“to perform manual labor, and were called “slaves...”
NO WAY... ONLY the US had slaves, EVER!
And the slaves were ALL and only Black people..
And ALL of the Slave Owners were white!!
The slaves/servants of the wealthy Romans actually lived very good lives. Probably much better than the average person living in a shack and working in the fields. Especially if you were a house servant. Which there might have been a dozen or more in a big house.
Slaves of the Romans working in Pompeii were more like indentured servants. These are not the same people building the aquiduct from the mountains down to Rome.
They also were not the same type of slave rowing a galley on the Med. Row well and live Juda Ben Hur.