The Roman Guide to Slave Management by Jerry Toner

for the owner of an estate. The bad manager is a recurrent theme of ancient literature, including the Bible. Given that most large landowners were absentee for at least part of the year, they were entirely reliant on this individual to keep their asset producing the surplus that would help pay for their life of dignified leisure in the city. This is why so much emphasis was placed on the importance of visiting estates. Absence, it was assumed, bred contempt, which would lead to the land and farm buildings not being maintained properly and yields declining rapidly as a result.
    Slaves were expensive and each owner had to balancethe treatment of his slaves with the need to keep them working and, to some extent, incentivised. Brutal treatment doubtless occurred occasionally but it could not be the norm, since this would soon wear out the servile assets. In the country, dividing the slaves into a ‘them and us’, whereby a small group of overseers were motivated by material rewards and the ultimate goal of freedom, probably worked well to keep the system functioning efficiently.
    On ancient farming, see Cato
On Agriculture
. On the goal of self-sufficiency, see Varro
On Agriculture
1.16. For ancient discussion of whether it was better to have your land farmed by slaves or free tenants, see Columella
On Agriculture
1.7. On gang labour see Pliny the Elder
Natural History
18.4. The story of a falling-down barn as a reminder of old age is recounted in Seneca
Letters
12, as is the story of the former playmate. On herdsmen, see Varro
On Agriculture
2.10. Managers are described in Varro
On Agriculture
1.17 and Columella
On Agriculture
1.8. Cato
On Agriculture
5 lists the duties of the manager. For the manager’s wife, see Columella
On Agriculture
12.3. The problems created by a bad manager are described in Cicero
Against Verres
2.3.50. The story of the woman who had been captured by pirates and is found being abused on an inspection can be read in the novel
Leucippe and Clitophon
by Achilles Tatius 5.17. Cato’s attitudes to slaves can be seen in Plutarch’s
Life of Cato the Elder
4.4, 5.2 and 21.1.

    CHAPTER III    
SEX AND SLAVES
     

     
    I HAD A CURIOUS DREAM the other night. I dreamt that I entered the small storeroom in which a number of my slaves sleep, selected a young female of German descent, and then proceeded to have intercourse with her. I was troubled that this might be interpreted as signalling that I would become a slave, since I was seen to be consorting with them, or worse that my descendants would end up in the servile class. Perturbed by such thoughts, I consulted a dream-interpreter, called Artemidorus, who lives in the town.
    ‘Do not be anxious,’ he assured me, ‘for dreaming of sex with your slave is auspicious because it shows that the dreamer will derive pleasure from his possessions.’
    Of course! Now he had explained it to me, the meaning was clear. I have always tried to be abstemious when it comes to taking advantage of my high social position for the purposes of pleasure, but the gods were telling me to relax and enjoy myself. It is, incidentally, strange how often slaves feature in dreams, even in thedreams of slaves. Artemidorus told me that he knew of a slave who dreamt that his penis was stroked and aroused by his master’s hand, and had consulted him in the hope that this would indicate that he would please his master in some way. Sadly for the slave in this case it did not signify any benefit. Instead it meant that he would be bound to a pillar and receive many strokes from a whip.
    The great philosopher emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was proud of the fact that he owned two beautiful slaves but had not taken advantage of them. But we would certainly be too stern if we expected most masters to behave with such self-control. It is perfectly normal for an owner to derive sexual pleasure from his young slaves. I have a youth who is my current favourite. He is fourteen and is both keen and