Ancient Greek Slaves: Roles, Treatment, and Economic Impact

The Greek world had a range of social classes, from the elites or aristocracy to the lowest, or slaves. The condition of slaves often depended upon the type of work they did. The Greeks held that their citizens were free; as Aristophanes, the Athenian playwright, stated, no Greek was a slave. Meanwhile, the Persians held the view that no one was free except the king. To Aristophanes, this idea showed the political and moral superiority of the Greeks over the Persians, the West over the East, and the civilized over the barbarians.

This view, however, does not fully illustrate the vast differences in the Greek world. Although the Greeks claimed this philosophical superiority over the Persians and called the Persians slaves and barbarians, the Greeks continued to exploit the institution of slavery. The Greeks could not conceive of the idea that all individuals were equal. They clearly saw the need for slaves to do the heavy work so they could continue to enjoy the fruits of their economic system.

Slavery in antiquity was based upon a variety of factors. An individual could be captured in war and sold into slavery; an individual could be the child of a slave and remained a slave; a child could be exposed or abandoned to die, and if that person was found, he spent life as a slave; one could be sold into slavery by family; or the state could sell someone to pay a debt or as punishment for a criminal act that that person committed. The major avenues for obtaining slaves were war, piracy, banditry, and trade. Aristotle classified slaves into two classes—those made by nature or created by law.

The first group included those born into slavery, while the second were those who became slaves due to war or piracy. In Sparta, there were state slaves called helots; these individuals belonged to the government or state, and although they were under state control, they had the ability to remain in family units. In addition, slaves were individuals who could be bought and sold, while helots could not. Aristotle also said that slaves who had deformed bodies were slaves by natural law. Although here, Aristotle was probably remarking on the results of slavery, these people were deformed because of the work they did, rather than being born deformed and made slaves.

Slavery during ancient Greece was an accepted social and personal occurrence. The Greeks believed that slaves were necessary tools that allowed them to achieve a life of leisure and happiness. While slavery was and is morally repugnant, the ancient Greeks did not attach any kind of moral value to it. Slaves did not have any political and legal rights in ancient Greece. The Greeks had a variety of terms used to describe slaves. In the early period under Homer and Hesiod, the term used was domos, meaning “war booty” or “property.” In the Classical period, it was common for slaves to be called andrapodon, meaning “one with the feet of men,” as opposed to tetrapodon, meaning “one with four feet or livestock.”

The most common word used to describe a slave was doulos, which was the opposite of a freeman; the word came from the Mycenaean terms for “male slave” doero and “female slave” doera really meaning bondman and bondwomen respectively. Homer used the term ther- apon to mean an understudy such as Patrocles, the friend and follower of Achilles who was a freeman, but in the Classical Age, the term meant “servant.” The Classical period also used the term pais (boy) to describe a slave.

Slaves are first mentioned in the Mycenaean period, and they could have been slaves of the gods, who are mentioned in texts by name and own land and approach the status of freemen. Those who were common slaves came from the islands and probably were enslaved due to piracy. The distinction in this period is related to those who lived in the palace and those who worked the land. Slaves are mentioned in the earliest legends and in the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the Iliad, most of the slaves were women taken as booty in warfare, while male soldiers were ransomed or killed on the battlefield. Likewise, in the Odyssey, slaves were usually women who worked in the household or were concubines.

Men were also known to be slaves, such as Eumaeus the swineherd who helps Odysseus on his return to Ithaca. In these stories, they were part of the family or household, the oikos. In the Odyssey, the master and slaves eat together, and the term does not convey humiliation or denigration. After the Dark Ages, probably when the slave trade began to increase, there was a move toward slaves being lower class and subservient. Slaves became more prevalent after the time of Solon, which may reflect the increase in economic conditions that occurred with his changes to the democracy of Athens based on wealth.

Individuals captured in war faced a few potential outcomes. They could be executed, although this was often viewed as sacrilege and dangerous given that today’s victors could someday be captured and subjected to the same treatment. A prisoner could be exchanged for a prisoner held by the army or home city, or he could be ransomed from the family or home city. Finally, a prisoner could be either made a slave for the city or sold on the open market. If slaves were held by the city, they were often put to work in mines or quarries. These conditions were harsh, and as seen from the Athenians taken prisoner after the disaster at Syracuse in 413, many did not survive. Those who were sold into slavery often found themselves in a harsh setting such as on a farm or in a workshop. If they were fortunate, they may work in a household, or if they were educated, they could serve as teachers.

Most Greek city-state prisoners of war were not subjected to these harsh conditions since they were ransomed; prisoners taken from the northern tribes (barbarians) became slaves based upon Aristotle’s view of slaves by law. Piracy and banditry allowed for a large number of slaves; if these people were not ransomed, they were sold to traders, who in turn sold them on the open market. This allowed for the third major area of the slave trade—a market that allowed slave traders to sell slaves that they captured in war, took in raids of barbarian lands, or bought from pirates and bandits. The slave market became a major element of the economy.

Families would occasionally allow their slaves to reproduce, although it would cost the owner money to raise a slave’s offspring. If the slave was a woman, she might become the concubine of her master and be allowed to keep her child. The child, however, would be a slave, with no chance for legitimacy or social standing. Often a family would expose a newborn child (whether a slave or a family member) to rid itself of an extra mouth to feed or a potential financial liability such as a daughter who would require a dowry when married. In Sparta, any child born with a deformity would be exposed, and this was probably the case in other cities as well. If the child was found, it could be raised either as a family member (such as Oedipus in mythology) or as a slave. A family might be willing to raise the child if they did not have children of their own. A child so exposed lacked rights and was at the whim of those who found him or her. If raised as a slave, the child would not have much of a future.

If a family found itself in financial trouble, it might be forced to sell a child (often grown) into slavery to pay off a debt. The servitude could be permanent or for a set period. This was similar to when the state would seize a person and sell him or her into slavery to settle a state debt. The state could also sell someone, often a noncitizen, into slavery if he or she had committed a crime that was severe, but not meriting a punishment of death or exile.

Slaves were a commodity. As one’s wealth increased, families would often buy more slaves to show and increase their wealth. It is difficult to estimate the total number of slaves in Attica, but it may have been about 800,000 out of a population of 2.5 million (about one in three). Since slaves did not have rights, they could be abused or beaten at will, without justification. If a slave had to give evidence in a lawsuit and court, they were tortured until they either confessed their own guilt or gave evidence against someone else. The value of this evidence is hard to gauge since many slaves would have confessed or given evidence just to stop the pain, something still seen in today’s society.

What mattered most to the way slaves were treated was who their master was. If the master was kind, then the treatment was better. This could be seen through Xenophon (a fourth-century Athenian), who in his work Economics stated that a slave should be like an animal—rewarded when good, punished when bad. In Athenian comedies, slaves were often presented as caricatures who were always trying to deceive their masters, beaten by their foremen (who often were fellow slaves), and being lazy and conniving. Since most slaves were in the family, with few being overseen by the state, there is no evidence of organized or wholescale slave rebellions such as the one led by Spartacus against the Roman republic.

Slaves could be involved in nearly all aspect of the city except politics, since that was only open to citizens. Most slaves probably worked in agriculture since this was a city’s main economic source. The Greeks did not have large estates worked by slaves as the Romans did; instead, farms were small and might have been worked by only one or two slaves. Sometimes a wealthy individual, such as Nicias who led the Athenians to Sicily, owned a large number of slaves and would rent them out to the city to work in the quarries and silver mines. Slaves often became valuable members of the master’s household. The slave might be a cook, butler, teacher, or household worker. If slaves served their master well, they might earn money for themselves and even purchase their freedom if they could match their street value.

A slave could be set free or manumitted. In this instance, the former slave would have the rights of a foreigner. Many slaves were often set free when they were old so that the master no longer had to pay for their upkeep. Since they could not outright kill them, the master would set them free and let them take their chances on their own. Sometimes public institutions would be involved in the manumission of a slave by announcing or publishing the conditions of the slave, including any payment to the city by the person. Slaves were often given their freedom when they were “sold” to a god who would then set them free; this was later replaced by a magistrate, who took on the role of a god and set the slave free.

Slavery was a common phenomenon in the Greek world and allowed the economy to grow. As a society, the Greeks always viewed the institution of slavery as a given and could not imagine their society without it. Slaves performed a variety of different functions.