In this paper, I seek to delineate the build-up of the Italian slave population. My parametric model revolves around two variables: the probable number of slaves in Roman Italy, and the demographic structure of the servile population. I critique existing estimates of slave totals and propose a new ‘bottom-up’ approach; discuss the probable sex ratio, mortality regime and family structure of the Italian slaves; and advance a new estimate of the overall volume of slave transfers. I argue that the total number of slaves in Roman Italy did not exceed one-and-a-half million, and that this population had been created by the influx of between two and four million slaves during the last two centuries B.C.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 360 citations exist upstream.