Ibadan Journal of 
European Studies
No 17, April 2017 and No 18, April 2018 
ISSN 1595-0344
A Journal of the Department of European Studies 
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
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Revisiting the Leading Role of the Roman Upper 
Classes in Slavery or Slavery Conditions
By
Gill Oluwatosin Adekannbi, PhD
Department of Classics 
University of Ibadan
Abstract
The ancient Roman society was not duplicitous about its socio­
economic dependence upon slaves. This paper, while presenting 
the developments that brought about slavery or slave conditions 
during the late Republic and at the beginning o f the Roman 
Empire, dwells on the role o f the Roman upper classes in making 
slaves constant features o f Roman agriculture, industry, 
domestic life, entertainment and virtually all other facets o f 
Roman life. The paper illustrates the upper classes' taste for 
slavery and their principal part as the promoters o f the institution 
with Plutarch's reference to the Roman statesman, Cato, in 
Plutarch's Parallel Lives. With the active and preponderant role 
o f the wealthy and influential Romans' use o f slaves to function 
and maintain their political, social, and economic life at this 
time, the paper notes that Rome's historical pre-eminence would 
be non- existent without slaves. Therefore, it is concluded that 
the record o f the Roman upper classes in creating slavery 
conditions and in entrenching slavery suggests that a successful 
fight against slavery in any form could only mean a deliberate 
fight against the rich and the powerful or breaking free from the 
yoke of the oppressors whose desire for slaves is unending. A
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study on Roman stories of manumission would be a good follow 
up to this work.
Key Words: Slavery, Slavery conditions, Roman Upper 
Classes, Dependence
A background to the Growth of Slaves at Rome
The picture o f the socio-economic structure o f the Romans is 
incomplete without slaves. Their presence was well known in 
agriculture and industry and they were so ubiquitous that their 
absence in domestic life, state affairs, entertainment world, 
intellectual activity, military campaigns as well as religious 
observances would mean none existence o f the Roman 
civilisation (Scheidel, 2007) or, put differently, a story o f Roman 
civilisation devoidof vital structures that propped its glory.
There were various sources o f supply of slaves to meet the 
increasing demands o f the Romans. However, from the early 
R om an p e rio d , s lav es  w ere n o tab ly  la rg e ly  w ar 
captives(Gibbon, 1980: 62). In addition to slaves who were war 
captives, inter-tribal wars 'often resulted in the selling of 
defeated and captured tribes to the Romans (Jones, 1966:298). 
Strabo (14.5.2), indicating kidnapping as another source of 
slaves, says: 'the exportation o f slaves induced them most o f all 
to engage in their evil business, since it proved most profitable; 
for not only were they easily captured, but the market, which was 
large and rich in property, was not extremely far away'. Piracy so 
much contributed to the Roman slave supply with 'a free market 
on the Aegean island o f Delos in 166 BC that eventually came to 
turn over 'a myriad' (literally '10,000', de facto, 'very many')
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slaves per day'(Scheidel, 2007:9).
The Romans' socio-economic need for slaves is also indicated by 
the fact that, throughout Rome's territory, supply of slaves was 
kept replenished through natural reproduction among slave 
families whose children were slaves when bom in slavery 
(Gaius, The Civil law 1.93). Since breeding or reproduction 
could not meet the whole demand, complementing the source of 
slaves was also the practice o f mothers' exposing unwanted 
babies or selling children (The Code of Justinian: 6. 332). 
Further meeting the need for slaves were convicted criminals 
who, as punishment, became slaves working in the mines while 
awaiting their execution or serving as gladiators in the arena 
(Buckland, 1908: 404). Roman law also allowed for debtors to 
become slaves. A creditor had the right to sell a debtor out as a 
slave if the latter could not pay his debt (The Laws of the Twelve 
Tables: 1.63). : :
Legislation, such as the one above, was native to a society where 
the patrician classes, who enjoyed fabulous wealth, power and 
privilege, would do everything to secure their life of luxury, 
extravagance and indulgence. Hence, the socio- economic as 
well as political situation that accelerated the growth of slavery 
in ancient Rome and culminated in both the wealthy and the 
citizens of little means making use o f slaves in practically every 
facet o f life, is worthy o f consideration. Particularly of interest 
are the developments o f the late Republic. From the city's 
commencement, it is pertinent to note that agriculture 
constituted the foundation o f the Roman state. However, the 
farmers who produced crops for themselves and for their cities
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also defended the state as soldiers when called upon. The Punic 
wars, which were fought between 261 B.C. and 147 B.C., put a 
remarkable strain on the agricultural system and preluded a new 
socio-political course for the Romans. The extended period of 
war caused the citizens of Rome to be away from their farms 
frequently and for a very long time. The consequences of the 
lengthy campaigns began to manifest when Rome, led by the 
ambitions o f her elite who were desirous o f fame and glory, 
rather than rescuing the ailing Italian agrarian economy at this 
time, were emboldened by records of victories to levy more 
troops and fight more wars abroad. Since women and children 
could not manage farms when peasant farmers were constantly 
away at war, there began to be a dearth of farmers, a situation that 
the greedy rich politicians would exploit.
Following military glories from successful foreign campaigns, a 
period o f disconcerting moral decadence among the Roman 
upper classes began. Although a Roman law had set the upper 
limit o f the land a farmer could own at five hundred acres 
(Plutarch, Tiberius 2: 391), by the second century B.C. 
avaricious rich families ignored the land law, and, with impunity, 
began to encroach on large parcels o f state-owned land in Italy. 
As more and more land became illegally available to the upper 
crust o f the Roman society, cultivation o f large farming estates 
known as latifundia, displaced subsistence farming. The 
resultant plight o f the common Roman citizens turned out to be a 
precursor to a society that throve on slavery, which only began 
with the subjection o f fellow Romans to conditions o f slavery as 
expressed in the words that follow: 'but the men who fight and
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die for Italy enjoy the common air and light, indeed, but nothing 
else; houseless and homeless they wander about with their wives 
and children. And it is with lying lips that their imperators exhort 
the soldiers in their battles to defend sepulchres and shrines from 
the enemy; for not a man of them has an hereditary altar, not one 
of all these many Romans an ancestral tomb, but they fight and 
die to support others in wealth and luxury, and though they are 
styled masters o f the world, they have not a single clod o f earth 
that is their own'. (Plutarch, Tiberius 9.5).
The foregoing was the state o f servitude of the common people 
for which the Roman upper classes were culpable. However, 
there was more to the story of slavery in the Roman society. In a 
step that would not alter the course of Roman subsequent 
dependence upon slavery to function and maintain her political, 
social, and economic stronghold in the-ancient world, Tiberius 
Gracchus, when elected tribune in 133 B.C., sought. to 
redistribute lands and restore all citizen farmers to their land 
(Grant, 1978:169).Tiberius succeeded neither in pushing 
through his legislation nor in extending his power beyond the 
legal limit. Although from an aristocratic family, little did he 
realise he could not do much about changing the lots o f the 
downtrodden by fighting a strongly entrenched discriminatory 
system of the rich and influential ruling class. His bill met with a 
stiff opposition from the elite class and consequently, at the 
instigation o f rival political officers, he was mobbed in 132 BC. 
(Plutarch, Tiberius 2: 401).With comparable communist zeal, 
his brother, Gaius, while pursuing a similar course ten years later 
, had a partial success when he secured the tribunate and pushed 
through the redistribution o f land (Grant, 1978:172). Yet, in,
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Gaius' legislation and popularity, powerful members of the 
senate saw threats to their privilege and authority. Hence, Gaius 
lost his life to the turbulent atmosphere o f hostility that was 
sponsored by men o f the Roman Senate.
While the radical approach of the Gracchi at constitutional 
reforms may account for their brutal murder, it must be noted that 
the political and social environment o f Rome at the time was an 
obvious symbol of the divide between the rich and the poor, 
which remained after historic struggles and reforms that failed to 
obliterate it. The Senate's resistant to the agrarian reform was no 
surprise since its members owned most of the land and it was the 
foundation of their wealth. Furthermore, the Roman socio­
political sphere was characterised by an inequitable societal 
value that was reflected by the ruling class calling themselves 
Optimates (the best men) while the lower classes and their 
sympathizers were reckoned as the Populares (the people). In a 
setting of apparent discrimination against and oppression of the 
lowly by the pleasure seeking upper classes, Plutarch notes that 
the rich and powerful subjected the poor to slavery conditions:' 
the neighbouring rich men, by means o f fictitious personages, 
transferred [rented land] to themselves, and finally held most of 
the land openly in their own names. Then the poor, who had been 
ejected from their land, no longer showed themselves eager for 
military service, and neglected the bringing up of children, so 
that soon all Italy was conscious o f a dearth o f freemen, and was 
filled with gangs o f foreign slaves, by whose aid the rich 
cultivated their estates, from which they had driven away the free 
citizens'(Plutarch,Tiberius 8.3)
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Displacing the lowly from their ancestral land and subjecting 
them economic hardship was a clear form of enslavement. But 
after the common Roman people became impoverished by the 
actions of the upper classes, the state o f servitude o f the ex­
soldiers became worsened when 'a massive influx of slaves, 
many captured and imported as war prisoners, replaced the free 
labourers, forcing them to join the urban poor' (Hopkins, 1978: 
9). Rich landowners found it more profitable to use slaves who 
could not take the place o f propertied citizens in the military 
service and were by and large far more economical to maintain. 
As noted earlier, children bom by slaves added to the work force 
and. besides, slaves could be forced to work longer hours at the 
convenience o f the master who had purchased him with his 
skills. The appetite o f the Roman upper classes for slaves 
persisted as 'those who tilled its soil or tended its flocks there 
were imported barbarian slaves' (Plutarch,Tiberius 8.7). 
Therefore, as Rome grew in power and prestige, so did the 
effects o f corruption, greed and the concomitant over-reliance on 
foreign slave labour. The lifestyle o f ambition, greed and license 
o f the rich Romans, having led to the displacement o f the 
peasants from their land, gave rise to gangs o f unemployed 
Romans drifting from countryside to the city where they were 
hired as thugs to do the political bid dings o f wealthy senators. It 
was unmistakably a socio-economic imbalance and a state of 
servitude among the lower classes.
Although without any change in the values o f the upper classes, 
after the failure o f the Gracchi to solve the land problems, 
subsequent developments at Rome somehow addressed the
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economic plight o f the lower classes. Amidst the struggle 
between the optimates and the populares who sought power and 
personal glories that persisted, Gaius Marius (consul, 106, 104- 
100 BC) introduced a military reform that allowed for recruiting 
landless poor citizens for war. With the elimination o f property 
requirements for those who would serve in the army, the state 
came to have the obligation o f supplying weapons and armour to 
the legions. The arrangement included regular payment of wages 
to the soldiers for their service and militia army thereby gave 
way to professional army. This reform marked the beginning of 
progressive transference of soldiers' allegiances from the laws of 
the state to commanding officers who were seen as their 
champions. Marius unwittingly set in motion the practice of 
giving land to troops to get their support for political ambitions 
o f generals. Ultimately, the interest o f the upper classes 
prevailed.
The Need forMore Slaves
Although the unemployment tension was reduced in the 
meantime by Marius' army reform (Plutarch, Marius 9.1), the 
upper classes were only making another use of the service o f the 
common Romans in advancing their political interest while 
outright slavery was entrenched. The “settlement” of the 
unemployed Romans enabled the upper classes to have more use 
of slaves on their latifundia, the massive landed agricultural 
estates, which were more freely managed by slave workers. The 
rich had channelled a better way of realising their desires since 
the Romans' renewed conquests and profit-making from wars in 
the late Republic required more troops. The Roman senators had
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found a new role for the lower classes as they looked beyond 
Italy to establish colonies in North Africa, subsequently in Egypt 
and later around the Mediterranean.
The approach was taking the hands o f peasant population off the 
tilling o f fields to make them serve on incessant foreign 
campaigns; earnestly replacing them with foreign slaves and 
then sourcing for agricultural production to sustain the state 
across the Mediterranean. Consequently, agriculture, which had 
always been the mainstay o f the Roman economy, in the last 
century o f the Roman Republic, largely depended on slave 
workers and, by the early Roman Empire, a labour market that 
was undermined by ubiquitous presence of slaves flourished 
(Temin, 2006:136) in the Roman society. Despite the practice o f 
manumission that generally made slaves to work hard in the 
hope o f regaining their freedom, • slavery became ' the most 
common formal, legally enforceable long- term labour contract 
in the early Roman Empire. Roman slaves worked in all kinds o f 
activities; rural slave jobs were as varied as the known range of 
urban or household free jobs' (Temin, 2006:142). This situation 
was never awkward to the Roman aristocracy. After all, as seen 
in the cases of the Gracchi mentioned above, it was typical o f the 
Roman senators to resist reforms or bills that threatened their 
authority or undermined their influence while they naturally 
gave legal endorsement to any process that kept alive their greed 
and ambition.
Understandably, the need for slaves only increased with the 
Roman territorial expansion and the corresponding constant 
inflow of money and taxes from the provinces into Rome. For
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instance, Pompey's conquests increased the revenues of Rome so 
much that, at his death in the first century B.C.; he personally had 
175 million denarii (Jones, 1974:121). The Romans' wealth 
increased concomitantly with the upper classes' taste for luxury 
and this way of life raised the demand for slaves for production 
and entertainment.
Even when Roman slaves could be categorised as skilled and 
unskilled, often, their works required a lot o f exertion. They were 
found at harbours loading and unloading boats and similarly at 
warehouses moving products (Barrow, 1928:108).At canals and 
rivers, slaves worked strenuously as they used all manly strength 
to pull ships and barges upstream by ropes (Cowell, 1980:115). 
Slaves played dominant roles in pottery factories, making 
stamps and molds (Frank, 1962: 326). To meet their utmost 
nfeeds, some masters would train unskilled slaves in occupations 
the masters desired. Such was the case with the first century 
Marcus Licinius Crassus who made a fortune from buying 
houses cheap after they were engulfed by fire and rebuilt them 
with some five hundred slaves who were specially trained for 
this purpose (Westermann, 1942:154-155). Just as there were 
different equipment and tools to perform various tasks, the 
Roman upper classes' view of a fulfilling life was having slaves 
with appropriate skills to meet all possible needs, including 
gratifying their sensual desires. The case o f a Roman states man, 
which is soon discussed below, illustrates this fact.
Pertinent to this discussion is the socio-political environment or 
a cultural institution at Rome that was most conducive to the 
increased need for slaves. Patronage, known as clientela,
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established a relationship of both obligation and dependence 
between the patronus (patron) and his cliens (client) in the 
ancient Roman society. Although, the arrangement was mutual, 
it was characteristic o f the culture where moral obligations in the 
relationship between the weak and the strong were reciprocal. 
Granted, 'the patron was obliged to protect [the client] in 
emergencies' (Burckhardt, 1990: 79), the institution favoured 
the political interest o f wealthy patrons more since the clients' 
'obligation meant primarily political assistance, which became 
manifest naturally as support in the elections' (Burckhardt, 1990: 
79). However, the Roman aristocracy wanted more. While in 
their clients, who were generally from the lower classes, the 
Roman upper classes particularly got the support needed to 
secure the greatest number o f votes in elections (also in the 
military), “full-time” slaves must work in their homes and large 
farm estates to ensure more abundant means o f enjoying their 
luxuries and maintaining their socio-economic status.
A Roman Statesman and his Treatment o f Slaves
Roman dependence on slavery was far-reaching. Indeed, by the 
sweat o f slaves, the Roman industry was oiled. Although the 
slavery could be seen as systematically emerging from the 
people's military superiority, it is difficult to imagine a Rome that 
would allow any Moses to liberate her slaves. Without slaves, 
Roman factories would close down and many shops would not 
open and her world o f entertainment would be dealt a death blow. 
The massive importation o f products as well as transportation of 
items to the Roman markets would but fail in a Rome without the 
slave population. However, a picture o f the use or treatment of
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slaves by a Roman noble that follows, does not only show how 
members of the upper classes spearheaded slavery in ancient 
Rome, but it also provides examples o f human values or 
motivations behind the practice of slavery throughout the ages. 
The case of the Roman statesman, Cato, is hereby examined.
Marcus Cato, also known as Cato the Elder(234-149 BC), was a 
Roman statesman who was reputed for bravery in military 
service. From a humble plebeian background, Cato rose to 
prominence and distinguished himself in Roman politics, 
becoming highly famed for 'great abilities'(Plutarch, Cato 1.2) 
that were demonstrably seen in his commitment and passion for 
the Roman republic. In his lifetime, Cato would see only three 
instances o f regret: 'once when he entrusted a secret to his wife; 
once when he paid ship's fare to a place instead o f walking 
thither; and once when he remained intestate 'a whole day' 
(Plutarch, Cato 9.6). However, the states man's dealings with 
slaves represent the ancient undesirable record o f human abuse, 
which should also be on a list o f regrets.
It is suggested that Cato, who was into slave trade, was very 
frugal in spending money on purchase of slaves as'he never paid 
more than fifteen hundred drachmas for a slave' (Plutarch, 
Cato4.4). He was also choosy in his purchase o f slaves since this 
would mean wise investment, so that, 'rather than having 
considerations for effeminate or attractive looks, he sought after 
'sturdy workers, such as grooms and herdsmen' (Plutarch, 
Cato4.4).The statesman needed men with good physiques, who 
would do hard work and give him value for the money he spent 
on buying and feeding them. However, in this instance, Cato was
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more than a shrewd business man; his treatment o f slaves was no 
better than the handling of household tools or equipment. This is 
evidenced by what he did to slaves: 'when they got oldish, 
instead of feeding them when they were useless' (Plutarch, 
Cato4.4), he offered them up for sale. To Cato, the old weak 
frames were assets of little worth, lacking in real economic 
benefit to the buyer. However, old slaves' serving as household 
helps could not be ruled out in a society where even a poor 
plebeian family owned a slave or two and being a slave may be 
tantamount to survival. O f course, during the imperial Rome, it 
would be easier to think of use of old slaves working 'in low 
status jobs like cleaning the sewers and repairing roads' 
(Wiedemann, 1996: 286). Meanwhile, Cato here clearly 
provides an instance of treatment of slaves as chattels; 'beasts of 
burden...the mark of a very mean nature, which recognizes no tie 
between man and man but that o f necessity' (Plutarch, Cato5.1).
Harsh treatments were experienced by all slaves in the ancient 
time. Yet, Cato's treatment of slaves, who were not only weak 
and worn out but also knew no other place o f dwelling and could 
do little or nothing to care for themselves in their old age, is 
clearly bereft o f compassion and just inhumane. A balance is 
required, however, between not being quick to dismiss Cato's 
action as mere social behaviour and passing a severe judgment 
on an ancient practice by using modem parameters.
Nevertheless, no attempt at being impartial should make anyone 
try to obscure the fact that Cato saw nothing odd about the use of 
slaves as “living tools”. With his seemingly astute business 
deals, it is hardly difficult to get a picture of a capitalist, 
considering what is said next concerning him: 'he applied
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himself more strenuously to money-getting ... and invested his 
capital in business that was safe and sure. He bought ponds, hot 
springs ... all o f which brought him in large profits' (Plutarch, 
Cato21.5).The statesman's' business acumen' led to his taking 
steps, supposedly to secure his business, to engage in what a 
modem would define as human trafficking when he lent' money 
also to those of his slaves who wished it and they would buy boys 
with it, and after training and teaching them for a year, at Cato's 
expense, would sell them again.(Plutarch, Cato 21.6).Cato 
action offers a good definition of human trafficking.
A major source of such boys that Cato would buy and sell after 
training in the Roman society was known as natural 
reproduction(Scheidel,2007). Regarding this chief means of 
replenishing slaves, Cato's act was neither illegal nor socially 
wrong since 'under Roman law, the offspring o f slave women 
assumed the status o f their-mothers, except when the mother had 
been free and married at the time of conception' (Scheidel, 2007: 
15). With the legal endorsement o f child propagation which 
made the child of a slave woman a slave for life, Cato, as he 
desired, could treat humans as merchandise. Still, this should not 
lead to the conclusion that he could not have done otherwise; in 
fact, he used to be known as more humane in his treatment of the 
lowly. Cato 'at the outset, when he was still poor and in military 
service, he found no fault at all with what was served up to him, 
declaring that it was shameful for a man to quarrel with a 
d o m e s t i c  o v e r  f o o d  a n d  d r i n k '  ( P l u t a r c h ,  
Cato21.^.Representative o f how some people o f ordinary birth 
would behave when they become rich, Cato's demeanour was 
clearly associated with his changed status: 'when his
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circumstances were improved and he used to entertain his 
friends and colleagues at table, no sooner was the dinner over 
than he would flog those slaves who had been remiss at all in 
preparing or serving if (Plutarch, Cato21.4). The noble, Cato, 
would not only display the traits of a dominus (lord or master) 
whose pleasure was generally met with the cares o f his slaves, 
but he became so domineering that he was also gratified by 
thrashing slaves for minor mistakes.
More picture o f meanness, or better still, sadistic pleasure 
enjoyed by slave owners in the treatment of fellow humans in 
servitude, comes from Cato who 'was always contriving that his 
slaves should have feuds and dissensions among themselves; 
harmony among them made him suspicious and fearful of 
them'(Plutarch, Cato21.4). Strangely, peace among slaves was 
seen by Cato as threat to his authority and, in what appears to be a 
case o f graver moral generation, the- statesman 'had [slaves] 
suspected o f some capital offence brought to trial before all their 
fellow servants, and, if  convicted, put to [them to] 
death(Plutarch, Cato21.4).
Cato also exemplified the use o f slaves to satisfy sexual pleasure. 
Although the term, sexual slavery, tends to have a modem 
connotation, use o f slaves to fulfil sexual desire was a common 
social behaviour among Roman men of highest social profile 
that no one frowned at(Dillon and Garland, 2005:382). 
Ironically, while slave prostitutes spent their entire lives in 
sexual servitude gratifying sensual pleasures o f such men, their 
“profession” was considered shameful and demeaning 
(Edwards, 1997:66).The ambivalent view of prostitution related
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to situations where only the upper classes determined what was 
or what was not socially acceptable. Even when at some time 
popular moral thoughts would militate against a questionable 
practice among men of power and influence, Cato represents the 
undeniable secret pleasure o f a Roman noble thus:
'He himself was well confirmed in bodily health and vigour, and 
long withstood the assaults o f age. Even when an old man he was 
prone to indulge his sexual appetite, and at last married a wife 
when he was long past the marrying age. This was the way it 
came about. After the death of his wife, he married his son to the 
daughter o f Aemilius Paulus, the sister o f Scipio, but he himself, 
in his widowhood, took solace with a slave girl who secretly 
visited his bed' (Plut. Cato 21.1).
Cato, who in his old age still enjoyed 'bodily health and vigour', 
'was prone to indulge his sexual appetite' and he got a ready 
outlet for his undying passion in a 'slave girl'. There may be no 
need here to discuss how old the girl was or whether Cato was 
satisfying his sexual desires by resorting to child abuse, the 
thought that is probably implicit in the expression, 'took solace 
with a slave girl [not a slave woman] who secretly visited his 
bed'. Ignoring the clandestine nature o f the affair, Plutarch's 
account here lends credence to the fact the Roman society had 
sufficient amount of slaves to carry out all the people's “daily” 
duties, which included the “service” the girl rendered.
Conclusion
The peasant Romans had fought patriotically under the banner of 
Senatus Populus que Romanus (The Senate and People of Rome) 
during the Republic. Yet, the gains o f the victorious wars and
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conquests had only served to make the rich members o f the 
ruling class richer and more powerful, creating economic 
hardship for the common people. This paper has noted that the 
late Republic betrayed moral decadence among the Roman 
upper classes. By their greed, the nobles subjected the poor to 
slavish conditions, which became evidenced by the agrarian 
crises that caused the peasant farmers to become recruits as 
political thugs in the city. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus sought to 
relieve the pains o f the common men in servitude, but they were 
both killed in political violence at the instigation o f the powerful 
members o f the Roman Senate. Such was the oppressive 
disposition of the ruling class who saw their profile of honour as 
incomplete without domination of other humans.
With the spirit o f wielding authority over the common citizens by 
the upper classes that was powerful in the Roman culture, the 
rich were always desirous of social difference between them and 
the lower classes. Although the Patron-client relationship would 
be considered mutually beneficial and different from slavery, the 
rich patrons usually belonged to the ambitious and greedy senate 
class whose interests were often advanced through oppressive 
control of the state's resources. However, the role o f the upper 
classes in promoting slavery or creating slavery conditions 
transcended living in luxury by subjecting fellow citizens to hard 
economic life. Their exotic taste for luxurious life and holding on 
to nobility also required having men who would help with the 
business of war constantly under their control. Besides, in 
greater quantity that could not be locally met, the upper classes 
needed people who would do domestic works and maximise the 
profits from large farm estates. Hence, the privileged men filled
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Rome with imported slaves. Cato's example, in addition to 
typifying members of the upper classes as slave dealers or 
“human traffickers", suggests that the elite class could also be 
viewed as accomplices in sex slavery. There might be no much 
speculation on the role o f the nobles in sex slavery since legal 
structures were put in place by the Roman senate for prostitution; 
the business of slaves or ex-slaves. The nobles had gained much 
wealth from war loots as well as a taste for luxury, which 
required a vast number o f slaves to indulge all their pleasures.
The discussion on the role o f the Roman upper classes 
necessarily evokes thoughts o f actions or inactions of ruling 
classes or politicians in Africa today that engender slavery or 
slavery conditions. Africa has enough stories of leaders who loot 
the public coffers and live in prodigious luxury while pensioners 
and other common people they promise to liberate wind in deep 
pains o f poverty in stinking urban slums and in subhuman- 
conditions o f debased rural shacks. Although slavery is no longer 
legal anywhere in the world, the above consideration 
characterises reports o f use o f humans as wealth-creating 
machines and as objects o f sexual gratification in neo slavery or 
human trafficking business. Sadly, sex slavery remains an 
international business that ultimately best suits the tastes and 
needs o f the rich and the powerful; an institution that shares 
space with deep-rooted corruption of the greedy powerful 
political class. Submission is here made that actions of any 
government to combat slavery would be inadequate as long as 
powerful politicians or their supporters, who are often beyond 
the reach of the law, are guilty o f complicity. However, despite 
the Roman ugly record o f slavery, a consideration o f stories of
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manumission in ancient Rome presents some light at the end of 
the tunnel. This will be examined in another work.
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References
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