Definitions of Slavery
1) Report to the League of Nations Advisory Committee of Experts of Slavery, April 6, 1938, vol. 6, p. 16.
"the status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised."
2) J. K. Ingram, History of Slavery and Serfdom (London, 1895) 265.
"the essential character of slavery may be regarded as lying in the fact that the master was owner of the person of the slave"
Cf. H. J. Nieboer, Slavery as an Industrial System (The Hague, 1910) Chapter 1.
3) M. I. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (New York 1980) p. 73, 77
"As a commodity, the slave is property. (...) The fact that the slave is also a human being has no relevance to the question whether or not he is property; it merely reveals that he is a peculiar property, Aristotle's 'property with a soul' (Politics 1253b32)." "three components of slavery - the slave's property status, the totality of power over him, and his kinlessness..."
4) O. Patterson, Slavery and Social Death (Cambridge, MA and London, 1982)
"slavery is the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons"
5) A. M. Honore, "Ownership" in Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, edited by A. G. Guest (Oxford, 1961) pp. 107-2
6) B. Malinowski, Crime and Custom in Savage Society (London 1926) pp. 17-21 on ownership among the Trobriand islanders
Aspects of ownership where different societies vary
1) Who is capable of ownership?
2) What is capable of being owned?
3) What are the restrictions placed on the rights of owners?
7) Incidents of Ownership
1) right to possess 2) right to use 3) right to manage
4) right to income 5) right to capital 6) right to security
7) transmissibility 8) absence of term
9) prohibition of harmful use 10) liability to execution
One might add the right to receive compensation in the event of damage.
7) Gaius Institutes I.52. Cf. 2.87
In potestate itaque sunt servi dominorum. quae quidem potestas iuris gentium est: nam apud omnes peraeque gentes animadvertere possumus dominis in servos vitae necisque potestatem esse, et quodcumque per servum adquiritur, id domino adquiritur.
Slaves are in the power of their masters. This power is part of law of peoples - for we can observe the same thing every- where: masters have the power of life and death over their slaves and whatever is acquired by a slave is acquired by the master.
8) Plato Euthydemus 301e-302a
Don't you think that your things are those objects over which you have control and you can use them however you wish, such as cows and cattle? Don't you think those things yours, which you can sell and give and sacrifice to any god you wish?
9) Aristotle Rhet 1361a21
An important indication of whether one owns an object is when one has the power to alienate it or not. By the power to alienate I mean gift and sale.
10) Right to "Use" and to Capital - Herodotus 8.104
A Chian called Panionius had bought Hermotimus after he had been taken captive by the enemy and offered for sale; this man made his living in the most horrible way: when he had bought any boys who were particularly attractive in appearance, he castrated them and took them to Sardis or Ephesus to sell them for a lot of money (amongst non-Greeks eunuchs are worth much more than ordinary male slaves because of their total loyalty). Since he made his living this way, Panionius had castrated many people including this one.
11) Right to Manage, to Use, to Income, to Capital, Absence of Term - Dem. 59.29
After this Neaira had two lovers, Timanoridas the Corinthian and Eucrates the Leucadian. These men seeing that her mistress Nicarete was extravagant in the sums she exactedfrom them, for she demanded that they should supply the entire daily expenses of the household, paid down to Nicarete thirty minai as the price for Neaira's person to Nicarete and purchased the girl outright from her in accordance with the law of the city, to be their slave. And they kept her and made use of her as long a time as they pleased.
12) Right to Income, to Manage, Right to Execution, Absence of Legal Personality - Dem. 53.20-21
I shall also bring before you witnesses to prove that Arethousios got the wages on his account from all the persons whom Cerdon ever worked, and that he used, as being his master, to receive compensation or give it, whenever Cerdon did any damage.
As for Manes: Arethousios lent some money to Archepolis of Piraeus, and when Archepolis was unable to pay either the interest or the principal in full, he made over to him Manes in settlement. (..)
Furthermore, honorable judges, you will see from the following fact that the men belong to Arethousios: whenever the men either bought the produce of an orchard or hired themselves out to reap a harvest, or undertook any other piece of farming work, Arethousios was the one who bought (the harvest) or arranged the lease for them (made the contract for them).
13) Transmissibility - Will of Aristotle - Diogenes Laertius 5.13-15
My daughter is to have three women to attend her, whom she choose herself, in addition to the little girl she already has and the boy Pyrraios. I want Ambrakis to be freed when my daughter is married and given one thousand drachmae and a slave girl, in addition to the little girl I bought whom she has now. Apart from the money given him already to buy another slave, Simon is either to have a slave bought for him, or to be given the equivalent in cash. When my daughter gets married, Tykhon is to be freed, and so is Philon and Olympion and his child. None of the slaves who have served me is to be sold; and when they have reached the right age, they are to be given in freedom according to their deserts.
Incentives and Punishments - Plato Laws 6.776e-778a
The slave is not an easy piece of property. For actual experi-ence shows how many evils result from slavery - as in the frequent revolts in Messenia, and in the states where there are many slaves kept who speak the same language, not to speak of the crimes of all sorts committed by the raiders as they are called who haunt the coats of Italy. In view of all these facts, it is really a puzzle to know how to deal with all such matters. Two means only are left for us to try - the one is not to allows the slaves, if they are to tolerate slavery quietly, to be all of the same nation, but, so far, as possible, to have them of different races - and the other is to accord them proper treatment, and that not only for their sakes, but still more for the sake of ourselves. Proper treatment of slaves consists in using no humiliating treatment and in hurting them even less than our equals. (...) We ought to punish slaves justly, and not to make them conceited by merely admonishing them as we would free men. An address to a slave should be a simple command: there should be no joking with slaves, either male or female, for by foolishly indulging them, masters often make life harder both for themselves as rulers and for their slaves as subjects to their rule.
Confiscation Records of the Poletai - IG i3 421 (425 BCE)
Property of Cephisodorus the metic
2 dr. 165 dr. Thracian slave-girl
1 dr. 3 ob. 135 dr. Thracian slave-girl
[2] dr. 170 dr. Thracian slave
2 dr. 3 ob. 240 dr. Syrian slave
[1] dr. 3 ob. 105 dr. Carian slave
2 dr. 161 dr. Illyrian slave
2 dr. 3 ob. 220 dr. Thracian slave-girl
1 dr. 3 ob. 115 dr. Thracian slave
1 dr. 3 ob. 144 dr. Scythian slave
1 dr. 3 ob. 121 dr. Illyrian slave
2 dr. 153 dr. Colchian slave
2 dr. 174 dr. Carian slave-boy
1 dr. 72 dr. Carian child
[3] dr. 1 ob. 301 dr. Syrian slave
[2] dr 151 dr. Meletenian slave
1 dr. 85[..] 1 ob.Lydian slave girl
Xenophon Oeconomicus 13, 9
It is possible to make human beings more ready to obey you simply by explaining to them the advantages of being obedient; but with slaves the training considered to be appropriate to wild beasts is a particularly useful way of instilling obedience. You will achieve the greatest success with them by allowing them as much food as they want. Those who are ambitious by nature will also be motivated by praise (for there are some people who are naturally keen for praise as other are for food and drink). These are the things I teach those whom I wish to appoint as managers, since I believe that by doing so I can make them more honest persons, and I give them the following advantages: I don't make the cloaks and shoes of better quality, so that I can reward the better worker with better clothing and shoes, and give the worse to the man who is worse.
I also showed my wife the women's quarters, divided off from the men's quarters by a bolted door, so that nothing could be brought out of this part of the house that shouldn't be and so that the slaves shouldn't have children without our approval. For good slaves are generally better disposed toward their masters if they have had children, but if the bad ones live together, it is much easier to cause trouble.
Xenophon Memorabilia 1.6.2
At any rate, you lead the sort of life that no slave would put up with if it were imposed upon him by his master. You eat and drink the worst possible food and drink, and the cloak you wear is not only of poor quality, but it is the same for summer and winter, and you never wear shoes or a tunic.
2.1
Is it because you would be thought the kind of slave who brings the master no profit? No one want to keep in his household a man who does not want to do any work but enjoys an expensive lifestyle. Let us consider how masters behave towards slaves of this sort. Is it not the case that they control any inclinations towards lechery by starving them? And stop them from stealing by locking up the places from which they might take things? Prevent them from running away by putting them in chains? Force the laziness out of them with beatings?
Punishment of Keepers of Weights and Measures - IG 2.1.476
In order that weights and measures should be maintained in the future, the person responsible for care of weights and measures, Diodorus son of Theophilos from the deme Halai, is to hand them over to the public slave in charge of the Council chamber, and to the slave at Peiraeus, and to the slave at Eleusis. These persons are to watch over them. They must provide equivalents of these weights and measures to the government officials and to all other persons who ask for them..they must not carry anything out of the buildings provided, except for the lead or copper equivalents. But if they do this to any of the silver standards, those who preside over the Council and the general who is in command at the relevant time are to punish the slave in charge of the Council chamber by whipping and punishing him with what his wrongdoing deserves,..
Slave Occupations
goatherd (Isaeus 6.33), shepherd (Demosthenes 47.52), flute-maker (Dionysius of Halicarnassus Isocrates 1), leather-seller (Aristophanes Knights 44, 136, 139), couchmaker (Dem. 27.9), cook (Dem. 45.71), banker's assistant (Dem. 45.33), mill-worker (Dem. 45.33), maker of iron spits (IG i3 421), mule-driver (IG i3 421), sackmaker (Dem. 48.12-13), leather-cutter (IG i3 421), wet-nurse (Dem. 47.55), dye-maker (Dem. 48.12-14), bronze-worker (Lycurgus 1.58), gilder (IG i3 421), weaver of cushions (Hyperides fr. C57)
Sources of Slaves
Kidnapping - Odyssey 15.415-53
Raids on "Barbarians” - Menander The Shield 23-37
Davus: In Lycia there's a river called
The Xanthos. There we saw some action, quite a lot,
And we'd been lucky al the time. The barbarians
Had taken to their heels and left the plain.
It looks as if not winning everything
Is an advantage. When you've had a fall
You take care. Over-confidence led us
Undisciplined toward the morrow. Many
Were out of the camp, looting the villages,
Destroying crops, selling their captives (as slave). Everyone
Came back with loads of money.
Smikrines: Excellent!
Davus: My master had collected some
Six hundred gold staters and quite a number
Of cups, and all this crowd of slaves you see
Around you.
Capture of Cities
1. Eion - 476-5 - Thucydides 1.98.2
To begin with, when the Medes held Eion on the Strymon, the Athenians led by the general Cimon took the city and enslaved its inhabitants.
2. Scyros - 476-75 - Th. 1.98.2
Then the Athenians enslaved the people of Scyros, an island in the Aegean,
which the Dolopians inhabited, and took
their land for themselves.
3. Chaeroneia - 447 - Th. 1.113.1
After they took Chaeronea and enslaved it, they placed a garrison in the city and went away.
4. Plataea - 427 - Th. 3.68.2-3
The Thebans killed not fewer than 200 of the Plataeans and 25 of the Athenians who endured the siege with them, and they made slaves of their women.
5. Corcyra - 425 - Th. 4.48.4
They enslaved all the women who were captured in the fort.
6. Torone - 422 - Th. 5.3.4
Cleon and the Athenians put up two trophies, one by the harbor and one by the fortifications; they made slaves of the wives and children of the Toronaeans; the men of Torone, the Peloponnesians, and any Chalcidians who were there they sent back to Athens.
7. Scione - 421 - Th. 5.32.1
About the same time in this summer the Athenians reduced Scione. They put to death the men of military age, made slaves of the women and children, and gave the land to the Plataeans to live in.
8. Melos - 416/5 - Th. 5.116.4
They killed all the Melian men whom they captured and made slaves of their women and children.
9. Hykkara - 415 - Thucydides 6.62.2-4
Coasting along Sicily, with the shore on their left, on the side toward the Tyrrhenian Gulf, they touched at Himera, the only Greek city in that part of the island, and being refused admission resumed their voyage. On their way they took Hykkara, a petty Sicanian seaport, nevertheless at war with Egesta (an enemy of Athens), and making slaves of the inhabitants gave up the town to the Egestans, some of whose cavalry had joined them; after which the army proceeded through the territory of the Sicels until it reached Catana, while the fleet sailed around the island with the slaves on board. Meanwhile Nicias sailed straight along the coast and went to Egesta, and after transacting his business and receiving 30 talents, rejoined the forces. They now sold their slaves for the sum of 110 talents.
10. Methymna - 406 - Xenophon History of Greece 1.6
All the property of the town was taken as plunder by the Spartan soldiers, and all the prisoners were herded together into the market place. Callicratidas was urged by his allies to sell as slaves the Methymnaians as well as the Athenians, but he refused. while he was in command, he said, no Greek should be sold as a slave, if he could help it. Next day, therefore, he let all Methymnaean citizens go free, but sold the men who had formed the Athenian garrison and those among the prisoners who had been slaves before.
11. Orchomenos - 363 - Diodorus Siculus (= D.S.)15.79.5-6
The Theban officials arrested the knights from Orchomenos and brought them before the assembly, where the people voted to execute them, to sell the inhabitants into slavery and to raze the city.
12. Pellana - 369 - D.S. 15.67.2
Having taken the city of Pellana by force, the Arcadians slew the Spartans who had been left behind as a garrison, over three hundred men, enslaved the city, devastated the countryside and returned home...
13. Potidaea - 357 - D.S. 16.8.5
Philip enslaved the city of the Potidaeans and handed it over to the Olynthians as a gift.
14. Thebes - 335 - Hyperides 6.17
The Greeks saw the city of Thebes wiped off the face of the earth, its acropolis held by a Macedonian garrison, and the bodies of its inhabitants sold into slavery.
Euripides Trojan Women 484-97
Hecuba: And the girls I nursed,
Choice flowers to wear the pride of any husband's eyes,
matured to be dragged by hands of strangers from my arms.
There is no hope left that they will ever see me more,
no hope that I shall ever look on them again.
There is one more stone to key this arch of wretchedness;
I must be carried away to Hellas now, an old
slave woman, where all those tasks that wrack old age shall be
given me by my masters. I must work the bolt
that bars their doorway, I whose son Hector once was;
or bake their bread; lay down these withered limbs to sleep
on the bare ground, whose bed was royal once; abuse
this skin once delicate the slattern's way, exposed
through robes whose rags will mock my luxury of long since.
658-80
Andromache:
At the choice
of women, Achilles' son picked me from the rest, to be
his wife; a lordly house, yet, I shall be a slave.
If I dash back the beloved memory of hector
and open wide my heart to my new lord, I shall be
a traitor to the dead love, and know it; if I cling
faithful to the past, I win my master's hatred. Yet
they say one night of love suffices to dissolve
a woman's aversion to share the bed of any man.
I hate and loathe that woman who casts away the once
beloved, and takes another in her arms of love.
Even the young mare torn from her running mate and teamed
with another will not easily wear the yoke. And yet
this is a brute and speechless beast of burden, not
like us intelligent, lower far in nature's scale.
Dear Hector, when I had you I had a husband, great
in understanding, rank, wealth, courage; all my wish.
I was a virgin when you took me from the house
of my father; I gave you all my maiden love, my first,
and now you are dead, and I must cross the sea, to serve,
prisoner of war, the slave's yoke on my neck, in Greece.