ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to demonstrate that the captivity of Romans to barbarians and vice versa was a widespread problem in Late Antiquity and that it played a major role in the interactions, social, economic, cultural, and religious, between Romans and barbarians. The fact is that for most barbarian societies, slave raiding was both a political and economic strategy. The notion of exoticism provides a good transition to the question of barbarian slaves and captives of the Romans. Late Romans, no less than barbarians, counted on regular hauls of foreign captives to gain diplomatic and military advantage and feed their slave markets. Augustine reports that barbarian captives and slaves in Roman control were the most ready source for information on whether and when African tribes were converting to Christianity. Patriotism was regularly trumped by profit, providing an incentive for cooperation between barbarian slave dealers and Romans.
