In political life, it need hardly be said, the slave had no share. He could hold no office: he could sit in no public assembly. He might not serve in the legions: it was indeed a capital offence for him to enrol himself. Such service was the duty and privilege of citizens, and though, in times of pressure, both during the Republic and late in the Empire, slaves were occasionally enrolled, the exceptional nature of the step was always indicated, and the slaves so enrolled were rewarded with liberty, if indeed they were not usually freed with a view to their enrolment. In like manner they were excluded from the decurionate in any town, and it was criminal in a slave to aspire in any way to the position. But though they never occupied the highest positions in the public service, they were largely employed in clerical and manual work in different departments, and even in work of a higher kind.

Both at civil and praetorian law, slaves pro nullis habentur. This is not so at natural law, quia quod ad ius naturale attinet omnes homines aequales sunt. We have already noted some results of this conception, and have now to consider some others.

The decay of the ancient Roman religion under the emperors makes it unnecessary to say more than a few words as to the position of the slave in relation thereto. The exclusion of slaves from many cults is not due to any denial of their claim to divine protection, but to the circumstance that the divinities, the worship of whom was most prominent, had special groups under their protection to which slaves did not belong.