SLAVERY. 475 



as already shown, many gradations. The status of the slave 

 differs in various degrees from that of the free man. 



The extreme power of the master, naturally existing where 

 political restraints do not exist, we also find in some cases 

 where, along with a comparatively developed law, there 

 exists extreme militancy. It was thus in Fiji. It was thus 

 also among the ancient Mexicans, by whom slaves were to a 

 large extent sacrificed to the gods. Along with life-and- 

 death power over his child, the Roman had of course like 

 power over his slave could torture him, send him to the 

 arena, or make him food for fishes; and this power con 

 tinued until the time of Hadrian. But in most societies, not 

 so predominantly devoted to conquest and in smaller degrees 

 delighting in bloodshed, the slave s right to life has been 

 recognized. It was so&quot; in Egypt : killing a slave was ac 

 counted as murder and punished by death. In Greece 

 (Athens) though such an offence was not classed as a capital 

 one, yet it entailed religious expiation and sometimes tem 

 porary exile. Indeed the much higher status of the Greek 

 slave was shown by the fact that he had a legal remedy for 

 personal outrage. 



Where a man s possession of himself is absent or greatly 

 restricted, his possession of other things is likely to be either 

 absent or greatly restricted. It was thus, according to some 

 authorities, among the Hebrews: probably the custom 

 varied. So was it in early India, where the slave s inability 

 to hold property was definitely instituted. In other cases, 

 the capacity for possession, beginning by usage, eventually 

 became legal. The Greek slave practically, though not theo 

 retically, could become a proprietor; and while in early 

 Rome the denial of the right to life was naturally accom 

 panied by a denial of the right to property, there grew up 

 the practice of letting the slave accumulate savings and form 

 a peculium. This came to be so well recognized that a de 

 duction was made from it for the privilege of marrying, and 

 then at length, in the second century A. D., the slave s right 



