The Roman Guide to Slave Management (25 page)

Some special situations call for flexibility. Recently, for example, I was very distressed by an outbreak of severe illness among my household, which resulted in the deaths of two younger slaves. I am always ready to grant my slaves their freedom in such circumstances on their deathbed, so that they and those close to them can find some solace in the fact that they are dying free men. I do, however, normally make a provision for recovery so that they cannot feign sickness or simply walk away if they miraculously get better. I might also add here that I usually allow my household slaves to make their own wills and to bequeath their wealth and possessions as they wish. Even though slaves cannot make wills, I treat these as legally binding, as if they were real, so long as they keep their bequests within the household. It is actually my money, after all.

For your information, it is perhaps worth knowing that slaves who belong to the state can also be manumitted. Sometimes this takes place when the slave manages to buy a replacement for his own job. This can create legal problems. I remember that a slave belonging to our town council bought his freedom by providing a replacement slave who then ran away. The council tried to make him submit again to the yoke of slavery but he wrote to the emperor who said that his manumission was legal and there was no provision for him to return if his replacement ran away, so he remained a free man.

Very occasionally the state will set slaves free so that they can serve in the army, since only those freeborn can fight as soldiers. As you can imagine, it is only in the direst circumstances that this has happened, such as after
the great defeat suffered by our forces at Cannae at the hands of Hannibal or when Varus lost three legions in the Teutoburg forest during the time of Augustus.

There are many bad reasons for freeing your slaves. Freedom should be the reward for loyal service, not just granted at the whim of the master. Regrettably, there have been a number of cases where slaves have been freed for helping their masters carry out crimes and even murders. Or they have been freed so that as citizens they can receive the monthly corn dole and handouts from the government. That way they will be fed at the state’s expense and not their master’s. Others have been freed for the silliest of reasons. I personally know people who granted freedom to as many slaves as possible after their own deaths, so that they could have an impressive funeral. They have been carried to their tombs accompanied by a great cortège of freedmen wearing their felt liberty-caps, even though some of them were slaves of the worst kind. Most true Romans have not been impressed when they have seen these processions, rather they have been horrified at how these dregs of humanity are now becoming citizens.

You should also be aware that you cannot simply dump your slaves when you have finished with them, as Cato advises. Back in the days of the emperor Claudius, some owners were abandoning their sick or old slaves on the Tiber island where there is a temple to the god of health, Asclepius. The emperor decreed that any slave abandoned in this way was to be set free, and would not have to go back to their master if they recovered, since a slave’s obligations to his master stopped if the master
forgot his obligations to the slave. Claudius also stated that any master who killed a slave rather than abandon him would be prosecuted for murder. He enacted these laws not so much because he was concerned about the humane treatment of slaves, but because the law had become unclear regarding such situations and it seemed right that the emperor should clarify the position for all.

The other main reason for freeing a slave is that he has bought his freedom from you. Selling slaves their freedom is a great benefit to us owners. This might at first sight seem counter-intuitive since the effect is for us to lose slaves rather than retain them. But you should remember that your body of slaves is a constantly evolving organism. Old blood will be replaced by new, which will help keep your slaves as a whole fresh and hard-working. So if you can charge your slave for his freedom so much the better, for he is then giving you the capital with which to replace him. It need cost you nothing.

The owner can in this way make the most of servile aspirations for freedom. Slaves have their own money and possessions, even though these are legally yours. They acquire possessions because it is usual to pay them something in return for good work. This is a good investment because you will get it all back. For you will find that slaves will pay handsomely to secure their freedom, even if it is at some uncertain future date, such as their master’s death.

You should also be aware of some of the pitfalls here. So great is many slaves’ desire for liberty that they will make huge sacrifices to acquire it. It is common practice to give domestic, urban slaves a little money to buy their
own food. Often, they will save up to buy their freedom by robbing their stomachs. If you are not careful you can find that your personal attendants look like a collection of skeletons.

These agreements between master and slave are legally enforceable. So if any slave claims to have bought himself free with his own money, but that his master has reneged on the deal, then he can lodge a complaint before the urban prefect. If the slave cannot prove it then he will be sent to work in the mines as a punishment for wasting everyone’s time and tarnishing the reputation of his master. Alternatively, the master can ask for the slave to be returned to him so that he can inflict his own punishment upon him, so long as it is not more severe than being sent to the mines.

Given that these arrangements are legally binding, it is important to have a contract drawn up to formalise matters. When I do this with one of my domestic slaves, the contract is then lodged at the nearby temple for safekeeping.

Setting a slave free in this way does not always mean he is immediately free to do as he pleases. Generally I will stipulate a number of conditions before the act of manumission finally takes place. Firstly, I demand a term of further service, usually for a number of years. During this period he remains a slave in practice, even if he is nominally freed and under the ownership of the temple’s god. The slave in question must promise to give good service and to do as he is told. He has to confirm that he will continue to submit to physical punishment from me, in whatever form I decide upon. If the slave is a
woman I often stipulate that she must hand over one of her children as a replacement. They are normally happy to do this, since they want their freedom, have children to spare, hope to buy the child’s freedom at some point in the future, and the child is in any case perfectly used to his situation in my household. Sometimes, if I am particularly reluctant to lose the slave because they perform some valuable service to me, I set the period of further service for as long as I shall live.

I have also stipulated in my will that certain other slaves will be freed. I have, however, placed conditions upon this, namely that they will continue to provide my widow with particular services. In some instances I have linked certain of my slaves’ freedom in my will to the payment of instalments to my son and heir over a period of between three and five years. In this way, my son will receive the benefit of both an income and a period of continued labour. I have also placed certain demands on my son that he continues to look after two of my old retainers even when I am deceased. This is an indulgence on my part and a small burden on him, but it will enable my spirit to rest more easily.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to make sure the contracts are watertight. I know of one friend, now dead, who, during an illness, was in his haste to leave a will and misspelt his favourite slave’s name, thereby decreeing that he was freeing Cratinus when the slave’s actual name was Cratistus. The matter went to court in the end, where it was, thankfully, decided that the slave should be freed, on the principle that freedom should be favoured wherever possible.

Once freed, your freedmen continue to have a close relationship to you. You are now their patron, as you were once their master. And where they used to have to give unswerving obedience as slaves, they are now expected to show you deference and the kind of obedience that a son should show to his father. For the figure of father and patron ought always to be respected and sacred in the eyes of a freedman or a son. Even if they move out, they are still part of your household.

When they are freed I make them swear an oath that they will continue to work for me for free for a specified number of days each year. As such, they are expected to help you when required and perform various small services. This can take whatever form is appropriate to their trade: the painting of a room if they are painters, cutting hair if they are barbers, and so on. This can even be required of children who have had their freedom bought by their parents. For children can still be useful to you in a variety of ways, such as someone who calls out guests’ names as they arrive or as some kind of entertainer. Of course, you cannot be too demanding of your freedmen when it comes to this work. You are not allowed to ask them to do things that they are unable to do, either through lack of strength or skill. And you cannot force the freedman to work so much that he is unable to earn his living on the other days. If you do this you will find that he will take you to court and you will lose.

Freedmen are particularly useful as agents to pursue your interests. I have set up numbers of my freedmen in business, as bankers and moneylenders, but also in overseas trade. All of these activities are highly profitable
but are too vulgar for a man of high social standing to become involved with directly.

In return for these services, the freedmen gets patronage from you. This can be in the form of financial assistance, for example setting them up in business, providing contacts, and helping to open up doors. Often I am asked to write letters of reference for my freedmen, an act which I am always happy to do if they have proved worthy of it. Their status as dependants of my household should also ensure that I continue to provide something for them in their old age. And, once dead, as members of my household they are allowed to share the Falx family tomb, although I retain the right to exclude those whom I do not deem worthy of such an honour. I also make sure that a key to the tomb is available to their families so that they can carry out as many sacrifices as they care to.

Some masters grow particularly attached to their slaves and acts of extreme generosity have been recorded. I know of one old family servant who was pensioned off with a small estate. She had been the family nurse and had been almost a mother to the master’s children. So when the son inherited, and the nurse was too old to be of further service, he gave her a farm worth 100,000 sesterces. I have to say, though, that such acts are rare.

On the whole, you will find your freedmen a pleasant and grateful bunch. I have been mentioned on the tombs of many of my freedmen who have since passed away. One recent one reads as follows: ‘To my most well-deserving patron, Marcus Sidonius Falx, I give thanks in return for his many kindnesses.’ Charm and virtue combined. We should not be surprised that our freedmen are
grateful to us. We have bought them as worthless slaves, captured from some barbarian tribe, or if they are home-breds we have brought them up at our own expense. Then, after due service, we have given them an opportunity to find their way in the greatest society the world has ever known. As full citizens, they and their descendants can hold their heads up high among the most successful and civilised citizens on earth.

The household offers them a home and a hearth, a base on which to build their lives. Many of my slaves become great friends with each other, a friendship that lasts into liberty. Two of my freedmen first met on the slave-dealer’s platform, learnt Latin together, and then set up in business together once they had been freed. When one died, the other paid for an expensive tombstone to his ‘dearest companion’. It is different in the country estate where only the bailiffs usually have the money to set up such tombstones. Even then most of them do not do so, not because they cannot read or write, but because there is no one else to read them. I have myself, at my own expense, set up a tombstone for one most faithful and efficient farm manager I owned. The field slaves do not generally have the time or money to spend thinking about funeral monuments.

Being a slave is a terrible fate, but in Rome it need not be the end. I urge slaves to see it as a test, which, if they pass and prove themselves to be good, loyal and trustworthy, can provide a route to becoming a genuine Roman.

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