, ethnicity, or place of origin might become slaves, including freeborn Romans. Slavery was practiced within all communities of the Roman Empire, including among Jews and Christians. Even modest households might expect to have two or three slaves. A period of slave rebellions ended with the defeat of Spartacus in 71 BC; slave uprisings grew rare in
10920-473: Was so well regarded for this that Antigenes would introduce him to his guests to divine their fortune. He also blew fire from his mouth during his oracular trances, which he held as proof of his supernatural powers. However, Florus (writing his account centuries later) identified it as a fire eating act. According to him, Eunus hid a small, perforated nutshell containing burning material on his mouth, which he would blow through to emit fire and sparks while in
11025-587: Was unreliable. A slave was not permitted to testify against his master unless the charge was treason ( crimen maiestatis ) . When a slave committed a crime, the punishment exacted was likely to be far more severe than for the same crime committed by a free person. Persona gradually became "synonymous with the true nature of the individual" in the Roman world, in the view of Marcel Mauss , but " servus non habet personam ('a slave has no persona'). He has no personality. He does not own his body; he has no ancestors, no name, no cognomen , no goods of his own." Owing to
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