Two thousand years ago a slave was merely a piece of machinery. Nowadays a rich man invests his money in factories. The rich people of Rome (senators, generals and war-profiteers) invested theirs in land and in slaves. The land they bought or took in the newly-acquired provinces. The slaves they bought in open market wherever they happened to be cheapest. During most of the third and second centuries before Christ there was a plentiful supply, and as a result the landowners worked their slaves until they dropped dead in their tracks, when they bought new ones at the nearest bargain-counter of Corinthian or Carthaginian captives.
在2000年前，一名奴隶仅仅是机器上的一个零件，正如现代的富人投资工厂一样，而古罗马的富人们（元老院成员、将军、发战争财的商人）则将自己的财富用于购买土地和奴隶。土地来自于新征服的国家，通过购买或直接攫取。奴隶在各地的市场上公开出售，只需选一处价钱最便宜的地方买入就可以。在公元前3世纪和2世纪的大部分时间里，奴隶的供应一直相当充足。因此，庄园主们可以像牛马一样尽情驱使他们的奴隶，直到他们精疲力竭地倒在田地边死去。而主人们可以去就近的奴隶市场讨价还价，购人新到的柯林斯或迦太基战俘，弥补劳力的损失。
And now behold the fate of the freeborn farmer!
现在，再让我们来看一看普通罗马农民的命运！
He had done his duty toward Rome and he had fought her battles without complaint. But when he came home after ten, fifteen or twenty years, his lands were covered with weeds and his family had been ruined. But he was a strong man and willing to begin life anew. He sowed and planted and waited for the harvest. He carried his grain to the market together with his cattle and his poultry, to find that the large landowners who worked their estates with slaves could underbid him all along the line. For a couple of years he tried to hold his own. Then he gave up in despair. He left the country and he went to the nearest city. In the city he was as hungry as he had been before on the land. But he shared his misery with thousands of other disinherited beings.
他尽心尽力为罗马而战，毫无怨言，因为这是他对祖国应尽的职责。可经过1o年、15年或20年的漫长兵役后，他回到家乡，发现自家田地里荒草丛生，房屋也毁于战火。他是一个够坚强的男子汉。他想，好吧，这没什么，我可以重新开始生活。于是他拔去杂草，翻耕土地，播种，劳作，耐心等待收成。终于盼到了收获季节，他兴冲冲将谷物、牲畜、家禽运到市场。此时他才发现，大庄园主用奴隶替他们耕种大片土地，其农产品的价格比他预想的低好多。他不得不贱价出售。如此苦苦支撑几年，他终于绝望了，只好抛弃土地，离乡背井，去城市谋生。可在城市，他依然混不饱肚子。不过，他至少可以与几千名命运同样悲惨的人们，分担他的痛苦。