When you talk about ancient Rome, what comes to mind first? I think it must be a splendid ancient Roman culture. It is often said that ''Glorious Greece, Great Rome''.
It is also true that in terms of history, the ancient Roman statesman and writer Cato set a precedent for writing the history of Rome in Latin and wrote the book "Origins"; other historical works include Caesar's "Gallic War", "Celebrity Biography" of Livy and Nepos, "History of Rome" of Appian, and so on.
In the natural sciences, Pliny the Great wrote The Natural History; Strapo wrote Geography; Ptolemy wrote about mathematics, astronomy, and geography. In literature, the poet Virgil wrote the Pastoral Song; Horace left the Song Collection for posterity.
In terms of architecture, the Colosseum, Pantheon, Angel Castle, etc. of that year have been relatively well preserved, and romanesque architecture focuses on the change of form, the overall shape, and its unique dome and arch are a major symbol.
Politically, many countries called themselves 'Rome', from the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation to the post-Byzantine Empire, to the Balkan states, and even Russia regarded themselves as the heirs of Rome (they considered themselves to be the legitimate heirs of the Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire), and the mature political concepts of the provincial system, republican form, and parliament all came from Rome.
Legally, Roman law is broad and profound, the originator of modern law, and many legal ideas have been inherited to this day and are used by all countries, especially the Code of Justinian. Religiously, the Orthodox Church originated in Eastern Rome and had a decisive influence on Eastern and Southern Europe. Militarily, the Roman legions were the most powerful fighting units in a thousand years; Caesar would have at least one place in the history of mankind, and Hannibal was, although he was not a Roman, but he fought rome all his life; Wigentius's "Military Compendium" was the earliest military work of the ancient world; and the Great Wall was not only built in ancient China, the Romans also had their own Great Wall.
In our eyes, this is Rome. But as the saying goes: where there is light, there is darkness. So what kind of shadow is there under the glorious Rome? This is related to the protagonists of our story today, who are the slaves of ancient Rome. They have no human rights, no freedom, the splendor of ancient Rome was created by them, and they are not entitled to enjoy everything they have created. They are like the foundations under the city of Rome, forever dark, but they support this glorious eternal city. Today we will let them be the protagonists of the stage and understand their lives.
Most of the slaves in ancient Rome came from prisoners of war during its expansionist period, and a small number came from the West. In the 2nd century BC, after entering the late republican era, Rome expanded into a slave hegemony from Asia Minor in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, encompassing most of the Mediterranean coast. The rapid expansion of territory, the establishment of overseas provinces, huge war reparations and plundering assets, and the influx of prisoners of war into Rome contributed greatly to the development of the slave economy. So slaves also ushered in their tragic moments, and a large part of the people in the conquered areas were captured and became slaves.
Comparison of Chinese and Western slaves
As we all know, in ancient China, when you were a servant, if you behaved well, you could at least have a bite to eat. If you do something remarkable for your master, the master will trust you more and more, even in the clouds. Some of them even jumped over the dragon gate because they were favored by the hostess and became the superior people in society. You will always have all kinds of opportunities to break free from the shackles of your destiny. Mencius's "Born in Sorrow, Died in Happiness" once wrote: Guan YiWu lifted up in the shi, Sun Shu Ao lifted in the sea, and Baili Xi lifted up in the city. The Baili Xi in the text is a slave, who was exchanged for five sheepskins by Qin Mu and finally worshipped as a doctor.
But ancient Rome is different, in ancient Rome, the various levels are insurmountable. If you are a slave, then you will be a slave all your life, and your children and grandchildren will be slaves, and you will never change your destiny. From the moment they were handcuffed to the slave market and bought by Roman citizens, they lost all their rights and freedoms, and the moment they had the mark of their slave owners, they became the personal goods of the slave owners, and their lives would be completely dominated by the slave owners.
In other words, they are no different from cattle and mules, except that cows, mules are cows that can call, and slaves are advanced animals that can communicate in language. Roman citizens never looked at slaves as human beings. In their view, a qualified ancient Roman was not only good at fighting, but also abusive to slaves.
The slaves of ancient Rome can be said to be very low in status, all the dirty work must be done, if they do not do well or are lazy, they will be greeted by violent beatings, if the slave owner is annoyed, or even he kills the slave in anger, this kind of behavior is allowed by law in ancient Rome. If the slave is sick or injured, and has no use value for the slave owner, then the slave will be starved to death or ignored by him, and they are only a tool for the slave owner to work inferior to pigs and dogs, and the money for their illness is enough for the slave owner to buy a new batch of slaves, so the slave owner will not do this.
Division of labor among slaves
But they held different positions in the slave owners' homes and were treated differently.
For the lowest slaves, they had to work outside every day in handcuffs or chains, tired all day, and sleeping in dark, damp dungeons at night. Slaves mining in mines often encountered landslides or landslides, and many slaves, because of their limited mobility due to their handcuffs, did not avoid in time and eventually died on the spot.
In addition, young and strong slaves also risk being thrown into the Colosseum to duel with beasts, and when the slaves are blurred by the flesh and blood of the beasts, the slave owners can not see it. If the slave was eventually bitten by a beast, the slave owner would feel very disappointed; but if the slave had won, he might have received some reward, but there was no substantial change.
As for the slaves who specialized in serving the daily life of the slave owners. Because the slaves who worked and the intensity of their work were not particularly high, the things he had to deal with every day were very complicated, and everything was managed to death. They were not allowed to speak without their master's permission, and they were punished for even moving their lips or coughing uncontrollably, because the master thought that the slaves were cursing him by making a sound.
As the saying goes, 'A companion is like a companion of a tiger'", for slaves, the slave owner is their king. If the service is slightly worse, it is a whipping at the light and life-threatening at worst. A janitor slave once described himself this way: 'I was chained like a dog, often beaten like a donkey, and scarred like leopard skin.' In fact, this kind of slave endured, because the slaves who worked and the slaves who went to the gladiatorial arena were even more miserable.
Compared with the above, the life of a learned or skilled slave was still good. For example, slaves with high levels of knowledge could become tutors. They would often be assigned a room of their own, with additional rewards if the slave owner was served well. Some slave owners would even help them arrange a spouse and have children. But after all, they were not free people, and no matter how knowledgeable and skilled they were, most slave owners would often deliberately make things difficult for them to prevent them from having a good life.
The miserable life of a slave girl
Moreover, the army of the ancient Roman Empire had a relatively strange regulation, which was extremely moral and did not pay attention to human rights! After they broke through the city, all the women in the city belonged to the soldiers, and as long as they were women, no matter what their status, they would become the objects of the soldiers' play, become the female slaves they abused wantonly, and the men would all be killed. So Rome was also known as the 'Slave Girl Empire',' and from this title one can imagine the more miserable life of female slaves.
So, what jobs did female slaves do after they were bought by their masters?
The daily tasks that female slaves needed to do were to wash clothes, cook, feed poultry, pigs and sheep, and so on. There were also some ancient Roman nobles who also asked female slaves to act as nurses and feed their children. But most of the women who bought slaves were for lust. Female slaves, who were basically bought, became completely sexual tools of the slave owners, who not only had the right to violate them at will, but also killed them after they had children, because slaves were not worthy of having children.
Once a female slave accidentally conceives a child after being raped by her master, the child will never be allowed to survive and die in the womb of the slave girl before she is born. For they did not allow their noble bloodline to associate with slaves to give birth to hybrids. And if the female slaves are tired of being played by the masters, the fate is even worse, directly sold to the brothel, receiving guests, selling the flesh, maintaining their basic life, and the slave owners will get a large income.
Slave revolt
There is a Roman proverb that says, "'There are as many slaves as there are enemies.'" In the city of Rome, an average of more than 2,000 slaves were sold every day, and the island of Delos on the Aegean Sea was once a famous slave trade center, and female slaves were toyed with, which was normal around the Romans. But where there is oppression, there is resistance. Thus in the later period, more and more slave revolts broke out in ancient Rome, such as the Sicilian Slave Wars, the Spartacus Wars, etc. Spartacus, the slave leader, was a hero who dared to rebel against the slave owner.
As a gladiator slave, Spartacus did not want to be the injustice of fate, did not want to be a toy for the amusement of the nobles, did not want to be imprisoned in a cage, he longed for freedom, for which he paid for practice, but also paid for his life. The slave revolt was suppressed, and eventually Spartacus was killed on the battlefield, and 6,000 spartan soldiers were taken prisoner, deprived of the opportunity to enslave again, and they were crucified on the crosses along the road from the city of Rome to Gapua. Although these uprisings were eventually suppressed, they still played a positive role in the life of slaves.
The release of slaves
The ruling class realized that powerful oppression and exploitation would inevitably provoke fierce resistance, so they decided to give the slaves some living space appropriately, allowing slaves to have certain property, allowing slaves to marry, slaves could redeem their free bodies through labor, and their occupations were much more relaxed, which was about the release of slaves.
In Rome, the emancipation of slavery was almost as old as slavery. It existed as early as the time of Servius. After entering the slave society, this system not only did not weaken, but on the contrary developed even more. According to statistics, in the century and a half after the Second Punic War, Rome released an average of 1,350 slaves per year, and by the end of the republic, the number of slaves released each year soared to 16,000. It is recorded that Sulla, a general of the late Republic, freed 10,000 slaves at a time; the 7,000-man fire brigade established in 6 AD was originally composed of all members from freed slaves.
Foreign scholars have studied 7,000 epitaphs near Rome indicating the identity of the deceased, and found that among these inscriptions, the number of freed slaves commemorated was three times that of free people. Although it cannot be concluded that most of the citizens of the city of Rome were slaves or descendants of freed slaves, there seems to be reason to think that freed slaves accounted for a large proportion of Roman citizens.
At this point, everyone may think that this is simply a gospel for the slaves of ancient Rome, but is this really the case?
For an individual slave, the release may have been an act of generosity by the master who allowed him to be exempted from slavery. But for most slaves, the release was not out of the mercy of the master, but a means used by the master to exploit the slave. On the surface, the mass release of slaves may seem detrimental to their masters, but in reality this is not the case.
For the emancipation of slaves is conditional. Before each slave was released, he had to pay his master money equivalent to the purchase of another slave, so the release of slavery did not affect the continuation of slavery. More importantly, through the method of freeing slaves, the master made the slaves see the hope of obtaining freedom, thus invisibly increasing the enthusiasm of slaves for labor and promoting the development of social production.
Therefore, fundamentally, the mass emancipation of slavery in Rome did not mark the decline of slavery, it neither led to the weakening of the foundations of slavery nor posed a serious threat to slavery. It is entirely a manifestation of the developed form of slavery and a reflection of the high development of slavery. By freeing slaves, the masters not only achieved the goal of exploiting slaves to the greatest extent, but also played a role in consolidating slavery production relations to a large extent.
So, in essence, the life of slaves in ancient Rome is still a tragic history of exploitation and oppression. Therefore, for the splendid culture created by ancient Rome, we must take its essence and remove its dross. For its dark side, we must correctly understand and reflect on ourselves.