dangerous to show them their numbers. Male slaves were not allowed to wear the toga or bulla, nor females the stola, but otherwise they were dressed nearly in the same way as poor people, in clothes of a dark color and slippers.

Gibbon estimates the population of the Roman empire in the time of Claudius at one hundred and twenty millions: sixty millions of freemen and sixty millions of slaves. The proportion of slaves was much larger in Italy than in the provinces, according to Milman. Robertson states that there were twice as many slaves as free citizens, and Blair estimates three slaves to one freeman, between the conquest of Greece, B. C. 146, and the reign of Alexander Severus, A. D. 222, 235. Milman is inclined to "adopt the more cautious suggestions of Gibbon."

As the Romans regarded slavery as an institution of society, death was considered to put an end to the distinction between slaves and freemen. Slaves were sometimes even buried with their masters, and we find funeral inscriptions addressed to the Dii Manes of slaves. In 1726 the burial vaults of the slaves belonging to Augustus and Livia were discovered near the Appian Way, where numerous inscriptions were found, which give us considerable information respecting the different classes of slaves and their various occupations. Other sepulchres of the same time have been discovered in the neighborhood of Rome.

We have already referred to the immense number of slaves trained for gladiators. A more particular description of this class will be interesting to the general reader, and will serve to elucidate the manners, customs and morals of their masters. The gladiators, however, were not all slaves. The term is applied to the combatants who fought in the amphitheatre and other places, for the amusement of the Roman people. They are said to have been first exhibited by the Etruscans, and to have had their origin in the custom of killing slaves and captives at the funeral pyres of the deceased. A show of gladiators was called munus, and the person who exhibited it, editor, or munerator, who was honored during the day of exhibition, if a private person, with the insignia of a magistrate.

Gladiators were first exhibited at Rome in B. C. 264, in the Forum Boarium, by Marcus and Decimus Brutus, at the funeral of their father. They were at first confined to public funerals, but afterwards fought at the funerals of most persons of consequence, and even at those of women. Private persons sometimes left a sum of money in their will to pay the expenses of such an exhibition at their funerals. Combats of gladiators were also exhibited at entertainments, and especially at public festivals by the ædiles and other magistrates, who sometimes exhibited immense numbers with a view of pleasing the people. Under the empire the passions of the Romans for this amusement rose to its greatest height, and the number of gladiators who fought on some occasions appears almost incredible. After Trajan's triumph over the Dacians, there were

more than 10,000 exhibited.*

* Dion Cass. lxviii, 15.

Gladiators consisted either of captives, slaves and condemned malefactors, or of free born citizens who fought voluntarily. Of those who were condemned, some were said to be condemned ad gladium, in which case they were obliged to be killed within a year, and others ad ludum, who might obtain their discharge at the end of three years. Freemen, who became gladiators for hire, were called auctorati. Even under the republic, free born citizens fought as gladiators, but they appear to have belonged only to the lower orders. Under the empire, however, both equites and senators fought in the arena; and even women, which was at length forbidden in the time of Severus. Gladiators were kept in schools, where they were trained by persons called lanista. They sometimes were the property of the lanista, who let them out to persons who wished to exhibit a show of gladiators; but at other times belonged to citizens, who kept them for the purpose of exhibition, and engaged lanista to instruct them. The superintendence of the schools which belonged to the emperors, was intrusted to a person of high rank, called curator or procurator. The gladiators fought in these schools with wooden swords. Great attention was paid to their diet, in order to increase the strength of their bodies. They were fed with nourishing food; and a great number were trained at Ravenna on account of the salubrity of the place.

The person who was to exhibit a show of gladiators, published bills containing the numbers and sometimes the names of those who were to fight. When the day came, they were led along the arena in procession, and matched by pairs; and their swords were examined by the exhibitor to see if they were sufficiently sharp. At first there was a kind of sham battle, called prelusio, in which they fought with wooden swords; and afterwards, at the sound of the trumpet, the real battle began. When a gladiator was wounded, the people called out habet, or hoc habet; and the one who was vanquished, lowered his arms in token of submission. His fate, however, depended upon the audience, who pressed down their thumbs if they wished him to be saved, and turned them up if they wished him to be killed, and ordered him to receive the fatal sword, which they usually did with the greatest firmness. If the life of a vanquished gladiator was spared, he obtained his discharge for that day. In some exhibitions, the lives of the conquered were never spared; but this kind was forbidden by Augustus.

Palms were given to the victorious; money was also sometimes given. Old gladiators, and sometimes those who had fought only for a short time, were discharged from the service by the editor at the request of the people, who presented each of them with a wooden sword. If a person was free before he entered the school, he became free again on his discharge; if he was a slave, he became a slave again. A man, however, who had voluntarily become a gladiator, was always considered to have disgraced himself; and consequently it appears he could not attain the equestrian ranks, if he afterwards acquired sufficient property to entitle him to it.

Shows of gladiators were abolished by Constantine, but appear, notwith

standing, to have been generally exhibited until the time of Honorius, by whom they were finally suppressed.

Gladiators were divided into different classes, according to their arms and different mode of fighting, and other circumstances. One class wore helmets without any aperture for the eyes, so that they were obliged to fight blindfold, and thus excited the mirth of the spectators; another class fought with two swords; another on horseback; another from chariots, like the Gauls and Britons. The laqueators used a noose to catch their adversaries. The meridiani fought in the middle of the day, after the combats with the wild beasts in the morning. The retiarii carried only a three-pointed lance, and a net, which they endeavored to throw over their adversaries, and then attack them with the trident while they were entangled. If he missed his aim in throwing the net, he fled and endeavored to prepare his net for another cast, while his adversary followed him round the arena in order to kill him before he could make a second attempt. The Thraces were armed with a round shield, and a short sword or dagger. When a gladiator was killed, the attendants, appointed for the purpose, dragged the body out of the arena with iron hooks.

CHAPTER V.

SLAVERY IN ROME.-CONTINUED.

Abstract of the laws in regard to Slavery.-Power of Life and Death.-Cruelty of Masters.-Laws to protect the Slave.-Constitution of Antoninus: of Claudius.-Husband and Wife could not be separated; nor parents and children.-Slave could not contract marriage, nor own property.-His peculium, or private property, held only by usage. -Regulations in respect to it.-Master liable for damages for wrongful acts of his Slave. -The murderer of a slave, liable for a capital offense, or for damages.-Fugitive Slaves, not lawfully harbored; to conceal them, theft.—Master entitled to pursue them.-Duties of the authorities.-Slave hunters.-Laws defining the condition of children born of Slaves.-Laws to reduce free persons to Slavery.-How the state of Slavery might be terminated; by manumission; by special enactments; what Slaves entitled to freedom.-Practice of giving liberty to Slaves in times of civil tumult and revolution.— Effects of Slavery under the Republic, and under the Empire.

WE now proceed to give an abstract of the laws in regard to Slavery. Ac

cording to the strict principles of the Roman law, it was a consequence of the relation of master and slave, that the master could treat the slave as he pleased; he could sell him, punish him, or put him to death. Positive morality, however, and the social intercourse that must always subsist between a master and the slaves who are immediately about him, ameliorated the condition of slavery. Still, we read of acts of great cruelty committed by masters in the later republican and earlier imperial periods, and the Lex Petronia was enacted in order to protect the slave. The original power of life and death over a slave,

was limited by a constitution of Antoninus, which enacted, that, if a man put his slave to death without sufficient reason, he was liable to the same penalty as if he had killed another man's slave. The same constitution also prohibited the cruel treatment of slaves by their masters, by enacting that, if the cruelty of the master was intolerable, he might be compelled to sell the slave; and the slave was empowered to make his complaint to the proper authority. A constitution of Claudius enacted, that if a man exposed his slaves, who were infirm, they should become free; and the constitution also declared, that if they were put to death, the act should be murder. It was also enacted, that in sales or division of property, slaves, such as husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, should not be separated.*

A slave could not contract a marriage, and no legal relation between a father and his children was recognized. Still nearness of blood was considered an impediment to marriage after manumission: thus, a manumitted slave could not marry his manumitted sister.

A slave could have no property. He was not incapable of acquiring property, but his acquisitions belonged to his master; which Gaius considers to be a rule of the Jus Gentium, that is, "the law which natural reason has established among all mankind." Slaves were not only employed in the usual domestic offices and in the labors of the field, but also as factors or agents for their masters in the management of business, and as mechanics, artisans, and in every branch of industry. It may be easily conceived, that under these circumstances, especially as they were often intrusted with property to a large amount, there must have arisen a practice of allowing the slave to consider a part of his gains as his own. This was his "peculium;" according to strict law, this was the property of the master, but according to usage, it was considered the property of the slave. Sometimes it was agreed between master and slave, that the slave should purchase his freedom with his peculium, when it amounted to a certain sum. If a slave was manumitted by the owner in his life-time, the peculium was considered to be given with the liberty, unless it was expressly retained. Transactions of borrowing and lending could take place between the master and slave with respect to the peculium, though no right of action arose on either side out of such dealings. In case of the claim of creditors on the slave's peculium, the debt of the slave to the master was first taken into the account, and deducted from the peculium. The master was only bound by the acts and dealings of the slave, when the slave was employed as his agent or instrument.

It is a consequence of the relation of slave and master, that the master acquired no rights against the slave in consequence of his wrongful acts. Other persons might obtain rights against a slave in consequence of his crimes, but their right could not be prosecuted by action until the slave was manumit

*Cod., 3, title 38, s. 11.

ted. They had, however, a right of action against the slave's master for damages, and if the master would not pay the damages, he must give up the slave. The slave was protected against injury from other persons. If the slave was killed, the master might either prosecute the killer for a capital offense, or sue for damages. The master had an action against those who corrupted his slave, and led him into bad practices, and could recover twice the amount of the estimated damage. The female slaves were protected by the master's right of action.

A fugitive slave could not lawfully be received or harbored; to conceal him was theft. The master was entitled to pursue him wherever he pleased; and it was the duty of all authorities to give him aid in recovering his slave. It was the object of various laws to check the running away of slaves in every way, and, accordingly, a runaway slave could not legally be an object of sale. A class of persons made it a business to capture fugitive slaves. The rights of the master over the slave were in no way affected by his running away.

A person was born a slave whose mother was a slave at the time of his birth. At a later period the rule of law was established, that though a woman at the time of the birth might be a slave, still her child was free, if the mother had been free at any time within the nine months preceding the birth. In the cases of children who were the offspring of a free parent and a slave, positive law provided whether the children should be free or slaves.

A person became a slave by capture in war, (also jure gentium.) Captives were sold, as belonging to the public treasury, or distributed among the soldiers by lot. A free person might become a slave in various ways, in consequence of positive law, (jure civili). This was the case with those who refused or neglected to be registered in the census, and those who evaded military service. In certain cases a man became a slave, if he allowed himself to be sold as such in order to defraud the purchaser.

Under the empire the rule was established, that persons condemned to death, to the mines, and to fight with wild beasts, lost their freedom, and their property was confiscated. But this was not the earlier law. A freedman who misconducted himself towards his patron, was reduced to his former state of slavery.

The state of slavery was terminated by manumission. It was also terminated by various positive enactments, either by way of reward to the slave or punishment to the master. Freedom was given to slaves who discovered the perpetrators of certain crimes. After the establishment of Christianity, liberty might be acquired, subject to certain limitations, by becoming a monk or a spiritual person; but if the person left his monastery for a secular life, or rambled about in the towns or the country, he might be reduced to his former servile condition.

In times of revolution under the republic, it was not unusual to proclaim the liberty of slaves to induce them to join in revolt; but these were irregular proceedings, and neither justifiable nor examples for imitation. Lord Dun