Plutarch (first to second century A.D.), the historian of the Roman era, tells of the “model” slave-owner Cato and how he bought slaves young “that is at the age when, like puppies and foals, they can be readily subjected to education and training”. Later he says that “among the slaves he constantly invented methods of maintaining quarrels and disputes, for he considered agreement among them dangerous and feared it.”

archive.today mirror | archive.org mirror