Venalicia, slaves markets

The wealth of Rome stemmed from the conquered territories resources and from the organization of their exploitation and, between all the resources that made his own, the largest was that of hundreds of thousands of men who worked in the domus, on farms, in mines and in the pistrina of the empire sometimes just to survive and others gaining enormous wealth and power: the servi ad vendendum, or slaves.
The slaves trade was a real commercial enterprise governed by rules and that it was applied a tax venalicium called, as well as the slave traders were a particular tipe of mercatores, the venalicii, quite distinct from all other traders.
The large afflux of slaves in Rome came from III-II cent. BC, after the territorial conquests in the East and North Africa, and to manage it went formalizing customs and rules of this particular trade. It was born a large market that can be defined as "clearing station" in the island of Delos, where it went on to sell 10,000 slaves a day; in the island existed housing for men, women and children waiting to be bought by venalicii wich would embark them on ships and taken to cities where they carried out sales; the most important cities for this market were Capua and Rome.
The slaves who arrived in Rome were housed in warehouses waiting to take place the auctio venaliciaria, a real auction for which was also made advertising posting tabula vel libellus where that it was permitted; its were real advertising posters in which was indicated on the day, the time and place where you would be holding the sale.
To the success of the sale was necessary that the auctiones to take place in a central area, with much passing and it was still close enough to tabernae where slaves were kept and also had to be watched over easily to control any escape attempts. In the chosen area, if there was not already a platform on which to exhibit the goods, it was built a wooden raised so that everyone could see slaves. In republican times, for this market was chosen the Atrium, an open area surrounded by a porch that was in the saddle between the Capitol and the Quirinal.
The confirmation that the auction of slaves was held at Atrium Publicum comes from one of the mythical legends of Rome, the story of Virginia; she was a girl of wich the decemvir Appius Claudius was smitten and in front of his denials contrives to make declare her as slave daughter to be able to buy; the tragedy of the story is that the father of Virginia, a military order, returned to Rome and not being able to oppose a Appius Claudius powerful, kills himself the daughter to remove her from the arrogance of the patrician. The whole story takes place, as told by Livy (Ab Urbe condita III, 44-48), between the Atrium where there were the markets of slaves and the Shrine of Venus Cloacina where Lucius Virginius kills his daughter ...

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by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 02/06/2016)

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