section_path: Society/Slavery
section_name: Slavery
paragraph_text: Slavery
  
  During the third century, 10-15% of the population was enslaved (numbering around 3 million in the east). Youval Rotman calls the changes to slavery during this period "different degrees of unfreedom". Previous roles fulfilled by slaves became high-demand free market professions (like tutors), and the state encouraged the coloni, tenants bound to the land, as a new legal category between freemen and slaves. From 294, but not completely, the enslavement of children was forbidden; Honorius (r. 393–423) would begin to free enslaved people who were prisoners of war, and from the 9th century onwards, emperors would free the slaves of conquered people. Christianity as an institution had no direct impact, but by the 6th century it was a bishop's duty to ransom Christians, there were established limits on trading them, and state policies which prohibited the enslavement of Christians shaped Byzantine slave-holding from the 8th century onwards. However, slavery persisted due to a steady source of non-Christians with prices remaining stable until 1300, when prices for adult slaves, particularly females, started rising.