Slaves were considered property under Roman law and had no legal personhood. Unlike Roman citizens, they could suffer corporal punishment, sexual exploitation (sex workers were often slaves), torture, and summary execution legally. Slave's words could not be accepted in a court of law unless the slave was tortured—a practice based on the belief that slaves would be too loyal to their masters reveal damaging evidence unless coerced. Over time, however, slaves gained some legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters. Attitudes changed in part because of the influence among the educated elite of the Stoics, whose egalitarian views of humanity extended to slaves, and because of slave rebellions.