THE RACE PROBLEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 371 

The freedmen formed a very important part of the population 
in the earlier centuries of the Empire. It is a burning question whence 
they originated. A preliminary matter is, which slaves were en- 
franchised? Those, naturally, who personally attended on their 
masters and had charge of his business. The slaves of the farms 
were not valued much more than the beasts of burden and had little 
better prospect of being enfranchised. For attending on the master 
and managing his business no mere barbarians were fit; some civili- 
zation, such as was found among the able Orientals, was required. 
An examination of the statements of the inscriptions concerning, 
the nationalities of the slaves shows that this is true. They corroborate 
the old saying that the Syrians were a people of born slaves. Most 
numerous after the Syrians are the Graecised inhabitants of Asia 
Minor and the Jews. More than half the workers of the Italian 
potteries have Greek or Oriental names '”, and the names of the arti- 
sans of other crafts convey the same impression. Next in numerical 
importance come the Egyptians and Ethiopians, but in the case of 
these peoples the external differences were so great that they never 
became so perilous as the other races mentioned. In Europe no 
people was predestined to slavery, although some, but not many, 
slaves originated from European countries. The barbarians of Europe 
went into the army instead. For instance only two Pannonians are 
mentioned as slaves, but men of this race crowded into the army "”. 
‘ The importation of slaves and the enfranchisement brought in Orien- 
tals more especially, and to this fact is largely due the orientalism 
which is a prominent feature of the later Empire. 
There is yet another source for the alteration of the folk-stock, 
which did not have such an immediate effect as the enfranchisement 
of slaves but which must in the end have been of considerable im- 
portance, viz. the transplantation of whole tribes from beyond the 
northern frontiers into the Empire. Aucusrtus’ general, AGrippa, had 
already transplanted the German Ubii from the right to the left 
bank of the Rhine. Some years later 40,000 Sugambrians and Swe- 
bians were settled in Gaul, and 50,000 Dacians were brought from 
the districts north of the Danube into Thracia. In the reign of Nero 
great hosts with chiefs, wives, and children — it is said to the number 
of 100,000 — were brought over the frontier from the same distriets. 
When Marcus AvreLıus had conquered the Marcomannians and the 
Quades he settled those peoples in great masses in the Empire — in 
Dacia, Pannonia, Mysia, the Roman Germany, and even in Italy. 
