Mmm. My point, however, was that what Roman skepticism there is (and I can think of few entirely anti-Roman scholars) starts in the contemporary era. In our 19thC, unlike Cat's, it simply didn't exist in Europe.

ETA: And in fact the Romans were different from other slaveholding imperialists in that they stopped their expansionism and it was normal and common for people to be freed from slavery. I'd take Rome over every other slave society including the American South.