What rights did serfs have/not have?
I am not sure how common serfdom was in the Roman empire. They had a lot of slaves, and slaves were considered property, with no rights at all. some slaves however were freed by their owners, or were allowed to purchase their freedom. A serf was generally a person who was farming a plot of land belonging to a landowner, and who paid rent either in cash or in the form of labour on the landowner’s estate. Serfs were tied to the land they farm, but they were not slaves and could not be bought or sold, or killed or mutilated by their landlords. Serfdom was common in medieval times, but I don’t think it was that common in roman times, when people tended to go in more for owning slaves. Serfs by custom passed their plots of land on to their children. If a male serf died before his wife, his widow would normally be considered holder of the land until she died. Although the land technically still belonged to the landowner, it was virtually owned by the serf who farmed it. There were free peasa
