Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:10:20.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human Mobility in Roman Italy, II: The Slave Population*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2010

Walter Scheidel
Walter Scheidel
Affiliation:
Stanford University, scheidel@stanford.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In this paper, I seek to delineate the build-up of the Italian slave population. My parametric model revolves around two variables: the probable number of slaves in Roman Italy, and the demographic structure of the servile population. I critique existing estimates of slave totals and propose a new ‘bottom-up’ approach; discuss the probable sex ratio, mortality regime and family structure of the Italian slaves; and advance a new estimate of the overall volume of slave transfers. I argue that the total number of slaves in Roman Italy did not exceed one-and-a-half million, and that this population had been created by the influx of between two and four million slaves during the last two centuries B.C.

Keywords

SLAVESROMAN ITALYROMAN SOCIAL HISTORYDEMOGRAPHYROMAN AGRICULTUREMORTALITY RATES
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 95 , November 2005 , pp. 64 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Walter Scheidel 2005. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* Thanks are due to Nathan Rosenstein and three anonymous referees for valuable comments and criticism. I first presented key elements of my argument in May 2000 at a workshop on ancient slavery at Stanford University, and benefited from William Harris's response at a later session of the same forum.