preview

The Role Of Slavery In Ancient Rome

Decent Essays

Roman slavery has increased the wealth of the highest class, and the aristocrats who owned the most slaves would represent the wealthiest citizens. As one third of the Roman population, slaves have tested the strength of the economy by completing specialized jobs for no profit instead of the working middle class. Also, the government distributed very few rights for the slaves to have the opportunity to escape poverty.
As the population of slaves grew rapidly, the aristocratic elite was able to hold great power and wealth throughout Ancient Rome and its plantations. The more slaves that an elite had working for them the more “luxury and privileges” they obtained. In addition, the Romans took prisoners or citizens charged for war debt from conquered regions such as Carthage, Macedonia and Greece in Northern Italy, Africa and Europe to acquire as their slaves. The slaves past origin and ethnicity did not cause discrimination or leave that slave with a crueler punishment than others in the Roman Republic. However constant loyalty and obedience towards the owner was required. The different Hellenistic traits portrayed by the ancient slaves actually had a positive effect on the wealth of the …show more content…

This resulted in the replacement of the average citizen in their specialized jobs. In the minds of the aristocrats, slaves were quite cheap compared to the costly amounts spent on freed men. The slaves would participate in menial labors such as mining that their masters assigned for free. Aristocrats would fire the original farmers so that they did not have to offer profits for the jobs to be done, which increased the wealth of the aristocrats greatly. This allowed “unemployed masses to grow to unbearable and undesirable proportions” (Roman slavery excerpt). Along with the lack of jobs for the lower classes the government also fought through slavery and its

Get Access