Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 30

Slavery was a part of life throughout the ancient world. A census of Attica taken between 317 BC and 307 BC showed that there were 21 000 citizens, 10 000 metics, and 40 000 slaves. Slaves were the lowest class. Most were purchased from slave traders, though many were obtained as the spoils of war. Most Athenian citizens owned at least one slave. In fact, not being able to afford at least one slave was a sign of poverty.

Domestic slaves were often treated well and considered part of the family. Some served as tutors or domestic servants. Some could even purchase their freedom. Many, perhaps the majority, labored on farms. Some were owned by the city‐state. They functioned much like civil servants. It was a slave who attested to the genuineness of the city‐state's coinage. They served as policemen and aided in the arrest of criminals. The official executioner was a state‐owned slave.

However “good” the life of a slave appeared to be, the fact remained that slaves were legally classified as chattel property. A slave could be sold, punished, or even killed by the master, though killing one's slave was frowned upon in Athens during the classical period. Athenian law required that a female slave be tortured before she could give evidence in court. Aristotle said that slaves were a “sort of living possession.” He defended slavery as being “natural,” since some human beings lacked the capacity to reason. Such a position, of course, was hard to defend if the slave was another Greek obtained in war.

The lowest of all slaves were those who worked in the Laurium silver mines located less than 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Athens. Much of the wealth that made Athens an imperial power and the glory of the classical period came from the Laurium mines. The mines were owned by the city‐state and leased to individuals. Private individuals leased slaves to the miners to labor in the mines or the surrounding facilities that converted the silver ore into coins. About 350 mines employed approximately 20 000 slaves, according to Thucydides, and produced 1000 talents (26 kg or 57 lb.) of silver annually.

Slaves working in the mines were considered disposable slaves. Their life was short and brutal. Naked, the miners descended down a vertical shaft by ladder, and then entered a narrow horizontal shaft. Bent over, they worked with pick and iron hammer to extract the ore. They were poorly fed, savagely beaten, and seldom saw daylight. Because the silver ore contained large amounts of lead, the miners usually died in one to two years from lead poisoning.