ABSTRACT
Despite the myth that the virtuous Romans of old owned only a few slaves, some Roman slave-holdings were vast, and Athenaeus clearly thought that the purpose of owning such large numbers of slaves was primarily to demonstrate one’s wealth and status. The fact that slave-holdings were huge does not allow valid deductions to be made about the greater or lesser availability of slaves as the result of warfare, about the proportion of slaves in the population as a whole, or about the proportion of citizens who owned slaves—are rather a sign of the increasing concentration of wealth in a small number of particular households. The Athenians were concerned for the fate of slaves as well as of other persons, and enacted a law to the effect that there could be criminal actions for insulting behaviour against slaves too.
