ge of aristocratic households. The
emperor employed freedmen to write letters and administer the finances
of the empire as he would have used them to manage his private estate.
"Under Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, the imperial freedmen attained
their greatest ascendancy. Callistus, Narcissus, and Pallas rose to the
rank of great ministers, and, in the reign of Claudius, were practically
masters of the world. They accumulated enormous wealth by abusing their
power, and making a traffic in civic rights, in places, or
pardons."[791] The freedmen favorites carried the evil effects of
slavery on character to another stage and were agents of the corruption
of the new form of the state by the inheritance of slavery. "The women
of the freedmen class, for generations, wielded, in their own way, a
power which sometimes rivaled that of the men." They often had great
charms of person and mind. "Their morals were the result of an uncertain
social position, combined with personal attractions, and education."
Some of them did great mischief. Panthea, mistress of Lucius Verus, is
celebrated as one of the most beautiful women who ever lived. She had a
lovely voice, was fond of music and poetry, and had a very superior
mind. She "never lost her natural modesty and simple sweetness."[792] In
the first century some freedmen married daughters of senatorial houses.
They were very able men. No others could have performed the duties of
the three great secretaryships,--appeals, petitions, and correspondence.
The fortunes of these men were often adventurous in the extreme, like
those of the ministers of sultans in the Arabian Nights. A slave,
advanced to a higher position in a household, then to a position of
confidence, where he proved his ability and devotion, got a great office
and became master of the world. Men of this kind have always been
refused social status.[793] In the second century the system was
changed, and knights became the great officers of administration.

+293. Philosophers opponents of slavery.+ The great neostoics of the
first century first denounced slavery and uttered the great humanitarian
doctrines. The real question in regard to Roman slavery was this: Is a
slave not a man? If he was one, he was either the victim of misfortune
or the inheritor of the misfortune of an ancestor. If he did not thereby
lose human status as a member of the race he deserved pity and help. The
humanitarian philosophy, therefore, had the simple