Slavery in Great Levantia

Slavery in Great Levantia was an important social and economic institution which existed throughout much of Great Levantia's existence. Slaves served a wide variety of purposes in ancient Levantine society, with a majority involved in hard labor related to the extraction of natural resources, though a considerable majority served in the role of household slave and other urban purposes. Socially, slavery served as a means of control and also as a geopolitical tool to reduce disloyal Gaelic peoples in the Levantine hinterland and also as a means to repopulate strategically important regions. In ancient Levantine society, citizens could not be enslaved for any reason nor could an individual who served in the Levantine legions. Slaves were considered property and had no legal protections. Until 50 AD, no legal mechanism allowed for the freeing of slaves, though slaves would increasingly gain legal protections.

The original source for slaves in earliest ancient Levantia were non-citizen convicted criminals and those in debt who would be sentences to various terms of enslavement to an individual or the state as part of a sentence. In time, as Great Levantia expanded, the institution changed from a primarily penal institution to a broader one, including debtors, criminals, and those captured in war, particularly Gaelic people. In time, as Great Levantia reached its peak and prosecuted the Gallian Wars, the vast majority of slaves were people captured in war. The Gallian Wars in particular lead to a historic influx of slaves, transforming the institution into a means of control of indigenous peoples while also transforming the economy to being increasingly reliant on slave labor.

Origins and history

Most early Levantine slaves were individuals sentenced to limited terms of enslavement as a result of a crime or more commonly due to debt arrears. The earliest instituion of slavery in Great Levantia and its predecessor cities somewhat resembled Slavery in Caphiria and was viewed mostly as a penal institution rather than a core social and economic one. Captured foreigners were always part of slavery in the greater Adonerii civilization, with many of the earliest Latinic settlements in Levantia having Gaelic slaves in the historical record. Regardless, until the third century BC, convicts and debtors made up the majority of the slave labor force. Although Great Levantia underwent campaigns of conquest throughout much of modern Urcea and Dericania, enforced enslavement was unevenly applied, and in many cases the Republic-era leaders largely focused on attempting to integrate local conquered people into Levantine society by means other than slavery. Gaelic slaves brought back to the Levantine heartland, if serving as household or agricultural slaves, were subject to a basic form of education. While slaves were looked down upon, they did not have the severe social stigma later associated with slaves, as the fact that many were convicted individuals meant that it could be reasonably anticipated they would be productive members of society at some future point. Captured foreign slaves retained temporary terms of enslavement until around 250 BC, when life terms for foreigners became a legal option. By 150 BC, it became functionally the only term of enslavement allowed to a foreign capture.

The Gallian Wars are considered by most historians to be a significant turning point in the history of Great Levantine slavery. While foreign captured slaves had become a growing contingent of those in bondage in Great Levantia, the wars imported untold numbers of Gaels into bondage. Historical estimates range from as low as tens of thousands to a high of about a million, instantly transforming the Levantine economy as large amounts of cheap labor were suddenly available. The influx of slaves hastened urbanization in Levantia. Due to both changing attitudes and the sheer number of slaves, cultural integration of slaves was no longer viewed as a priority, and consequently slaves began to develop a rapidly divergent culture from their Latinic overlords, blending many Gaelic traditions from different regions and tribes. Post-Gallian Wars slavery also changed the perception of slaves, and they were largely shunned by society and viewed as untouchables. Post-wars domestic slaves retained a degree of the respect that slaves had held in earlier periods but were still largely unable to engage with citizens in any meaningful way.

A major slave revolt in Tromarine in 150 AD lead to a mixed response by Levantine authorities. On the one hand, new laws were introduced against runaway slaves and a period of generally harsher enforcement was inaugurated against unruly and potentially rebellious slaves. On the other hand, new pathways to manumission and a maximum term of enslavement were both introduced in the 150s, although the latter was undermined inasmuch as an individual slave could face multiple consecutive terms of enslavement. Most historians believe more slaves were freed or gained their own freedom between 150 and 200 AD than at any other previous time in Levantine history. It was also made illegal for debtors to be sold into slavery in 178 AD, changing slavery to an almost exclusively foreign or foreign-descendant institution.

Transition to serfdom

As the prospect of foreign conquests came to a definitive end by the latter half of the 3rd century and as slaves gained increasing legal protection and possibility of manumission, slaves became harder to procure and more expensive to acquire. Accordingly, many of the large landowners of Great Levantia began the transition from slavery to free Levantine citizens from cities, particularly with respect to agricultural activities. This process precipitated a period of several centuries where cities would become largely depopulated, also reducing the need for large staffs of household slaves in urban homes of the elite. The slow transition to serfdom which began around this period not only lead to major economic changes but lead to a concentration of existing slaves to be sent to mines. Following centuries of improvement with respect to their legal position, the material conditions of slaves suddenly plummeted and life expectancies grew significantly shorter.

The introduction of Christianity as both a legal and eventually official institution was another blow to slavery. Not only did Christian morality require humane treatment of slaves and a general suspicion of the institution, but it also lead to the rapid decline of ancient Levantine religion. As many temples began to close or be forcefully converted into Churches, the primarily slave-based industry of temple prostitution waned considerably in the 4th century.

Functional end of slavery

Multiple factors lead to the functional end of slavery in Levantia. Primarily, the slow collapse of Great Levantia lead to severe reductions in trade and advanced economic activity, making large-scale state sponsored mines no longer viable to operate. Slaves were also increasingly hard to find and the institution of slavery largely lost its raison d'etre as slave labor became nearly as expensive as labor among freemen and urban citizens. The number of slaves further declined with the collapse of centralized state authority and law and order, as incidents of runaway slaves never being recovered became ubiquitous in the fifth century historical record. Catholic morality, which was becoming the primary social mores of Levantine society by the fifth century, increasingly looked down upon the institution as theologians and practitioners alike questioned fellow children of God being held in bondage. The Levantine urban collapse also lead to the end of the institution of household slaves during the fifth century, as most major urban palaces were abandoned or turned into fortified manors with an emphasis on food self-sufficiency, and many remaining household slaves were transitioned into freemen tenants on these estates. With social attitudes turning against it, slaves becoming rare commodities, and the end of field, mine, and domestic slaves as well as temple prostitutes, the institution faded into obscurity with the end of Great Levantia in the beginning of the sixth century. Some forms of slavery continued to exist under powerful or wealthy local rulers who could subjugate neighboring villages in the post-Levantine era, but by the turn of the seventh century slaves were vanishingly rare in Levantia. The rare exception were galley slaves, which continued in relatively robust form for centuries to come. New laws implemented by both late Great Levantia and the Catholic Church, however, limited the term of service of galley slaves, and most galley slaves - either captured or sentenced to the status due to indebtedness - could expect to spend a majority of their lives as free persons. Serfdom would become the more common form of forced labor in Urcea and the rest of Levantia, but had strict legal protections and generally could not be bought and sold apart from the land on which they lived and worked.

Most former slaves and their descendants would go on to become freemen within the system of social class in Urcea, ironically being considered above the class of serfs who primarily descended from urban Levantine citizens.

Trade, economy, and sales

Slave roles

Galley slave

Galley slaves were the most common form of slaves in what would become the Creagmer mercantile cities as well as on Crotona; they were the second most common type of slave in Tromarine behind mine slaves.