The price of slavery
Sir: Thomas Wiedemann (Letters, 23 January) accepts an explanation about the sex life of Cato's slaves that was, to the best of my knowledge, first made by Professor A. H. Astin in 1977. Plutarch actually says: `Thinking that slaves committed their worst offences from sexual motives, he made his slaves associate with the female servants for a fixed charge, and not approach any other woman.' He does not say who was to receive the money, and Professor Astin ad- mits that it had been generally suPP°sed that it was paid to Cato. There is no indica' tion whether the charge was an entrance-fee to the segregated women's quarters, 01. licence for a recognised contuberntum! liaisons between slaves were tolerated but had no legal sanction. It may be supposed that this arrangement applied to the domestic staff rather than the field-hands on Cato's estates.
H. W. Stubbs
Department of Classics, University of Exeter, The Queen's Drive, Exeter
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