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TYPES OF SLAVES IN ANCIENT GREECE
Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse: “There were different types of slaves in ancient Greece, and their living conditions and expectations were strongly linked to their occupations. The most unfortunate were the slaves involved in mining, who were condemned to a miserable life and almost certainly an early death. However, not all slaves were doomed to suffer cruelty and abuse, and some could expect a more or less decent living. Slaves specialized as craftsmen, for example, could work and live separately from their masters and could engage in commerce and generate income, though a portion of what they earned had to go to their masters’ pockets. Spartan slaves (helots) could enjoy family life. State slaves in the Athenian army who died during combat were even honored with a state funeral, the same as free citizens.” [Source: Cristian Violatti, Listverse, September 29, 2016 ]
Slaves were sometimes captives taken in war, or their descendants, but were more frequently acquired through trade. Their condition was much better in Greece than in Rome bu there more of them percentage-wise in Greece than Rome. On the grave stele of a young man a little slave stands beside his master. These are, of course, domestic or personal servants, but slaves formed a large part of the laboring class in Greece, and the proportion was still greater in Rome in the later Republican period and under the Empire. They worked on the farms, in the factories, and, most dangerous occupation of all, in the mines and quarries, as well as in the workshops of skilled artisans and as clerks and copyists in private and public offices. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]
See Separate Article: SLAVERY IN ANCIENT GREECE europe.factsanddetails.com
Helots, Penestae and Clarotae
In some countries the Greek population originally resident there were subdued by foreign tribes, and became the slaves of their conquerors, and their position differed in but few respects from that of the barbarian slaves purchased in the markets. Such native serfs included the Helots at Sparta, the Penestae in Thessaly and the Clarotae. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]
We have most information about the position and treatment of the Helots; but here we must receive the statements of writers with great caution, since they undoubtedly exaggerated a good deal in their accounts of the cruelty with which the Spartans treated the Helots. Still, it is certain that in many respects their lot was a sad one. The constant fear of general insurrection on the part of the Helots entertained by the Spartans, whose own numbers were far fewer, and the terrible severity with which they punished, not only real insurrection, but even merely suspected revolution, prove to us that the statements concerning the cruel treatment of the Helots are not absolutely without foundation.
But, as a rule, they did not perform menial slave offices in the houses of the free citizens, but cultivated their lands, and as they were only obliged to hand over a certain part of the profit to the owners, they were able to keep the remainder for themselves, and sometimes to accumulate fortunes and even to purchase their freedom. Nor do we hear of cases in which individual Spartans treated the Helots who were subordinate to them with especial severity — most of the cases of cruelty towards Helots are those in which State reasons seemed to require such proceedings, and were aimed, not at individuals, but at the whole mass of slaves. This was due to a curious arrangement by which the Helots were not, like other slaves, private property of the Individual citizens, but State property and assigned to a particular piece of land, and along with it to the owner for the time being, without enabling him to maintain right of ownership over them. We must not therefore regard the Helots in the same light as ordinary slaves; they were rather public serfs, and on this account they were better off than those who belonged to individual owners. There seems no doubt that besides the Helots there were also private slaves at Sparta, who rendered personal services in the households.
Work Done by Slaves in Ancient Greece
The Greeks used slaves and prisoners to build their temples. The were used in mining, agriculture, construction and as household slaves. Slaves could be craftsmen, entertainers, teachers, secretaries or even businessmen trading for themselves. One thing a slave was not was a citizen. Mycenaean tablets, dated at 1200 B.C., described slave women who worked as grain grinders, spinners, and pourers of baths, They were often grouped by the places they were captured: "women in Asia," "women of Knidoes," "women of Miletos."
Household slaves didn't have it so bad especially if their masters were kind and easy-going. They were often treated as members of the household. Slaves that worked in the fields had a hard life but they were not nearly as bad off as the slaves who worked in iron, copper, tin and silver mines. They spent their entire day laying on their stomach in hot, suffocating, narrow passageways.
Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse: “We know of slaves being employed as cooks, craftsmen, maids, miners, nurses, porters, and even in the army as attendants to their masters, baggage carriers, and sometimes as fighters. Some specific public positions were performed by slaves, the most famous example being (surprisingly) the police in Athens, which, at least during part of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. consisted mostly of Scythian slaves. [Source: Cristian Violatti, Listverse, September 29, 2016 ]
“During Classical times, the booming Athenian craft production industry forced many workshops to evolve into factories. Slave labor was the dominant workforce in many prominent factories, most of which belonged to wealthy politicians. We have records of two factories owned by Demosthenes that were largely supported by slaves. One of these factories produced swords and had about 30 slaves, while the other used 20 slaves and produced couches. Lysias, the famous writer, owned the largest production center we have on record, a shield factory which had 120 slaves.”
Contrary to the popular myth Greek fighting ships were not manned by slaves, who were thought to be untrustworthy and expensive (they had be fed year-round even though a ship only operated about half the year). Instead they were manned by free citizens who sat on three levels. The oars were secured with leather straps. The rowers had to learn to row in unison so their oars didn't collide. One rower said, "Because there are only nine inches between the blades any tiny discrepancy in a stroke caused one blade to hit the next and, and so on in a domino effect." When it is working well it was "like a centipede, with all oars moving beautifully." The rowing stations at the center of the ship were best because if a oar is viewed as a lever and the oar hole is the fulcrum. According to the laws of mechanics the further one is away from the fulcrum the easier is to lift the object — or in the case of
Household Slaves in Ancient Greek
The mode in which slaves were used varied a good deal, according as an owner required his slaves for his own personal service or household, or used them for work in the field or at some trade, or sent them out to work for others. Among those in the personal service of their master were all who were occupied with the duties of the household and service and attendance on their master and his family. Their number was, of course, regulated by the size of the household; a poor family had often to content itself with a single slave, but very few were so poor as not to have any; in large houses a whole army of slaves was kept, who all had their special duties, though often very slight ones. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]
slave presents a baby to her mother
There were the door-keeper, the slaves who attended their master or his family in the street, the paidagogos, the lady’s maid, the cook, the coachman, the stable boys, water carriers, wool workers, etc. This whole army of servants was usually under the direct supervision of a superintendent or steward, himself a slave, but a particularly trustworthy one, who was often trusted so much by his master as to have charge of his keys and his signet ring. The office of these stewards was of particular importance on the country estates, where they had all the slaves required for farming purposes immediately under them, and had to assign them occupations and superintend their work, unless the master undertook this or himself took up his dwelling on the estate. Slaves who could fill such posts of confidence would, of course, fetch a very high price, and their position can in no way be compared with that of ordinary slaves. The same may be said of those who possessed some intellectual culture, and could serve their masters as secretaries or readers, or even help them in scientific labours, by making extracts, etc.; but this was far rarer among the barbarian slaves of the Greeks than among the Greek slaves of the Romans.
The slaves could also render their masters important assistance by technical skill; thus, in a rich household, there would be, besides the cook, a special baker for bread and cakes, also weavers, fullers, embroiderers, whose duty it was to provide the clothing. And as the slaves in the country had to work in field and meadow, to attend the vineyards, and olive gardens, to guard and attend the cattle, so the artisan set his slaves to work in his workshop, and either instructed them himself in his art or bought such as were already trained for the purpose. Even physicians often had slave assistants, and some of these were so much trusted by their masters that they took their place by the sick bed.
Slaves Who Worked in Trades in Ancient Greek
It was very common, too, for people who were not themselves artisans to own a number of slaves who practised some particular trade, as in a factory. Among the ancients slaves took the place of machinery, for they were tolerably cheap to buy and maintain, and thus a factory of this kind, worked by slaves, was a good investment for capital, especially if the owner understood enough business to undertake the direction himself, or if he had a good overseer. These factory owners also escaped the prejudices against artisans; to own slaves who made money by the work of their hands was not regarded as “mechanical” so long as they kept their own hands from the work.
mining slaves
Thus the father of Demosthenes possessed a knife factory, that of Isocrates a flute factory, Lysias and his brother owned a shield factory of one hundred and twenty workers. The slaves who worked in these were not all necessarily the property of the owner. Very often a slave proprietor who did not understand a business himself, let his house to someone who carried it on at his own risk; or, supposing a master to possess among his slaves one who understood some particular trade, he let him out for a certain time at a fee (which was paid not to the slave, but to the master) to someone who could make use of him, perhaps in a large factory. In this way slaves were often let out for work in the mines, which required a great many hands; in fact, they might be let out for a long or short period, even for days and half-days, for work in the fields, domestic occupations, personal service, etc. Many of the flute girls and hetaerae were slaves, and were hired out by their owners by the hour, day, or month, an arrangement with which we are familiar from ancient comedy.
Moreover, it sometimes happened that slaves who had learned some profession made an agreement with their masters to pay them a certain proportion of their earnings, and keep the rest for themselves; sometimes these lived in their own houses and paid for their own food, and might easily earn enough to purchase their freedom.
Slaves And Mining in Ancient Greece
Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse: “Mining has always been a highly profitable activity, and ancient Greece was no exception. The profits from mining were as immense as the risks of working in the mines. It’s no wonder that the Athenians employed slaves for a job so dangerous. Large profits were made not only from the actual mining activity, but also by those who could supply slave labor. We know that the politician and general Nicias (fifth century B.C.) supplied as many as 1,000 slaves to work in the mines, making 10 talents a year, an income equivalent to 33 percent on his capital. [Source: Cristian Violatti, Listverse, September 29, 2016 ]
“The fate of slaves working in the mines was precarious. Many of them worked underground in shackles, deprived from sunlight and fresh air. In 413 B.C. an Athenian army was captured during a disastrous expedition to Sicily, and all 7,000 Athenian prisoners were forced to work in the quarries of Syracuse. Not one of them survived.
Roman historian Diodorus Siculus wrote in the first century B.C. "The men engaged in these mining operations produce unbelievably large revenues for their masters, but as a result of their underground excavations they become physical wrecks...they are not allowed to give up working or have a rest, but are forced by the beatings of their supervisors to stay at their places and throw away their wretched lives...Some of them survive to endure their misery for a long time because of their physical stamina or sheer will power; but because of the extent of their suffering they prefer dying to surviving." [Source: "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum,"|]
Helots — Spartan Serfs — and Crypteia
The Spartans kept serfs known as called “helots.” Sparta subjugated an area of the western Peloponnese and forced many of people there not deemed Spartans to be helots. By some estimates the helots outnumbered Spartans by 10 to 1. The Messenians, who greatly outnumbered Spartans, once revolted only to be brutally put down by the Spartans. After that the Spartans vowed to never let a similar situation occur again and established a totalitarian state.
The Greek Slave, a modern statue
The exact origin of helots is unclear. Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse::”Some accounts claim that they had been the inhabitants of a place called Helos, which was conquered by the Spartans. With every new conquest, the number of helots increased. The helots were occupied as farmers, house servants, and any other activity that would distract the Spartan citizens from their military duties. There was constant tension between the helots and the Spartans. They were treated in humiliating ways and constantly intimidated. They had to wear a cap made of dog skin and a leather tunic. It was agreed that the helots should be beaten an agreed number of strokes every year, regardless of any transgression they might have committed, so they would not forget that they were slaves. [Source: Cristian Violatti, Listverse, September 29, 2016]
In a practice called “crypteia” (forced thuggery), Spartan boys were given daggers and minimal rations of food and sent out to the countryside to ambush and murder as many helots. There is some debate among scholars as to whether this was a form of training for the boys and a kind of terrorism to keep the herlots in line.
On crypteia, Plutarch wrote in “Life of Lycurgus of Sparta”: “"Now in all this there is no trace of injustice or arrogance, which some attribute to the laws of Lycurgus, declaring them efficacious in producing valor (andreia), but defective in producing righteousness (dikaiosyne). The so-called K rypteia at [Sparta], if it really was one of Lycurgus' institutions, as Aristotle says it was, may have given Plato (Laws 630.d) also this opinion of the man and his constitution.” [Source: Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus of Sparta 28, CSUN]
“This is as follows: The magistrates from time to time sent out into the countryside at large the most discreet of the young men, equipped only with daggers and necessary supplies. During the day they scattered into obscure and out of the way places, where they hid themselves and lay quiet. But in the night, they came down to the roads and killed every Helot (Spartan serf) whom they caught. Often, too, they actually made their way across fields where the Helots were working and killed the sturdiest and best of them.
“So, too, Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian War [IV.80], states that the Helots who had been judged by the Spartans to be superior in bravery, set wreathes upon their heads in token of their emancipation, and visited the temples of the gods in procession, but in a little while afterwards all disappeared, more than two thousand of them, in such a way that no man was able to say, either then or afterwards, how they came to their deaths. And Aristotle in particular says also that the Ephors, as soon as they came into office, made formal declaration of war upon the Helots, so that there might be no impiety in slaying them."”
Slaves as Love and Sex Objects
University of Maryland classics professor Judith Hallett told Smithsonian magazine, “Throughout the ancient Greco-Roman world, slaves had to cater to the whims of the elite. I think all slaves, male and female, were on duty as potential sex partners for their male masters. If you were a slave you could not say no."
Both Phidias, the famed ancient Greek sculptor, and the philosopher Socrates, had young male slaves as lovers. Edward Carpenter wrote in “Ioläus,”:“Pheidias, the sculptor, loved Pantarkes, a youth of Elis [in southern Greece on the Peloponnesos peninsula], and carved his portrait at the foot of the Olympian Zeus and politicians and orators like Demosthenes and Aischines were proud to avow their attachment. It was in a house of ill-fame, according to Diogenes Laertius that Socrates first met Phaedo: [Source: Edward Carpenter's “Ioläus,”1902 \=]
“This unfortunate youth was a native of Elis. Taken prisoner in war, he was sold in the public market to a slave dealer, who then acquired the right by Attic law to engross his earnings for his own pocket. A friend of Socrates, perhaps Cebes, bought him from his master, and he became one of the chief members of the Socratic circle. His name is given to the Platonic dialogue on immortality, and he lived to found what is called the Eleo-Socratic School. No reader of Plato forgets how the sage on the eve of his death stroked the beautiful long hair of Phaedo, and prophesied that he would soon have to cut it short in mourning for his teacher." [Source: J. A. Symonds, A Problem in Greek Ethics, p. 58. \=]
Spartan family with a slave
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2024