Growth of a, slave-trade 435 



raised its own sustenance the line of division was easy to draw. Later 

 economic changes tended to obscure it, and we find Roman jurists 1 of 

 the Empire striving to discover a full and satisfactory answer to a much 

 later question, namely the distinction between a domestic and a rustic 

 slave. But by that time 'domestic' appears as 'urban/ for the effect of 

 centuries has been to draw a really important line of division, not 

 between slave and free but between two classes of slaves. There is 

 however in the conditions of early slavery, when 'domestic' and 'rustic' 

 were merely two aspects of the same thing, another point not to be 

 overlooked, since it probably had no little influence on the development 

 of human bondage. It is this. The human slave differs from the 

 domesticated ox through possession of what we call reason. If he 

 wished to escape, he was capable of forming deep-laid plans for that 

 purpose. Now the captives in border wars would be members of neigh- 

 bouring tribes. If enslaved, the fact of being still within easy reach of 

 their kindred was a standing temptation to run away, sure as they 

 would be of a welcome in their former homes. No kindness, no watch- 

 fulness, on the master's part would suffice to deaden or defeat such an 

 influence. To solve the problem thus created, a way was found by 

 disposing of captives to aliens more remote and getting slaves brought 

 from places still further away. This presupposes some commercial in- 

 tercourse. In the early Greek tradition we meet with this slave-trade 

 at work as a branch of maritime traffic chiefly in the hands of Phoenician 

 seamen. In Italy we find a trace of it in the custom 2 of selling 'beyond 

 Tiber,' that is into alien Etruria. At what stage of civilization exactly 

 this practice became established it is rash to guess: we cannot get 

 behind it. The monstrous slave-markets of the historical periods shew 

 that it developed into a normal institution of the ancient world. But 

 it is not unreasonable to suppose that an alien from afar was less easily 

 absorbed into his master's family circle than a man of a neighbouring 

 community though of another tribe. Are we to see in this the germ 

 of a change by which the house-slave became less 'domestic' and tended 

 to become a human chattel? 



The exploitation of some men's labour for the maintenance of 

 others could and did take another form in ages of continual conflict. 

 Successful invaders did not always drive out or destroy the earlier in- 

 habitants of a conquered land. By retaining them as subjects to till 



1 See Dig xxxn 99 (Paulus), and xxxm 7 passim, especially 25 1 . 



2 That religious scruple was opposed to keeping members of the same race-unit in slavery 

 is most probable. This trans Tiberim rule is known from Gellius XX i 47, referring to 

 debt-slaves. Greeks however, even when abhorring the enslavement of Greek by Greek in 

 principle, did not discontinue the practice. E Meyer Kl Schr p 202 compares the medieval 

 scruple in reference to brother Christians. See also his remarks p 177. For Hebrew law and 

 custom see Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903) vol IV and Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1902) 

 vol IV, articles Slavery. 



282 



