Enslaved People and Slavery

1972 discovery

sheet of lead in an ancient well, letter from 4th century BCE Lesis writing to Xenocles and his Mother

Lesis letter to his family

closest thing we have to hearing any enslaved person speak

Red figure kylix

two men making bronze statues in a foundry, 490 BCE

slave

the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised

Aristotle definition of slave

someone who can belong to another

Aristotle argued that

slavery was a part of life

clay tablets at Pylos

13-century evidence of enslaved individuals

there were still slaves in Greece in

Byzantine middle ages

Erechtheum

Famous temple on the Acropolis known for its Porch of Maidens

Caryatids

a female figure that functions as a supporting column

evidence of how Erechtheum was built

fragments of epigraphic documents from 409/8 and 405/4 BCE

The Erechtheum accounts show

15 enslaved men among a group of 44 masons

Karion

belonged to mason Laossos from Alopeke

Fluting

a series of shallow concave grooves, vertical on the shaft of a column.

408/7 BCE

six gangs of men were carving flutes

Simias

carved with 4 of his slaves

Picture of eat facade of Erechtheum

In Acropolis, late 5th century BCE

Mannes gravestone

420s BCE, possible he commissioned it before his death but more likely someone wrote it for him

Orlando Patterson three essential characteristics of slavery

subjection to absolute power, natal alienation and utter dishonour

Communal Slavery

enslavement of whole populations, example is Spartan helots

Attic Stelai

Epigraphic documents recording the sale of property confiscated in 414 BCE from men convicted of crimes of impiety

Percent of slaves not from Athens

70

Athenians at Scione in 423 BCE

slaughtered men of captured cities and sold their women and children

Panionios and his sons

punished for their cruelty to slaves

Xenophon tells how the governor of Byzantium

sold 400 captive Persian soldiers into slavery

In the period of the Delian League and Athenian Empire

piracy in the Aegean was effectively suppressed

Nikostratos

set off to find 3 fugitives but ended up enslaved in Aegina

Delos

1000s traded here every day

Plato law

anyone who had epilepsy could be returned 12 months after sale

Stele

A carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events.

Xenophon describes the political assembly as filled with

shoemakers, fullers, carpenters, market traders, blacksmiths, and farmers

Laossos

worked in prytany in 408/7 BCE for the Erechtheum

Lampis

sailed while his owners stayed home, had his own life

Midas

enslaved perfume worker, dweller

Banker Pasion

bought his freedom and got citizenship

domestic women jobs

fetching water, shopping, weaving, harvesting, and nursing children

mid-fourth nurse gravestone

Malikha from Kythera, remembered fondly by owner

Tombstone for Hegeso

slave standing while she is seated, 410-400 BCE

pornos

prostitution

Aulos Girls

flute players

Hetairai

highly sophisticated courtesans in ancient Athens who offered intellectual and musical entertainment as well as sex.

pallake

Greek term for concubine

Neaera

Athenian courtesan accused of living with a citizen as his wife

Phaedo

male prostitute was bought out

Scythian Archers

Public slaves who served as a rudimentary police force

public slave jobs

secretary and accountant, building roads, cleaning streets and corpses, maintaining sites

375/4 BCE

coin tester in Pireaus

Pittalacus

could bring forward prosecutions, lived in private and had enough money to gamble

palaestras

exercise or wrestling ground forbidden to slaves

Aristotle politics 350-330 BCE

difference between slave and freeman lies in the soul, natural slavery and hierarchy

Plato's Republic

imagines what would happen to a family with 50 slaves

460 BCE sparta

free non-Spartans rebelled at Mount Ithome until they could emigrate

Plato's Gorgias

slaves are better off dead because they can't defend themselves

If slaves were mistreated they could take sanctuary at

the temple of Theseus

enslavers gave enslaved workers the right measure of three things

work, punishment, and food

slaves were freed at

theatre of Dionysus, very rare

The Life of Aesop 6th century BCE

sold to Xanthus but outwits him, stops him from committing suicide and then gets himself freed