Rewards to Slaves in the Proscriptions of 82 B.C.

Abstract

This article rejects the view, put forward by Hinard, that slaves who collaborated in the violence of the Sullan proscriptions were offered a monetary reward but not freedom. A survey of other periods of the Republic reveals that slave accomplices were never promised money without manumission, and logic dictates that no slave will have killed or betrayed his master for money unless he was also promised his freedom. Manumission is not attested in 82, but it must be assumed. The bounty was probably half the sum promised to free persons.