Of all the things ancient Greece gave humanity, few are truly as valuable as democracy. Starting from the ancient Athenians who invented this form of polity, democracy allowed for freedom and dignity for ancient Athenians.
It motivated them to take charge of government affairs and formulate their own laws. However, many today have wondered about and criticized the upholding of slavery in ancient Athens. Is it really possible for democracy to have co-existed alongside a system of slavery?
Slavery: A cause for re-evaluation of ancient Athenian democracy?
Critics claim that in ancient Athens, only citizens had rights, and Athenians perceived of slaves purely as “objects” lacking a soul upon which it was unnecessary to bestow rights. But the question is: Is this legitimately how things were?
If we look at the laws of the Athenian lawmaker Solon, we discover a number of surprises in terms of how Athenians conceptualized slavery. We notice, for instance, that Solon possessed an astonishing amount of wisdom and a highly philanthropic spirit, and the way in which slavery laws were applied in Athens was quite interesting.
It must be noted that all ancient societies were indeed slave-owning. Slavery existed during the whole of antiquity in all civilizations. It was a source of labor for ancient economies, and, in that regard, the ancient Athenians were no different. They were, however, the first to not only perceive of their slaves as humans but also formulate rights for them.
The different kinds of slaves in ancient Athens and their treatment
In ancient Athens, there were different types of slaves. The most noteworthy forms of slavery, however, were public slaves (Greek: δημόσιοι) and domestic slaves (Greek: οἰκογενεῖς). They would, for instance, do crafts work as well as participate in trade and banking. They also worked on ships or did other work as needed for the state.
Aristotle informs us that both the state of ancient Athens and the owners would reward both public slaves and domestic slaves. The former would be monetarily compensated while the latter received payment in the form of sustenance.
In his Economics, Aristotle even recommends that domestic slave owners provide slaves with proper clothing, food, and downtime. He also warns them against exhibiting cruelty and recommends they motivate them with promises of emancipation (Aristotle, Economics 1.1344a,b).
Thus, Aristotle urged slaveholders to not only consider their slaves’ well-being as best as was possible—under the given circumstances—but communicated the possibility of a change in status under the appropriate conditions.
In addition to receiving monetary payment by the state, public slaves also lived and worked unattended. In exchange, slaves would pay a pre-determined fee (Greek: ἀποφορά) to the state where they lived and worked and by which they were owned. Article 56 of Solon’s laws would forbid one from hitting another man’s slave, and, since public slaves were state-owned, they were protected from any form of abuse.
On the other hand, food, as formerly stated, was the compensation deemed appropriate for domestic slaves in ancient Athens. However, it was not uncommon for owners to come to an agreement with their slaves to allow them to do work in the navy or partake in other such similar labor. Consequently, domestic slaves would provide a fee to their masters from their earnings.
Furthermore, Solon’s laws (article 61) would grant slaves the right to purchase their freedom. This, of course, would also give them the motivation to do so, and, oftentimes, the compensation slaves received from labor would be enough to allow them to do so.
Emancipation of slaves in the political interest of Athens
Emancipation of slaves was quite common, and the city-state of ancient Athens itself even encouraged it. This is because the Athenian state’s economy profited more so from the payment of ‘metoikion,’ a tax that all metics—foreigners of a Greek-city state with some citizen privileges—were liable to rather than traditional slavery. This led Athenians to grant many slaves freedom in order to increase the number of metics.
It is why the oligarchic author known as Pseudo-Xenophon, being critical of how well the Athenians treated their slaves would complain:
“…among the slaves and metics at Athens there is the greatest uncontrolled wantonness, you can’t hit them there and a slave will not stand aside for you…For where there is a naval power, it is necessary from financial considerations to be slaves to the slaves in order to take a portion of their earnings, and it is then necessary to let them go free. And where there are rich slaves, it is no longer profitable in such a place for my slave to fear you.”
(Pseudo-Xenophon on the Athenian Constitution, 1)
Plato also, being critical of Democracy would write that in this polity: “Slaves are as free as their purchasers” (Plato’s Republic, Βook 8).
Inclusion of slaves in ancient Athenian communities
Slaves in ancient Athens believed in the same gods as their masters. They also participated in community events such as ceremonies and attended theater performances.
Athenians would not execute slaves without trial, and delivery of punishments such as torture needed to be preceded by a court hearing (Isocrates, Panathenaicus, 181). Solon even went so far as to create legislation with the aim of protecting slaves from abuse (article 60).
In the case that slaves were in fact abused, they had the legal right to claim asylum at the Temple of Thesium and could subsequently be assigned to a more humane and less cruel holder if their case was won.
Appealing to the law of Solon that forbade any assault against both free-men of Athens and slaves, Demosthenes proudly proclaimed:
“Athenians, you hear the humanity of the law, which does not permit even slaves to be assaulted. In heaven’s name, think what this means. Suppose someone carried this law to the barbarous nations from whom we import our slaves; suppose he praised you and described your city to them in these words: ‘There are in Greece men so mild and humane in disposition that though they have often been wronged by you, and though they have inherited a natural hostility towards you, yet they permit no insult to be offered even to the men whom they have bought for a price and keep as their slaves. Nay, they have publicly established this law forbidding such insult, and they have already punished many of the transgressors with death.’ If the barbarians heard these words and understood their import, do you not think that they would unanimously appoint you their protectors?”
(Demosthenes, Against Medias, 48-50)
Hence, while the life of a slave is far from ideal regardless of the circumstances, clearly, slavery in democratic ancient Athens was quite different from what we might imagine based on our modern understanding of it.
Rights and protections were assigned to both state-owned and domestically-owned slaves, although of course, they continued to be subservient to citizens.
