Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser udgivet af Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab Bind 36, no. 3 Hist. Filol. Medd. Dan. Vid. Selsk. 36, no. 3 (1956) SOME NOTES ON THE ROMAN SLAVE IN EARLY TIMES A COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY BY C. W. WESTRUP København 1956 i kommission hos Ejnar Munksgaard Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab udgiver følgende publikationsrækker : L'Académie Royale des Sciences et des Lettres de Danemark publie les series suivantes: Bibliografisk forkortelse Abréviation bibliographique Oversigt over selskabets virksomhed (8°) Overs. Dan. Vid. Selsk. (Annuaire) Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser (8°) Hist. Filol. Medd. Dan. Vid. Selsk. Historisk-filologiske Skrifter (4°) Hist. Filol. Skr. Dan. Vid. Selsk. (Histoire et Philologie) Arkæologisk-kunsthistoriske Meddelelser (8°) Arkæol. Kunsthist. Medd. Dan. Vid. Selsk. Arkæologisk-kunsthistoriske Skrifter (4°) Arkæol. Kunsthist. Skr. Dan. Vid. (Archéologie et Histoire de l’Arl) Selsk. 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WESTRUP København 1956 i kommission hos Ejnar Munksgaard Printed in Denmark. Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri A/S. In memoriam H. F. Jolowicz 1. lavery was certainly a common institution from the earliest S times among the various Arvan-speaking peoples.1 Slavery developed, as now widely assumed, in primitive societies with a settled agricultural culture when it was seen that prisoners taken in war could be profitably utilized. In a warlike economy, warrior and agricultural slave-worker were complementary. The principal cause of slavery was in origin no doubt the war. Slaves were at first acquired as spoils by occupatio bellica. In the field of Greek lawr we have the ancient Homeric term for a slave, Spcbs- The word is by some scholars, probably rightly, supposed to be related to Sapoc^co (6apaco) “vanquish” (Lat. domo).2 The wrord would then originally have meant a person “taken in war”. Possibly the general Greek term for a slave, SoüÀoç, if it may be derived from Séco “bind” ( 6 e0 co, S ôàoç) 3, has a similar basic meaning. To this linguistic evidence may be added the evidence of literary tradition. The Sicilian historian Timaeus (died about 260 B. C.) relates that the ancient Greeks did not make use of slaves acquired by purchase.4 We are no doubt from this justified in drawing the conclusion a contrario that the main causes of slavery wrere in the earliest times in Greece capture in war or kidnapping by piracy.5 In the Homeric poems the prisoners 1 H ero do tus VI 137, indeed, relates of the Greeks in the earliest times that they had no slaves. Cf. A t h e n a e u s VI 267 c. However, these assertions were probably nothing but reflections of poetic ideas of a golden age. In the Homeric poems we find slavery fully established. Cf. L. B ea u c h e t , Histoire du droit privé de la république athénienne II (1892) 395 f. and the lit. quoted there. See, however, S chrader-N eh r in g , Reallexikon der indogerm. Altertumskunde2 II (1929) Art. “Stände” 458. 2 L id d e l l and S cott, Greek Etym. Lexikon (1945) v° Spcbç. B oisacq, Diet, étym. de la langue grecque (1907) v° Spcbç, however, connects Spcbç with Sôpoç (Lat. domus). 3 Etymologeum magnum (Oxf. 1848). Cf. B eauch et 401. 4 T im a e u s, fragm. 67. Edit. D ido t. 207. 5 F u st e l d e Co u la ng es, Nouvelles recherches (1891) 461. See further H er a - k litu s fragm. 44 Byw : iroAepos • • • t o u s pèv SoûAous èiroiriaa ... t o u s 5è êAeuSépous- 1* 4 Nr. 3 taken in war were retained as slaves, or sold or held at ransom by the captor.1 In the Odyssey we certainly read that Laertes with his wealth had bought Eurycleia, but it is expressly stated about Eumaius that he was kidnapped by pirates and sold.2 The original cause of slavery among the ancient Teutons, too, was capture. In Old Northern law the term for a slave was hcertakin (“captive of war”).3 An analogy of hcertakin is probably to be found in the ancient Roman term for a slave, mancipium, no doubt originally denoting not proprietary right but the mode of acquisition of property ( mancipatio), then the object of the mancipium, primarily and especially the slave, and then ex­ pressing the idea of the power acquired through the formal act of the mancipation.4 Mancipium ( manu-capium ) from m anu capio (cupo), possibly to be traced back to the unilateral occupatio, no doubt the earliest mode of acquisition of ownership, i. e. “by grasping with the hand to take possession of a thing,” was perhaps at first used about the slave captured with the hand (m anu) from the enemy (ex hostibus).5 The derivation of the general Latin term for a slave, serous, is uncertain. It has often been assumed that the word was cognate with seruare “g u ard ” : Serous then was the “guardian” (of the herd of cattle).6 Other scholars have supposed that serous is really related to H om eric sïpepoç “ captivity” and the verb eïpco with which the Latin word ser-o (“bind, fetter”) is to be connected: Serous was “the (war) captive.”7 The Romans themselves seemed 1 Iliad. XXIV 752. VI 327. 2 Odyssey I 429 fî. XV 385 fT. 3 Grim m , Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer I4 (1899) 418 f. K. L e h m a n n , H oops’ Reallexikon der germ. Altertumskunde IV (1918—19) 275.—F r . Ol iv ier Ma r t in , Précis d’Histoire du droit français4 (1945) n° 128: “The slave, that is to say the man vanquished in war”. 4 Cf. my paper “Notes sur la sponsio et le nexum dans l’ancien droit romain”, Hist. Filol. Medd. Dan. Vid. Selsk. 31, no. 2 (1947) 12. 5 F l o r e n t in u s, Dig. I, 5 4 § 3: Mancipia vero dicta, quod ah hostibus manu capiantur. Cf. Ga i. Inst. II 69. IV 16 i. f. Edit. F. D e . Zu lueta 1946.—Cf. my Introduction to Early Roman Law II (1934) 48 f., 158 ff.—Comp, the Greek term XEÎpioç from xeip “hand”, “in the power of”, and Cymric caeth (= Lat. captus). E rnout et Me il l et , Diet. étym. lat. (1939) v° capio. 6 B réal-B a il l y , Dictionaire étymologique lat.s (1914) v° serous. E rno ut et Me il l et , D id. v° serous. 7 S chrader-N e h r in g , Reallexikon II 461. Cf. L id d e l l a n d S cott, Greek Etym. Lexikon v° eïpco. Lat. ser-o, serui.—B e n v e n is t e , “Le nom de l’esclave à Rome” in Reo. des. étym. lat. 1932 p. 429 il. supposes that the word serous is of Etruscan origin. Cf. R. H e n r io n , “Des origines du mot familia”, L’antiquité classique 1942 p. 2833. Nr. 3 5 to have traced the origins of slavery back to the war. The classical Roman jurists would even connect the basic meaning of the word servus with such an original cause of slavery. The victors were justified in killing the captives taken in war. But they used to “ grant” (servare) them their lives in order to employ them profit­ ably.1 Originally slaves were no doubt generally acquired as spoils of war.2 The slave was consequently a foreigner, Lat. peregrinus.3 In ancient Roman language the peregrinus was first, as the funda­ mental meaning of the word plainly indicates, a citizen of a “ country peregre", i. e. per agros, “outside the ager Romanus".4 In other words the peregrini were in origin the population living in the neighbouring countries of Rome—trans Tiberim.5 These neighbouring peregrini were in ancient times termed hostes. 6 The word did not mean, as later, that they were enemies. The ancient term for an enemy was perduellis.1 The hostes were simply for­ eigners.8 However, when taken as prisoners of war (capti), they became slaves in Rome.9 1 Inst. Just. I 3, 3: Serui ex eo appellati sunt quod imperatores seruos uendere iubent, ac per hos seruare, nee occidere, soient. Dig. I 5, 4 § 2. This derivation was adopted b y Ih e r in g . 2 Thus already R. von Ih e r in g , Geist des römischen Rechts II I2 162 fï. Otto K arlo w a, Römische Rechtsgeschichte II (1901 114. P. F. Gir a r d , Manuel élément, de droit romain8 (by F. S e n n ) 1929, 102 f. H. L é v y -B r u h l , “Esquisse d’une théorie sociologique de l’esclavage à Rome” in Rev. général de droit 1931 p. 8: “La seule source originaire véritable de l’esclavage est la guerre ou la piraterie, ce qui revient à dire que les esclaves ne peuvent être que des non-Romains”.