very much, according to their qualities, and the object for which they were purchased. Artisans were sometimes very valuable. They never, however, reached those exorbitant rates which were afterwards paid for them at Rome. They were generally stripped naked when sold.'

As we have seen, the negro was a favorite among slaves. The opposite color, "white," does not seem to have enjoyed the same favoritism. According to Plutarch, in his Life of Agesilaus, when that king made an expedition into Persia, he ordered his commissaries, one day, to strip and sell the prisoners. Their clothes sold freely, "but," says the historian, "as to the prisoners themselves, their skins being soft and white, by reason of their having lived so much within doors, the spectators only laughed at them, thinking they would be of no service as slaves." Eunuchs were common among the slaves in Greece.2

In the later days of Greece, it denoted poverty to be seen without an attendant. The number of these varied according to rank and wealth, but never was so great as at Rome. In Greece, slaves were looked to as a source of income and revenue; but in Rome, merely as ministering to their pride and luxury. No individual in Greece ever swelled out the number of his slaves to the enormous limit common at Rome. But the most of the Grecian slaves were artisans, or skilled in some way to be profitable to the master.3 Hence there were no learned slaves, as at Rome; nor slaves kept for mere pleasure, as actors, dancers, musicians. When attend

'Smith's Dict. "Servus" (Greek); Xen. Mem. ii, 5, § 2; Becker's Charicles, as above. See Wallon, tom. i, 197, et seq.

2 Herod. viii, 105.

* See Becker's Charicles, as above; Smith's Dict. "Servus ;" Arist. De Repub. ii, 3, iii, 4; Aristoph. Eccl. 593; Xen. Mem. i, 7, 2; Plato, Leg. v, 742, vii, 806. When Phocion's wife had only one female slave to attend her, it was the subject of remark at the theatre. Plutarch's Phocion.

ing his master in the streets, the slave preceded, and did not follow. The reason for this custom was the frequent escapes of fugitive slaves. More than 20,000, we are told, escaped at one time during the occupation of Decelea by the Lacedemonians. The master had the right to pursue and recapture the fugitive, and the penalty was, frequently, branding in the forehead, to prevent a repetition of the offence. The delivery of fugitive slaves was frequently a subject-matter for treaties between the different states. In the later days of the republic, there were offices where insurance was taken to respond, in the event of the flight of the slave."

6

The number of female slaves about the house was not proportionally great, many of their offices being performed by men. They were under the direction of a stewardess, as the men were under a steward. The slaves on a farm were controlled entirely by an overseer; the master and owner residing generally in the city."

The number of slaves in Greece was very large. Their imperfect census, however, leaves the exact number and proportion doubtful. The better opinion is, that they were three or four times the number of the free population.8

The condition of the Greek slave was much more tolerable than that of the Roman. He was much more familiar with his master than the Roman. Plutarch's

'Becker's Charicles, as above; Lucian, Amor. 10.

Thucyd. vii, 27.

3 Xen. Mem. ii, 10; Plat. Protag. p. 310; Smith's Dict.; Becker's Charicles, 279; Athenæus, vi, 225; Aristoph. The Birds, 758; Wallon, tom. i, 317.

5 Smith's Dict. "Servus" (Greek). first to establish such an insurance.

6 Becker's Charicles, 275.

4

Thucyd. iv, 118.
Antigenes, of Rhodes, was the

Ibid.

7 Xen. Econ. xii, 2; ix, 11; Aristot. De Repub. i, 7; Wallon, i, 310. 8 Smith's Dict. "Servus" (Greek); Becker's Charicles, 273. The subject is elaborately considered by Wallon, Histoire, &c., tom. i, 220, et

seq.

anecdote concerning "Garrulity," evidences the latter thus: Piso invited Clodius to dine, a slave being the bearer of the invitation; the dinner was delayed by the non-arrival of Clodius. At last the host inquired of the slave if he was sure he invited him. The reply was, “Yes.” "Why doesn't he come then?" "Because he declined the invitation." "Why did you not tell me that before?" "Because you never asked me about it," was the slave's reply.' Euripides represents the deprivation of the liberty of speech as the greatest of ills, and adds, that this is the condition of a slave. While, however, the legal right was absent, the privilege was extended almost ad libitum to the Athenian slave at least,3 Plato objects to this practice as evil, and adds, "The address to a slave ought to be entirely or nearly a command; nor should persons ever in any respect jest with them, whether males or females, acts which many persons do very foolishly towards their slaves, and by making them conceited render it more difficult during life for their slaves to be governed, and for themselves to govern."

The result of this kind treatment was a corresponding fidelity on the part of the slave. Thus, Plato bears witness, that "many slaves, by conducting themselves with respect to all virtue, better towards some persons than brothers and sons, have preserved their masters and their possessions, and the whole of their dwellings."

"Other masters," he says, "by frequent use of goads® and whips, cause the very souls of their servants to become slavish."5

'De Garrul. 18; Plaut. Stech. iii. 2 The Phenician Virgins, 391, 3. 3 Becker's Charicles, Exc. Sc. vii, 276; Dem. Phil. iii. The comedies of Aristophanes abound with confirmations of this fact. See especially The Frogs, 51, et passim, Pseudolus; see also Terence, Andr. vi, 676; see also Plautus, Casina (Prologue), Epidicus.

De Leg. Bk. VI, ch. xix, Burges's Trans.

' De Leg. Bk. VI, ch. xix.

Occasionally the slaves were allowed feasts and holidays, at which times they enjoyed unrestrained liberty. The master frequently furnished the feast luxuriously.' There were also certain public feasts, in which the slave participated freely with his master; such were the Anthesteria feasts of Bacchus; at the conclusion of which the herald proclaimed: "Depart, ye Carian slaves, the festivals are at an end." So, even at Sparta, during the feast of Hyacinthia, the slaves were admitted to the same table and sports with the masters. In Thessaly, during the feasts of Jupiter Pelorius, the masters exchanged places with them and served them. During the feasts of Saturn, in Greece as well as at Rome, unrestrained liberty was allowed to all.'

The affection of the master frequently followed the slave to the grave; and more than once they lay in a common sepulchre. The inscriptions on several monuments at Athens testify to the high esteem and sincere grief of the surviving master. Euripides gives us a touching proof of this affection in the death-scene of Alcestis. "All the servants wept throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her right hand to each, and there was none so mean whom she addressed not, and was answered in return."

The life and person of the slave were protected by law at Athens, and an action lay by the master for injury done to his slave." If the slave was cruelly treated by his master, he could take refuge in the Thescion, or

1 Plautus, Stechus, Act III, Sc. I.

Potter, Gr. Ant. vol. i, p. 422, et seq.; Wallon, tom. i, p. 299. 3 Wallon, tom. i, 299, 300. 4 Wallon, tom. i, 300.

5 Bockh. P. II, Inscrip. Atticæ, Cl. XI, Nos. 939, 1002, 1890, 1891, 1792, 2009, 2327, 2344; Wallon, tom. i, 301.

6 Alcestis, 175, et seq.; see also Odyssey, xvii, 33; xv, 363, et seq.; xxiv, 226; Iphigenia in Aulis, passim, and the old nurse in Media.

7 Xen. De Rep. Ath. i, 10; Æschin. in Timarch, 41; Demosth. in Mid. 529.

at some other altar, and then the master was forced to sell him. The reason is given by the poet: "The seat of the Gods is a common defence to all!" In some cases the master lost all right of property upon the slave's taking refuge. Thus the temple of Hercules, at Canope, kept possession of all slaves seeking an asylum there. So that of Hebe at Phlius, gave liberty to the fugitives, suspending their chains upon the boughs of the sacred trees. For the greater protection of the slave, who could not always reach the asylum, the mere presence with him of a consecrated relic, was an amulet and a charm against the master's cruelty: such were crowns of laurel from the temple of Apollo, and sometimes small bands or mere strings worn around the forehead.4

The homicide of a slave at Athens, by any one other than the master, was punishable in the same manner as that of a freeman. With the master, the punishment was exile and religious expiation. Plato, in his laws, proposes for the former, indemnity to the master for the loss of the slave, and religious purification. In the case of the master, religious purification solely."

Slaves were not considered as persons in the Greek law. Marriage was not recognized between them, although a kind of contubernial relation existed. This was entered into with the same solemnity, and sometimes with the same feasting, as a regular marriage. Hence, in the prologue to Casina, the question is asked, "Are slaves to be marrying wives, or asking them for themselves, a thing that is done nowhere in the world?

'Becker's Char. Exc. Sc. vii, 277; see note 33, in Appendix to Wallon, tom. i, p. 482.

2 Eurip. Heracl. 260; see also Androm. 260.

3 Herod. ii, 113; Pausan. ii, xiii, 4.

4 Wallon, tom. i, 313; Aristoph. Plut. 20.

5 Dem. in Midias; Eurip. Hec. 288.

6 Wallon, tom. i, p. 315.

7 Bk. IX, ch. viii.