Mark Sidonius Falx, Jerry Toner. How to control slaves (№ 456652)

You may ask how this situation came about. What were the advantages of using slave labor compared to the labor of free people? I'll explain now. In the past, during the Republic, whenever the Romans conquered a region of Italy, they took part of the land for themselves and populated it with Roman colonists. They expected these colonies to become garrison towns (military camps). But as a result of the fighting, a lot of land was left empty and unused. This happened because its owners were either killed or fled as part of the defeated armies. The Senate declared that anyone who wanted to farm the land could do so in exchange for payment of 10% of the annual grain harvest and 20% of the fruit harvest. The goal was to increase the population of Italy, which would produce more food for the cities and also supply Rome with soldiers in time of war.