Slavery In Ancient Rome

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Slavery in ancient Rome was closely associated with the world view of people and division of people into free citizens, and slaves had to engage in physical labour on the fields in crafts and household of their masters. According to ancient Rome, physical labour was considered as the shameful phenomenon and free citizens should not deal with it. Slave owners and every free man believed that only war, politics and leisure activities like arts beliefs were worthy of their positions. Physical work, according to the ideas of the slave class, restricted free men from attaining any higher knowledge, virtues, etc.

Raymer states about the assumption "that the civilization depends upon the existence of privilege classes, supported by inferior …show more content…
Slaves belonging to the master were divided into a category of lowest slaves and higher, which watched over the work of lower slaves. Moreover, they were more close to the masters, and they had a right to punish slaves for misdemeanors and dangerous work. At the bottom of the mass of slaves were groups of servants who worked in the fields, vineyards and pastures. At the households, they also performed a variety of functions, from working in the kitchen to the gatekeeper who was on a chain, and acted as a watchdog. Some were used for fun and sometimes they were mutilated in every possible way to arouse the interest of the public. There is another interesting fact that some slaves were sufficiently educated and worked as accountants, cashiers, managers of the houses, librarians. Even more, some slaves were bought specially for the role of philosophers or talking books. They had to quote the teachings, treatises, read poetry at the request of their masters. Some masters even specially taught their slaves and trained them for a particular job and then gave to other slave owners in hiring. However, most slaveholders preferred to have their specialized staff. In addition to the slaves, which belonged to the master, there were slaves owned by the city or state. They were doing community service, worked in the mines and repaired the houses. The most successful worked with small assignments are with …show more content…
The burden of all the labour was assigned on the shoulders of slaves. It is possible to talk about a human attitude to slaves and their rights due to cruel treatment from the owners and the laws that erased the existence if a slave as a person. Slaves ensured progress and wealth of Rome to the Empire by fulfilling various duties, and it is a little bit creepy to realize that the future European cultural center and stronghold of humanism was the scene of action of such horrific acts towards people. However, most importantly, the Romans had updated their worldview, and changes in consciousness had transformed into
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