Roman Empire

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Social Order

Rome was a highly hierarchical society in which different classes or groups had well-defined roles. Historical sources provide far more information about the elite or wealthy people than the poor. Writers of the day generally ignored the stories of those who made up the lower class. Modern historians and archaeologists have tried to reconstruct the lives of ordinary Romans from a variety of sources: occasional references in poems and histories, tombstone inscriptions, and everyday objects that survive from antiquity or that are uncovered in excavations at sites like the ancient cities of Pompeii and Ostia.

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Elites

In Rome the imperial court was the center of aristocratic life with senators, equestrians, and assorted others—like actors and astrologers—eager to impress the emperor and his family. The emperors used ties of patronage, rewarding elites who were loyal with offices and gifts. Senators, equestrians, and other wealthy courtiers had their own dependents who relied on their generosity.

The Roman elite had wealth, official position, and prestige. They did not have to work, except to manage their estates. Consequently, they often did public service. They owned large townhouses as well as villas in the countryside. They often held elegant banquets at their homes and served wild game and fish from specially stocked ponds. Aristocrats not only lived better than the poor, but they received privileged treatment from the imperial officials and the courts. Members of the elite could not be tortured or summarily punished, and if they were accused of a crime, the emperor could hear their cases. Even if they were convicted of a capital offense, these men and women could not be crucified, burned alive, or thrown to the beasts, which were the punishments faced by the lower classes. Aristocrats were executed only by the sword.

In other cities of the empire, local elites also assumed the traditional responsibilities of holding office, sponsoring games, erecting public buildings, and making charitable contributions. The groups who commanded special respect often varied from place to place. Local aristocratic families, individuals who inherited local priesthoods, or Roman settlers could hold the highest position on the social ladder in different cities, but invariably a hierarchical structure existed.

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Lower Classes

The lower classes included poor citizens, noncitizens, slaves, and former slaves called freedmen. The working masses who toiled with their hands in the fields and towns represented the largest segment of the population during the empire, but not all of the lower classes were manual laborers. Doctors, musicians, actors, teachers, and even philosophers fell into the lower classes, as did craftspeople.

Institutions called collegia, which were similar to fraternal lodges in modern society, provided the poor with an alternative community. Some were trade groups or guilds of craftspeople, but most were burial societies that enabled each member to receive a proper funeral. The societies, open to freedmen and slaves alike, had their own officials. Each collegium sought a wealthy patron to contribute to celebratory banquets at religious festivals as well as to provide some legal protection for the members who, in turn, gave respect and prayers to the patron. In a small city, people had opportunities for enrichment that did not exist in the countryside. People could improve their status in the hierarchy by serving in the army or by being successful in trade.

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Slaves

When the Romans conquered the Mediterranean, they took millions of slaves to Italy, where they toiled on the large plantations or in the houses and workplaces of wealthy citizens. The Italian economy depended on abundant slave labor, with slaves constituting 40 percent of the population. Enslaved people with talent, skill, or beauty commanded the highest prices, and many served as singers, scribes, jewelers, bartenders, and even doctors. One slave trained in medicine was worth the price of 50 agricultural slaves.

Roman law was inconsistent on slavery. Slaves were considered property; they had no rights and were subject to their owners’ whims. However, they had legal standing as witnesses in courtroom proceedings, and they could eventually gain freedom and citizenship. Masters often freed loyal slaves in gratitude for their faithful service, but slaves could also save money to purchase their freedom. Conditions for slaves in Rome gradually improved, although slaves were treated cruelly in the countryside. Some harsh masters believed in the old proverb “Every slave is an enemy,” so that while humane legislation prohibited the mutilation or murder of slaves, outrageous cruelty continued. Like the Stoic philosophers, Christians taught the brotherhood of humanity and urged kindness towards slaves, but they did not consider slaves equals in status. For example, Saint Augustine opposed the principle of slavery, but did not see how the practice could be abolished without endangering the social order. Thus he regarded it as another necessary evil resulting from humanity’s fall from divine grace. Other bishops were less troubled, and the early Christian church actually acquired its own slaves.

Slavery in the Roman Empire did not suddenly end, but it was slowly replaced when new economic forces introduced other forms of cheap labor. During the late empire, Roman farmers and traders were reluctant to pay large amounts of money for slaves because they did not wish to invest in a declining economy. The legal status of “slave” continued for centuries, but slaves were gradually replaced by wage laborers in the towns and by land-bound peasants (later called serfs) in the countryside. These types of workers provided cheap labor without the initial cost that slave owners had to pay for slaves. Slavery did not disappear in Rome because of human reform or religious principle, but because the Romans found another, perhaps even harsher, system of labor.

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Freedmen

The class of people known as freedmen consisted of former slaves who had gained their freedom. Masters became patrons to their freed slaves, who owed them respect and often performed specific duties for them. For example, former slaves often worked for their patrons, selling the produce of the estate. Some imperial freedmen became enormously wealthy; one freedman possessed 4,000 slaves of his own. Freedmen had limited political rights, but they could direct their ambitions to their sons. Roman freedmen did not encounter the racial prejudice that restricted the political and economic progress of the descendants of American slaves. In a single generation, a family might move from slavery to social prominence. In ad 193 Publius Helvius Pertinax, the son of a former slave, became emperor.

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