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Looking at slavery in ancient Greece through the lens of social death offers insight regarding the daily lived experiences of ancient Greek slaves. According to Patterson, "slavery is the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons," and all slaves are socially dead. [10]
Besides manual labor, slaves performed many domestic services, and might be employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Teachers, accountants, and physicians were often slaves. Greek slaves in particular might be highly educated. Unskilled slaves, or those condemned to slavery as punishment, worked on farms, in mines, and at mills.
Pasion was born some time before 430 BC. [2] It is unknown where Pasion came from nor when he arrived in Athens. It is widely presumed that he originated from Syria and the Levant, c. 440 BC when vast numbers of Syrian slaves were brought to Greece through Phoenician ports, Tyre and Sidon.
The study of slavery in Ancient Greece remains a complex subject, in part because of the many different levels of servility, from traditional chattel slavery through various forms of serfdom, such as Helots, Penestai, and several other classes of a non-citizen. Athens had various categories of slave, such as:
In rare cases, slaves who were able to earn enough money in their labour were able to buy their own freedom and were known as choris oikointes. Two 4th-century bankers, Pasion and Phormion, had been slaves before they bought their freedom. A slave could also be sold fictitiously to a sanctuary from where a god could enfranchise him. In very ...
Slavery was common practice and an integral component of ancient Greece, as it was in other societies of the time. It is estimated that in Athens, the majority of citizens owned at least one slave. Most ancient writers considered slavery not only natural but necessary, but some isolated debate began to appear, notably in Socratic dialogues. The ...
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Spartiate-class males (including boys) were a small minority: estimates are that they made up between 1/10 and 1/32 of the population, with the proportion decreasing over time; the vast majority of the people of Sparta were helots (slaves). Spartan citizenship was restricted to adult males without metic ancestry, as in most Greek poleis ...