Brief Description of Slavery in Roman Times

[David Lockmiller]

New York Times December 8, 2023

Archaeologists excavating parts of the ancient city of Pompeii made public new discoveries on Friday that provide a grim glimpse into the bleak existence of enslaved people two millenniums ago, including the existence of a “bakery-prison.”

The newly excavated area consists of a cramped space where donkeys and enslaved people lived, slept and worked together, milling flour to make bread. The single window that was found there provided dim light: it opened not to the outside world but to another room in the house, and was crossed with iron bars.

The brutality of the working conditions in the mills of the time is graphically described in Book IX of “The Golden Ass” by the second-century author Apuleius, the archaeological site noted in a statement issued Friday.