During the reign of Caesar, thousands of men and animals were butchered just to make a Roman holiday! The Romans also enjoyed pantomimes and plays which too were often very violent in nature - "It was not uncommon for a condemned criminal to be executed [on stage] as part of the play." In modern sources, it is often portrayed that slaves were treated more harshly than was actually the case. Slaves in Rome actually did have some benefits - "It is clear that slaves owned land, property, ships, interests in business concerns, even slaves of their own, and that their rights were protected by law." In most cases, slaves were citizens of conquered lands who had been spared and put into slavery instead of being executed. This in itself was a 'benefit'. Often slaves were trained by their 'masters' in a craft, giving them skills and again benefiting them. "For a man from a 'backward' race might be brought within the pale of civilisation, educated and trained in a craft or profession, and turned into a useful member of society." Although this extract is clearly written by someone not a slave, it proves that a slave may learn a lot and actually benefit from slavery. In fact, Satricon of Petronius, who was once a slave actually said "Thanks heavens for slavery, it made me what you see today." Although this only the account of one man, it shows that at least some people actually recognised the benefits that slavery brought them.On the other hand though, some slave masters treated their slaves very poorly. In the eyes of the Roman law, a slave was the absolute property of his master and he could inflict any kind of punishment on his that he chose and beating, torture and the murder of slaves was common, and some slaves lived in constant fear of their masters. Often masters would attack their slaves for the most minor and trivial reasons, and often because they wanted to take their anger out. "Farm slaves often toiled in chain gangs, living like anim...
