Question

In the Roman state, the slave trade was a major source of revenue. Which island became the great slave market?
A) The island of Delos
B) The island of Elba
C) The island of Stromboli
D) The island of Ponza

Answer 1

Hint: Slave trade refers to the capture, sale, and purchase of enslaved people. Slavery has been practised all over the world from ancient times. Slavs and Iranians were enslaved from antiquity to the nineteenth century, Sub-Saharan Africans from the first century CE to the mid-twentieth century, and Germanic, Celtic, and Romance peoples throughout the Viking age.

Complete answer:
Slavery had a significant role in ancient Rome's society and economy. Slaves provided a variety of domestic chores and might be engaged in highly specialised jobs and professions in addition to hard labour. Slaves were frequently employed as accountants and medics. Slaves of Greek ancestry, in particular, may be well-educated. Slaves who were not skilled or who had been sentenced to slavery as a punishment worked in farms, mines, and mills.

In 166 BC, the eastern Mediterranean island of Delos was declared a free port, and it quickly became one of the most important slave markets in the world. Slaves who made their way to Italy were bought by wealthy landowners who needed a large number of slaves to work on their estates. Land investment and agricultural productivity, according to historian Keith Hopkins, generated immense wealth in Italy, and Rome's military conquests and subsequent importation of vast wealth and slaves had impacts equivalent to widespread and rapid technological breakthroughs.

Therefore the correct answer is option (C).

Note: Under Roman law, slaves were considered property and lacked legal personhood. The majority of slaves would never be set free. They might be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation, torture, and summary execution, unlike Roman citizens. Slaves, on the other hand, gradually received more legal protection, including the ability to file complaints against their masters.