Ancient Warfare often resulted in slavery for prisoners and their families. Captives were often considered the property of those who captured them and were looked upon as a prize of war. Those captured sometimes differed in ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race from their enslavers, but often were the same as the captors. The dominant group in an area might take captives and turn them into slaves. The possibility always existed of reversals of fortune at the height of the height of the Roman Empire, when powreful nations fought among themselves anyone could find himself enslaved.