the condition of slave inancient rome
Answers
I've recently been reading a pamplet by Joseph McCabe, who throws some interesting thoughts on the subject. His argument is that Romans did care more for their slaves than is often assumed, and that had the Roman Empire continued slavery would have been abolished. Eg. many Romans such as Juvenal, Dion Chrysostom (a Romanised Greek), Seneca, Pliny, the jurors Florenius & Ulpian, and Plutarch (admittedly another Greek) all condemned slavery and believed it to be a vile institution. Many laws were created to protect slaves: the Cornelian Law (82BC), Petronian Law (32BC), Hadrian's abolishing of old subterrian dungeons, Nero gave slaves the right of appeal if they felt themselves badly treated, Antonius Pius said a slave who sought refuge from a cruel or hard master should be resold, Caracalla forbade parents to sell children as slaves, Diocletian forbade creditors to fell debtors into slavery. I haven't verified whether McCade is correct yet, but certainly it offers an interesting viewpoint.