However, modern scholars now acknowledge that the reality was quite different. Some prisoners of war (usually men) were indeed sacrificed, and some household servants had in truth indentured themselves or been sold by their chief as a punishment. But there were also many other enslaved people. As in the ancient Mediterranean world, the households of wealthy and powerful men contained numerous female slaves taken in war. Some were princesses, and might be treated almost like wives, depending on the circumstances. Others were more ordinary, and Itzcoatl’s mother was one of these.11
