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Labour pains Slaves tread grapes in a second-century AD relief. “Untold numbers worked on vast landed estates and mines across Italy and the empire, out of sight and out of mind”
In AD 61, Pedanius Secundus, prefect of Rome, was murdered by one of his slaves. One story had it that the killer had been denied his freedom after agreeing the price of his liberty with Pedanius. An alternative version of events claimed that he had been infatuated with another of his master’s slaves. Either way, the law was clear: the murderer would have to die.