Greek and Roman Slaveries

9 Experiencing and Resisting Enslavement

The experience of enslavement affected a significant percentage of the population of ancient societies. There were multiple avenues of enslavement; not only did they shape how slave systems operated and developed over time, but they also impinged on enslaved people in quite different ways. While some forms of enslavement were effectively universal, others were peculiar to particular societies or came to be restricted or eliminated. Violence was undoubtedly the most significant form of enslavement, which could potentially affect anyone in ancient societies. While captivity in war was common (9.2, 9.4), we also need to take into account the violent enslavement conducted by individuals for a variety of reasons (9.1, 9.3). Various other crises or forms of human misery could lead to enslavement. Poverty and famine could force people to sell themselves or their children (9.5–7) or become debt bondsmen (9.11). In other cases, widespread ancient practices, such as the exposure of unwanted children, became a ready source of slaves (9.9–10). Finally, the slave trade was a ubiquitous feature of ancient slave systems and a traumatic experience in the lives of many slaves (9.12–3, 9.20).

The experiences of enslavement were accompanied by the experiences of resistance. We have examined in Chapters 6 and 7 the experiences of resistance that were inherent in the master–slave relationship and in relationships between free and slave, respectively. In ...