Slavery In Ancient Rome Essay

Introduction

Slavery in ancient Rome had a huge rule that it played in the society and its economy. Slaves were typically used for many different purposes in the civilization of Rome depending on their education, their former nationality. For instance, some would be farm labourers while some would be physicians and some also fulfilled domestic duties for their masters. So slavery was not only amounted to work in the mines and construction of monuments, stadiums, bridges and roads.

Also with the well-known idolatry that happened in Rome, female slaves were used as temple prostitutes so with all this background, slavery must have really mattered in Rome and its cities. Even at the establishment of the Church in Rome, slavery still existed and Paul writes an epistle to Philemon concerning a runaway slave. And for the purposes of this paper, much focus will be given Philemon, Paul and slavery in the empire of Rome together with the early church’s coexistence with slavery.

Philemon, Paul and Slavery in the Roman Empire

Slavery was a social norm that was a widely accepted practice in the Imperial Roman Empire. It was well-thought-out to be a by-product of warfare triumph and some scholars suggest that warfare was partly the

In light of Dr. Constable’s notes on the epistle of Philemon, the slave master was put in a perilous position by the letter from Paul since the letter pleads for forgiveness and restitution for Onesimus the slave-runner as it was to be defiant of the Roman tradition. Furthermore, this plea by Paul on behalf of Onesimus gave a new dignity to the slave class (Constable 2015). Over and above, what we can take note of thus far is that Christianity was a growing force that was changing the face of slavery in the ancient