did slavery have a big impact in rome?

Answer 1

Slavery was a relavent aspect of Roman society, but its importance should not be exaggerated. Rome was primarily a market economy, with a robust middle class that made up the bulk of the Roman working population. slaves were extraordinarily expensive to purchase and maintain, so only the aristocracy could afford them. At Rome's height, wealthy upper-middle class citizens could "rent" slaves for a period of time, but they primarily remained in the domain of the aristocracy.

unfortunately, the presence of cheap labor that was only available to the aristocracy had predictable results for the Roman economy: rich landowners could afford massive farms that used massed slave labor to grow vast quantities of crops at artificially low prices. Smaller landowners could not compete with these larger farms, and soon went out of business. They then travelled to the cities in search of work. This was putting a tremendous strain on the Roman infrastructure. It was this unrest which lead to the establishment of the Empire, when Caesar Augustus used public works to hedge popular support.

This didn't actually solve the problem, it simply provided a sort of work-around, the cost of which steadily grew, which the empire levied by war booty and money debasement. When the war booty ran out, inflation spiraled out of control, leading to the economic ruin of the empire in the 3rd century, which led to its overal fall in the 5th.

Answer 2

Actually the Roman legions did much of the building - roads and so forth, but slaves were clearly a major part of Rome - doing all the mundane chores. And slavery was big business as it was in the American South pre-Civil War when each field hand was worth a good $1000. American Southern planters with 100 slaves had $100,000 in capital (that's about one million dollars today)which they could sell if they needed cash. Romans bought and sold slaves routinely. (I don't know what prices they would bring.) A major haul of slaves in wars could bring great profits at auctions held after battles. Slaves were part of the "booty" that Rome fought for in conquests.
Strange really that slavery largely ended with the disintegration of the Roman empire in Europe and the beginning of the early middle ages - so called "Dark Ages".

Answer 3

Most Romans of higher birth and education had slaves, so yes, it did have a big impact on Rome in that it was practiced negligently, almost... people from other places were considered somewhat if not all the way barbaric, so slavery was easy to practice.

Answer 4

Interesting questions, but too many questions to answer here. (I would not have enough space.) Let’s look at your first question. Why are things so bad? Why do bad things happen? ANSWER TO QUESTION 1. You may or may not realize this, but our current world is not the same as it was when it was designed and created. Some have speculated that the second law of thermodynamics did not exist at the time of creation. When the world was designed and created, it was PERFECT. And then something bad happened. There was a rebellion. It started in heaven, and the rebellion spread to this earth. As a result of this rebellion, God cursed the earth. The earth then became a hostile environment. Pain in childbirth was magnified. And now we would have to scrape for our food, and actually till the soil to produce things to eat. It was never that way before the curse. And now we have things like diseases and viruses. None of that existed prior to the curse. Sin had entered the world. The Bible also records the first murder in Genesis. Yes, everything changed after the curse of sin. And the second law of thermodynamics is another result of this curse. The world was no longer perfect. It is hard for us to imagine what this perfect world would have been like since it is so different today. And to make matters worse, things continued to go downhill. It became so bad that God decided to destroy the world. He sent a worldwide flood, and he destroyed every living thing on the earth, except for a few people in a very big boat, and a pair of each of the animals. Previously, the entire earth had a canopy of water up by the stratosphere, and that protected the earth from direct sunlight and other weather disasters. But now with the flood, the water canopy was removed, which explains why a rainbow was seen for the first time after the flood. Prior to the flood, people routinely lived to be 600 to 800 years old, and now after the flood, the average life span became what it is today. Evil really does exist, and we are under the domain of Satan. He is now the "god" of this world. And he wants to do everything he can to keep people in the dark. That's why they call him the great deceiver. But his days are numbered. Jesus is going to return and take back the earth. Because of the curse, we now live in a bad and hostile world. The elements are hostile. The people (many of them) are hostile. Eventually, God is going to take the curse away. But for now, sin is allowed to run free. Not totally free, because God has placed some limitations on what demons can do, but there is still plenty of “bad things” to go around. While we cannot fully comprehend the mind of God, some have speculated that God is allowing sin to run its course. And that sin will eventually just “burn out.”

Answer 5

It is arguable that Rome could not have existed without slaves. They provided an almost limitless supply of cheap - free - labour. Had there been no slaves would there have been the manpower to build the city, the aqueducts to lead water etc etc.