Skilled and educated slaves-including artisans, chefs, domestic staff and personal attendants, entertainers, business managers, accountants and bankers, educators at all levels, secretaries and librarians, civil servants, and physicians-occupied a more privileged tier of servitude and could hope to obtain freedom through one of several well-defined paths with protections under the law. Unskilled or low-skill slaves labored in the fields, mines, and mills with few opportunities for advancement and little chance of freedom. Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the economy.
Treatment of people as property in ancient Rome and its empire Roman mosaic from Dougga, Tunisia (2nd/3rd century AD): two large slaves carrying wine jars wear an amulet against the evil eye on a necklace, with one in a loincloth (left) and the other in an exomis the young slave to the left carries water and towels, and the one on the right a bough and a basket of flowers
