One aspect of manumission that I haven’t not thought about as much as I should is that both the Greeks and the Romans taxed manumission. I should qualify that statement: we know that some of the Greeks taxed manumission and we know that the Romans did. There are a number of Thessalian inscriptions that indicate that the Thessalians taxed the process of manumission. Whether or not scattered inscriptions in Crete and Athens indicate that this was a standard aspect of all Greek manumissions is a point of contention.
Livy asserts that the manumission tax began in 356/5, the Lex Manlia. Later descriptions of the manumission tax suggest that the amount was not fixed. Instead, it was some sort of variable percentage. On the one hand, it seems reasonable to assume that this was a percentage of the slave’s price. On the other hand, how would the Romans establish the price of a slave who had not been sold?
Manumission taxes complicate the slave-owner’s power. Specifically, it points out that the slave-owner really only has power over slaves at the behest of the government. The government’s power over slaves is most obviously seen in how it could choose to manumit slaves who turned state’s witness against their master or free them in times of emergency. Yes, slavery was a personal relationship between a slave and a slave-owner but that relationship was constituted amid a larger political landscape.
Livy asserts that the manumission tax began in 356/5, the Lex Manlia. Later descriptions of the manumission tax suggest that the amount was not fixed. Instead, it was some sort of variable percentage. On the one hand, it seems reasonable to assume that this was a percentage of the slave’s price. On the other hand, how would the Romans establish the price of a slave who had not been sold?
Manumission taxes complicate the slave-owner’s power. Specifically, it points out that the slave-owner really only has power over slaves at the behest of the government. The government’s power over slaves is most obviously seen in how it could choose to manumit slaves who turned state’s witness against their master or free them in times of emergency. Yes, slavery was a personal relationship between a slave and a slave-owner but that relationship was constituted amid a larger political landscape.