ancient slavery depends upon a fundamental redefinition of what slavery was.112 That simplistic modern image of ancient slavery rests in large measure upon “extreme examples of cruelty,” as Bradley calls them113—recorded, for the most part, to preserve sensational (yet probably rare) instances of dominical aggression. So, for example, Vedius Pollio apparently did feed careless slave boys to man-eating lampreys sometimes for breaking expensive dinner vases.114 Yet most masters (when placed into similar