The position of women in slavery merits some attention, in view of the
huge multitudes that were held in bondage. Roman law acknowledged no
legal rights on the part of slaves[196]. The master had absolute power
of life and death.[197] They were exposed to every whim of master or
mistress without redress.[198] If some one other than their owner harmed
them they might obtain satisfaction through their master and for his
benefit; but the penalty for the aggressor was only pecuniary.[199] A
slave's evidence was never admitted except under torture.[200] If a
master was killed, every slave of his household and even his freedmen
and freedwomen were put to torture, although the culprit may already
have been discovered, in order to ascertain the instigator of the plot
and his remotest accessories.[201]

The earlier history of Rome leaves no doubt that before the Republic
fell these laws were carried out with inhuman severity. With the
growth of Rome into a world power and the consequent rise of
humanitarianism[202] a strong public feeling against gratuitous cruelty
towards slaves sprang up. This may be illustrated by an event which
happened in the reign of Nero, in the year 58, when a riot ensued out of
sympathy for some slaves who had been condemned _en masse_ after their
master had been assassinated by one of them.[203] Measures were
gradually introduced for alleviating the hardships and cruelties of
slavery. Claudius (41-54 A.D.) ordained[204] that since sick and infirm
slaves were being exposed on an island in the Tiber sacred to
Aesculapius, because their masters did not wish to bother about
attending them, all those who were so exposed were to be set free if
they recovered and never to be returned into the power of their masters;
and if any owner preferred to put a slave to death rather than expose
him, he was to be held for murder. Gentlemen began to speak with
contempt of a master or mistress who maltreated slaves.[205] Hadrian