Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

SERVUS.

341

SESTERTIUS.

the law docs not seem to have protected the
person or life of the slave at all; but the
cruelty of masters was to some extent re-
strained under the empire by various enact-
ments. In early times, when the number of
slaves was small, they were treated with
more indulgence, and more like members of
the family: they joined their masters in
offering up prayers and thanksgivings to the
gods, and partook of their meals in common
with their masters, though not at the same
table with them, but upon benches (subsellia)
placed at the foot of the lectus. But with
the increase of numbers and of luxury among
masters, the ancient simplicity of manners
was changed : a certain quantity of food was
allowed them (dimensum or demensu/n), which
was granted to them either monthly (men-
struum) or daily (diarium). Their chief food
was the corn called far, of which either four
or five modii were granted them a month, or
one Roman pound (libra) a day. They also
obtained an allowance of salt and oil: Cato
allowed his slaves a sextarius of oil a month
and a modius of salt a year. They also got
a small quantity of wine, with an additional
allowance on the Saturnalia and Compitalia,
and sometimes fruit, but seldom vegetables.
Butcher's meat seems to have been hardly
ever given them. Under the republic they
were not allowed to serve in the army,
though after the battle of Cannae, when the
state was in imminent danger, 8000 slaves
were purchased by the state for the army,
and subsequently manumitted on account of
their bravery. The offences of slaves were
punished with severity, and frequently with
the utmost barbarity. One of the mildest
punishments was the removal from the
familia urbana to the rustica, where they
were obliged to work in chains or fetters.
They were frequently beaten with sticks or
scourged with the whip. Runaway slaves
(fugitivi) and thieves (fares) were branded
on the forehead with a mark (stigma), whence
they are said to be notati or inscripti. Slaves
were also punished by being hung up by their
hands with weights suspended to their feet,
or by being sent to work in the Ergastulum
or Pistrinum. [Ergastulum.] The carrying
of the furca was a very common mode of
punishment. [Furca.] The toilet of the
Roman ladies was a dreadful ordeal to the
female slaves, who were often barbarously
punished by their mistresses for the slightest
mistake in the arrangement of the hair or a
part of the dress. Masters might work their
slaves as many hours in the day as they
pleased, but they usually allowed them holi-
days on the public festivals. At the festival
of Saturnus, in particular, special indulgences

were granted to all slaves, of which an ac-
count is given under Saturnalia. There
was no distinctive dress for slaves. It was
once proposed in the senate to give slaves a
distinctive costume, but it was rejected, since
it was considered dangerous to show them
their number. Male slaves were not allowed
to wear the toga or bulla, nor females the
stola, but otherwise they were dressed nearly
in the same way as poor people, in clothes of
a dark colour (pullati) and slippers (ere-
pidae). The rights of burial, however, were
not denied to slaves, for, as the Romans re-
garded slavery as an institution of society,
death was considered to put an end to the dis-
tinction between slaves and freemen. Slaves
were sometimes even buried with their masters,
and we find funeral inscriptions addressed to
the Dii Manes of slaves (Dis Manibus).
SESCUXX. [As.]

SESTERTIUS, a Roman coin, which pro-
perly belonged to the silver coinage, in which
it was one-fourth of the denarius, and there-
fore equal to 1\ asses. Hence the name,
which is an abbreviation of semis tertius
(sc. nummus), the Roman mode of expressing
2j. The word nummus is often expressed
with sestertius, and often it stands alone,
meaning sestertius. Hence the symbol II S
or 11 S, which is used to designate the ses-
tertius. It stands either for L L S (Libra
Libra et Semis), or for IIS, the two I's
merely forming the numeral two (sc. asses or
librae), and the whole being in either case
equivalent to dupondius et semis. When the
as was reduced to half an ounce, and the
number of asses in the denarius was made
sixteen instead of ten [As, Denarius], the
sestertius was still £ of the denarius, and
therefore contained no longer 1\, but 4 asses.
The old reckoning of 10 asses to the denarius
was kept, however, in paying the troops.
After this change the sestertius was coined
in brass as well as in silver ; the metal used
for it was that called aurichalcum, which
was much finer than the common aes, of
which the asses were made. The sum of
1000 sestertii was called sestertium. This
was also denoted by the symbol H S, the
obvious explanation of which is "IIS (2£
millia)." The sestertium was always a sum of
money, never a coin ; the coin used in the pay-
ment of large sums was the denarius. Accord-
ing to the value we have assigned to the Dena-
rius, up to the time of Augustus, we have—
£. s. d. farth.
the sestertius = 0 0 2-5
the sestertium = 8 17 1
After the reign of Augustus—

the sestertius =00 1 3-5
the sestertium = 7 16 3