Question

Answer all questions given under the heading

Slave Trade in Rome

1. Mention the new labour force produced by Rome.
2. What was the strength of the Slave population in the 1st century B.C.?
3. What was the result of the Salve trade?
4. Where was there a great slave market?

Answer 1

1. Rome produced a new labor force for the rich to exploit. Big landholders bought slaves cheaply and used them to cultivate their estates.
2. The slave population grew and by the 1 st century BC (BCE) there were two million slaves when the total strength of the free population was 3.25 million.
3. Slave labor led to the impoverishment of free labor. Many poor peasants had to abandon their children who also ended up in the slave markets.
4. The island of Delos became a great slave market.