Slavery in ancient Greece
[3] Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery (where the slave was regarded as a piece of property, as opposed to a member of human society) and land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs (an enhancement to real estate).
During the classical period, the Greeks frequently used ἀνδράποδον (andrapodon), (literally, "one with the feet of a man") as opposed to τετράποδον (tetrapodon), "quadruped" or livestock.
[9] The verb δουλεὐω (which survives in Modern Greek, meaning "work") can be used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, as of one city over another or parents over their children.
The slave was distinctive in being a member of the core part of the oikos ("family unit", "household"): Laertes eats and drinks with his servants; in the winter, he sleeps in their company.
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 (in the 6th century BC).
An abundant literature of manuals for landowners (such as the Economy of Xenophon or that of Pseudo-Aristotle) confirms the presence of dozens of slaves on the larger estates; they could be common labourers or foremen.
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 (338 BC), which corresponds to the figures of Ctesicles.
Some cities passed accords to forbid the practice: in the middle of the 3rd century BC, Miletus agreed not to reduce any free Knossian to slavery, and vice versa.
Conversely, the emancipation by ransom of a city that had been entirely reduced to slavery carried great prestige: Cassander, in 316 BC, restored Thebes.
As described by Xenophon, and Menander in Aspis, after the slaves were captured in raids, their actual enslavement took place when they were resold through slave-dealers to Athenians and other slaveowners throughout Greece.
Firstly, certain nationalities are consistently and significantly represented in the slave population, such as the corps of Scythian archers employed by Athens as a police force—originally 300, but eventually nearly a thousand.
Secondly, the names given to slaves in the comedies often had a geographical link; thus Thratta, used by Aristophanes in The Wasps, The Acharnians, and Peace, simply meant a Thracian woman.
Moses Finley proposed a set of criteria for different degrees of enslavement: Athenian slaves were the property of their master (or of the state).
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 (δίκη βλάβης / dikē blabēs).
In the 4th century BC, the suspect was judged by the Palladion, a court which had jurisdiction over unintentional homicide; the imposed penalty seems to have been more than a fine but less than death—maybe exile, as was the case in the murder of a Metic.
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.
The sons of vanquished foes would be enslaved and often forced to work in male brothels, as in the case of Phaedo of Elis, who at the request of Socrates was bought and freed from such an enterprise by the philosopher's rich friends.
Debt bondage primarily concerned peasants known as hektēmoroi who, unable to pay their rents, worked land owned by rich landowners.
[19] Aristotle in his Constitution of the Athenians quotes one of Solon's poems:[21] And many a man whom fraud or law had sold Far from his god-built land, an outcast slave, I brought again to Athens; yea, and some, Exiles from home through debt’s oppressive load, Speaking no more the dear Athenian tongue, But wandering far and wide, I brought again; And those that here in vilest slavery (douleia) Crouched 'neath a master's (despōtes) frown, I set them free.
The reforms of Solon left two exceptions: the guardian of an unmarried woman who had lost her virginity had the right to sell her as a slave, and a citizen could "expose" (abandon) unwanted newborn children.
Most historians thus concur that chattel slaves were indeed used in the Greek city-state of Sparta, at least after the Lacedemonian victory of 404 BC against Athens, but not in great numbers and only among the upper classes.
According to Patterson, "slavery is the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons," and all slaves are socially dead.
[18] The permanence of many Greek slaves subjection and the perpetuity of enslavement over generations of a family was therefore indicative of their status as unfree members of society, since their freedom was on someone else's terms and never their own.
Xenophon notes the accepted practice of treating slaves as domestic animals, that is to say punishing them for disobedience and rewarding them for good behaviour.
This alleged good treatment did not prevent 20,000 Athenian slaves from running away at the end of the Peloponnesian War at the incitement of the Spartan garrison at Attica in Decelea.
These were principally skilled artisans (kheirotekhnai), probably among the better-treated slaves, although some researchers believe them to be mainly workers of the mines of Laurion, whose conditions were infamously harsh.
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[40] and land workers.
[41] The "reversed cities" placed women in power or even saw the end of private property, as in Lysistrata or Assemblywomen, but could not picture slaves in charge of masters.
[43] Similarly, Aristotle said that slaves would not be necessary "if every instrument could accomplish its own work... the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them", like the legendary constructs of Daedalus and Hephaestus.
The existence of colonial slavery had significant impact on the debate, with some authors lending it civilizing merits and others denouncing its misdeeds.
