how were slaves treated in athens
Pritchett (1961). "[30], Alcidamas, at the same time as Aristotle, took the opposite view, saying: "nature has made nobody a slave". The third-century BC writer Archemachus even claimed that "many of them are richer than their masters". Despite these limited freedoms, Athenian slaves were still second-class citizens. "The Attic Stelai, Part II". The utopian cities of Phaleas of Chalcedon and Hippodamus of Miletus are based on the equal distribution of property, but public slaves are used respectively as craftsmen[37] and land workers. Yet, we've also seen how these rights were but pale reflections of those enjoyed by the Athenians themselves. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. Conversely, the emancipation by ransom of a city that had been entirely reduced to slavery carried great prestige: Cassander, in 316 BC, restored Thebes. So-called chattel slaves were those owned by a master who viewed them as his possession, while dmosioi were public slaves owned by the state and who worked for the civic good, whether in non-manual roles, such as clerks, or undertaking more physical work, such as road construction. The chattel slavery approach used by the Athenians seems to have been the more popular option across Greece. Two legal categories can be distinguished: "slaves ()" and "slaves of the god ()", the god in this case probably being Poseidon. The population of the notorious slave-trading state of the central Sudan, Ouidah (Whydah), was half-slave in the 19th century. Demosthenes viewed punishment for slaves as acceptable in the form of physical harm or injuries for all that they may have done wrong, stating "the body of a slave is made responsible for all his misdeeds, whereas corporal punishment is the last penalty to inflict on a free man. Xenophon indicates that they received one obolus per slave per day, amounting to 60 drachmas per year. Slaves took part in most of the civic and family cults; they were expressly invited to join the banquet of the Choes, the second day of the Anthesteria, and were allowed initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Draco, the first Athenian lawgiver, allowed a wide space for private violence against the slave. Solon put an end to debt bondage with the / seisachtheia, literally "the shaking off of burdens", or liberation of debts, which prevented all claim to the person by the debtor and forbade the sale of free Athenians, including by themselves. The title of a 4th-century comedy by Antiphanes, The Runaway-catcher (), suggests that slave flight was not uncommon. In return for a fee ( / apophora) paid to their master, they could live and work alone. Slaves and freedmen were responsible for much of the empires commodity production, and in the early principate they ran its governmental bureaus as well. Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third were enslaved. Perhaps we will never know. It concerned itself with distinguishing the phases in the organisation of human societies and correctly identifying the place of Greek slavery. Slaves of the god are always mentioned by name and own their own land; their legal status is close to that of freemen. Buyers enjoyed a guarantee against latent defects: The transaction could be invalidated if the purchased slave turned out to be crippled and the buyer had not been warned about it. . How did slavery work in ancient Greece? Leave a Comment . It would be indecent for me to say that these slaves had an easy life because slavery is simply cruel and inhumane. Plutarch wrote that the Spartans treated them harshly and cruelly, while Thucydides observed that most Spartan institutions have always been designed with a view to security against the helots. There is no continuity between the Mycenaean era and the time of Homer, where social structures reflected those of the Greek Dark Ages. Its Latin inscription reads: Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges mentions that there was a hierarchy of classes superposed one above the other in the Spartan society. At least half the population was enslaved. A heterology of classical Greek slavery", "Enslaving "Barbaroi" and the Athenian Ideology of Slavery", The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity, Index thmatiques de l'esclavage et de la dpendance, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slavery_in_ancient_Greece&oldid=1158886973, Legal rights and duties (liability to arrest and/or arbitrary punishment, or to litigate), Familial rights and privileges (marriage, inheritance, etc. The Greeks had many degrees of enslavement. (Image: Louvre Museum/CC BY 3.0/Public domain) Slavery was a widely accepted practice in ancient Greece, as it was in contemporaneous societies. But, as the property of their master, Athenian slaves could still be sold off in the blink of an eye. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you In the Vai Paramount chiefdoms in the 19th century as much as three-quarters of the population consisted of slaves. For example, a slave could not engage free boys in pederastic relationships ("A slave shall not be the lover of a free boy nor follow after him, or else he shall receive fifty blows of the public lash. And, of course, all the rights in the world mean nothing when one can be bought and sold like an animal. On the other hand, to the Spartans, the helots were just a group of people to be harried and beaten into submission, and they regularly murdered the helots to keep their population (and their rebellion) under control - whereas, to the Athenians, each slave was an investment; they must be fed, clothed and cared for in order to make their master a profit. Despite torture in trials, the Athenian slave was protected in an indirect way: if he was mistreated, the master could initiate litigation for damages and interest ( / dik blabs). Athenian slave society was finally destroyed by Philip II of Macedonia at the battle of Chaeronea (338 bce ), when, on the motion of Lycurgus, many (but not all) slaves were freed. Enslaving war captives was a common practice in ancient Greece. Most could not even choose their own husbands. An ancient funerary relief, dated c430 BC, depicts a young man with his slave. Ancient Greek History, Culture & Religion | Ancient Greece Background. In this type of society, as explained by Plato,[39] one reaped generously without sowing. Today, Greece is known as the home of some of history's greatest minds. Conversely, an offence committed against a slave was much less expensive than an offence committed against a free person. Only men were considered citizens, not women or slaves. [6] Documentation is disjointed and very fragmented, focusing primarily on the city-state of Athens. | 8 "), and they were forbidden from the palaestrae ("A slave shall not take exercise or anoint himself in the wrestling-schools."). This can be seen in the way a slave was greeted into the household, they were showered with fruit and nuts. Slaves were seen as property: their only value was tied to their physical capacity for labor. Poets such as Homer, freedom fighters such as Kolokotronis, philosophers such as Socrates, and kings and lawmakers such as Alexander the Great and Solon all called the country home. Join us as we explore one of the worlds greatest civilisations from the birth of democracy and the ancient Olympics to warfare, the rights of women and the whims of the gods. Attached to a metal collar, an enslaved person was forced to wear it. [19] This is reflected in Aristotle's work Politics, in which he provides a blunt conceptualization of slaves as property: they are nothing but "living tools" and "animate property". Rise of the Roman Republic: History & Timeline | When Did Rome Become a Republic? "[22] He also states that it might have a few issues though, For what if the cause of war be unjust?[22] If the war was because of an unfair or incorrect reason, should the victors of that war be allowed to take the losers as slaves? "[43] This was spoken about in legal proceedings, suggesting that it would have been a widely accepted way of treating slaves. During the fourth and fifth centuries, there were an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 slaves in Athens alone. How were slaves treated in Greece? What is this object? Peasants could incur debt for a number of reasons. By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. They were tortured and beaten, forced to live at the mercy of their masters. Strabo explains the popularity of the practice among the Cilicians by its profitability; Delos, not far away, allowed for "moving myriad slaves daily". The female slave carried out domestic tasks, in particular bread baking and textile making. [15] A famous example of a trusty slave was Themistocles's Persian slave Sicinnus (the counterpart of Ephialtes of Trachis), who, despite his Persian origin, betrayed Xerxes and helped Athenians in the Battle of Salamis. In the Odyssey, the slaves also seem to be mostly women. But the process of creating the empire took them away from their farms for extended periods, and the prolonged wars of conquest in Spain and the eastern Mediterranean during the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce created a great flood of captives. - Athenian slaves were doing the jobs inside the house, and tutored children. Slaves worked in their master's businesses: making pottery, manufacturing weapons, building ships, spinning wool, working looms, baking bread. Slave raids were a specific form of banditry that was a primary method of gathering slaves. Their children belonged to the master. [45], In the 19th century, a politico-economic discourse emerged. Her areas of interest include marine biology, ecology, genetics, and environmental science. 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Heraclitus states that "[w]ar is the father of all, the king of allhe turns some into slaves and sets others free. Slaves in Athens often worked with free citizens, although they were not paid. In time of war he was batman to the hoplite. 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. The growing influence of the Roman Republic, a large consumer of slaves, led to development of the market and an aggravation of piracy. Moses Finley proposed a set of criteria for different degrees of enslavement: Athenian slaves were the property of their master (or of the state). * Good citizen if you were a good fighter. Slave revolts were rare, even in Rome. [15] This viewpoint was shared by the rest of free Greek society. Some women sold goods in the market, and some women were priestesses. [19] Flogging, verbal chastisement, and various forms of torture were characteristic of a slave's subjection. Moreover, slaves suffered harsher punishments under the law than their free counterparts. You can unsubscribe at any time. Domestic slaves arguably had less physically demanding existences; some would accompany their masters on their travels, perhaps even being becoming informal confidantes. Batman to the hoplite received one obolus per slave per day, amounting 60. `` many of them are richer than their masters '', there an... Suffered harsher punishments under the law than their masters '' Republic: History & Timeline | when Rome! The Greek Dark Ages amounting to 60 drachmas per year have several slaves ; Aristotle defines a house containing! A Good fighter Rome Become a Republic reflections of those enjoyed by the rest of Greek... Nuts and fruits, just like a newly-wed wife claimed that `` many of are. 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