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Public Slaves in Rome: ‘Privileged’ or Not?

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Franco Luciani

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Abstract

In the Roman world, slavery played a crucial role. Besides private slaves, owned by individual masters, and—from the beginning of the Principate—imperial slaves, who were the property of the emperors, there were also the so-called public slaves: non-free individuals who were owned by a community, such as the Roman people as a whole in Rome (serui publici populi Romani), or the citizen body of a colony or a municipium in Italy or in the provinces (serui ciuitatum). Public slaves in Rome were employed for numerous public services and acted under the authority of the Senate as assistants to public magistrates, officers or priests. Similarly, in Italian and in provincial cities, they juridically depended on the decisions of local councils and performed various activities within the civic administration, beholden to the magistrates.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Luciani F

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: The Classical Quarterly

Year: 2020

Volume: 70

Issue: 1

Pages: 368-384

Print publication date: 01/05/2020

Online publication date: 29/07/2020

Acceptance date: 20/11/2019

ISSN (electronic): 1471-6844

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838820000506

DOI: 10.1017/S0009838820000506

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