Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SERVUS. SERV US. 1039
monastery for a secular life, or rambled about in Long however after it had become the custom to
the towns or the country, he might be reduced to employ large gangs of slaves in the cultivation of
his former servile condition. the land, the number of those who served as perThere were slaves that belonged to the state and sonal attendants still continued to be small. Perwere called Servi Publici (Plaut. Capst. ii. 2. 85): sons in good circumstances seem usually to have
they had the testamenti factio to the amount of one had only one to wait upon them (Plin. H. 1V.
half of their property (Ulp. Fr'ag. tit. 20), from xxxiii. 1. s. 6), who was generally called by the
which circumstance it appears that they were name of his master with the word peor (that is,
viewed in a light somewhat different from the puer) affixed to it, as Caijpor, Lucipor, 3loarcipor,
slaves of private persons. Publipor, Qezintipor, &c.; and hence Quintilian
In times of revolution under the Republic, it (i. 4. ~ 26) says, long before whose time luxury
was not unusual to proclaim the liberty of slaves had augmented the number of personal attendants,
to induce them to join in revolt (Plat. Mar. c. 41, that such names no longer existed. Cato, when he
42); but these were irregular proceedings, and went to Spain as consul, took only three slaves
neither justifiable nor examples for imitation. Lord with him. (Apul..Apol. p. 430, ed. Ouden.) But
Dunmore, the last British Governor of Virginia, during the latter times of the republic and under
at the commencement of the American Revolution, the empire the number of domestic slaves greatly
followed this bad example. [G. L.] increased, and in every family of importance there
The preceding account treats of the legal con- were separate slaves to attend to all the necessities
dition of slaves in relation to their masters. It of domestic life. It was considered a reproach to
remains to give an account of the history of a man not to keep a considerable number of slaves.
slavery among the Romans, of the sale and value Thus Cicero, in describing the meanness of Piso's
of slaves, of the different classes into which they housekeeping, says " Idem coqlus, idem atriensis:
were divided, and of their general treatment. pistor domi nullus" (in Pis. 27). The first quesSlaves existed at Rome in the earliest times of tion asked respecting a person's fortune was' Quot
which we have any record; but they do not ap- pascit servos?" (Juv. iii. 141). Horace (Sat. i. 3.
pear to have been numerous under the kings and 12) seems to speak of ten slaves as the lowest
in the earliest ages of the republic. The different number which a person in tolerable circumstances
trades and the mechanical arts were chiefly carried ought to keep, and he ridicules the praetor Tullius
on by the clientes of the patricians, and the small for being attended by no more than five slaves in
fitrms in the country were cultivated for the most going from his Tiburtine villa to Rome. (Sat. i. 6.
part by the labours of the proprietor and of his 107.) The immense number of prisoners taken in
own fimily. But as the territories of the Roman the constant wars of the republic, and the increase
state were extended, the patricians obtained pos- of wealth and luxury augmented the number of
session of large estates out of the ager publicus, slaves to a prodigious extent. The statement of
since it was the practice of the Romans to deprive Athenaeus (vi. p. 272, e), that very many Romans
a conquered people of part of their land. These possessed 10,000 and 20O000 slaves and even
estates probably required a larger number of hands more, is probably an exaggeration, but a freedman
for their cultivation than could readily be obtained under Augustus, who had lost much property in
among the free population, and since the freemen the civil wars, left at his death as many as 4,116.
were constantly liable to be called away from their (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 10. s. 47.) Two hundred was
work to serve in the armies, the lands began to be no uncommon number for one person to keep (Hor.
cultivated almost entirely by slave labour. (Comn- Sat. i. 3. 11 ) and Augustus permitted even a
pare Liv. vi. 12.) Through war and commerce person that was exiled to take twenty slaves or
slaves could easily be obtained, and at a cheap freedmen with him. (Dion Cass. lvi. 27.) The
rate, and their number soon became so great, that mechanical arts- which were formerly in the hands
the poorer class of freemen was thrown almost of the Clientes, were now entirely exercised by
entirely out of employment. This state of things slaves (Cic. de Qf. i. 42): a natural growth of
was one of the chief arguments used by Licinius things, for where slaves perform certain duties or
and the Gracchi for limiting the quantity of public practise certain arts, such duties or arts will be
land which a person might possess (Appian, B. C. thought degrading to a freedman. It must not be
i. 7, 9, 10); and we know that there was a pro- forgotten that the games of the amphitheatre revision in the Licinian Rogations that a certain quired an immense number of slaves trained for
number of freemen should lie employed on every the purpose. [GLA)IATORES.] Like the slaves
estate. (Appian, B.. i. 8.) This regulation, in Sicily, the gladiatores in Italy rose in B. c. 73
however, was probably of little avail: the lands against their oppressors, and unlder the able genestill continued to be almost entirely cultivated by ra!ship of Spartacus, defeated a Rouman consular
slaves, although in the latest times of the re- army, and were not subdued till B. c. 71, when
public we find that Julius Caesar attempted to 60,000 of them are said to have fallen in battle.
remedy this state of things to some extent by (Liv. Epit. 97.)
enacting, that of those persons who attended to Under the empire various enactments, mentioned
cattle a third should always be freemen. (Suet. above (p. 1036, a), were made to restrain the cruelty
Jul. 42,) In Sicily, which supplied Rome with of masters towards their slaves; but the spread of
so great a quantity of corn, the number of agri- Christianity tended most to ameliorate their concultural slaves was immense: the oppressions to dition, though the possession of them was for a
which they were exposed drove them twice to long time by no means condemned as contrary to
open rebellion, and their numbers enabled them Christian justice. The Christian writers, however,
to defy for a time the Roman power. The first of inculcate the duty of acting towards them as we
these Servile wars began in B. C. 134 and ended in would be acted by (Clem. Alex. Paedayo/y. iii. 12),
B. c, 132, and the second commenced in B. C. 102 but down to the age of Theodosius wealthy pery
tlnd lasted almost four years. sons still continued to keep as many as two or