The ancient romans have a notoriously bad reputation of how they treated their slaves. Back then, everyone had a slave. Even plebeian families might purchase an older slave from a landowner and have them serve as a house slave. Clato the Elder knew how to handle trading slaves. Clato was decent slave master on paper. He believed slaves were people and shouldn’t be treated like a piece of property. “We should not treat living creatures like shoes or pots and pans, casting them aside when they are bruised and worn out with service.” p.163
The conditions and treatment of the slaves mentioned in Diodorus Siculus were contradictory to the treatment of slaves in Lives. The young men that were used to herd cows were found to be useful in other ways
The conditions and treatment of the slaves mentioned in Diodorus Siculus were contradictory to the treatment of slaves in Lives. The young men that were used to herd cows were found to be useful in other ways