- The unquestioned acceptance of the institution of slavery in the first century A.D., the improving conditions of slave-life during that period, the respective places of slaves and freedmen in society, and the slave's view of his own situation clearly indicate that the person in Greek or Roman slavery in the first century A.D. led an existence which differs in many significant ways from the slavery practiced in modern times. Perhaps the most significant difference between that ancient slavery and modern slavery is the manumission anticipated by first-century slaves. In nineteenth-century America, a slave had no hope of being set free; in first century Greece, a slave reasonably expected to be set free after a number of years of labor.
- from page 87, First Century Slavery