How vital were enslaved people to Roman elite society?
In his Epigrams 11.39, Martial seems to be chastising his ex-slave Charidemus for fussing over him too much now that he is no longer a child and has become a man. This illustrates how involved Charidemus would have been in the childhood and upbringing of Martial. He begins with explaining to Charidemus, ‘You rocked my cradle, Charidemus, you were my guardian in my boyhood and constant companion’. The raising and educating of children for imperial families would have been much more difficult and time consuming would it not have been for the help of enslaved people and ex-enslaved people and that is the first reason I believe that the elite society would not function without enslaved people. Even though Martial is chastising Charidemus for being overbearing and over protective of him as an adult, he firstly acknowledges that his childhood would have lacked without his slave-companion.
Martial was a poet, a Roman citizen and being a property owner and holding honorary positions in Rome meant that he was closely connected to the elite. His work was likely published between 80 and 98 CE. Although Martial was supported by patrons, and he makes his feelings clear about this in his work, it is certain that the children of elite families would have been looked after and cared for by enslaved people, ‘The nurse and paedagogus (or child-minder), both slaves, were important figures in a child's upbringing.’ As the elite were working, running the country, going to events and so on, their children were being cared for by enslaved people so that they too can then take their own place in the Roman elite as adults, as it was expected for elite families to continue and try to better their own family’s reputation and virtues.
This marble funerary stele is dedicated to Philetaerus. It indicates how enslaved people were important in supporting and looking after children, because the stele is from a freedman who was a childminder of imperial children. Philetaerus was recognised as being a good slave, so much so that he was freed by Augustus and then went on to own his own enslaved people also, of which he was so appreciative of, he dedicated this stele to his own ‘deserving family slave’, Florentina.
The act of manumission meant that a slave owner could choose to free their enslaved people and that person would then become a Roman citizen, although not with the same right as born citizens. The enslaved people of the wealthiest of the elite would become the wealthiest freedmen or freedwomen and would then perhaps become slave owners themselves like Philetaerus.
To consider why some enslaved people would be freed by their owners may show us how much they were integral to the running of the homes and families of the elite. They were not considered to have any rights to freedom and yet some enslaved people were freed by their owners because they were deemed worthy of freedom and citizenship. I argue that this shows that the elite believed that slave labour in their society was a necessity and they showed gratitude to enslaved people that were deemed to be ‘good’ slaves.
Juvenal was a satirist in Ancient Rome. Satire was a literary form that could be humorous and scathing of its subjects, perhaps exaggerated for comedic effect, it was likely still rooted in the truth. Juvenal refers to some of the status symbols that you could expect to see at an elite dinner party ‘To these people, a table leg made of silver is the equivalent of an iron ring on their finger.’ an iron ring being a symbol of wealth and a silver table leg being ridiculous and unnecessary. He also directly references the enslaved people at the dinner parties, ‘The wine this boy will serve you was bottled in the same mountains as he comes from—he’s played beneath their peaks’. In this satire Juvenal is talking about dining at the houses of members of the elite. This was an important social event where members of the elite could show their status and wealth.
Another satire, ‘Trimalchio’, is thought to have been written from the mid to later first century CE and is a satire possibly by the Senator, Petronius, (although we don’t know for certain who wrote it) that contains a long ‘dinner party’ scene called Trimalchio’s Banquet. Although, as we know, satire is not meant to be a historical documentation of events, it does indicate how important dinner parties were to the elite, or to those wishing to be seen as a part of the elite, such as Trimalchio, so that they could see themselves and be seen as important, wealthy and powerful. A dinner party was an event intended to show wealth and status and the enslaved people of the hosts would have been an integral part of the process of hosting such events.
The importance of enslaved people in the running of imperial Roman society is clear. The families of ancient imperial Rome used slavery to assist them with running their households and family. The children of the imperial families needed to be looked after in order for them to grow healthily, as infant mortality would have been a high risk, they needed to be supervised and enslaved people were expected to do this while the running of the empire was left to the elite. The act of manumission I believe shows appreciation for enslaved people. Although they would have no choice in what they did as enslaved people, there was clear appreciation for ‘well-behaved’ slaves that did a good job and this could lead to their freedom and citizenship in Ancient Rome, and especially for the freedmen and women of the elite, it could also lead to property ownership, wealth and slave ownership. Seeing and being seen was important to the Roman elite and so were dinner parties as a part of this, the slaves that assisted at the dinner parties were important in the function of the social aspects of roman elite society.