Topic Explanation 1/26/14

So I've been researching slavery in ancient Rome and I found out some cool stuff like when slaves were freed they were called freedmen and that there were three kinds of freedmen. They couldn't just have one and make it simple. The slaves also had different types private and public; lots and lots of different types. Depending on how useful a slave was and where they worked they were treated differently. I thought slavery in Rome would be a good topic because I like ancient cultures like Rome and slavery was interesting to me.


My topic is slavery in ancient Rome. I was interested in this because I like ancient civilizations and mythology. I always wanted to know more about Rome and slavery interested me a little bit. This was a good opportunity to research my interests and compile what I found out in a productive way. When I first started looking for sources I used a database and got some good results. So far I have learned that social classes were very complex in ancient Rome. Slaves that worked in different places had different rights and there were different types of slaves public and private. I also learned that when slaves were freed they became freedmen and that there were three types of freedmen with different rights.


I read The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones  I finished it   2 hours

Reading Log 1/20/14

I read Epic by Conor Kostick   3 hours I finished it

Reading Log 13/1/14

Possession  by Elana Johnson   started on page127 and finished it 3 hours  12/1/14

research topic 13/1/14

I am researching slaves in ancient Rome. My topic is important because it is a great example of what happens when you don't have human rights or equal rights for everyone. It also gives an insight to daily life in ancient Rome. My topic more specifically shows the relationship between slaves and their owners. In some cases slaves were treated very well and seen as "part of the family"; but slaves that were crimes were sent to mines to do hard work and they didn't live long working in the mines.


Slaves had no rights in ancient Rome and were seen as property but there were laws concerning slaves like that a slave owner could not kill a slave without a reason. Slaves were also allowed to save any money they got in hopes of buying their freedom, but this was very hard to do. Slaves were given food and shelter so at first, poor romans would become slaves to receive these benefits but this was later outlawed. This shows that while being a slave was horrible it wasn't quite as bad as you may have thought.

Interpratation of evil 13/1/14

Well, Socrates said that "the one evil is ignorance." I don't really agree with this because there are many different "evils" and some people see certain things as bad that other people think are alright. Ignorance could be considered the root of some bad things but smart learned people can also do bad things such as blackmail or lying.


Desperation can also be a powerful motive for bad things that often has to do with knowing what will happen if something doesn't change and your often out of options. I think it's good that he recognized ignorance as something bad. When he was alive that probably wasn't thought by most people to be very bad; their first thought of evil would probably be murder or something similar. I don't think he should have believed that there was only one evil.