In ancient Greece and Rome, the division of society into free people and slaves was natural. However, the understanding of what slavery is has changed. Initially, a slave was not considered a thing, but was almost a member of the family. Along with the free, he worked in the field and sat down at the table with them. The head of the family - the patriarch - controlled the life of all household members. The personality of the slave was protected by custom - no one had the right to treat him savagely. (Historians call such slavery patriarchal.)
The father of the family could give the slave freedom and a piece of land. Then the slave became a full member of the community. This is what the swineherd Eumeus, the slave of Odysseus, dreamed of. One of his few slaves, he remained loyal to his master during his wanderings.
A different system of slavery was established in Greece in the 5th-4th centuries. BC e. By this time, family ties no longer connected people so firmly. A new social organism arose - the ancient polis, the economy of which was unthinkable without the labor of slaves. They began to be imported from Scythia, Thrace, and other areas. In order not to give the impression that free people have completely stopped working, we should not forget that free peasants and slaves have always coexisted. At this time, the slave was no longer viewed as a member of the family: from now on he was a thing, the property of the master. Such slavery is called classical. It finally took shape in ancient Rome. The master could give the slave any job, sell, severely punish and even kill - no one was his judge, because. other slave owners did the same.
If the slave killed the master, then in this case it was supposed to execute all the slaves who were in the house - some on suspicion of complicity, others for not interfering with the criminal. However, here is the testimony of the Roman author Pliny the Younger: "No one can feel at ease because he is condescending and gentle: masters are destroyed not by their trial, but by their inclination to crime."
Most of the slaves had no property: they worked on the owner's land, worked in his workshop; tools also belonged to the master. Whatever the slave produced, the master took away. However, he also took care of the slave, fed him, clothed him, gave a roof over his head; if it was necessary - treated. In order for the slave to work better, the owner sought to encourage the hardworking and conscientious. In the eyes of the slaves, even ordinary praise meant a lot, not to mention the best food and clothes. We can get an idea of the attitude of slave owners towards slaves from Homer's poem "The Odyssey":
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