by Jerry Toner
In my country estates I keep a dingy, underground prison to punish errant slaves with a period of solitude. It has only a few slits for light at the top, which cannot be reached by hand, and the slaves are fed minimally. While this is not strictly legal these days, I find it useful to have something that can strike fear into even the most awkward and stubborn of country slaves. Or I sentence slaves to work in the mill and take the place of the mules in turning the millstones. Such hard labour can quickly sort out miscreants. They soon make a sorrowful picture: covered in rags, their heads shaved, irons clamped on their feet, sallow faces, all covered with flour from the mill, like wrestlers who get covered with fine sand when they fight. Mind you, I don’t keep them at it for long, as such effort can soon become demoralising instead of inspiring the slave to work harder in his proper tasks.
You must never feel guilty at meting out such punishments. Slaves are ruined by their own wickedness, not by a master’s cruelty. Incidentally, if you do suffer any pangs of conscience after hitting a slave unjustly, either with your hand or an object, I have heard it on good authority that if you immediately spit into the palm of the hand that inflicted the wound then the resentment of the victim is immediately softened. The emperor Hadrian went so far as to apologise directly to the slave whose eye he had poked out with his pen. He asked the slave what he wanted by way of recompense. But the slave just grew bold and had the temerity to say that there was nothing the emperor could do as nothing could compensate for the loss of an eye. It just goes to show that if you treat slaves too gently they will soon take advantage of your softness and grow difficult.
Be careful not to hurt your hand when striking a slave. This is especially true if you do it in anger. Some have even been known to use not just their fists but their feet on their servants, or to stab them with a knife that they happened to be holding. I know several friends who have wounded their hands by hitting their slaves in the teeth. A medical friend of mine, a worthy man in every respect, has such a temper he regularly uses his hands on his servants, and sometimes his legs too. Most of the time, though, he attacks them with a leather strap, or with any wooden object that comes to hand. He is always bruising himself and pulling muscles from his exertions, inflicting injury on the very man who should be doling it out.
We should also remember that owning slaves provides an opportunity for the owner’s personal improvement. It teaches us how to control our base instincts. That is another reason why I choose not to strike slaves with my own hands. It is far better to restrain your rage for a few moments and, instead of rupturing yourself in a fit of anger, consider carefully exactly how many strokes of the rod or the whip the slave deserves to receive. This can then be carried out by another servant trained in such a task or by contractors brought in.
Pausing before punishing your slaves also gives a chance for your moral superiority to assert itself. We have, after all, forgiven the Gauls and the Britons for resisting us – why should we not show the same spirit of forgiveness to those who are even more worthless? Should we never show mercy to some miserable slave who has been lazy or talkative? If he’s a child, his age should excuse him, if female, her sex. Just as we should have too much respect to grow angry with our superiors, we should have too much self-respect to grow angry with our slaves. It is hardly an act of heroism to send some wretched slave off to the prison house to cool off for a few days.
Such outbursts of uncontrolled rage can, in any case, lead to legal complications. There was once a lady called Statilia, who asked the emperor whether she had to fulfil a clause in her late husband’s will, a clause that had clearly been written while he was furious with two of his slaves. The will stated that one of the slaves was to be kept chained up for ever, and the other was to be sold overseas. The emperor replied that Statilia’s husband had been alive long enough after he had made the will that, if he had wanted to, he could have had it rewritten to exclude these clauses inserted in anger. So unless there was some evidence that the master’s anger had in fact been assuaged by the slaves – they might perhaps have carried out some particularly meritorious act which it would be reasonable to assume would have softened their master’s ire – then his last wishes should be respected. And the emperor made it clear that it would take some proper written evidence to prove this, not something like the word of another slave.
There has been a growing tendency for the emperor to intervene in relations between masters and slaves. It is only natural that the father of the state, who is patron and head of the household to us all, should provide us with guidance on how best to manage our domestic affairs. Several emperors have decreed that a slave who appealed to the gods or to a statue of the divine emperor himself had the right to have his complaints investigated. This resulted from the fact that several provincial governors asked the emperor what they should do with slaves who took refuge in a temple or at the statues of emperors. The emperor declared that if it was the master’s intolerable cruelty that had driven the slave to run away and seek refuge, then the slaves should be sold to new masters, with the proceeds of the sale going to the original owner. This was a sensible decision, since it is in the public interest that people should not use their property badly. For although the power of the master over a slave must be absolute, it is in the interests of owners in general that protection against brutality or starvation or intolerable injustice should not be denied to those who rightly appeal against them.
In the old days of the republic, the head of the household could punish their slaves as they saw fit, just as they could their sons, and could even execute them. Now such power over life has been transferred to the magistrates. No master now can act against their slaves with excessive cruelty or brutality, unless they have some legal grounds for doing so. Indeed, in accordance with a law of the divine emperor Antoninus Pius, anyone who kills his own slave without proper cause is to be punished just as severely as someone who kills another’s slave.
So just to be clear, it is perfectly legal for you to chastise a slave of yours by beating him with sticks or whipping him or having him put into chains in order to keep him under guard. You will not face any criminal accusation even if the slave happens to die during the punishment. But you will be accused of murder if you willingly kill him with a stick or stone, if you inflict a lethal wound by using some form of weapon, if you have him hanged by a noose, if you have him thrown from a great height, or if you pour poison into him. You will also be prosecuted if you mutilate his body with punishments that are the preserve of the state, by which I mean the instruments of torture that I shall describe in detail in the next chapter.
One type of slave misbehaviour deserves special mention. I am talking here about runaways. Fleeing is a depressingly common problem among slaves, one that you will undoubtedly face at some time or other while you are head of the household. This will even happen when you have tried your utmost to treat your slaves fairly and decently, have given them a sufficiency of food, shelter and clothing, and punished them only when they deserved it. You will find that such malcontents will take advantage of any kind of war or insecurity to run off, hoping that people will be too distracted by other events to take any notice of their escape.
Naturally you will be keen to recover your lost property. I can recommend offering a reward for the slave’s return or putting up a notice and description in the marketplace. Give relevant factual information and try to pick on a distinguishing feature of the slave that will make him easily recognisable. An example of a notice I have used reads: ‘A boy called Hermon has run away, age about 15, wearing a cloak and a belt. He swaggers around as if he were someone of note, chattering in a shrill voice. Anyone who brings him back will receive three hundred sesterces; anyone who gives information that he has taken refuge at a temple will get one hundred sesterces. Please give any information you have to the Governor’s officials.’
Professional slave catchers can also be called in but their fees are high. Speed is of the essence here in that
they can use dogs to track down runaways who have not had time to travel far from your household. You will also want to ask the authorities to help you. Here I have often observed that it is beneficial to use your network of acquaintances to ensure that officials do their best to have the fugitive returned to you. Write to any that you know who are in authority in places where you believe runaways of yours are hiding, sending your respectful greetings and claiming the benefits of their proven friendship towards you. Request that they listen to the evidence submitted by your agent and then seek out these slaves and return them to you.
If all else fails you can resort to magic and put a spell on the runaway, although I cannot say that I recommend such superstition. A better use of your time and money would be to insure yourself against such losses.
If runaways are captured and returned to you, I recommend leniency, although many would argue otherwise. Most opt for imprisoning the slave, beating them soundly or even cutting off a limb. No doubt this is justified in many respects but there is a risk that the returned slave will be so petrified of what fate awaits him that he will kill himself.
Branding the runaway on the face offers a simpler solution for preventing them from doing it again. This method effectively makes it impossible for the slave to escape detection if he tries to run away again. Others force the slave to wear a locked metal collar, embossed with a phrase such as ‘Seize me because I’m a runaway’ or ‘Send me back to Falx and get a reward of a gold coin.’ You can generally abbreviate the first of these to simple initials, as everyone understands what it means.
If a runaway is found to have gone to a shrine to appeal to the gods for mercy you will have to go through the due process of the law. Allow the magistrate or the priest to investigate the case and decide between you and the slave. If he finds for you then you should take the slave back in good grace and swear that you will not harbour a grudge against them. If he finds against you, then so what? There is no disgrace in giving way to the divine emperor and this offers a face-saving way for you to grant the slave what he most wants – a new master – and for you to get the cost of replacing him. There will always be discontented slaves who do not appreciate all that you have done for them and it is better that there is some way for you to recoup the capital that you have spent on the ingrate. Otherwise, you lose the entire cost if the slave manages to escape successfully or dies in the attempt or is sentenced to be thrown to the beasts as a punishment by a magistrate in some far-off province where he is captured.
There is an extraordinary story about a runaway that I must tell you. I heard it from a literary friend who witnessed it himself with his own eyes in the city of Rome. One day in the Circus Maximus a huge fight between various wild beasts was being put on before the people. Hundreds of animals had been brought in for the entertainment, and these were not just harmless creatures like antelopes and giraffes but great ugly beasts that were remarkable for their colossal size and especial ferocity. Even among this terrifying menagerie, it was the lions that stood out. One lion in particular drew attention to himself because his body was so large and his demeanour so vicious. He possessed a deep and terrifying roar, a most powerful neck and a rich mane that flowed over his shoulders. Not having been fed for several days, he was clearly ravenous for flesh.
At this point, a number of prisoners who had been condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts were brought into the Circus. One of them was a slave called Androcles, who had belonged to a former consul. He was put into the ring and the great lion was released. The crowd licked their lips in anticipation of what this great lion would do to this defenceless man. But the most remarkable thing happened. When the lion saw him from a distance, rather than charge at him and devour him, he stopped before him, as if he were thunderstruck, and then approached the man slowly and quietly, as if he recognised him. Then, wagging his tail in a gentle way, as if he were some kind of fawning dog, he came right up close to the man, who was now half dead from fright, and gently licked his feet and hands. As this fierce beast delicately caressed him, Androcles slowly calmed down and composed himself, and finally managed to open his eyes and look at the lion. He clearly recognised him, his face broke out into a broad smile, and he gave the animal a big hug.
The crowd were so astonished at such an amazing sight that they started to shout loudly, wanting to know what had happened. The emperor at the time summoned Androcles to be brought before him and asked him why this fiercest of lions had spared him. And Androcles told him a strange and surprising story.
‘My master,’ said he, ‘was governing Africa as proconsul. But he was a vicious man. And eventually I could bear his undeserved, daily floggings no more and decided to run away. In order to escape from so important a man, I took refuge in the desert, beyond the fertile plain of that region. My plan was that if I couldn’t find food and water then I would kill myself rather than be sent back to him. One day, the heat of the midday sun was so scorching that I went into a secluded cave and hid myself. Soon afterwards, this lion limped into the cave. He was lame and one of his paws was bleeding profusely and he gave out great groans from the pain of his wound.
‘At first I was terrified at the sight of the lion approaching. I had clearly stumbled into the lion’s den and thought I was done for. But when the lion saw me cowering at a distance, he came up to me meekly, and gently lifted up his paw, as if to ask for help. I could see that a huge splinter had embedded itself in the sole of the paw and with difficulty I pulled it out. Then I squeezed out the pus that had filled the wound, wiped away the blood, and dried it thoroughly. I didn’t feel at all frightened now. The lion was clearly enormously relieved at having the wound seen to. He put his paw in my hand, lay down on the floor of the cave and went to sleep. For three whole years the lion and I lived in the same cave, and we even shared the same food. For the lion used to bring me back the choicest parts of his kill, which I would dry in the midday sun, since I had no fire on which to cook them, and then eat.
‘But eventually I grew tired of living in the wild. I left the cave one day when the lion had gone off to hunt. I travelled for three days but was spotted and captured by some soldiers, who took me from Africa to Rome, where my master had now returned. He immediately had me condemned to death by being thrown to the wild beasts. But clearly the lion was also captured and himself sent to Rome to play his part in the games. And now he is repaying me for the kindness I showed him in curing his paw.’
The crowd were desperate to know what Androcles was telling the emperor, so he had messengers write it out in full on placards, which were carried around the Circus. Once they knew his story, everyone demanded that he be freed. The emperor obliged and also presented him with the lion at the suggestion of the people. And for a long time after, you would see Androcles and his lion, on a thin leash, wandering round the streets of Rome, where he would be given money by admiring crowds and the lion would be sprinkled with flowers. And people would exclaim, ‘This is the lion that was a man’s friend, and this is the man who was doctor to a lion.’
COMMENTARY
Falx’s tougher side re-emerges in this chapter. But the physical punishment of slaves by their Roman masters was normal, acceptable and routine. In Roman comedies by Plautus, for example, the typical slave is portrayed as being obsessed with avoiding the master’s whip. That doesn’t mean that all slaves were harshly and brutally treated. No doubt the individual slave’s treatment will have varied considerably depending on the attitude of the master. The Romans themselves were critical of owners who treated their slaves with excessive severity and it is possible that this kind of communal policing by means of reputation served to restrain some masters from getting too carried away when punishing their slaves.
This public concern was eventually expressed in imperial legislation that limited the degree to which a master could punish a slave with impunity. The famous story of Vedius Pollio trying to throw one of his slave boys to his lampreys as punishment for breaking a crystal cup is recor
ded precisely because it was seen as an unacceptable and overly harsh form of action. The emperor Augustus’s intervention in this story emphasises that imperial involvement was not primarily motivated by a desire to improve the living conditions of the slaves, but by the fact that emperors were involved in all aspects of their subjects’ lives and so were expected to set and enforce acceptable standards of social behaviour.
Slaves were subject to the arbitrary whims and moods of their owner. The story of Hadrian poking his slave’s eye out with his pen was probably remarkable, and so worth recording for posterity, precisely because this kind of behaviour was out of character for him. But he still did it. Yet if even a thoughtful emperor could act so callously when in a bad mood then how much more often did assaults of this kind occur among normal slave owners? What made the story even more notable for a Roman audience was that the slave grew bold when asked what he would like as recompense. It was unthinkable for a slave to be so disrespectful to his master, especially when he had taken the trouble to seek to offer some redress for the injury he had caused. The impression is given that what Hadrian is sorry for is that he lost his temper, not for what that loss of control meant for the slave. The focus was on the character of the owner not the fate of the slave.