Plutarch on Property Speculators

"It is true that some rich slave-owners did have the idea of employing their slaves in specialised crafts in some branch of production: according to Plutarch, Crassus possessed 500 slaves who were carpenters and masons, and he exploited their labour to indulge in various property speculations, buying at very low prices the houses which were constantly being damaged by fire in Rome, and building on their sites new houses from which he derived large profits."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work (1969)

[Translated by Janet Lloyd].