Servile caput On Slavery in the Interior of the Province Dalmatia

Abstract

This work observes slavery on the area of today’s Herzegovina, which belonged to the interior of the Roman province Dalmatia, and it represents geographical frame of our theme. Material traces used for study of slavery in this area are very deficient. Seven epigraphic monuments in total were discovered from the home territory of Herzegovina, where slaves are mentioned. In Kolovrat near Prijepolje, a monument was found which mentions a person from the region of upper Neretva, whose wife Amace had been a house slave, whereas his status was ambiguous, even though he also could have been a slave himself. Places where the monuments were found are highly interesting. Most of the places happen to be estates where slaves used to perform certain tasks, be it as estate administers (vilicus) or simple estate workers in estates of Mogorjelo or Krehin Gradac. It is interesting to note that slaves who worked in rural areas left behind more monuments than those from urban areas. In the Roman Empire the situation was different. Up to now, a logical explanation for this is not provided, except for the ager naronitanus, where a majority of slaves performed their tasks within the very center of the colony, which a great number of epigraphs are proof of. On the other hand, an extraordinarily interesting fact is that neither the area of the municipium of Dilluntum nor in the area of today’s Konjic, which also most probably held an urban structure of municipium level, bear witness of monuments which mention persons ranked as slaves. Besides, the region around today’s Konjic is known for numerous estates which have been thoroughly explored as e.g. those in Lisičići and Čelebići. Therefore, it does come as a surprise that these areas lack monuments whose authors had been slaves.
Considering the total number of slaves in the Roman society, it is clear that a majority of them left no traces behind, which is what most probably was the case in the interior of the province Dalmatia also. The monuments that were discovered in this area were mainly erected by slaves who performed more important tasks on the estate e.g. vilicus, and, to a lesser degree, those who were tightly connected to estate owners like vernae etc. Other slaves, who constituted a huge majority, did not leave any material traces of their existence behind whatsoever. Hence, a general conclusion is almost impossible to be reached.
The only slave from this area mentioned in the literary sources is Dionysius, who was a part of Cicero’s service before he escaped in the interior of the province. At first, he escaped in Narona, where he was noticed by Cicero’s friends. That is the reason why he eloped in today’s Herzegovina. Sources do not tell us if Dionysius was captured, but there is a little possibility that it happened.