On this liberty and slavery point: could it be the case that many Romans thought, just as most of the US founding fathers, that liberty for themselves and slavery for other people were consistent goals?
Not sure whether Massimo's point that slavery's abolished only recently is relevant. After the fall of the western Roman empire, slavery practically disappears in this part of the world. It reappeared in the West only under very specific circumstances and mostly in the American south and the Caribbean islands and coast and with of misgivings (at least initially: Jefferson has doubts, in the 1850s some people thought of slavery as just & good). This is not to downplay slavery or to say that there were no inequities after the fall of the western Roman empire.
On this liberty and slavery point: could it be the case that many Romans thought, just as most of the US founding fathers, that liberty for themselves and slavery for other people were consistent goals?
Not sure whether Massimo's point that slavery's abolished only recently is relevant. After the fall of the western Roman empire, slavery practically disappears in this part of the world. It reappeared in the West only under very specific circumstances and mostly in the American south and the Caribbean islands and coast and with of misgivings (at least initially: Jefferson has doubts, in the 1850s some people thought of slavery as just & good). This is not to downplay slavery or to say that there were no inequities after the fall of the western Roman empire.