Agriculture Roman farm workers were made up of mostly slaves, and managed by another slave called a vilicus. Farm slaves tended to vineyards, plantations, and the livestock.
Mining Tens of thousands slaves worked in the mines, and in the worst of conditions. Mining slaves were known as damniti in metallum (those condemned to the mine) and were convicts who lost their freedom, forfeited their property to the state, and becam servi poenae (slave as legal penalty). The slaves were expected to live and die in the mines, and didn't have the option to buy their freedom, be sold, or set free.