Slave in the Imperial Household
When we think of the population of the Roman world, we tend to think of degenerate emperors, fearsome legionaries, and servile senators. We don’t really think of slaves—the great hidden population of the Roman world—because they’ve left us little mark of their existence. However, across the Roman Empire slaves far outnumbered the free citizenry; a seemingly infinite supply of human property to be used and abused as the master saw fit.
There’s no reason to assume that the abuse of slaves in the imperial household was any worse than the abuse suffered by slaves in other households across the ancient city and empire. The difference is that most of our surviving writing concerns itself with politics, and therefore centres in on the royal palace (and, needless to say, domestic abuses don’t tend to get inscribed onto headstones).
Not all Roman emperors treat their slaves appallingly, and not just because the fact they had up to 20,000 at their disposal would have made it difficult to do so. The great philosopher Seneca wrote about how treating slaves well could ensure they in turn performed their service well (and were less inclined to murder you in your sleep). And testament to their longevity, it seems many of Rome’s better emperors took his sage advice on board.
Some of the worst instances of abuse in the imperial household come from the reign of Nero (54 – 68 AD). We’re told that he had a favourite young ex-slave (known varyingly as either Pythagoras or Doryphorus) who after falling head over heals in love with he decided to marry in the 64 AD. But Phythagoras/Doryphorus wasn’t the only young man the emperor took a shine to. Nero soon became enraptured with a young slave called Sporus who met a decisively darker fate than his predecessor: being castrated and forced to marry the emperor the year before Nero’s death in 67 AD.
In keeping with character, Nero’s appalling treatment of his slaves continued right up until his final moments. After being declared an enemy of the state and forced to hide out in one of his freedmen’s countryside villas, he resolved to commit suicide. He didn’t quite know how to go about it, however, and so solicited the help of one of his unfortunate servile attendants. Nero passed his slave a dagger and asked him to show him how it was done. Luckily for the slave, at that moment Nero confused the sound of a passing horse for the sound of soldiers sent to arrest him, and drove a dagger into his own throat.
