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Authors: Timothy H. Parsons
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imperial bureaucracy, military, and artistic classes most likely consumed
wealth produced by huge amounts of coerced labor. Leading citizens
such as Cicero occasionally urged administrators to respect the interests of provincial populations, but defeated peoples were entirely at
the mercy of Roman soldiers, magistrates, and politically connected
metropolitan aristocrats.
Although they may appear cultured and urbane by contemporary
standards, Roman empire builders enslaved conquered populations in
enormous numbers. This was fairly typical behavior in the ancient
world, for victorious armies had the assumed right to dispose of their
captives as they wished. Republican Romans took tens of thousands, if
not hundreds of thousands, of slaves from Carthage, Spain, Gaul, and
captured eastern cities. Rebels continued to meet this fate under the
principate, and Emperor Vespasian enslaved ninety-seven thousand
residents of Jerusalem after razing the city during the Jewish Revolt.
He sent most of them to hard labor in Egypt, but the healthiest and
Roman
Britain 39
best-looking entertained the Roman mob by dying at the hands of
gladiators and wild animals in arenas throughout the empire.17
Imperial apologists point out that educated slaves and freedmen
held signifi cant positions of authority in the emperor’s household and
that owners often manumitted slaves. Admittedly, enslavement did
not mean permanent stigmatization in the modern sense, and Pertinax, who became emperor in the late second century a.d., was the son
of a freedman. Yet these were exceptional cases, for the vast majority
of Roman slaves were the meanest type of manual laborers.
Much of the empire’s wealth between the second century b.c. and
the second century a.d. came from slaves working on great rural
estates in Italy. Slaves constituted approximately 35 percent of the
population of the Italian peninsula under Augustus. An expert on
Roman slavery calculated that the Romans needed to acquire up to
half a million new slaves each year to maintain these levels during
the late republic and early principate.18 A great many of these slaves
faced a grim fate. Their owners worked them like animals, and slaves
could be tortured as a matter of procedure in criminal trials. Tellingly,
massive revolts were common under the late republic. The ability
of the ex-gladiator Spartacus to rally ninety thousand slaves to his
rebellion in 73 b.c. testifi ed to their hopeless and desperate condition,
given that the penalty for revolt was torture and crucifi xion.
The Romans treated slave revolts and provincial rebellions with
such brutality because, like all empire builders, they worried that their
control over their subjects was never completely secure. Defeated
peoples in the Roman Empire tended to rebel in the fi rst generation after the initial conquest, when Roman demands for labor and
taxes were most severe. Organized resistance became less common
late in the fi rst century a.d. after imperial expansion came to an end.
Nevertheless, the Romans still showed no mercy to those who challenged them. On learning that his generals had crushed a revolt by
the Nasamones in the African province of Numidia, Emperor Domitian proudly declared to the Senate: “I have forbidden the Nasamones
to exist.” Similarly, Emperor Severus ordered his forces to be equally
ruthless with enemies who threatened the northern frontier of Roman
Britain in the third century a.d.: “Let no-one escape utter destruction
at our hands; let not the infant still carried in its mother’s womb, if it
be male, escape from its fate.”19 Despite their military supremacy, the
40 THE RULE OF EMPIRES
Romans were ever mindful of their security, and these measures were
usually suffi cient to deter potential rebels.
Britons most certainly learned this lesson, but their experience
of Roman imperial rule was not typical. One of the least romanized
provinces in the western
wealth produced by huge amounts of coerced labor. Leading citizens
such as Cicero occasionally urged administrators to respect the interests of provincial populations, but defeated peoples were entirely at
the mercy of Roman soldiers, magistrates, and politically connected
metropolitan aristocrats.
Although they may appear cultured and urbane by contemporary
standards, Roman empire builders enslaved conquered populations in
enormous numbers. This was fairly typical behavior in the ancient
world, for victorious armies had the assumed right to dispose of their
captives as they wished. Republican Romans took tens of thousands, if
not hundreds of thousands, of slaves from Carthage, Spain, Gaul, and
captured eastern cities. Rebels continued to meet this fate under the
principate, and Emperor Vespasian enslaved ninety-seven thousand
residents of Jerusalem after razing the city during the Jewish Revolt.
He sent most of them to hard labor in Egypt, but the healthiest and
Roman
Britain 39
best-looking entertained the Roman mob by dying at the hands of
gladiators and wild animals in arenas throughout the empire.17
Imperial apologists point out that educated slaves and freedmen
held signifi cant positions of authority in the emperor’s household and
that owners often manumitted slaves. Admittedly, enslavement did
not mean permanent stigmatization in the modern sense, and Pertinax, who became emperor in the late second century a.d., was the son
of a freedman. Yet these were exceptional cases, for the vast majority
of Roman slaves were the meanest type of manual laborers.
Much of the empire’s wealth between the second century b.c. and
the second century a.d. came from slaves working on great rural
estates in Italy. Slaves constituted approximately 35 percent of the
population of the Italian peninsula under Augustus. An expert on
Roman slavery calculated that the Romans needed to acquire up to
half a million new slaves each year to maintain these levels during
the late republic and early principate.18 A great many of these slaves
faced a grim fate. Their owners worked them like animals, and slaves
could be tortured as a matter of procedure in criminal trials. Tellingly,
massive revolts were common under the late republic. The ability
of the ex-gladiator Spartacus to rally ninety thousand slaves to his
rebellion in 73 b.c. testifi ed to their hopeless and desperate condition,
given that the penalty for revolt was torture and crucifi xion.
The Romans treated slave revolts and provincial rebellions with
such brutality because, like all empire builders, they worried that their
control over their subjects was never completely secure. Defeated
peoples in the Roman Empire tended to rebel in the fi rst generation after the initial conquest, when Roman demands for labor and
taxes were most severe. Organized resistance became less common
late in the fi rst century a.d. after imperial expansion came to an end.
Nevertheless, the Romans still showed no mercy to those who challenged them. On learning that his generals had crushed a revolt by
the Nasamones in the African province of Numidia, Emperor Domitian proudly declared to the Senate: “I have forbidden the Nasamones
to exist.” Similarly, Emperor Severus ordered his forces to be equally
ruthless with enemies who threatened the northern frontier of Roman
Britain in the third century a.d.: “Let no-one escape utter destruction
at our hands; let not the infant still carried in its mother’s womb, if it
be male, escape from its fate.”19 Despite their military supremacy, the
40 THE RULE OF EMPIRES
Romans were ever mindful of their security, and these measures were
usually suffi cient to deter potential rebels.
Britons most certainly learned this lesson, but their experience
of Roman imperial rule was not typical. One of the least romanized
provinces in the western
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