Part 7 out of 13 exceptional. Greek slaves were the most
valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them serviceable
in positions calling for special The slave class was chiefly
recruited, as in Greece, by war, and by the practice of
kidnapping. Some of the outlying provinces in Asia and Africa
were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. Delinquent tax
payers were often sold as slaves, and frequently poor persons
sold themselves into Slaves were treated better under the empire
than under the later republic (see p. 273), a change to be
attributed doubtless to the softening influence of the Stoical
philosophy and of Christianity. The feeling entertained towards
this unfortunate class in the later republican period is
illustrated by Varro's classification of slaves as "vocal
agricultural implements," and again by Cato the Elder's
recommendation that old and worn-out slaves be sold, as a matter
of economy. Sick and hopelessly infirm slaves were taken to an
island in the Tiber and left there to die of starv