The Servile Wars

(Bradley 19) .

             Slaves like any other spoil of war, land, gold, art were expressions of wealth and superiority over others, both Roman and otherwise. Some slaves became conscripts, especially if they where particularly adapt at fighting in any given war situation but for the most part they became farm laborers and at a much smaller degree domestic servants, even educators to the children of the elite if they where known teachers of the fundamentals in their own country. According to Bradley, a leading historian of Roman history,.

             The three slave insurrections that occurred between 140 B.C. and 70 B.C. were therefore the direct outcome of the formation of Rome's empire and the concomitant transformation of the Italian economy. By the middle of the second century B.C. Rome in fact was a genuine slave society.Some historians believe that for the label of slave society to be properly applied to any historical community a minimal proportion-say, 20 percent or more-of the overall population has to be of servile status; so that on this reasoning Rome will have been a slave society only after or toward the end of the third century, since by circa 225 B.C. the slave proportion of the total population of Italy can be estimated at approximately one-third. (Bradley 19).

             Yet researchers are quick to point out that long before that Rome possessed other important characteristics of a slave society, as it included the presence of slaves in its legal and religious life for a greater amount of time than the proportions of slaves to free peoples became equal to or greater than 20 percent.

             from this qualitative point of view Rome can justifiably be called a slave society much earlier. Slavery at Rome had, in reality, always been integrally connected with Roman warfare, and for the period of the Italian wars details are on record of large-scale enslavements of defeated enemies that are reasonably reliable. So by the time (264 B.

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