Provocation

The slave trader noticed the crowd getting bigger. He did not immediately sell the child slaves. Instead, he told his two brawny subordinates to push a huge iron cage up to the platform. Inside the cage were several muscular young men. Some of them were dark skinned, some were light-skinned, some were tall and some were short. The dark-skinned slaves were mostly barbarians from the Southern mountains while the light-skinned slaves were mostly natives of the Empire. Most of them were convicts who were bought out of prison by the slave traders as slaves.

“These strong fellows- buy them for work! One can do two… no, three persons’ worth of work! Look at their bodies! Look at their muscles! Feeding them two simple meals a day is enough! Five gold coins! Five gold coins for each slave! What? Expensive? It is not expensive! I do honest business! How about this? If you buy an adult slave, I will give you a free child slave! Buy one, get one free!”