Runaway Slaves in the Greco Roman World In Relation to Paul’s Epistle to Philemon: Part 3
Runaway Slaves
Reasons for Flight
There are three broad ways to categorize reasons a slave might have had for running away. A slave might run away to escape a dangerous or harmful situation, i.e. a slave might run away because he or she was being treated unfairly or was being beaten. Second, a slave might run away as a means of rebelling against slavery as an institution. Third, a slave might run away in the hopes of somehow gaining his freedom. In the first case a slave runs away from a sense of self-preservation and need for protection. In the second, a slave runs away not only to gain some sort of freedom and advancement but to rebel against an oppressive social system. In the third it is primarily an effort at self-advancement. There is certainly overlap between the three and a slave need not have worked out clearly which reason he was employing for running away. Very likely an element of all three of these motivations were present in many attempts to run away. Although these categories might not cover every situation they ought to give us a broad framework within which to consider the issue of runaway slaves. The problem of runaway slaves is well documented in ancient literature among primary sources.[1]
Considering the first situation unusual cruelty by a slave owner could result in the slave running away.[2] As the Republican period of Rome’s history came to a close increasing reforms began to creep into the legal system protecting slaves. From the New Testament era came restraints on forcing slaves to fight against wild animals.[3] Also, “protection was afforded a mistreated slave if he fled to the statue of the emperor.[4]” However, these reforms were minimal and likely did little to actually change the treatment of slaves. Further, regarding the last comment we must say that given the general tenor of Roman attitudes towards slavery and even low class freedman this hope of mercy at the hands of the emperor was probably minimal. In some sense we can say that running away in the hope of relief from suffering brought only greater suffering later if the slave were caught and returned.
The second reason for running away was an attempt to rebel against a rigid and merciless social system. Here a slave running away should be viewed within a broader category of attempts made by slaves to resist slavery.[5] It should be noted that “willful escape by the slave was one of the most important acts by which resistance to slavery manifested itself in the slave society of Rome.[6]” In the two hundred years or so leading up to the time of the New Testament Rome had experienced several slave revolts, the best known of which is the revolt of gladiators led by Spartacus. Thus the cultural backdrop against which the New Testament and Paul’s epistle to Philemon is framed must consider such events. Such events lead not only to the reconsideration of how slaves were treated but then also to firmer punishment when slaves did rebel in any way.[7]
The third reason a slave could run away would be in the hopes of gaining some freedom. Again, this goal could very well overlap with the other two and so at first may not appear to be a valid distinction. However, what some slaves attempted was to engineer an escape and then through capture by a slave trader, manage to change masters and achieve manumission quicker. Legislation put into effect however, made this hope virtually nonexistent as it became impossible for a slave to receive manumission within ten years of a change in ownership without the consent of his former master. Furthermore, increasing stipulations placed on slave catchers and greater rewards offered for the capture of slaves made running away to gain official manumission much harder.[8] A penalty could also be enforced against anyone who discovered a fugitivus on his property and did not report it within twenty days.[9] However, a slave could still flea to a city and attempt to merely blend in with the crowds. It appears that slaves were not required to wear a distinctive dress.[10]
The Capture of Runaway Slaves
The capture of runaway slaves became an important aspect of the slave system in ancient Rome. This fact is attested by the legal material which addresses the situation and by the personal correspondence addressing this topic.[11] Eventually “the search for slaves in fuga became under the Empire an organized business conducted by private fugitivarii who delivered the apprehended runaways either directly to the owners to the nearest municipal magistrate.[12]” From personal letters left us by Cicero it seems that a slave could fairly easily escape his master’s clutches and live as a fugitive if he was able and willing to take the risks.[13]
In keeping with slaves being viewed as property it was regarded as the master’s responsibility to recover his slave.[14] The letters of Cicero back this claim up as do several papyri recovered from Egypt.[15] A master’s concern in regaining his slave is understandable when we consider that “a slave was usually a master’s largest investment apart from his investment in land.[16]” Thus the value of slaves helped motivate masters to use both their private networks of friends and also some professional slave catchers to help them recover their slaves. The question then becomes what would become of a slave who was caught attempting to run away.
Punishments Inflicted Upon Runaway Slaves
The first thing we must identify here is that for a slave to run away was considered legally a form of theft. A runaway female slave is considered to have stolen herself according to the law.[17] Because the slave was considered the property of his or her master by running away a slave was stealing from his or her master. However, because in this case the property, or object, being stolen was also the thief there was no legal precedent for how to punish a runaway slave, above and beyond what could be described against a thief. However, once a master had gone to the trouble of tracking down and regaining possession of a slave it seems unlikely that he would then kill the slave directly unless he desired to make an example of the runaway. In general the law seemed to prescribe that the greater the offense done by a slave the greater the punishment his master could freely and legally inflict on him with no concern of impropriety.[18] Running away then was something between the more minor offenses of petty theft and mismanagement, which resulted in beating, and the lethal attempt at sedition or plotting directly against the life of the master, a crime which would result in death.[19] Running away then could not be considered a safe exercise by any means but it afforded some chance at liberty. However, if caught a slave could scarcely have hoped for mercy and would have been completely at the whim and whit of his now irate master.
[1] See Petronius 98, 107; Juvenal, Satires, 10, 3; Pliny, Epistles 9: 21, 1.
[2] Westermann,107.
[3] Digest 48.8.11.1 (Modestinus, book 6 of Rules) and Digest 18.1.42 (Marcian, book 1 of Institutes).
[4] Watson, 121; Westermann, 108. See also Seneca, De beneficiis 3:22; De clementia 1:18, 103; Digest 1:12, 1, 1, 8; 21:1, 17, 12.
[5] Bradley, 110.
[6] Bradley, K. R. Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989): 32.
[7] For more on the slave rebellions of ancient Rome see Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World by K. R. Bradley.
[8] Watson, 64-66.
[9] Westermann, 108. See also Apuleius, Metamorphoses 6:4; Digest 11:4, 1, 1.
[10] Ibid., 106. However there may have been owners who forced certain slaves to wear collars. See Shelton, 177.
[11] For one example see Cicero, Letters to His Friends, 212.
[12] Westermann, 107.
[13] See Bradley, Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 32-36.
[14] Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome, 121.
[15] P. Turner 41; P. Oxy. XIV 1643; P. Oxy. XII 1423; P. Oxy 1422.
[16] Context of Scripture, 57.
[17] Digest 47.2.61 see also Watson, 117.
[18] Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome, 129.
[19] Ibid., 129. Consider again the relatively recent slave revolts in Rome’s history and the accounts of slaves either attempting to murder their masters regardless of whether those attempts were successful (Pliny the Younger, Letters 3.14).
