Vernae in the Roman Republic: From an Undesired Byproduct to an Intentionally Cultivated Slave

• Main Author: Conn, Robert
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Audiences; Authors; Classical Languages; Classical literature; Classical Studies; Demosthenes; Dio Chrysostom (40?-112?); Diodorus Siculus; European history; Evidence; Family (Sociological Unit); Literacy; Males; Numbers; Plautus (Titus Maccius) (254?-184 BC); Plutarch (46?-120?); Political science; Pregnancy; Slavery; Social structure; Social studies education; Translation; War
• ISBN: 9798698574514

The following study analyzes and classifies both Republican and Imperial reference to Republican Era vernae, home-born slaves, to better quantify their numbers and understand their roles in the Middle and Late Republic. I then evaluate the evolving nature of vernae in Italy during the Middle and Late Republic (from approximately 300 – 30 BCE) and place them in their proper context as separate and distinct from their Imperial counterparts. Republican vernae existed in small, but ever-increasing numbers but have often been conflated with Imperial vernae due to perceived lack of references in Republican literature. My approach situates vernae in the broader servile context in the Middle and Late Republic through a synthesis of literary, archaeological, and comparative modern-day evidence to understand their origins, the factors which led to an increase in their numbers, and why they became prominent by the Augustan Era.An understanding of the Roman slave supply between 300-100 BCE is the first critical step to placing vernae in the broader context of Middle and Late Republican slavery in the Italian peninsula. As Rome absorbed an ever-growing number of slaves, both male and female, through its wars of expansion, slave-owners utilized these slaves in ways that are visible in the literary and archaeological record. These traces allow scholars to deduce the primary jobs these slaves performed against which I examine the economic feasibility of using vernae for those roles. Most of these slaves were engaged in labor-intensive work in which pregnancy and child-rearing were economic disincentives for slave-owners. The only advantage to slaves having families, from an owner’s perspective, would be the holding of family members as hostages to ensure a slave’s good behavior. This study goes further to evaluate the probable economic outlay and upkeep for these slaves and weighs them against the likely costs and risks associated with childbirth and child-rearing in Late Republican Rome to demonstrate the limiting factors which made vernae economically unviable in labor-intensive work.My study then moves thematically through the social, economic, and political factors which occurred in the Late Republic, specifically between 100-60 BCE, that led to vernae becoming a viable economic option for slave-owners. These factors are (1) fear of slaves and a desire to inculcate loyalty; (2) increasing demand for educated, literate, and skilled slaves; and (3) Rome’s increasing reliance, both personal and bureaucratic, on written documentation. The final portion of my examination analyzes the rise and spread of villa culture across central Italy. Villas provided a relatively stable environment that required a combination of labor-intensive and care/skill-intensive work. As these villas expanded in size, they incorporated architectural changes which allowed the inhabitants, both slave and free, better living conditions.