Slavery in ancient Greece
was a widely accepted practice in ancient Greece, as it was in contemporaneous societies. The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, as domestic servants, or even as a public utility, as with the demosioi of Athens.
Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery slavery and land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs. The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel.
The academic study of slavery in ancient Greece is beset by significant methodological problems. Documentation is disjointed and very fragmented, focusing primarily on the city-state of Athens. No treatises are specifically devoted to the subject, and jurisprudence was interested in slavery only as much as it provided a source of revenue. Greek comedies and tragedies represented stereotypes, while iconography made no substantial differentiation between slaves and craftsmen.
Terminology
The ancient Greeks had several words to indicate slaves, which leads to textual ambiguity when they are studied out of their proper context. In the works of Homer, Hesiod and Theognis of Megara, the slave was called δμώς. The term has a general meaning but refers particularly to war prisoners taken as booty. During the classical period, the Greeks frequently used ἀνδράποδον, as opposed to τετράποδον, "quadruped" or livestock. The most common word for slaves is δοῦλος, used in opposition to "free man" ; an earlier form of the former appears in Mycenaean inscriptions as do-e-ro, "male slave", or do-e-ra, "female slave". The verb δουλεὐω can be used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, as of one city over another or parents over their children.Other terms used to indicate slaves were less precise and required context:
Terms Denoting Slave Roles and Functions
The term οἰκέτης was used, as meaning "one who lives in house", referring to household servants.Anagnostes was a term used for an educated slave whose task was to read books out aloud for his or her master.
The demosii were public slaves in Athens, purchased by the state to perform various duties. They served in roles such as members of the police force, executioners, treasury workers, clerks, and record keepers in the assembly and courts. Additionally, they worked as minters, miners, and occasionally as rowers in the Athenian navy. The state was responsible for their training, preparing them for their specific roles.
A paratiltrios was a slave who attended bathers, removing unwanted body hair. The same practice applied to women, who were served by female slaves called παρατίλτριαι.
Pre-classical Greece
Slaves were present through the Mycenaean civilization, as documented in numerous tablets unearthed in Pylos 140. Two legal categories can be distinguished: "slaves " and "slaves of the god ", the god in this case probably being Poseidon. Slaves of the god are always mentioned by name and own their own land; their legal status is close to that of freemen. The nature and origin of their bond to the divinity is unclear. The names of common slaves show that some of them came from Kythera, Chios, Lemnos, or Halicarnassus and were probably enslaved as a result of piracy. The tablets indicate that unions between slaves and freemen were common and that slaves could work and own land. It appears that the major division in Mycenaean civilization was not between a free individual and a slave but rather if the individual was in the palace or not.There is no continuity between the Mycenaean era and the time of Homer, where social structures reflected those of the Greek Dark Ages. The terminology differs: the slave is no longer do-e-ro but dmōs. In the Iliad, slaves are mainly women taken as booty of war, while men were either ransomed or killed on the battlefield.
In the Odyssey, the slaves also seem to be mostly women. These slaves were servants and sometimes are concubines.
There were some male slaves, especially in the Odyssey, a prime example being the swineherd Eumaeus. The slave was distinctive in being a member of the core part of the oikos : Laertes eats and drinks with his servants; in the winter, he sleeps in their company. Eumaeus, the "divine" swineherd, bears the same Homeric epithet as the Greek heroes. Slavery remained, however, a disgrace: Eumaeus declares, "Zeus, of the far-borne voice, takes away the half of a man's virtue, when the day of slavery comes upon him".
It is difficult to determine when slave trading began in the archaic period. In Works and Days, Hesiod owns numerous dmōes although their exact status is unclear. The presence of douloi is confirmed by lyric poets such as Archilochus or Theognis of Megara. According to epigraphic evidence, the homicide law of Draco mentioned slaves. Draco, the first Athenian lawgiver, allowed a wide space for private violence against the slave. According to Plutarch, Solon forbade slaves from practising gymnastics and pederasty. By the end of the period, references become more common. Slavery becomes prevalent at the very moment when Solon establishes the basis for Athenian democracy. Classical scholar Moses Finley likewise remarks that Chios, which, according to Theopompus, was the first city to organize a slave trade, also enjoyed an early democratic process. He concludes that "one aspect of Greek history, in short, is the advance hand in hand, of freedom and slavery."
Economic role
All activities were open to slaves with the exception of politics. For the Greeks, politics was the only occupation worthy of a citizen, the rest being relegated wherever possible to non-citizens. It was status that was of importance, not occupation.The principal use of slavery was in agriculture, the foundation of the Greek economy. Some small landowners might own one slave, or even two. An abundant literature of manuals for landowners confirms the presence of dozens of slaves on the larger estates; they could be common labourers or foremen. The extent to which slaves were used as a labour force in farming is disputed. It is certain that rural slavery was very common in Athens, and that ancient Greece did not have the immense slave populations found on the Roman latifundia.
Slave labour was prevalent in mines and quarries, which had large slave populations, often leased out by rich private citizens. The strategos Nicias leased a thousand slaves to the silver mines of Laurion in Attica; Hipponicos, 600; and Philomidès, 300. Xenophon indicates that they received one obolus per slave per day, amounting to 60 drachmas per year. This was one of the most prized investments for Athenians. The number of slaves working in the Laurion mines or in the mills processing ore has been estimated at 30,000. Xenophon suggested that the city buy a large number of slaves, up to three state slaves per citizen, so that their leasing would assure the upkeep of all the citizens.
Slaves were also used as craftsmen and tradespersons. As in agriculture, they were used for labour that was beyond the capability of the family. The slave population was greatest in workshops: the shield factory of Lysias employed 120 slaves, and the father of Demosthenes owned 32 cutlers and 20 bedmakers.
Ownership of domestic slaves was common, the domestic male slave's main role being to stand in for his master at his trade and to accompany him on trips. In time of war he was batman to the hoplite. The female slave carried out domestic tasks, in particular bread baking and textile making.
Demographics
Population
It is difficult to estimate the number of slaves in ancient Greece, given the lack of a precise census and variations in definitions during that era. It seems certain that Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, on average three or four slaves per household. In the 5th century BC, Thucydides remarked on the desertion of 20,890 slaves during the war of Decelea, mostly tradesmen. The lowest estimate, of 20,000 slaves, during the time of Demosthenes, corresponds to one slave per family. Between 317 BC and 307 BC, the tyrant Demetrius Phalereus ordered a general census of Attica, which arrived at the following figures: 21,000 citizens, 10,000 metics and 400,000 slaves. However, some researchers doubt the accuracy of the figure, asserting that thirteen slaves per free man appear unlikely in a state where a dozen slaves were a sign of wealth, nor is the population stated consistent with the known figures for bread production and import. The orator Hypereides, in his Against Areistogiton, recalls that the effort to enlist 15,000 male slaves of military age led to the defeat of the Southern Greeks at the Battle of Chaeronea, which corresponds to the figures of Ctesicles.According to the literature, it appears that the majority of free Athenians owned at least one slave. Aristophanes, in Plutus, portrays poor peasants who have several slaves; Aristotle defines a house as containing freemen and slaves. Conversely, not owning even one slave was a clear sign of poverty. In the celebrated discourse of Lysias For the Invalid, a cripple pleading for a pension explains "my income is very small and now I'm required to do these things myself and do not even have the means to purchase a slave who can do these things for me." However, the huge individual slave holdings of the wealthiest Romans were unknown in ancient Greece. When Athenaeus cites the case of Mnason, a friend of Aristotle and owner of a thousand slaves, this appears to be exceptional.
Thucydides estimates that the isle of Chios had proportionally the largest number of slaves.