A great many Roman enslaved people were set to work in menial and manual jobs – including agriculture, mining and construction.
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As historian Philip Matyszak explains, these types of jobs could be particularly brutal. “Being sent to the mines was a drawn-out death sentence,” he says “They worked in very dangerous, very unhealthy conditions lit by oil lamps, constantly breathing in fumes. “They worked in a state of acute misery.”
Unfortunately, those working above ground in agriculture fared little better. “They were treated by the farmers as part of the livestock; “offered as much compassion as was given to the cattle, the sheep and the goats.”
Some of those enslaved, however, undertook work in what would now be considered white-collar jobs, such as teaching or accounting. For instance, middle-class Roman families, in their admiration of Greek culture, would often seek out educated slaves from Greece as home tutors for their children.
Enslaved people from lands deemed to be of lesser cultural worth, such as Britain or Germany, were generally less attractive when it came to work that carried with it a level of responsibility.
Agricultural slaves toiled in the fields and endured terrible conditions. As well as being worked to the bone and malnourished, they were also commonly chained up and forced to sleep in ergastula (prison barracks).
Praegustator (food taster)
Roman feasts boasted flowing wine, sumptuous dishes – and the threat of poison. In the imperial household, a praegustator would sample all the delicacies before they touched the emperor's lips, to make sure they weren't poisoned.
Nomenclator (name caller)
At parties, feasts and political functions, a nomenclator's job was to tell their master the name of whomever they met, so they would be saved the embarrassment of not recognizing who they were speaking to.