Table of Contents
How could someone become a slave in Athens?
There were several ways a person might become a slave:
- They could be kidnapped.
- They could be enemy soldiers captured in war.
- They could be captured by pirates and sold into slavery.
- They could be born into slavery.
What percentage of Athenians were slaves?
Exactly how many slaves lived in Athens, which scholars estimate to have been anywhere from fifteen to thirty-five percent of the population, and how many Athenians owned slaves, is impossible to know due to the scarcity of evidence.
How were ancient Greek slaves treated?
Slaves in ancient Greece did not have any human or civil rights. They were tortured for different reasons; their owner could beat them whenever he wanted; when their testimony was needed for a lawsuit, they were tortured into confessing to their own guilt or incriminate someone else.
What jobs did the Athenian slaves do?
Slaves in ancient Greece played various roles. They performed all the tasks that were degrading to the Greeks. They did all the domestic chores, acted as travel companions, and even delivered messages. Agricultural slaves worked on farms, and industrial slaves worked in mines and quarries.
Where was slavery most common in ancient Greece?
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.
Who was the lowest class in Athenian society?
Slaves were the lowest class in Athenian society, but according to many contemporary accounts they were far less harshly treated than in most other Greek cities. Indeed, one of the criticisms of Athens was that its slaves and freemen were difficult to tell apart.
How many slaves did the Athenians have in their house?
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.
Who was the master and his slave in ancient Greece?
A master (right) and his slave (left) in a phlyax play, Silician red-figured calyx-krater, c. 350 BC–340 BC. Louvre Museum, Paris. The ancient Greeks had several words to indicate slaves, which leads to textual ambiguity when they are studied out of their proper context.