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Slavery and Slaves in Ancient Rome

Ancient Roman slavery and slaves. Resources on ancient Roman slavery, manumission, treatment of slaves, and ways of increasing the slave population.
Manumission Tax in Ancient Rome
Manumission of slaves was taxed in ancient Rome.
Freedman or Libertus
Libertus is the Latin for a freed Roman slave or freedman.
Gladiators
Gladiators were a major source of entertainment for Romans during the Roman Empire.
Slavery or Servitude
Which came first?
Ancient Rome Glossary - Terms in Ancient Roman History
Short entries and definitions of ancient Roman historical terms.
Weapons in the Arsenal of a Gladiator
Gladiators, who were slaves, were differentiated by the role they played and the weapons they used.
Slave Revolts - Spartacus and the Slave Wars
The revolt led by Spartacus was the last of three major slave revolts in the last two centuries of the Roman Republic.
Crucifixion - Death on a Wooden Cross
Crucifixion was a torturous method of death used by the Romans.
Categories of Roman Slaves
List of the Roman slave categories, based on Plautus and Cato De agricultura, from Keith R. Bradley's "Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 140 B.C. - 70 B.C."
Spartacus
Spartacus the gladiator was a leader who stood up to Rome, defiantly and with initial success, and who therefore won for himself a prominent place in the annals of Roman history of the end of the Republican period.
Aquarii
Definition, by John Murray, of the despised slaves who carried water for bathing, from A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
Ergastulum
From Bill Thayer's online William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, an explanation of the ergastulum as a private prison attached to most Roman farms (also known as carcer rusticus) where punished slaves worked in chains. Hadrian abolished the abusive ergastula.

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