Thieves who couldn’t pay assessed damages were turned over to their victims as temporary slaves. Families of soldiers serving in Rome’s long wars with Carthage—all of whom were landowners by law—found they couldn’t keep their farms solvent with the men gone for years at a time and wound up being sold into slavery to pay their debts. Passengers on ships seized by pirates—a big problem at the time—found themselves sold into slavery if they couldn’t raise the ransom demanded. There were apparently A LOT of ways an early Roman might find him or herself chained, branded, and grinding someone else’s corn. And it seems there was a law—and a lawyer—for each one.