Slavery in Greece, Rome, and Africa E-mail: enchanted9090@aol.com The issue of slavery has been debated since its early inception. In recent times, there has been considerable debate as to the definition of slavery. Western scholars have attempted to justify slavery of the New World by comparing it to the slavery that existed in Biblical times as well as Greco-Roman and African slavery. Some argue that there can be no international definition of slavery. Others try to define by a few words that apply to every instance of slavery. The only true way to define slavery is according to each society in which it was based. Webster’s dictionary defines slavery submission to a dominating influence or the state of a person who is a chattel of another. Though Webster’s gives this very general definition, there are many other meanings that may come to a person’s mind depending on the region of the world that one is speaking of. In Rome, there were different forms of slavery and slavery was not based on any particular thing such as color. Where did these slaves come from? It has been said that “slaves are either born or made.” During the Republican period one of the principal sources of slaves had been prisoners of war. There was significant number of Jewish slaves acquired as a result of the crushing of the Jewish rebellion by Vespasian and Titus (AD 66-70) The steady expansion in Britain continued to supply British slaves onto the market. Great numbers of prisoners of war reached Rome from the Dacian wars of Trajan. Also, after the Jewish revolt led by Bar-Cochba in AD 132-35 an additional number of Jews were sold as slaves. As well as prisoners of war, there were other groups of people who were made slaves. There were those who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. There were also persons that were made slaves as a result of piracy. This practice was considerably restricted when Pompey crushed the pirates after th...
