by Christopher Xenopoulos Janus

Slavery in Ancient Greece

Much is being written and disputed today about slavery in ancient Greece. Its existence at the heart of the classical world is a source of considerable disguiet to those who admire Greek culture for its enlightened humanism. Yet the vast majority of Greeks from Homer to Aristotle regard slavery as an indisputable fact of life. It is important to appreciate, however, that slavery was not an absolute, condition, but one that admitted many different statutes.

In this column, I am reviewing some of the different statutes of slavery in Greece. At one end of the scale were the chattel slaves which Aristotle describes as "unspoiled piece of property."

I've discussed the subject of slavery with Robert Garland, my good friend and fellow author and he writes about it in his excellent book THE DAILY LIFE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS.

The origins of slavery are not precisely understood, but the institution was certainly in existence by the end of the eighth century B.C.

In the world evoked by the Homeric poems most slaves were obtained by piracy, kidnaping or warfare. Odysseus'winehead Eumaios, for instance was captured and sold into slavery as a child. Enslavement is the fate that awaits the female members of the royal household, when Troy is taken. It would also have been the fate of women and children in historical times when a besieged city fell. In seventh century Greece, slavery appears to have been widespread even among the poorest section of society. Hesoid in WORKS AND DAYS is of the opinion that an ox and a bought woman are an essential part of a small farmers' holding.

Slaves were particularly numerous in Athens and may well have out-numbered those in any other Greek community. Thucydides claims that more than 20,000, most of them manual workers, abscorided to Dekekeia in northern Attica when it was occupied by the Spartans in 413 B. C. All other evidence is anecdotal. In Classical times the possession of at least one slave was regarded as a necessity. In a lawsuit written by Lysias the speaker states: "I have a trade but I don't earn much. I find it difficult making ends meet and I can't save enough money to buy a slave to work for me. " It is a mark of his meanness that Theophrastos TIGHT FISTED MAN refuses to buy his wife a slave girl and instead hires one from the women's market.

The majority of well-to-do Athenians probably owned two or three slaves. Whereas the wealthy possessed between ten and twenty. A few, however, owned a great many more. Nikias, one of the richest men in Athens in the late fifth century B.C. owned 1,000 slaves, whom he leased out to fellow citizens at the rate of one obol per slave per day. The only surviving slave census relates to Athens in the late fourth century B. C. The total which is put at 400,000, exceeds all bounds of credibility.

Athenian slaves were imported ffom a wide variety of regions including Thrace, Scythia, Illyria, colchis, Syria, Caria and Lydia. Such, diversity was probably fairly typical. The purchase of a slave who could read and write fetched considerably more than one who was only good for menial duties. Likewise a pretty young girl cost much more than an ugly old hag. Slaves with management skills were expensive.

On becoming a member an Athenian household, a slave underwent an initiation ceremony similar to that which a bride underwent on first entering her new home. This was intended to place the slave under the protection of Hestia, the goddess of the hearth. The poems of Homer suggest that the close ties arose between master and slave. When for instance, Odysseus reveals himself to his faithful slaves on his return to Ithaca after twenty years, they throw their arms around and kiss him. Scenes of mistress and maid figure prominently on Athenian grave monuments, testimony to the fact the two spent much time together in the women's quarters. In Classical Athens slaves were occasionally buried in family plots beside their masters and mistresses.

Overall the treatment of slaves varied greatly from one household to the next. Athenian slaves were protected by the law against violent abuse, in practice it was virtually impossible for them to lodge a complaint against their masters, since they could not represent themselves in court. Starvation and flogging were regular punishments for bad behavior. A runaway slave was branded with a hot iron upon capture. If a slave was required to be a witness in a lawsuit, his or her testimony could be accepted only under torture.

Finally though slavery had its critics, the institution of slavery was never seriously challenged in the ancient world. Aristotle goes so far as to justify slavery as part of the order of existence. One question does remain, however, whether the achievements of Greek civilization were made possible by slavery and that is a column for the future.

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