Roman society was built on the back of slaves. Slaves were an essential asset to all Roman Imperials. Roman slavery defined Imperial society, and without it, life would have fallen apart. This essay will be focusing primarily on Italy, as this was the centre of Imperial Roman society, in addition to the fact that we have the best estimate of the numbers of slaves in this area. This essay will be structured and analyzed as follows. First will be the number of slaves who were in the Roman Empire. Subsequently, the administrative role of slaves in the Empire. Then impact of slaves and freedmen’s on the imperial economy will then be focused on, as well as their economic influence on the army. Following this, the familia and the integration of slaves
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However, this doesn’t appear to be entirely true. One difference that the number of slaves made to Roman society was that this trade was a conduit for transmission of culture. The clearest example of this is in Roman fascination with Greek culture, which was shown in terms of education earlier in this essay. Outside of the Graeco-Roman world, there were still traces of Slaves from all over the Empires vast expanse, impacting Imperial culture. The original religions of slaves appear to follow them in Italy, with cults cropping up with the mixing of gods. The most prominent example of this is the Mithraic cult. The exact origins are heavily disputed, and though this was considered to be a soldiers religion, it has been argued that it was “brought by slaves to seaport towns.” The influence of the Mithraic cult was not small, and showed significant spread though Rome. This illustrates that with such a significant movement of people, there was also a brining of culture which was slowly picked up by the Romans and added into Imperial life. To some extent, perhaps there is a decay of the idea of “Roman-ness” as these outlying cultures began to seep into Roman Society. Greek thought was being taught to the youth, and eastern Religions began to grow in popularity. Though it was most likely not known to them, slaves were directly influencing Roman
However, this doesn’t appear to be entirely true. One difference that the number of slaves made to Roman society was that this trade was a conduit for transmission of culture. The clearest example of this is in Roman fascination with Greek culture, which was shown in terms of education earlier in this essay. Outside of the Graeco-Roman world, there were still traces of Slaves from all over the Empires vast expanse, impacting Imperial culture. The original religions of slaves appear to follow them in Italy, with cults cropping up with the mixing of gods. The most prominent example of this is the Mithraic cult. The exact origins are heavily disputed, and though this was considered to be a soldiers religion, it has been argued that it was “brought by slaves to seaport towns.” The influence of the Mithraic cult was not small, and showed significant spread though Rome. This illustrates that with such a significant movement of people, there was also a brining of culture which was slowly picked up by the Romans and added into Imperial life. To some extent, perhaps there is a decay of the idea of “Roman-ness” as these outlying cultures began to seep into Roman Society. Greek thought was being taught to the youth, and eastern Religions began to grow in popularity. Though it was most likely not known to them, slaves were directly influencing Roman