Others, gathered in
workshops, manufactured objects which the master sold to his profit.
Others were hired out as masons or as sailors; Crassus had 500
carpenter-slaves. These classes of slaves were called "slaves of the
city."
=Rural Slaves.=--Every great domain was tilled by a band of slaves.
They were the laborers, the shepherds, the vine-dressers, the
gardeners, the fishermen, grouped together in squads of ten. An
overseer, himself a slave, superintended them. The proprietor made it
a matter to produce everything on his lands: "He buys nothing;
everything that he consumes he raises at home," this is the compliment
paid to the rich. The Roman, therefore, kept a great number of
country-slaves, as they were called. A Roman domain had a strong
resemblance to a village; indeed it was called a "villa." The name has
been preserved: what the French call "ville" since the Middle Ages is
only the old Roman domain increased in size.
=Treatment of Slaves.=--The kind of treatment the slaves received
depended entirely on the character of the master. Some enlightened and
humane masters may be enumerated, such as Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny,
who fed their slaves well, talked with them, sometimes had them sit
at table with them, and permitted them to have families and small
fortunes (the peculium).
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