Interview with poor Plebeian

My name is Montyius Sagius and I am here interviewing a poor plebeian named Abelardus on the streets of Rome in 133 BC.

• Abelardus, how do you feel about being sent off to war, then coming back and seeing your land damaged?

• Montyius, when I came back from the 3rd Punic war and saw my land had almost been destroyed I was devastated. I knew that I didn’t have the money to repair it and I was going to have to sell it. It angered me that fighting for Rome hadn’t rewarded me with anything but poverty.

• What are you going to do now that all your land is gone?

• The truth is I don’t know. I’ve got a family to support, but now we are living on the streets because I had to sell my land to one of the latifundia. The streets of Rome are riddled with crime so my only option may be to sell my family into slavery to keep them safe. I have tried to find a job, but almost all of them are occupied by slaves.

• Would you ever sell your family into slavery just so you could be better off?

• Yes, I would sell my family into slavery but I’d go with them. Our lives are so bad out in the streets that being under ownership of someone else is a small price to pay for a roof over our heads and food to eat. It is almost impossible to find work in Rome these days so slavery is definitely an option.

• Would you still consider Rome the greatest empire in the world?

• After everything that has happened to me and my family, no. In the old days slaves weren’t as popular and my farm was making enough money to live on. These days, all of the farms are owned by the latifundia and only slaves work on their farms. Also, now that the Gracchus brothers are both dead, violence in politics had become a common thing. The Roman empire just isn’t what it used to be.