“Cheap as Sardinians”

After Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, consul for 238 BCE, commanded the Roman army in the fights with the Gauls, and Iberians, and then pacified Sardinia, a huge number of slaves began to flow to Rome. The saturation of the Roman market was so great at that time that, especially after the conquest of Sardinia, the phrase “cheap as Sardinians” began to be used, which referred to the situation that the price was extremely low and the supply exceeded the demand.