Slavery in the Late Roman Empire
Outline of the problem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/BPMH.2024.001Keywords
Later Roman Empire; slavery; slave population; domestic slaves; agricultural slaves; overseersAbstract
The article presents the main threads of the academic discussion about slavery in the late Roman Empire. The topic of the number of slaves and ways of acquiring new ones was discussed. Slaves were obtained from outside the empire, as well as by enslaving new people within its territory. As a rule, slaves were the children of unfree parents. Poverty and falling into debt sometimes also resulted in slavery: oneself and loved ones (especially children) were sold. Abandoned children were also enslaved. In the source materials, slaves are presented mainly as domestic workers, and in the case of rural estates, often as administrators (procuratores and actores). The final part of the article presents the most important tasks of unfree estate administrators.
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