A documentary on the Roman empire

[CapnAwesome]

A feudal peasant who was expected to own his own livestock, had right of access to his own land, to build on common land, had a set of prescribed duties to the master, but outside that was free to do as he/she saw fit.
Duties that if you compare very favourably even today.
A peasant was expected to work on average 3 days a weak for his master. In return, the peasant had, a home, land, and his own small business which his children could inherit. How many days of the week do we now have to work to pay the mortgage/rent and taxes expected of us. and we will not talk about inheritance tax.
But a Roman slave could only dream of the rights of a peasant.

The main difference is that only about 30% of Rome were slaves, where as around 98% of Dark Age Europe were Serfs. This is clearly a step backwards.