Freed slave groups under the influence of oligarchy
The political turmoil of the late Roman Republic can be said to have promoted the development of the freed slave community in a relatively short period of time, especially under the influence of the oligarchy, which promoted some of the freed slaves to the center of the Roman political scene.
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power is in the hands of a small number of people, and because a small number of powerful people combine political, economic and military power, there is often a phenomenon of self-respect.
For the freed slaves who were attached to the Roman nobility, the late Roman Republic was undoubtedly the best time for them to rise to prominence and show their talents.
The Sula dictatorship and freed slaves
In 82 BC, Sulla established a military dictatorship, which formally retained some republican institutions and official positions, and monopolized the country's military and political power as a dictator for life, historically known as the "Sula dictatorship".
The dictatorship of Sulla ushered in a new form of political rule in Rome, which was contrary to the republican system.
As mentioned earlier, the ancient Roman military generals chose to free slaves to increase their strength out of political interests, which was actually a strategy used by dignitaries to strengthen their own strength.
For example, as mentioned above, Sura released a large number of slaves after defeating his rival Qin Na for his own use.
According to Appian's account, when Qin Na and Malleus captured Rome, they sent heralds throughout the city to publicize that they could provide free status for slaves who surrendered to his side, and as a result, many slaves did come to his side, and the Senate was greatly shocked by this, and immediately changed its hostile policy and sent representatives to negotiate peace with Qin Na.
Sula followed Qinna's approach in the same way, using the slogan of restoring personal freedom to attract slaves to his camp.
The reason for the propaganda against slaves was that slaves lived in such poor conditions that they had no place in Roman society.
On the contrary, the Roman citizens, on the other hand, were hesitant and unwilling to break the existing situation, because Roman citizens could lose even more if they were involved in the infighting of the magnates, and even their lives were not guaranteed: slaves, on the other hand, were penniless themselves, and as long as one party declared food or even freedom, the slave would naturally fall to that side, which increased the political leverage against the enemy.
While these political elites increased their leverage, they inadvertently promoted the expansion of the number and sphere of influence of the freed slave group.
History records that Sulla alone freed about 10,000 slaves, so there were about 10,000 freed slaves, and a small number of these 10,000 freed slaves would be reused by Sulla, and this part of the people gradually moved to the center of political power in Rome through promotion and became the henchmen of his patrons.
In fact, co-opting the freed slaves into his camp may be beneficial to both, first of all, from Sulla's point of view, Sulla is more inclined to select talents in the civilian party than the senator and the knightly class, and the 10,000 freed slaves have become his cronies, which is undoubtedly a standing army that Sulla can control.
The oligarchy had a standing army at its disposal, and this army was privately owned and not controlled by the Senate.
The army belonged to the Roman state, and the oligarchs with a private standing army would have been criticized and criticized by the Senate if they appeared in the early Roman Republic, but this phenomenon was not uncommon in the late Roman Republic, and secondly, Sulla contributed to the economic power of the freed slaves while carrying out a policy of terror.
Sulla, in order to dispose of the confiscated property, tried to encourage Roman citizens to buy it together, and in this case, the confiscated property was devalued and sold at a low price.
Monson points out that Sulla himself allowed his freed slaves to buy this property, and sometimes even exempted himself from paying all or part of the purchase price: "For example, one of his freeds (freed slaves) is said to have bought property worth six million Sester for two thousand sester, and even during the regency of Sulla, a lawyer asked why the nobles were engaged in civil war
Is it specifically designed to enrich their outcasts and slaves?" Although the Roman Civil War was not just to make freed slaves and slaves rich, it can be seen that some freed slaves in the late Republic accumulated a certain amount of wealth due to civil war and oligarchy, which also indirectly explained why the freed slaves were so rich during a special period, Rostovtsev believes that "in the economic life of the empire, the big capitalists of the Republic still seem to have the advantage: some of them belong to the class of senators, some belong to knights, and most of them are slaves of the past." i.e. free from slavery".
"Three-headed politics" and freed slaves
In 60 BC, Crassus, Pompey, and Caycius secretly reached an agreement to form the first three-headed alliance, corresponding to the latter three-headed alliance composed of Antony, Octavian and Lepidus in 43 BC, and the so-called "three-headed politics" refers to the political alliance composed successively of three powerful figures.
The "three-headed politics" was the form of rule in Rome during the transition from a republic to an imperial system, and they divided their spheres of influence to rule, which was essentially a continuation and development of the Sulla dictatorship.
The success of the Three-Headed Alliance was largely due to the common goal of circumventing the orders of the Senate and confronting the Senate.
From the Sulla dictatorship to the dissolution of the post-triumvirate, the contest between the aristocratic oligarchs and the Senate has always been mutually relenting, and the infighting between the oligarchs has continued to be in full swing.
In this fierce confrontation, the henchmen of the powerful are the cronies who can be relied on are nothing more than knights, freed slaves and slaves who have been promoted by themselves, only these three types of people can gain the trust of the oligarchs, among them, the freed slaves are the most special, they are converted from slaves, usually the status of the oligarchs is higher than that of the common people in Rome (ordinary Roman freemen), which is contrary to the rights and status granted to freed slaves by Roman law. And they are able to gain the trust of asylum-seekers to hold various positions in the executive branch.