THE ETHICS OF THE ANCIENT 267 



* In many cases, as a measure of precaution, the 

 slaves were forced to work in chains and to sleep 

 in subterranean prisons. The feeling entertained 

 toward this unfortunate class in the later repub- 

 lican period is illustrated by Varro's classification 

 of slaves as '' vocal agricultural implements," and 

 by Cato the Elder's recommendation that old and 

 worn-out slaves be sold, as a matter of economy. 

 Sick and hopelessly infirm slaves were taken to 

 an island in the Tiber, and there left to die of 

 starvation and exposure' (5). Slaves were prac- 

 tically without any rights whatever to the world 

 in which they lived. A Roman could take the life 

 of his Gallic slave with as complete impunity as 

 an American can slay his bovine servant to-day. 

 Romans, in short, looked upon and treated non- 

 Romans about as human beings to-day look upon 

 and treat non-humans — as mere prey. 



V. Modern Ethics. 



But the peoples of the ancient world are not 

 the only human beings who have suffered from 

 the psychological bequests of savages. Modern 

 states and peoples, notwithstanding their far-flung 

 professions of righteousness, manifest, though in a 

 somewhat weakened form, the same ethnic preju- 

 dices and the same senseless antipathies as those 

 displayed by the ancients. Remnants of the 

 primitive tribal morality are found in the moral 

 habits and conceptions of every people, however 

 emancipated they may imagine themselves to be. 

 Many a person who would not think of swindling 



