Slave-breeding 3 1 1 



tion had made the absence of a regular police force a danger not to 

 be ignored. Improved conditions were probably in most cases due to 

 self-interest and caution much more than to humane sentiment. In 

 Martial's day we may gather from numerous indications that in general 

 the lot of slaves was not a hard one if we except the legal right of 

 self-disposal. Urban domestics were often sadly spoilt, and were apt 

 to give themselves great airs outside the house or to callers at the door. 

 But I believe that in respect of comfort and happiness the position of 

 a steward with a slave-staff in charge of a country place owned by a 

 rich man was in most cases far pleasanter. Subject to the preparation 

 for the master's occasional visits and entertainment of his guests, these 

 men were left very much to their own devices. The site of the villa 

 had been chosen for its advantages. So long as enough work was done 

 to satisfy the owner, they, his caretakers, enjoyed gratis for the whole 

 year 1 the privileges and pleasures which he paid for dearly and seldom 

 used. 



It seems certain that it was on such estates that most of the slave- 

 breeding took place. It was becoming a more regular practice, as we 

 see from Columella. And it had advantages from several points of 

 view. The slave allowed to mate with a female partner and produce 

 children was more effectively tied to the place than the unmated 

 labourer on a plantation was by his chain. So long as the little vernae 

 were not brutally treated (and it seems to have been a tradition to 

 treat them well), the parents were much less likely to join in any re- 

 bellious schemes. And, after all, the young of slaves were worth 

 money, if sold ; while, if kept by the old master, they would work in 

 what was the only home they had known : they would be easier to 

 train and manage than some raw barbarian from Germany or Britain 

 or the Sudan. But it must not be forgotten that the recognition of 

 slave-breeding foreboded the eventual decline of slavery personal 

 slavery as an institution, at least for purposes of rustic life. I know 

 of no direct evidence 2 as to the class or classes from which the unfree 

 coloni of the later Empire were drawn. But it seems to me extremely 

 probable that many of the coloni of the period with which we are just 

 now concerned were homebred slaves manumitted and kept on the 



1 x 30, of a charming seaside villa at Formiae. o ianitores vilicique felices, dominis 

 parantur ista, serviuntvobis. In Dig XXXIII 7 is 2 we hear of mulier vittae custos perpetua. 



3 The note of Mommsen, Hermes xix 412, deals with the case of sei -vi quasi coloni farming 

 parcels of land, recognized in the writings of jurists. It seems that they farmed either at 

 their own risk or for owner's account \Jide dominicd\. In the former case they could have a 

 tenant's agreement like the free coloni. In the latter they were only vilici and therefore part 

 of the instrumentum. Here I think we may see beginnings of the unfree colonate. But 

 Mommsen does not touch the point of manumission. It seems to me that an agreement with 

 a slave must at first have been revocable at the pleasure of the dominus, and its growth into 

 a binding lease was probably connected in many instances with manumission. 



