Name

Course

Date

A Roman Slave Market

When anyone gets ownership of a human being so as to have the right to use the individual as he chooses, then that man is in an approved manner referred to as a slave. This statement presents a provocative glimpse into the world of Roman slave sale and the process of enslavement in the late third and early centuries. This case in point, put forward central questions of logistics, for example, where was the slave market at Rome, what did the market building look like, and what did the market process look like. Even more, the basic questions gaze at the slaves and how human beings familiarized themselves within a system that defined them as ‘human property’. In the strict meaning of slave origin in Rome, it is prudent to say that it is no different from that in any other place. Slaves could be inherited or presented as gifts. In order for the slave society to endure, legal definitions had to become social realities. Discussed herein are the views of people towards slave and slave trade.

Discussion

Free persons entered slavery through sale, an action that gave concrete expression of their definition as fungible chattel. Research on the Roman slave trade has identified places of slave sale, the self-representation of slave traders and their low, dishonored status within their communities, the architectural configuration of buildings identified with sale, the probable size of the slave population, or at least the recorded numbers of those enslaved (Phillips 70). The architectural configuration of buildings, however, cannot tell what the interaction of slave and buyer looked like, or how the audience at a slave sale reacted to the human merchandise, or how the slaves responded to his or her purchase or enslavement, or when and in what circumstances a free person began to acquiesce in his or her enslavement. Understanding the experience of the slave sale requires exploring not only what the slave society did to the slave but to what extent or conditions were the slaves sold.

Institutionally, a consideration of slave sales informs about the supply of slaves: They could also be victims of privacy, sold into slavery, or abandoned children found on q street corner, rescued and raised as slaves. Some were enslaved in punishment for certain crimes, others for debts they were unable to repay. The process of sale itself turned human beings into human property. Ultimately, the slave sale stage is central to the institution of chattel slavery: the slave is fungible, that is, exchangeable, replaceable, and suitable like cash. Marcus or of Lucius slaves were known as Marcipor and Lucipor (houseboy). They were sometimes born and raised in their masters’ households. But the enormous numbers of slaves in Rome and Italy since the 3rd century B.C. in ancient history mostly enslaved war prisoners. This was as a result of a series of successful campaigns starting with the Samnite Wars and the symbolic ending reaction at any rate. The Italian and Roman economies must have been suffering from a severe shortage of manpower; there is no other explanation for the absorption of thousands of slaves in towns and country alike. A central slave market was established on the Island of Delos (Joshel (63).

As regards the society’s view on slave trade and slavery, there is little approximation to a settlement of the question whether slavery is right or wrong. To most people in the society, there is a perfect propriety in carrying the appeal against slave and slave trade. The slave woman, for example, needs to know why she is sold and what her new master wants. She receives a generic exhortation to obedience and then a sexual innuendo, after which the scene of the immediate effects of slave trade develops not in terms of the young woman’s tears but in a series of jokes about sex Jones (Peter and Keith 76). Within this setting, female vulnerability made great entertainment. If slavery is in accordance with the principle of humanity, and is the best thing for society, there is then an increasingly large part of the world that is neglecting to avail itself of the advantages which might be derived from the institutions, and that is falling into dangerous error on a great question of morals for there can be no doubt that there is a growing conviction in the world that the institution is not one in which it is desirable to perpetuate for promoting the welfare of mankind.

Conclusion

In light of the above, despite the fact that some people had ownership of other human beings as they choose, slave and slave trade was a total disrespect to human beings. Free persons entered slavery through sale, an action that gave concrete expression of their definition as fungible chattel. The process of sale itself turned human beings into human property. Knowing where the slaves are, and in what kinds of groups they were owned, illuminates some of the key questions which arise from demographic modeling of the slave population (Walsh 54).

Works Cited

Jones, Peter V, and Keith C. Sidwell. The World of Rome: An Introduction to Roman Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Print.

Joshel, Sandra R. Slavery in the Roman World. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.

Phillips, William D. Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Print.

Walsh, Ben. Empires and Citizens: Book 1. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2003. Print.