=Slavery.= The greatest development of slavery was at Rome, reaching its high point in the last century of the Republic. The Romans had slaves from the earliest history. In the early times those who held slaves usually did not have more than two or three each, but as the years went on civic conditions changed and a great demand for slaves arose and the numbers increased till in the time of Augustus it is estimated that the whole number of free citizens in Rome might have been a half million or more and the slave population half that number, one in every three of the population of Rome at that time being a slave.[177] The slaves came from the children of slaves, from persons becoming slaves under the law of debt, from importations from other slave-holding countries, from kidnappers who snatched up people from other countries and even from the coasts of Italy, but the great source of all was from captives in the numerous wars waged by Rome upon other peoples. It is claimed that in one campaign there were 150,000 people sold into slavery at its close. Slave-dealers followed the armies and there were slave-markets at Rome and other cities. Slaves were sold in open market just as animals and at high-tide prices were very low. There were all kinds of slaves, as they came from many parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The greatest number were used in agriculture and in domestic service. There were all kinds of mechanics among the slaves and some most highly skilled. There were educated slaves coming from Greece and other countries of the East, so that they were used for the training of the young and for the carrying on of business for their masters. There even were physicians and surgeons among the slaves, many households having one to look after the needs of the free and the slave. There also were slaves whose duty it was to give amusement and entertainment, such as musicians, dancers, acrobats, jugglers, rope-walkers, and the like. Too, there were poor dwarfs and simple-minded among the slaves, who were used to amuse master and mistress and guests as did the jesters of the courts in Europe later.