Freedmen in ancient Rome (liberti or libertini) belong to a social class of former slaves given freedom and rights. Roman slaves are used for domestic work, as bath attendants, scribes, astrologers, in mines, industry or businesses, on ships or in crop fields.
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Slaves can be educated if the owner sees potential. Trusted slaves act as agents, messengers, child-minders and representatives of business affairs and finances. They might also be freed, receiving certain aspects of Roman citizenship and rights.
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While freedmen are barred from some activities in Roman society, many achieve wealth and high status. Liberti can form the core of the Roman Imperial court and the economic structure of Rome. Many are entrepreneurs.
Throughout the Republic and Empire, the cultural and legal status of freedmen and freedwomen create recurring disputes in centers of administration, law and society. Many freedmen continue to work for their ex-owners.
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The process of freedom is through manumission, defined during the Early Republic. The three primary aspects of the procedure are compiled c. 160 AD by the jurist Gaius.
They are:
manumissio vindicta - a master or mistress revokes ownership of a slave before a praetor or magistrate. The official touches the slave with an official rod to confirm the status shift.
manumissio censu - a master or mistress declares the slave to the census as a libertus of the household.
manumissio testamento - a deceased owner frees the slave in his will.
After the process the slave has a legal change of status and becomes a freedman or freedwoman. The former slave is then known as a libertus of his ex-owner and family. Freedmen and patrons have certain obligations to each other.
Terms of manumission might describe the services (operae) a libertus owes. After manumission, the freed slave receives the nomen gentilicium (family name) of the former master. The freedman is to honor and serve his patron.
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Freedmen are allowed to create networks of patrons and freedmen. They can own slaves and are permitted to wear the pileus, a brimless felt cap signifying freedom.
As citizens, freedmen can vote and even indulge in politics. They can't run for office and are barred from entering the senatorial class. Many Romans, especially the elite, believe slavery leaves a moral taint, which lingers if the slave is freed.
The moral taint commonly appears as a theme in Roman literature. Traits of subservience, deceitfulness, ingratitude, rudeness and stubbornness are ascribed to both slaves and freedmen. These oppose the standards of freeborn Roman values.
Freedmen are perceived as having little or no social identity. A freedman's reputation, station and personal wealth are bound to the patron, and depend on the details of the manumission.
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Even prosperous influential freedmen are perceived by the aristocracy as crass nouveau riche. They actively participate in commerce, while the elite only indirectly engage in exchange of goods and services.
Freeborn children of former slaves receive privileges of Roman citizenship almost without restrictions. Emperor Augustus (27 BCE - AD 14) prohibits descendants of freedmen from senatorial positions.
Some freedmen rise to high levels of wealth and class. The imperial freedmen, the familia caesaris, have significant influence in administration and bureaucracy. Freedmen in the court of Claudius are instrumental in the demise of Empress Messalina.
As Augustus gains power in Rome, he establishes laws to address the moral decay of the late Republic. His disparaging views of freedmen lead to limiting the number of "undesirable" freedmen.
He imposes limits on the number of slaves freed, bars young or insane people from freeing slaves, and states a freed slave must be over 30 years old. He restricts who a freedman can wed and prohibits female descendants from marrying into the senatorial class.
After the death of Augustus, Emperor Tiberius establishes a new priesthood, the Sodales Augustales. Wealthy freedmen are a prominent group of the organization's membership.
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Apart from religious affairs, the Augustales are active in public life. Evidence from Pompeii and Herculaneum indicates their activities include funding public works, entertainment and celebrations.
During the early Empire the status of freedmen didn't greatly change from the Republican system. while the Augustan reforms had moderately shifted their place in society, new opportunities for freedmen emerged under the new Imperial House.
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Both freedmen and slaves are part of the Emperor's household, and a new group, the familia Caesaris, emerges. The imperial freedmen act as agents and bureaucrats for the ruling family.
Members of the familia Caesaris are especially influential in the reign of Claudius. The freedmen Pallas, Narcissus, and Callistus rise in prominence. Claudius's relationship with his freedmen is controversial. Historians such as Dio accuse him of having slavish qualities.
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Outside Rome, in particular in Roman colonies, freedmen have opportunities to influence local politics, especially in cities with high plebian and freed populations. Both freedmen and governing bodies find ways around the letter of the law.
Treatment of freedmen in distant reaches of the Empire differs from Roman regulation. With fewer judicial laws regarding treatment of freedmen, problems arise over a patron's abuse of their labor and even re-enslavement.
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Thus the manumission is overseen by religious groups, protecting a slave's manumission by both the gods and Roman law. Later Emperor Constantine defines authority of the patron over liberti. Punishments for "ungrateful" or disobedient freedmen include re-enslavement.
Treatment of freedwomen differs from that of freedmen. While a freedwoman may be granted citizenship, she's prohibited from all political activity and barred from most forms of independent commerce.
Unwed freedwomen are usually bound to their patrons for life. The patron retains guardian status over a freedwoman and has direct influence in her affairs and finances. Some laws permit masters to wed and free female slaves.
The type of work a freedwoman can perform for her patron is limited. Freedwomen can engage in commerce and craft for their patron and are legally protected from forced prostitution.
Freedwomen have certain privileges. They're allowed high stations in local religious cults and act as public priestesses. Inscriptions from freedwomen appear at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
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