page_title: Slavery in ancient Rome
section_title: Freedmen
hierarchical_section_title: Slavery in ancient Rome / Freedmen
caption_attribution_description: English: Urn for the ashes of Tiberius Claudius Chryseros and two females: Iulia Theonoes and Claudia Dorcas, probably his wife and daughter. The reliefs on the side depict Ammone with guarlands of fruit, underlining the sacral nature of the object.CIL VI 5318: Dis Manib(us)/ Ti(beri) Claudi Aug(usti) l(iberti)/ Chryserotis/ et Iuliae Theo/noes et Claudiae / Dorcadis
context_page_description: Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the economy. Besides manual labor, slaves performed many domestic services, and might be employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Accountants and physicians were often slaves. Slaves of Greek origin in particular might be highly educated. Unskilled slaves, or those sentenced to slavery as punishment, worked on farms, in mines, and at mills.
  Slaves were considered property under Roman law and had no legal personhood. Most slaves would never be freed. Unlike Roman citizens, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation, torture and summary execution. Over time, however, slaves gained increased legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters.
  A major source of slaves had been Roman military expansion during the Republic. The use of former enemy soldiers as slaves led perhaps inevitably to a series of en masse armed rebellions, the Servile Wars, the last of which was led by Spartacus.
context_section_description: A freed slave was the libertus of his former master, who became his patron (patronus). The two had mutual obligations to each other within the traditional patronage network. The terms of his manumission might specify the services a libertus owed. A freedman could "network" with other patrons as well.
  As a social class, former slaves were libertini. Men could vote and participate in politics, with some limitations. They could not run for office, nor be admitted to the senatorial class. The children of former slaves enjoyed the full privileges of Roman citizenship without restrictions. The Latin poet Horace was the son of a freedman, and an officer in the army of Marcus Junius Brutus.
  Some freedmen became very powerful. Many freedmen had important roles in the Roman government. Freedmen of the Imperial families often were the main functionaries in the Imperial administration. Some rose to positions of great influence, such as Narcissus, a former slave of the Emperor Claudius.
  Other freedmen became wealthy. The brothers who owned House of the Vettii, one of the biggest and most magnificent houses in Pompeii, are thought to have been freedmen. A freedman designed the amphitheater in Pompeii.
  A freedman who became rich and influential might still be looked down on by the traditional aristocracy as a vulgar nouveau riche. Trimalchio, a character in the Satyricon, is a caricature of such a freedman.
caption: Cinerary urn for the freedman Tiberius Claudius Chryseros and two women, probably his wife and daughter
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