How Roman Slaves Put The Romans Out Of Work

Roman  Slaves    by: Leanne, Kayla, Sadie 

Life as a slave was very hard. They were treated terribly by the romans.

Romans, specially the wealthy ones depended greatly on their slaves for maintaining an opulent lifestyle. These slaves did most of the work for his or her masters and worked diligently to supply them comfort. Slaves in Rome were used for house servant, labour, and gladiator fighting. Educated slaves were even utilized as physicians, teachers and poets. Educated and skillful slaves carried a hefty price tag. Slaves made up a substantial a part of the Roman population. In 1st century BC, 30 to 40 percent of Italy’s population comprised of slaves.

Slaves were perceived as foreign, untrustworthy, and lazy. Rough conditions, slaves had to fight as gladiators and get killed. They often had to work in extremely dangerous mines.

The lifespan of most slaves varied depending on his/her owner and position.Slave escapes weren’t uncommon however typically unsuccessful.

 

Rome offered a technique for social advancement for a select variety of slaves. They granted them citizenship 1 slave for every 3 free people or about 2 million slaves. The victory in the 2nd punic war rise of wealth improved and gave the the ability to own slaves. Depending on their master, they could buy freedom using money earned.

 

However, the master could avoid agreement and take the money for their own. Slaves were the lowest of all classes in this society.

 

Even a freed criminal could have more rights. A slave had no rights at all and absolutely no legal status or any individuality. The children born to freed slaves were however, considered free with full rights of a roman citizen.

 

Many roman people were owned by other people, or by the roman government, as slaves. Because the romans didn’t really have hourly wage, or salaried work.

 

As we know men and women who didn’t own their land or a business on their own were often enslaved. The jobs slaves did were jobs witch today in the US are done by free people working for wages. Like today, some of those jobs were awful, and some of them were pretty good.

 

Many of these men and women, worked in the fields especially in southern france and spain,on big farms owned by rich men and women.

 

Slaves were usually prisoners captured in war, but some people had been kidnapped in Italy.

 

Slaves in Rome had a very problematic time for things like freedom and rights. Most times slaves don’t fight for things  like freedom and rights because they are uneducated to the many privileges they can get and they don’t have the money to get out slavery to fight for it. Some slaves worked for money, food, water and other things but some didn’t get any money If you were a slave and rebelled you would have consequences for rebelling and would have to work more or would be killed as well as if you were to run away.

Slaves were sold at a slave-market. They were put on show, naked, with a notice around their necks. anyone who had enough money could buy them. Once sold they were the property of their new owner and had to work for no money. Sometimes a rich man would have as many as 400 slaves.

Some slave owners beat their slaves and slaves that ran away could be killed. Slaves could not argue with their masters, they had to do exactly as they were told or else they would be punished. If a slave killed his master then all the other slaves in the household would be killed.

 

Both men and women were sold as slaves and young boys were the most expensive slaves to buy. Some slaves were well educated, especially those from Greece, and they would be used to teach the children of the house.

 

Women slaves would be used as hairdressers, dressmakers, cooks and servants for rich women. Other slaves worked in small workshops making leather or silver goods or pots and pans.

 

the slaves who had the hardest jobs were those who were put to work in the mines. They had to spend long hours underground in hot, cramped conditions. The mines were also unsafe and often slaves were killed in accidents. Farmers used slaves to do the hardest work on their farms like digging and ploughing.

Although they, and other slaves, would be killed if they ran away, many did try to escape. However, this was very difficult because they had no one to help them and many of them did not speak Latin.


Slavery was practiced in Rome for many years, even as it absolutely was in Europe. thus standard was the establishment of slavery in Rome that, the same as the U.S., in some cities, slaves outnumbered citizens!

 

Because slavery was a part of Rome’s history for long and therefore the numbers of slaves so great, it had been inevitable that slaves would get up and revolt against their masters for higher living conditions. There have been 3 main rebellions throughout the republic.  

 

Overall, slavery was cruel and unjust and we think these roman slaves didn’t deserve the harsh life they had to live.

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