The Roman Guide to Slave Management (11 page)

Many upper-class Roman slave owners were influenced by ideas from Stoic philosophy, which insisted that a slave owner had possession only of the slave’s body and not his soul, which remained free. This meant that they saw slaves as being intrinsically worth something as human beings and so should be treated with some respect. This extended to an obligation to treat them decently and fairly in the same way that hired labourers should be. It is impossible to know the extent to which such ideas penetrated society more widely. It would be nice to think that most Roman masters believed that they had an obligation to all their dependants, including their slaves, even if this was motivated by self-interest and the desire to preserve their assets.

The training of slaves was influenced heavily by the tasks which they were intended to perform. Field workers needed little and could be put straight to work. The surviving Roman agricultural manuals make it clear that it was important to select ambitious slaves to serve as overseers, since it was these individuals who would keep the estate running smoothly on a day-to-day basis. Within larger urban households domestic slaves would probably be trained up by other more senior slaves, rather than by the master himself. It is impossible to tell how many slaves had to be ‘broken’. One of the reasons that some Romans favoured home-bred slaves was that they had grown up accustomed to slavery. The fact that Seneca urges owners to show pity towards new slaves when they
are forced to carry out degrading tasks suggests that most masters did not. Seneca is probably best seen as arguing against common practice, as otherwise his text would have had little interest to his Roman readership.

Slave rations are listed in the agricultural manuals and are unsurprisingly plain. Clothing is similarly rough and basic. Slaves may have been able to supplement their rations by means of foraging, keeping their own animals and maintaining their own kitchen gardens. Those who worked in chain gangs probably had little opportunity to do any of these things. Slaves in a more senior position were probably allowed greater indulgence to soften their existence.

One of the reasons why many Roman texts are ambivalent about the economic benefits of using slaves to farm estates was that they required so much supervision to keep them working. It was assumed that slaves would be trying hard to work as little as possible, whereas the free tenant had a vested interest in making the land productive. The use of slaves also contrasted with the Roman ideal of the honest yeoman, on whom the success of the republic had been built. It seemed wrong that the land was now being farmed by imported slave labour and could hardly, therefore, be seen as progress. Often the purpose of owning huge estates seems to have been little more than ostentatious display, and the use of a large servile workforce was part of this ostentation. Most owners of large estates probably had their land farmed by a variety of slave and free labour.

The treatment of old and sick slaves also probably varied considerably. The emperor Claudius issued an
edict in an attempt to stop people from dumping them on the Tiber island. This may have represented simply a vain attempt to prevent a social nuisance impacting on the centre of Rome rather than any attempt to improve the slaves’ lot. Seneca advocated greater leniency and decency in the treatment of slaves than most Romans but even Seneca, the source for the story of the old doorkeeper, had no recollection of his old childhood playmate. It is hard to see that most Romans would have spent much money on an old asset once it had stopped giving a reasonable return in the form of continued service unless there was some personal reason for doing so, such as supporting an old nursemaid.

At the other end of the age spectrum, child slaves are assumed in one legal text to be working by the age of five. This is not surprising since there was no need for them to be educated and they would have been able to carry out some small tasks around the farm or household.

The farm manager was clearly the most important individual for the owner of an estate. The bad manager is a recurrent theme of ancient literature, including the Bible. Given that most large landowners were absentee for at least part of the year, they were entirely reliant on this individual to keep their asset producing the surplus that would help pay for their life of dignified leisure in the city. This is why so much emphasis was placed on the importance of visiting estates. Absence, it was assumed, bred contempt, which would lead to the land and farm buildings not being maintained properly and yields declining rapidly as a result.

Slaves were expensive and each owner had to balance
the treatment of his slaves with the need to keep them working and, to some extent, incentivised. Brutal treatment doubtless occurred occasionally but it could not be the norm, since this would soon wear out the servile assets. In the country, dividing the slaves into a ‘them and us’, whereby a small group of overseers were motivated by material rewards and the ultimate goal of freedom, probably worked well to keep the system functioning efficiently.

On ancient farming, see Cato
On Agriculture
. On the goal of self-sufficiency, see Varro
On Agriculture
1.16. For ancient discussion of whether it was better to have your land farmed by slaves or free tenants, see Columella
On Agriculture
1.7. On gang labour see Pliny the Elder
Natural History
18.4. The story of a falling-down barn as a reminder of old age is recounted in Seneca
Letters
12, as is the story of the former playmate. On herdsmen, see Varro
On Agriculture
2.10. Managers are described in Varro
On Agriculture
1.17 and Columella
On Agriculture
1.8. Cato
On Agriculture
5 lists the duties of the manager. For the manager’s wife, see Columella
On Agriculture
12.3. The problems created by a bad manager are described in Cicero
Against Verres
2.3.50. The story of the woman who had been captured by pirates and is found being abused on an inspection can be read in the novel
Leucippe and Clitophon
by Achilles Tatius 5.17. Cato’s attitudes to slaves can be seen in Plutarch’s
Life of Cato the Elder
4.4, 5.2 and 21.1.

   
CHAPTER III
   

I
HAD A CURIOUS DREAM
the other night. I dreamt that I entered the small storeroom in which a number of my slaves sleep, selected a young female of German descent, and then proceeded to have intercourse with her. I was troubled that this might be interpreted as signalling that I would become a slave, since I was seen to be consorting with them, or worse that my descendants would end up in the servile class. Perturbed by such thoughts, I consulted a dream-interpreter, called Artemidorus, who lives in the town.

‘Do not be anxious,’ he assured me, ‘for dreaming of sex with your slave is auspicious because it shows that the dreamer will derive pleasure from his possessions.’

Of course! Now he had explained it to me, the meaning was clear. I have always tried to be abstemious when it comes to taking advantage of my high social position for the purposes of pleasure, but the gods were telling me to relax and enjoy myself. It is, incidentally, strange how often slaves feature in dreams, even in the
dreams of slaves. Artemidorus told me that he knew of a slave who dreamt that his penis was stroked and aroused by his master’s hand, and had consulted him in the hope that this would indicate that he would please his master in some way. Sadly for the slave in this case it did not signify any benefit. Instead it meant that he would be bound to a pillar and receive many strokes from a whip.

The great philosopher emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was proud of the fact that he owned two beautiful slaves but had not taken advantage of them. But we would certainly be too stern if we expected most masters to behave with such self-control. It is perfectly normal for an owner to derive sexual pleasure from his young slaves. I have a youth who is my current favourite. He is fourteen and is both keen and happy to do what his master wants. After all, where is the shame in carrying out your master’s wishes? It’s perfectly normal! As I have mentioned, if you wish to purchase yourself a boy as a pet, you would be well advised to go the Saepta Julia and ask to see if they have any Egyptians in the back. These are well suited for such a task, having fair skin, shiny eyes, a low brow, a narrow nose, long unbraided hair and red lips. As for young female slaves, you might consider a blonde-haired Batavian. Whatever your desire, just be careful about getting carried away when haggling over the price and thinking with your passion and not your head. That is when middle-aged men, who are old enough to know far better, end up acting, and paying, like fools.

I like to reward my favourites with small gifts to show them that they are special to me. The slave girls are
always pleased to receive some clothes that my wife has finished with. My wife is, of course, completely relaxed about these dalliances. What man is without peccadilloes of this kind? Naturally, however, it would be unthinkable for her to indulge in any such acts with her male slaves. For that would bring great shame on the household and my name.

It is an occupational hazard that you will get some of your slave girls pregnant. They often seem delighted to have acquired some closer link with their master. I like to treat these offspring with greater indulgence than I would normal slaves, and give them slightly better rations and easier work. I mentioned that I like to use them to look after my real children, because they do, after all, share some of my blood and so can be relied upon to be more loyal and diligent. Obviously I cannot be expected to treat all my illegitimate offspring in such a way. So if when born they look sickly, or if I already have a sufficient number of them in the household, I order the mothers to expose the infants by leaving them at the dump. Which reminds me, I heard a very amusing joke about this the other day. One day an idiot had a child by a slave girl, and his father advised him to kill it. But he replied, ‘First, you kill your own children, then you can talk about me killing mine.’