Reflections - Part VII - Slavery in the Roman Empire
© Copyright Vittorio Carvelli 2017 © Copyright Peter Crawford 2017 reproduced with permission 'SLAVERY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE' To fully understand 'The Story of Gracchus' it is essential to understand the institution of Roman slavery Part VII of open images in a new tab to view full size Building on Greek and Hellenistic institutions, ancient Rome created the largest slave society in history. There are several reasons for defining the Roman Empire as a slave society, above all in its Italian core but also to varying degrees in its subject territories. Slaves, numbering in the millions, and widely dispersed, accounted for a large share of its total population. In key areas, slaves were not merely present but supported what has been termed a ‘slave mode of production,’ a mode that rested both on a complex system of enslavement, slave trade, and slave employment in production, and on the systematic subjection of slaves to the control of their masters. Most importantly