Slavery in Roman London

Today the word 'slavery' conjures up the image of a chattel slave working on a plantation in the Caribbean. Many Roman slaves were indeed of this type. They were employed as forced labour on large farms or in mines, and worked in similarly terrible conditions.

Other Roman slaves worked in the households of the wealthy, where they carried out domestic tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Girls may have been bought as concubines.

Some slaves, however, had administrative or secretarial duties. They acquired power and influence vastly greater than we might expect from their enslaved status. These slaves were highly educated. They received a good education before becoming slaves or were purchased as children and then trained to carry out skilled tasks.

Many people were captured and became slaves as a result of cross-border raiding, or as a result of war. Others may have been orphans or foundlings who were acquired by slave-dealers and then sold on. Fortunata, the girl mentioned in the deed inscribed on the London writing tablet, may well have been one of these unlucky children. She came from near Jublains in northern France. At that time Jublains was in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Its people would have been safe from raiding parties and war.

Interestingly, it was possible for a Roman slave to buy his or her freedom, unlike more recent forms of slavery. A 'freedman' had a special status. It was halfway between absolute independence and a binding attachment to his master. Many freedmen were set up in business by their former owners - perhaps initially to run a branch of a family enterprise. Some went on to become wealthy entrepreneurs in their own right. Some slave-women were given their freedom in order to marry their masters.

The Roman emperor had palaces and property in Italy. He also had estates throughout the empire, including Britain. These were managed like the private households of other rich men: by dozens of slaves and freedmen and women. Such slaves handled vast sums of money. In the process they had the opportunity to make fortunes of their own. They were powerful individuals who acted as the emperor's personal ambassadors. Some had more political influence than senior army officers.

• The newly translated writing tablet, which mentions the sale of Fortunata.
• An inscription mentions officials of the emperor's household in London. It describes a 'freedman of the emperor' called Aquilinus. He and three other men dedicated an altar to Jupiter.
  We also know of a 'provincial slave' (the exact meaning is uncertain) called Anencletus. He set up a gravestone to his wife, Claudia Martina.
• There is also a fragment of another writing tablet (now in the British Museum) that appears to relate to the sale of a slave. It is a business letter that contains the instruction to 'turn that girl into cash'.

• We have some evidence for the activities of the emperor?s household outside London. A plaque from Combe Down, near Bath, records that an imperial freedman and procurator's assistant, Naevius, 'restored a headquarters building from ground level'. Naevius was probably responsible for managing one of the emperor's estates. It fell to him to take charge of rebuilding a dilapidated office block.
• Mamilianus was a legionary commander who lived in Chester. His 'freedmen and slave household' dedicated an altar to Fortune and Aesculapius.
• Also at Chester, we find the tombstone of three children - two of them apparently twins, aged 10 - set up by their 'master', Pompeius Optatus. They must have been children of a slave-woman in Optatus' household, possibly his own illegitimate offspring.

Francis Grew
Department of Early London History and Collections, Museum of London
March 2003

Aesculapius - God of healing

Chattel slave - A human being held as a chattel or 'movable possession' of their owner

Foundlings - Children abandoned by their parents

Jupiter, or Jove - The chief god of the Romans

Legionary commander - Commander of a legion of 3-6,000 infantrymen in the Roman army

Procurator - A Roman officer responsible for the finances of an imperial province, including tax collection and troop payment

In the Museum...

See the newly discovered writing tablet that mentions the slave Fortunata (on display for a limited period only).

On the internet...

Archaeology news feature on the writing tablet

Reading and writing the Roman way from The Potteries Museum 'Romans in Staffordshire' website

The British Museum's Compass website. Type 'roman writing' into the search box for images and information