Living and working conditions for slaves

[Anonymous]

Obviously slaves played a wide and varied role in the Empire, with many living fairly comfortably with their masters. But what of the chain gangs in the mines and quarries? Does anyone know just how harsh an existence they had? What were their working and living conditions? Did they ever get a day of rest or were they just made to work themselves to death, day after day after day? <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

First of all it depended on the period. During the Republic, Cato Censor considered them as cattle. But even then Cato was considered as a hard line conservative. Then things improved somewhat until the human nature of slaves was finally recognised during the Empire. It took many, many more centuries to do away with slavery.<br>
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In most, but not all parts, ot our planet... <br>
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It also depended on which kind of slaves. And they were many kinds. Those sent to work the mines or the fields and basically all those who had to do physical work certainly had a short life expectancy. The body of a presumed slave was found at Herculaneum and a reconstruction was made by the National Geographic magazine. The man was in his forties and looked like he was in his late fifties. He had five fused vertebrae on his lower back that must have given him excruciating pain and the few teeth he had left showed definite signs of malnutrition during childhood. He may have been a shipwright, or a man working at the harbour.<br>
There were also people enslaved for defaulting on their debts. In which case the duration of the slavery period was equivalent to the amount due. There were tariffs about that.<br>
The public slaves were the equivalent of municipal employees: maintaining public works such as some roads, the acqueducts, the furnaces at the baths, taking care of animals for draught or for the races and so on.<br>
The Circus Maximus in Rome is still the biggest stadium ever constructed. It could seat 300.000 people. One can imagine the number of people needed to run such a thing. Those were all slaves. Given the sheer size and number of public building and the legendary size of the administration they were obviously very numerous. They were probably better treated since many were able to read and write and do specialised work and since it takes time and money to train a slave.<br>
Then there were the crafstmen. Painters, mosaicists, sculptors, silver and goldsmiths. Those were slaves too, although generally cared for slaves, due to their skills.<br>
Nearing the top of the slaves' social ladder were the slaves members ot the "familia", or household. The majordomus was the equivalent of the butler of later times. He was a slave but he was more often than not a full member of the family in the modern sense. All the maids and servants were slaves of course and they were also often the confidents and friends of the lady of the house and the nannies and baby sitters of the children. Often these slaves were freed after a while and kept working for their former master as freedmen and being able to make quite a lot of money in the process. They generally shared the joys and miseries of their masters.<br>
Wealthy Romans could also buy a slave teacher for their children. It was more a deal, actually, than plain slavery. Those teachers came from Greece (Where else? ) and actually sold themselves. The deal was a sort of long term work contract at the end of which the slave teacher would be freed and receive a sum of money.<br>
At the very top, during the Empire, were the imperial slaves and those were more often than not, richer and better off than most of the roman citizenry. As freedmen, some reached the very top and became counselors of emperors. Pallas and Narcissus, under Claudius, for instance.<br>
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