nNonimpenal slaves

Capitalization (small mistake but still one worth checking).

What does mean "nonimpenal slaves" mean?

Remember that English follows SOV (Subject, object, verb) which means "mean" should go last.

Context: For the present chapter I have drawn heavily on the recent study of P. R. C. Weaver of the slaves and freedmen of the imperial household, which includes statistics on a control group of nonimpenal slaves.

Should "freedman" be capitalized? It seems like a name

nNonimpenal sSlaves

What does mean "nonimpenal slaves" mean?

ContextI was reading the book “Goddesses, Whores, Wives, & Slaves Women in Classical Antiquity” by Sarah B. Pomeroy and encountered a term I was unfamiliar with: “nonimpenal slaves.” The context in which the author used this term follows: “For the present chapter I have drawn heavily on the recent study of P. R. C. Weaver of the slaves and freedmen of the imperial household, which includes statistics on a control group of nonimpenal slaves.”

To fully understand the term, you’d need to read the entire chapter that follows this quotation. Since she said she’s drawing on a work about the subject matter, the analysis that follows will likely explain the gist of the at the term means. From Googling, she uses the term “nonimpenal slave” only once in the entire book, so you won’t find a classic “definition” of the term. Instead, you’ll need to consider the intent of the chapter to extrapolate a meaning to the term.

If the term is still unclear after reading that chapter, you’d want to read the book she referenced in the quote (ie: “Familia Caesaris: A Social Study of the Emperor's Freedmen and Slaves” by P. R. C. Weaver). Perhaps the original author provided a definition for the term in their original work.

Alternatively, you can break the word down into its parts to try to understand what it means:
- penal = as punishment (eg the prison system is also called the penal system)
- im = as a prefix, its meaning is similar to “in”
- non = not

Putting it together, it likely refers to slaves who were not imprisoned for punitive reasons. This could mean they were born into slavery. It could also mean they had some degree of “free movement” despite their enslavement.