s are to be attributed to the superior
attractions of city over country life, and to the stigma which in Rome
rested upon industrial employment.

*Slaves and freedmen.* In the early principate slave-holding continued on
as large a scale as in the late republic. The palaces of the wealthy in
Rome could count slaves by hundreds; on the larger plantations they were
numbered by thousands. Trained slaves were also employed in great numbers
in various trades and industries. Their treatment varied according to
their employment and the character of their owners, but there was a steady
progress towards greater humanitarianism, largely due to the influence of
philosophic doctrines. In the age of the Antonines this produced
legislation which limited the power of the master over his slave. As time
went on the number of slaves steadily diminished, in part because of the
cessation of continual foreign wars after the time of Augustus, in part
because of the great increase of manumissions. Not only were large numbers
set free at the death of their owners as a final act of generosity, but
also many found it profitable to liberate their slaves and provide them
with capital to engage in business for themselves. Many slaves also had
good opportunities for accumulating a small store of money (_peculium_)
with which they could purchase their freedom.

The result of these wholesale manumissions was a tremendous increase in
the freedmen class. Foreseeing the effect that this would have upon the
Roman citizen body, Augustus endeavored to restrict the right of
emancipation. By the _lex Fufia Caninia_ (2 B. C.) testamentary
manumissions were limited to a fixed proportion of the total number of
slaves held by the deceased, and not more than one hundred allowed in any
case. The _lex Aelia Sentia_ (4 A. D.) placed restrictions upon the
master's right of manumission during his lifetime, and the Junian law of
about the same time prevented slaves liberated without certain formalities
from receiving Roman citizenship although granting them the status of
Latins. Even freedmen who became Romans lacked the right of voting or of
holding office in Rome or the municipalities, unless they received from
the princeps the right to wear the gold ring which gave them the
privileges of freeborn citizens. In spite of these laws the number of the
freedmen grew apace, and there is no doubt that in the course of the
principate the racial characteristics of the populatio