User:Cplakidas/Sandbox/Slavery

In the Byzantine Empire, the institution of slavery, inherited from Classical Antiquity and defined by Roman law, was widespread but occupied a morally ambiguous position.

History

The use of slaves was widespread in the ancient world, and slaves remained ubiquitous in the later Roman/early Byzantine period. In the 6th century, Justinian's laws deal extensively with slaves. The period of the 7th-9th centuries is obscured through lack of documentation, but the extant documents, as well as Basil I's Ecloga, still mention slaves. In the 10th and 11th centuries, military conquests greatly increased the numbers of slaves, especially in cities, where they were employed either as household servants (oiketai) or as labourers. In Constantinople, a great number was employed in the imperial workshops. Conversely, the Komnenian period saw a decline of slavery, both in numbers and in terms of social acceptance. By the Palaiologan period slaves were only used in domestic duties.

Legal status

In Byzantine law, the slave (Greek: δούλος, doulos) occupied a place between free citizens and chattel. Consequently, their legal status was ambiguous: they were recognized as legally responsible for their actions, and killing a slave was considered an act of homicide, but in all other aspects they were regarded as property. They were thus deprived of the formal right of ownership, the right to appeal to a court or appear as a witness, or to compose testaments. Only under Leo VI the Wise were they granted the right to dispose of their property (peculium) in their wills. A slave was also barred from clergy except by special dispensation, as well as unable to marry, until the time of Alexios I Komnenos.

The essential definition of slave status in Byzantine law was provided by the Corpus Juris Civilis of emperor Justinian I:

“ The principal division of the law of persons is this, that all men are either free or slaves.

1. Freedom (from which is derived the designation free) is the natural right enjoyed by each one to do as he pleases, unless prevented by force or by law.
2. Slavery is a provision of the Law of Nations by means of which one person is subjected to the authority of another, contrary to nature.
3. Slaves are so called because generals order captives to be sold, and in this way to be preserved instead of being put to death; and they are also called mancipia, for the reason that they are taken from the enemy by the hand.
4. Moreover, slaves are either born or become such. They are born such when they owe their origin to our female slaves, and they become such by the Law of Nations through captivity, or in accordance with the Civil Law; as where a man who is free and over twenty years of age permits himself to be sold in order to obtain a portion of the price.
5. No difference exists in the condition of slaves, but among freemen there are several distinctions for they are either born free, or manumitted.

”

The category of peasants known as douloparoikoi, which first appears in documents in the late 10th century, has also been seen as a form of slave labour, more precisely a form of serfdom.

See also

• Slavery in medieval Europe
• Christianity and slavery

Sources

• Jeffreys, Elisabeth; Haldon, John; Cormack, Robin, eds. (2009), The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199252466
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• Laiou, Angeliki E., ed. (2002), The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks, ISBN 978-0884023326

[[Category:Byzantine Empire]] [[Category:Byzantine law]] [[Category:Slavery by location|Byzantine Empire]]