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VI.248C‑262A

This webpage reproduces a section of
The Deipnosophistae

of
Athenaeus

published in Vol. III
of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1929

The text is in the public domain.

This page has not been proofread.
If you find a mistake though,
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VII.275C‑281E

(Vol. III) Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae

Book VI
(Part 5 of 5)

 p179  BWhen Democritus had concluded this exposition​1 and had demand a drink in the "gurgler​2 of Saurias," Ulpian asked, "and who is this Saurias?" and was on the point of detailing much interminable information when there appeared beside us a crowd of servants bringing in the things to eat. Once more Democritus, continuing his talk, spoke up, his subject being servants. "I, dear friends, have always wondered to see how abstemious slaves are as a class, considering that they move among so many tempting dainties. They treat them lightly, not merely through fear but also through training, though not the training described in Pherecrates's Slave-teacher, but rather acquired by habit. Nor is it because of an express prohibition, as on the island of Cos at the festival of Hera; for Macareus, in the third book of his Coan History,​3 says that whenever the people of Cos sacrifice to Hera a slave may neither enter the temple nor taste any of the food that is provided. So Antiphanes says in Hard to Sell:​4 '(It is our fate) to  p181 see things lying spilt before us — half-eaten milk-cakes and bits of chicken which, though left over, no slave may touch, as the women tell us.' DAnd Epicrates, in Hard to Sell,​5 makes a slave indignantly say: 'What is more hateful than to be summoned with Slave, Slave! to where they are drinking; to serve, moreover, some beardless stripling or fetch him the chamber-pot, and to see things lying spilt before us — half-eaten milk-cakes and bits of chicken which, though left over, no slave may touch, as the women tell us. But what makes us rage is to have them call anyone of us who eats any of these things an impudent glutton!' EFrom a comparison of these iambics it is plain that Epicrates borrowed the lines from Antiphanes.

"Dieuchidas in his Megarian History6 says that (in the islands) called Araeae, which lie between the territory of Cnidus and Syme, a quarrel arose among the companions of Triopas after his death, and some withdrew to Dotium. . . . Some, remaining with Phorbas, went to Ialysus, while others under Periergus landed in the territory of Camirus. It is said that on that occasion Periergus cursed Phorbas, and for that reason the islands are called Araeae.​7 But Phorbas was shipwrecked, and he and Parthenia, the sister of Phorbas and Periergus, swam across to Ialysus, near the place called Schedia. There they were met by Thamneus, who happened to be hunting in Schedia,  p183 and he invited them to come home for entertainment, dispatching a slave to tell his wife to get food ready, since he was bringing guests. nnnBut when he arrived home and found that nothing had been prepared, he placed the grain on the mill himself, and having performed all other duties proper to the occasion, he entertained them. Phorbas was so delighted with this hospitality that when he was dying he solemnly commanded his friends that they should perform the funeral rites in his honour only through the medicament of freemen; and so this custom remained in the case of the festival of Phorbas. For only freemen are the servitors, and it is unholy for a slave to come near. And since this is one of Ulpian's questions, I mean that having to do with servants, let us also, I pray you, consider and recite something of what we, as it happens, read about them long ago. Well, Pherecrates says in The Savages:​8 'In those days nobody had a slave, a Sambo or a Dinah, but the women had to toil by themselves over all the housework. And what is more, they would grind the cornº at early dawn, so that the village rang with the touch​9 of the handmills.' And Anaxandrides in Anchises10 says; C'Slaves, my good sir, have no citizen­ship anywhere, yet Fortune shifts their bodies in all kinds of ways. To‑day there are many men who are not free, but to‑morrow they will be registered at Sunium,​11 and on  p185 the day after they have full admittance to the market-place. A divinity guides each man's helm.'

"Poseidonius (he of the Porch) says, in the eleventh book of his Histories:​12 'Many persons being unable to manage themselves on account of the weakness of their intellect, give themselves voluntarily to the service of more intelligent men, in order that they may secure from them provision for their daily needs, and in turn may themselves render to their patrons, through their own labours, whatever they are capable of in the way of service. And so in this manner the Mariandynians put themselves in subjection to the Heracleots, promising to serve them continually so long as the Heracleots provided for their needs, though they stipulated in addition that there should be no selling of any of them beyond the Heracleot territory, but that they should stay right in their own territory.' Perhaps, therefore, it is for that reason that the epic poet Euphorion calls the Mariandynians tribute-bearers:​13 'Tribute-bearers shall they be called, secretly dreading their masters.' And Callistratus also, the disciple of Aristophanes, says​14 that they called the Mariandynians tribute-bearers to take away the sting in the term slave, as the Spartiates did in the case of the Helots, the Thessalians in the case of the Penestae,​15 the Cretans in the case of the Clarotae. But Cretans call their urban slaves 'money-bought,' their rural slaves 'amphamiots,' since these are natives, though enslaved by war. The Clarotae are so called because they are allotted.​16 Ephorus, in the third book of  p187 the Histories,​17 says: 'Cretans call their slaves Clarotae from the lot which is cast for them. For these certain festivals are regularly held in the district of Cydon, during which no free persons enter the city, but the slaves are masters of everything and have power to flog the freemen.' Sosicrates, in the second book of his Cretan History,​18 says that 'the Cretans call their public slaves mnoia, their private slaves aphamiotae, their subject population perioeci.' Osiadas records the like also in the fourth book of his Cretan History.​19 Thessalians call by the name of penestae those who are not slaves from birth, but taken prisoners in war; and the comic poet Theopompus stretches the meaning of the word when he says:​20 'The wrinkled councillors of Master Poorman.' Philocrates, in the second book of the Thessalica21 (if this height be genuine), says that the penestae are also called Thessaly-slaves. Archemachus, in the third book of the Euboïca,​22 says that 'of the Boeotians who settled the country round Arne, those who did not depart into Boeotia but came to love their new country, gave themselves up as slaves to the Thessalians according to a stipulation by which the latter were neither to carry them out of the country nor put them to death, while they themselves were to till the land for the Thessalians and render them the contributions due. These persons, therefore, who stayed behind according to this agreement and surrendered themselves were originally called menestae ("stayers"), though to‑day they are called penestae.  p189 And many of them are better off than their masters.' Euripides, to cite him also, calls them latreis ('servants') in Phrixus,​23 thus: 'Servant-toiler of my ancient home.'

"Timaeus of Tauromenium, in the ninth book of the Histories,​24 says that it was not customary in ancient times for the Greeks to be served by purchased slaves. He writes as follows: 'People accused Aristotle​25 of having been mistaken about all customs of the Locrians. In particular, it was not customary for the Locrians, any more than for the Phocians, even to possess maidservants or male slaves except on a guarantee for the agreed periods. On the contrary, the wife of Philomelus, who took Delphi, was the first woman to be attended by two maidservants. Similarly Mnason, the friend of Aristotle, who had acquired a thousand slaves, became obnoxious to the Phocians because he had deprived so many citizens of the necessary means of sustenance; for, it is said, it was customary in domestic matters for the younger members of the family to serve their elders.'

"Plato, in the sixth book of the Laws,​26 says: 'But the question of slaves is difficult in every way. Of all Greek forms of slavery, the Helot system of Sparta is perhaps the one which might arouse most doubt and dispute, some maintaining that it is good, others that it is not. Less dispute might arise in the case of the Heracleot system of enslaving the Mariandynians, and again in the case of the penestae class among the Thessalians. Looking at these and all  p191 other systems, what are we to do in the matter of slave property? For there is nothing sound in a slave's soul, and no one in possession of his sense ought to trust them in anything. The wisest of poets says:​27 "Far-seeing Zeus takes away half the understanding of men whom the day of slavery deposes." Difficult, then, is this form of property, as has often been demonstrated in fact by the many insurrections of the Messenians, and the great evils which occur in states possessing many slaves who speak the same language, and again the manifold deeds of robbery and sufferings and Italy, inflicted by the Rovers, as they are called. With an eye to all this, one might be puzzled to know what to do in the case of all such people. Two courses are left open — those who are to be slaves must not come from the same country, nor, so far as possible, speak the same language; secondly, we must treat them properly, not merely for their sakes, but even more out of respect for ourselves, and so never do violence to them. one must punish one's slaves according to their deserts, not admonishing them as one would freemen and so making them conceited; practically every address to a slave should be a command, and one should on no account joke with them in any way, whether be females or males. This is the kind of conduct toward slaves which many persons adopt, thus very foolishly, by making them conceited, rendering life more difficult for them in serving, and for their masters in ruling.'

"The first Greeks, so far as I know, who made use of purchased slaves were the Chians. This is recorded by Theopompus in the seventeenth book of his  p193 Histories:​28 'The Chians were the first Greeks, after the Thessalians and Lacedaemonians, to use slaves, but they did not acquire them in the same way. For the Lacedaemonians and Thessalians, as will be seen, constituted their slave-class out of the Greeks who had earlier inhabited the territories which they themselves possess to‑day, the Lacedaemonians taking the land of the Achaeans, the Thessalians, that of the perrhaebians and Magnesians. The people reduced to slavery were in the first instance called helots, in the second penestae. But the slaves whom the Chians own are derived from non-Greek peoples, and they pay a price for them.' This, then, is the account given by Theopompus. But I believe that the Deity became wroth at the Chians for this practice, since, at a later time, they were disastrously involved in war on account of their slaves. Nymphodorus of Syracuse, at any rate, records the following narrative about them in his Voyage in Asia:​29 'The slaves of the Chians ran away from them, and gathering in great numbers started for the mountains (since the island is rough and wooded), inflicting injury on the country-houses of their masters. A little before our time, a certain slave, as the Chians themselves tell the story, ran away and made his abode in the mountains. Being a brave man and successful in warfare, he led the fugitive slaves as a king leads an army. The Chians often sent expeditions to attack him, but were quite unable to effect anything. EWhen Drimacus (for that was the fugitive's name) saw that they were throwing their lives away without result,  p195 he said to them: "Chians and masters! The trouble you are in because of your slaves will never stop. Why should it, when it happens according to an oracle given by the god? If, however, you will make a treaty with me and let us alone in peace and quiet, I will initiate many blessings for you." So the Chians made a treaty and an armistice with him for a certain period, and he devised measures, weights, and a special seal. Showing the seal to the Chians he said: "Whatever I take from any one of you, I will take according to these measures and weights, and after taking what I require I will seal up your storehouses with this seal and leave them unharmed. Those of your slaves who run away I will examine to find out the reason, and if in my judgement entreaty have run away because they have suffered something irreparable, I will keep them with me, but if they can urge no justification, I will send them back to their masters." The other slaves, therefore, seeing that the Chians willingly accepted this condition, were much less inclined to run away, because they dreaded the trial before him; while the runaways in his band feared him far more than their own masters, and did everything that he required, obeying him as they would a military officer. For he not only punished the disobedient, but he also would allow none to plunder a field or commit any other act of injury whatever without his consent. On festival days he would sally forth and take from the fields wine and unblemished victims, except what was voluntarily given him by the masters; and if he  p197 discovered that anyone was plotting against him or laying an ambush he took vengeance on him. Now the State had proclaimed that it would give a large reward to the man who took him alive or brought in his head, and finally, when this Drimacus had grown old, he summoned his favourite boy to a certain place and said: "I have loved you more than anyone else in the world; you are my favourite, my son, everything that I have. But I have lived long enough, whereas you are young and in the flower of life. What, then, remains? You must become a good and noble man.​30 Since, now, the Chian State offers a large sum to the man who kills me, and promises him freedom, you must cut off my head and carry it to Chios; then you shall receive the money from the State and live in wealth." The lad remonstrated, but was finally persuaded; cutting off the head of Drimacus he received from the Chians the reward that had been proclaimed, and after burying the body of the runaway he removed to his own country. And once more the Chians suffered injuries at the hands of their slaves, and when they were plundered they remembered the probity of the dead runaway, and founded a shrine in his country, giving it the name of the Kindly Hero. In his honour, to this very day, fugitive slaves render the first-fruits of everything that they purloin. They say also that he appears to many Chians in their sleep and warns them of plots among their slaves; and those persons to whom he appears go to the place where his shrine is and make offerings to him.' This, then, is the story told by Nymphodorus. But in many copies, as I have  p199 found, the man is not mentioned by name. I imagine that none openly is ignorant, either, of the story told by the noble Herodotus​31 concerning Panionius of Chios and the just deserts which he suffered for having made eunuchs of freeborn boys, and selling them. Nicolas the Peripatetic​32 and Poseidonius the Stoic​33 both say in their Histories that the Chians were enslaved by Mithridates the Cappadocian​34 and handed over in chains to their own slaves, to be transported to Colchis; so truly did the Deity vent his wrath upon them for being the first to use purchased slaves, although most people did their own work when it came to menial services. Perhaps, therefore, it was because of these experiences that the proverb arose, 'A Chian hath bought him a master,' used by Eupolis in The Friend.35

"The Athenians took measures to protect the condition of their slaves, and passed laws to legalize suits for outrage even in behalf of slaves. The orator Hypereides, for example, says in the speech Against Mantitheus,​36 which involves a case of assault: 'Not only in behalf of free persons, but even when a man outrages the body of a slave, they decreed that actions should lie against the man who committed the outrage.' The like is stated by Lycurgus in the first speech Against Lycophron37 and by Demosthenes in that Against Meidias.​38 Malacus, in his Annals of Siphnos,​39 records that Ephesus was settled by slaves of the Samians, to the number of a thousand, who at first had retired to the mountain on the island and done much mischief to the Samians. BFive years after  p201 this the Samians, in obedience to an oracle, made a conditional treaty with the slaves, and they departed unharmed from the island, sailing forth to Ephesus, where they landed. The Ephesians sprang from them.

"Chrysippus, writing On Concord, says in the second book that a slave differs from a domestic in that freedmen are still slaves, whereas those who have not been released from owner­ship are domestics.​40 C'For,' says he, 'the domestic is a slave appointed thereto by owner­ship.' According to Cleitarchus in his Glossary, slaves are known as 'attendants,'​41 'care-takers,' 'followers,'​42 'ministers,' 'henchmen,' or again 'footmen'DUPLICATE and 'menials.' Amerias says that rural slaves are called enclosure-men.' Hermon​43 in the Cretan Glossary defines mnotae as indigenous slaves, while Seleucus says that azoi ('attendants') are handmaids and caretakers, apophrases and bolizes are female slaves in general, sindron is one born of a slave, aphipolos is the maid who waits on the mistress, propolos the maid who walks before her. DProxenus, in the second book of his Laconian Constitution,​44 says that the epithet chalcides was given to maidservants among the Lacedaemonians. Ion of Chios, in Laertes,​45 has applied the word 'domestic' to a slave in the line: 'Go, domestic, on winged foot and lock the house lest any mortal enter.' And Achaeus,  p203 speaking in Omphale46 of the satyr says: 'How kind was he to his slaves, to his domestics!' thereby properly meaning that he is good to his slaves and domestics. EBut that 'domestic' may mean anyone living in the house, even if he be a free person, is generally known.47

"The poets of the Old Comedy, when they tell us about life in primitive times, set forth such lines as the following to show that in those days no use was made of slaves.​48 Cratinus, for example, in The Plutuses:​49 'Their king was Cronus in the old days, when they used to shoot dice with bread-loaves, and in the wrestling-schools fees were paid with Aeginetan​50 barley-cakes, juicy ripe and swelling in lumps.'​51 Crates in Wild Animals:​52 'A. So then, no man shall own any slave, male or female, but, old though he be, must he serve himself with his own hands? B Not at all, for I shall make all his utensils capable walking. A. But what good, pray, will that do him? B. Each article of furniture will come to him when he calls it. Place yourself here, table! You, I mean, get yourself ready! Knead, my little troughy. Fill up, my ladle! Where's the cup? Go and wash yourself. Walk this way, my barley-cake. The pot should disgorge  p205 the beets. Fish, get up! "But I'm not yet done on the other side!" Well, turn yourself over, won't you? and baste yourself with oil and salt.' Immediately after these lines the one who plays opposite him takes up the word and says:​53 'Well, then, match that with this. I in turn will first draw, for the benefit of my friends, warm baths from the sea on columns, like those in the doctor's office, so that they shall flow of their own accord into every man's basin, and the water will say, Stop me! And the ointment-bottle, full of perfume, will come immediately, of its own accord, and so will the sponge and the sandals.'

"Better still than this is the way in which telecleides sets it forth in The Amphictyons:​54 B'I will, then, tell of the life of old which I provided for mortals. First, there was peace over all, like water over the hands.​55 The earth produced no terror and no disease; on the other hand, things needful came of their own accord. every torrent flowed with wine, barley-cakes strove with wheat-loaves for men's lips, beseeching that they be swallowed if men loved the whitest. Fishes would come to the house and bake themselves, then serve themselves on the tables. A river of broth, whirling hot slices of meat, would flow by the couches; conduits full of piquant sauces for the meat were close  p207 at hand for the asking, so that there was plenty for moistening a mouthful and swallowing it tender. On dishes there would be honey-cakes all sprinkled with spices, and roast thrushes served up with milk-cakes were flying into the gullet. The flat-cakes jostled each other at the jaws and set up a racket, the slaves would shoot dice with slices of paunch and tid-bits. Men were fat in those days and every bit mighty giants.'

"In Demeter's name, I ask you, comrades, if things were like that what need had we of servants? It was to give us practice in doing our own work that the ancients tried to educate us in their verse, feasting us on words. The altogether admirable Cratinus gave the signal with his torch, as it were, in the verses I have cited, and his successors imitated and rounded out his ideas to completeness. I, therefore, have adopted, in citing the dramas, the order in which they were brought out. And if I don't bore you (as for the Cynics, I don't care the smallest bit for what they think), I will recite in chronological order what other poets have said, beginning with the most Athenian of all, Pherecrates, who says in The Miners:​56 'A. All things in the world yonder were mixed with wealth and fashioned with every blessing in every way. Rivers full of porridge and black broth flowed babbling through the channels spoons​57 and all, and lumps of  p209 cheese-cakes too. Hence the morsel could slip easily and oilily of its own accord down the throats of the dead. Blood-puddings there were, and hot slices of sausage lay scattered by the river banks just like shells. Yes, and there were roasted fillets nicely dressed with all sorts of spiced sauces.​58 Close at hand, too, on platters, were whole hams​59 with shin and all, most tender, and trotters well boiled which gave forth a pleasant steam; ox-guts and pork-ribs most daintily browned sat perched on cakes of finest meal. And two polenta with its snowy covering of milk showered over it in pans, and beestings in slices. B. Oh, you'll be the death of me if you dally any longer here, when the whole pack of you should dive at once into Tartarus. A. What will you say, I wonder, when you have heard the rest? For roast thrushes, dressed for a réchauffé, flew round our mouths entreating us to swallow them as we lay stretched among the myrtles and anemones. And the apples! The fairest of the fair to see​60 hung over our heads, though there was nothing on which they grew. Girls in silk shawls,​61 just reaching the flower of youth, and shorn of the hair on their bodies, drew through a funnel full cups of red wine with fine bouquet for all who  p211 wished to drink. And whenever one had eaten or drunk of these things, straightway there came forth once more twice as much again.'

"And in The Persians62 also Pherecrates says: 'What need have we any longer of your ploughmen or yoke-makers, your armourers or coppersmiths? or of seed or vine-propping? Why! Rivers of black broth, gushing forth copiously of their own accord over the cross-roads with rich spice-cakes and barley-cakes of finest meal,​63 will flow from the springs of Plutus all ready to be ladled up. And Zeus will rain smoky wine​64 and drench your tiles like a bath-man; and from the roofs conduits of grapes, in company with cheese-cakes, stuffed with cheese, will draw off rills of hot pease-porridge and polenta made of lilies and anemones. The trees on the mountains will put forth leaves of roast kids' guts, tender cuttle-fish, and boiled thrushes.'

"Why need I further cite, in addition to these lines, the verses from Masters of the Frying-pan65 by the witty Aristophanes? For you are all surfeited with his malicious mockery. But after quoting from The Thurio-Persians of Metagenes I will bring my talk to a close, first dismissing with scorn The Sirens66 of Nicophon, in which the following stands written:  p213 'Let it snow barley-meal, sprinkle wheat-loaves, rain pease-porridge; let broth roll its lumps of meat through the streets, let a flat-cake give orders to be eaten.' FWell, as I was saying, Metagenes has the following:​67 'The river Crathis brings down for us huge barley-cakes which have kneaded themselves, while the other river​68 thrusts its billow of cheese-cakes and meat and boiled rays wriggling to us here. These little rivulets flow on one side with baked squid-fish, braize, and crawfish, on the other side with sausages and hashed meat; here anchovies, yonder pancakes. And cutlets automatically stewed dart downwards into the mouth, others upwards at our very feet, while cakes of fine meal swim round us as in a circle.' I am aware that The Thurio-Persians, as well as Nicophon's play, was never produced, which is why I mentioned it last."

This clear and distinct exposition by Democritus​69 was applauded by the Dinnervillians, but Cynulcus said: "Messmates, although I am quite famished, Democritus has feasted me not unpleasantly by so thoroughly discussing rivers of ambrosia and nectar; though 'my soul has been moistened, yet am I very hungry,'​70 for I have swallowed nothing but words. Wherefore let us at last cease from such interminable harangues and take up instead certain viands of such  p215 a nature as (to quote the orator from Paeania)​71 'neither increase one's strength nor yet allow one to die.' for in an empty belly no love of the beautiful can reside, since Cypris is a cruel goddess to them that hunger,' Achaeus says in the satyric drama Aethon.​72 From him the wise Euripides has borrowed the idea and has said:​73 'For Love dwells where plenty is, but in a hungry man, no!' " In answer to Cynulcus, Ulpian, who was always quarrelling with him, said: " 'Full of greens is the market-place, full, too, of bread.'​74 But you, Cynic, are always famishing, and won't allow us to partake of good and ample discourse — nay, feed on it. For noble discourse is food for the soul." With this he turned to his slave and said, "Leucus, if you have any bread scraps from the manger,​75 give them to these Dogs." And Cynulcus answered: "If I had been invited to a feast of reason merely, I should have known enough to arrive at the hour of full market​76 (by this term one of the sophists denominated the hour of lectures, and the vulgar named him Full-market​77 on that account); but if we have bathed​78 only to come to a dinner of cheap talk, then, to quote Menander,​79 'I pay a contribution too high for the privilege of listening.'  p217 Wherefore, greedy, I yield to you the right to sate yourself on that kind of food; for 'a barley-cake is worth more to a hungry man than gold and ivory, as Achaeus of Eretria says in Cycnus.​80 "

With these words he made as if to get up and depart' but as he turned he saw a quantity of fish and all sorts of other dressed dainties rule of lawing in, and punching the cushion with his fist he bawled:​81 " 'Be of good courage, poverty mine, and endure when men talk foolishness; for a multitude of dainties over­powers thee, as well as joyless hunger.' Yes, I am so empty that I begin to sing, no dithyrambs, like Socrates,​82 but epic verses. For 'this rhapsody' is truly 'about hunger.'​83 Ameipsias, as it happens, prophesied about you, Larensis, when he said in The Sling:​84 'Not one of our rich men, so help me Hephaestus, is like you; you set so fine a table, you are eager to eat such rich morsels.' For 'I see a wonder incredible — all kinds of fish sporting off the cape, gobies, breams, sole, red fish, grey mullets, perch, hake, tunnies, black-tails, cuttle-fish, germons, red mullets, octopuses, and bullheads.' So speaks Heniochus in The Busybody.​85 I must, therefore, be of good cheer, adding another line from the comic poet Metagenes:​86 'One omen is best, to dare fight for our dinner.' "

 p219  BWhen Cynulcus had lapsed into silence, Masurius spoke: "Since there remain some points connected with the discussion of slaves, 'I too will contribute a poem addressed to love'​87 for the benefit of the wise and very dear Democritus. Philip of Theangela, in his treatise On the Carians and Leleges,​88 after giving an account of the Lacedaemonian helots and the Thessalian penestae, says that the Carians have used the Leleges as slaves both in times past and to‑day. Phylarchus, in the sixth book of the Histories,​89 Csays also that the Byzantians exercised mastery over the Bithynians as the Spartans did over the helots. Concerning the men in Lacedaemon called epeunacti90 (these, too, were slaves), Theopompus gives a clear account in the course of the thirty-second book of his Histories,​91 as follows: 'Since my Spartans had been killed in the war with the Messenians, the survivors feared that it missile become known to the enemy that they had become depopulated; so they made some of the helots mount the bed of every man who had died. These helots, later made citizens, became known as epeunacti because they had been assigned to the nuptial bed to take the place of the dead.' Theopompus also records, in the thirty-third book of his Histories,​92 that among the Sicyonians there are certain slaves, called catonacophori,​93 who are analogous to the epeunacti. A like account is given by Menaechmus in his History of Sicyon.​94 EAgain, Theopompus, in the second book of  p221 his History of Philip,​95 says that the people of Ardia own 300,000 bondmen who are like helots. The mothaces, as they are called among the Spartans, are free, to be sure, but they are not Spartans. Phylarchus says of them in the twenty-fifth book of the Histories:​96 'The mothaces are foster-brothers of the Spartans; for all the sons of the citizen class, according as their private means suffice, choose their own foster-brothers, some one, some two, and some again more. FHence the mothaces are free, to be sure, yet not altogether Spartans, though they share the training of the boys at all points. They say that Lysander, who defeated the Athenians in the naval battle,​97 was one of these, but was made a citizen in recognition of his merit.' And Myron of Priene, in the second book of his Messenian History,​98 says that 'the Spartans often freed their slaves, calling some "released," some masterless," some "curbers," others again "master-seamen"; the last they assigned to the sea forces. Others still they called "newly-enfranchised," all being different from the helots.' 272Theopompus, speaking of the helots in the seventh book of his Hellenica,​99 in which he says that they for called heleats, writes as follows: 'The helot class is in a condition altogether cruel and bitter. They are the people who have been a very long time subjected to the slavery of the Spartiates, some of them being from Messenia, while the heleats formerly dwelt in what is called Helos (Marsh), in Laconia.  p223 Timaeus of Tauromenium, forgetting what he himself has said (he is refuted on this point by Polybius of Megalopolis in the twelfth book of the Histories),​100 denied​101 that it was customary for the Greeks to acquire slaves; although this "Epitimaeus"​102 (as Istrus, the disciple of Callimachus, calls him in his Rejoinder to Timaeus) has himself stated that Mnason of Phocis owned more than a thousand slaves; again, in the third book of the Histories,​103 Epitimaeus has said that the city of Corinth was so rich that it had acquired 460,000 slaves — the reason why, in my opinion, the Pythian priestess called the Corinthians 'pint-measurers.'​104 Ctesicles, in the third book of his Chronicles,​105 says that at Athens, during the one hundred and seventeenth Olympiad, a census of the inhabitants of Attica was taken by Demetrius of Phalerum, and the number of Athenians was found to be 21,000, of resident aliens 10,000, of slaves 400,000.​106 Nicias, the son of Niceratus, as the noble Xenophon has said in his work On Revenues,​107 owned a thousand slaves, and let them out to Sosias of Thrace to work in the silver-mines, the pay of each being a penny a day. DAristotle, in The Constitution of Aegina,​108 says that even among the Aeginetans there were 470,000 slaves. Agatharchides of Cnidus, in the thirty-eighth book of his European History,​109 declares that the Dardani owned so many slaves  p225 that one man had a thousand, another even more; in time of peace every one of these tilled the land, but in time of war they were enrolled in companies with their own master as captain."

In answer to this Larensis said: "But every Roman, as you are well aware, good Masurius, owns an infinite number of slaves; in fact there are very many who own 10,000, 20,000, or even more — not to bring in revenue, as Telescope the opulent Greek Nicias; but the majority of Romans have the largest numbers to accompany them when they go out, Moreover, most of these Athenian slaves, counted in myriads, worked in the mines as prisoners. FPoseidonius,​110 the philosopher, at any rate (whom you have constantly quoted), says that they revolted, murdered the superintendents of the mines, seized the hill of Sunium, and for a long time plundered Attica. This was the period​111 when in Sicily also the second uprising of slaves occurred. There were many of these uprisings, and more than a Illyrian slaves were killed. A treatise on the slave wars has been published by Caecilius, the orator from Cape Fair. Again, the gladiator Spartacus, escaping from the Italian city of Capua about the time of the wars with Mithradates, roused a very large number of slaves to revolt (he was a slave himself, a native of Thrace) and overran the whole of Italy for a long time, nnnwhile a stream of slaves poured in to join him  p227 every day. If he had and Theban killed in the battle with Licinius Crassus, he would have caused no ordinary sweat to my compatriots, as Eunus​112 did in Sicily.

"The Romans of early times, however, were moderate and highly virtuous in all things Scipio surnamed Africanus, for example, when dispatched by the Senate to pacify the kingdoms of the world and entrust them to their rightful rulers, took as retire only five slaves, as we are told by Polybius​113 and Poseidonius;​114 and when one of them died on the way, Scipio wrote to his family telling them to purchase and send to him another in his place. Julius Caesar, the first man in the world to cross over to attack the British Isles, though he had a thousand ships, took as retire three slaves in all; this is related by Cotta, his second in command on that occasion, in the treatise on the Roman Constitution, which is written in our native tongue.​115 But Smindyrides of Sybaris was not like that, my Greek friends! When he set out on his journey to wed Agaristê, the daughter of Cleisthenes, he took with him in his ostentatious luxury a thousand slaves — fishermen, fowlers, and cooks. This man wished to show what an opulent life he led, according to Chamaeleon of Pontus in his work On Pleasure116 (the same book goes under the name of Theophrastus); and so he asserted that for two years he had not seen the sun rise or set. This he regarded as something big, and a remarkable testimony to his wealth. It  p229 is plain that he went to bed in the morning and rose in the evening, which was unfortunate for him in either case.​117 DBut the boast of Hestiaeus of Pontus, that he had never seen the sun rise or set because he was engaged in study all the time, is a noble one. This is recorded by Nicias of Nicaea in The Successions.​118 What then? Did not Scipio and Caesar own slaves? They did; but they observed ancestral laws and lived lives restrained by adherence to customs sanctioned by the constitution. For it is a mark of wise men to abide by those ancient ideals by which they were inspired to make war and subdue others, taking along with their captives whatever was useful and beautiful in them to imitate;​119 precisely what the Romans did in earlier times. For at the same time that they retained their ancestral customs, they took over from their subjects whatever remnant of noble discipline they could find, leaving to them that which was useless, in order that they might never become capable of attaining to the recovery of what was lost. From the Greeks, for example, they came to know engines and instruments of siege, and with these won superiority over them; and so, though the Phoenicians were the inventors of nautical devices, the Romans used them to overcome the Phoenicians on the sea. FFrom the Etruscans, also, who attacked in close formation, they took over the close battle;​120 from the Samnites they learned the use of the oblong shield,​121 from the Spaniards, the sue of the javelin, and so on, learning different  p231 things from different peoples, and bringing them to greater perfection. In like manner they imitated at all points the Spartan constitution, but maintained it better than the Spartans did. But to‑day, though they select what is useful, they are also borrowing from their enemies pernicious ideals. nnnAs Poseidonius​122 says, their ancestral traits used to be rugged endurance, a frugal manner of life, a plain and simple use of material possessions in general,​123 a religion, moreover, wonderful in its devotion to deity; upright dealing, and great care in avoiding wrongdoing in their relations with all men; associated with these qualities was the pursuit of agriculture.​124 This may be seen in the ancestral festivals which we celebrate; for in their performance we proceed in ways regularly appointed and defined, we bring appointed offerings; what we say in prayers or do in the sacred offices is plain and frugal; again, we do not overstep nature either in our dress or in the care of our bodies or in the offering of first-fruits; and so we wear clothes and shoes which are cheap, on our heads we put hats made of rough sheepskins; the utensils which we bring are of earthenware or bronze,​125 and in them are the simplest foods and drinks in the world, because we think it absurd that while we bring to the gods offerings ordained by ancestral custom, we should indulge ourselves in exotic luxuries; and yet of course what we spend on ourselves is measured by our necessities, whereas for the gods there are certain first-fruits.126

 p233  "Mucius Scaevola, Aelius Tubero, and Rutilius Rufus (who wrote the history of our country)​127 are three Romans who observed in their own lives the Fannian Law.​128 This law ordained that not more than three persons outside the family should be entertained, on market-days​129 not more than five; these last occurred thrice a month. The law would not permit the purchase of food of more than two and a half shillings' worth. It permitted the yearly expenditure of fifteen talents for smoked meat and for all green and leguminous boiled vegetables which the earth bears. But though expenditures were very small because law-breakers​130 and spendthrifts caused a rise in the price of commodities, these men whom I have mentioned managed to attain a more liberal mode of living without breaking the law. Tubero, for example, bought game birds from his own peasants, Rutilius bought fish from those of his slaves who were fishermen, at threepence the pound, including even the delicacy called the stalk;​131 this is a part known under this name taken from the sea-dog.​132 EMucius, again, fixed prices in each case in a similar way with those who were under obligations to him. Out of so many thousands of people, then, these were the only men who religiously observed the law and refused to accept even the smallest gift; but they themselves made presents to others, large presents, in fact, to the friends who were inspired by desire of self-culture; for they were adherents of the doctrines of the Porch.

 p235  "The first man who led the way to that extravagant luxury which flourishes in modern times was Lucullus, who defeated Mithradates on the high seas. This is recorded by Nicolas the Peripatetic.​133 FFor on his return to Rome after the defeat of Mithradates, as well as that of the Armenian Tigranes, he celebrated a triumph, rendered an account of his operations in the war, and then, abandoning his earlier sobriety, he went to smash in a career of extravagance. He became the first to introduce luxury among the Romans, after he had harvested for himself the wealth of the two kings I have mentioned. And Cato, whom everybody knows, was disgusted, as Polybius records in the thirty-first book of the Histories,​134 and cried out that 'certain persons had imported foreign luxuries into Rome; they had, he said, bought a cask of Pontic smoked fish for three hundred shillings, and beautiful boys for more than the cost of broad acres.'​135 But in earlier times the inhabitants of Italy, according to Poseidonius, even those who were very well off for a livelihood, trained​136 their sons in drinking water, mostly, and in eating whatever they happened to have. And often, he tells us, a father oar mother would ask a son whether he preferred to make his dinner of pears or walnuts, and after eating some of these he was satisfied and went to bed. BBut to‑day, as Theopompus records in the first book of his History of Philip,​137 there is nobody, even among those in moderate circumstances, who fails to set an extravagant  p237 table, or does not own cooks and many other servants, or does not lavish more for daily needs than they used to expend at the festivals and sacrifices."

Since the matters here recorded have reached a sufficient length, let us stop our discourse at this point.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 Begun at 248C.

2 The jjj was a narrow-necked bottle from which the liquid trickled with a gurgling sound: see Athen. XI 784D.

3 F. H. G. IV.442.

4 Kock I.47; the title refers to a bad slave.

5 Kock I.284; cf. Aristoph. Ran. 541‑3.

6 F. H. G. IV.389.

7 From jjj, "curses."

8 Kock I.147, below, 267E. Cf. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?"

9 See critical note.

10 Kock I.137.

11 The most remote deme in Attica; a preliminary step to full citizen­ship.

12 F. H. G. III.257.

13 Frag. 73 Meineke, 78 Powell.

14 F. H. G. IV.355.

15 See Athen. 260A.

16 From jjj, "lot."

17 F. H. G. I.242.

18 F. H. G. IV.501.

19 Ibid. 399.

20 Kock I.752. jjj properly means "labouring-man"; here, if the reading is right, it seems to mean "poor." It is unsafe to see in an isolated verse the prophecy of a Labour Parliament. Cf. Aesch. Pers. 175 jjj.

21 F. H. G. IV.477.

22 Ibid. 314.

23 T. G. F.2 630.

24 F. H. G. I.207; cf. Athen. 272B.

25 Page 497 Rose.

26 776B; 778A; Plato has just said that the other kinds of property are easy to understand and acquire. In this paraphrase jjj is omitted after jjj, and there are other omissions. One would never guess, from this excerpt, that Plato does full justice to the good qualities of slaves.

27 Od. XVII.322.

28 F. H. G. I.300.

29 F. H. G. II.378; a more exact rendering of the title would be Voyage along the Coast of Asia.

30 i.e., have a liberal education and become a gentleman.

31 VIII.105.

32 F. H. G. III.415.

33 Ibid. 265.

34 In 86 B.C.

35 Kock I.332; the Ionic form of the verb is noteworthy.

36 Frag. 123 Blass.

37 Frag. 72 Turnebus.

38 Chap. 46.

39 F. H. G. IV.412.

40 This distinction, found again only in Thomas Magister 644, is not observed in classical writers. jjj is the generic term for any kind of bondman, and it is here implied that the social stigma remained after manumission; jjj is a house-slave. Cf. Plato, Legg. 763A, 777A.

41 Especially in temple worship.

42 Etymologically jjj and jjj mean the same thing.

43 Hermonax.

44 F. H. G. II.463. The exact meaning of chalcis is unknown; in Il. XIV.291, it is a bird of prey, in Athen. 328C, a fish which some identify with the herring or the pilchard.

45 T. G. F.2 734.

46 T. G. F.2 754.

47 See Herod. VIII.106.

48 Cf. above, 263B.

49 Kock I.64.

50 Alluding to the sound coinage of Aegina; cf. 141C, 143B, 225B.

51 A sacrificial cake called jjj is mentioned by Hesychius.

52 Kock I.133; a prophecy of the electric age!

53 Kock I.134.

54 Ibid. 209; cf. Athen. 64F, 644F.

55 A proverb of anything easy to get; cf. 156E.

56 Kock I.174, cf. Pollux VI.58. A woman returning from the underworld relates what she saw there.

57 For the pieces of bread used as spoons see 126A‑F.

58 Here Pollux adds the line, τεύτλοισι τ’ ἐγχέλεια συγκεκαλυμμένα, "and eels smothered in beets."

59 Here and at 96A I have rendered jjj by "has," in view of jjj, though the grammarians say they were ribs of beef.

60 See critical note.

61 Cf. Photius, jjj. If this is right, the silk would be Coan, not real Chinese. Cf. p153 note a.

62 Kock I.182.

63 For jjj see 114F.

64 See 131F.

65 Kock I.523.

66 Ibid. 777; Athen. 368B.

67 Kock I.706.

68 The Sybaris; see critical note, and cf. Ovid, Met. XV.315, Theocritus, V.124‑127.

69 Begun at 262B.

70 An unidentified hexameter (omitting jjj); Demiańczuk, Suppl. Comic. 114.

71 Demosth. III.33.

72 T. G. F.2 748; the title, Fiery or Ravenous, may refer to Odysseus.

73 T. G. F.2 647; cf. Athen. 28F (Antiphanes), and Somerset Maugham in Caroline: "No man wants to make love before luncheon."

74 An anonymous hexameter verse.

75 Cf. Athen. 540C jjj.

76 Middle of the forenoon, when the sophists and others had the opportunity to meet the largest audience; so Socrates, Xen. Mem. I.1.10. Cynulcus takes up the taunt of Ulpian, who has just invited him to go to the market where he can get greens.

77 One of the best puns in Athenaeus. The word Plethagoras is built like Pythagoras, Protagoras, and plays on the two meanings of jjj, "market" and "speech." Here Full-Market = Full-Speech, vain and windy.

78 Equivalent to "put on our best clothes."

79 Kock III.212; see critical note.

80 T. G. F.2 752, cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1176 A6 jjj (hay) jjj.

81 A parody of Il. I.586 and 61. See Kock I.709.

82 Plato, Phaedr. 238D.

83 Alluding to the first book of the Iliad, but substituting jjj for jjj, "of pestilence" (pronounce appear to have in the same way); Schweighäuser, however, thought it a quotation.

84 Kock I.675.

85 Kock I.432.

86 Kock I.709. Cf. Il. XII.243.

87 Philoxenus of Cythera, frag. 6, Athen. 692D.

88 F. H. G. IV.475.

89 F. H. G. I.338.

90 From jjj, "receive into one's bed," explained in the subsequent account.

91 F. H. G. I.310.

92 Ibid. 311.

93 Wearers of the catonacê, a rough coat edged with sheepskin.

94 Frag. 2 Müller.

95 F. H. G. I.284; Athen. 443B.

96 F. H. G. I.347.

97 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

98 F. H. G. IV.461.

99 F. H. G. I.280.

100 Polyb. XII.6; cf. Athen. 264C.

101 F. H. G. I.207.

102 He who criticizes others.

103 F. H. G. I.202.

104 The jjj, about 1½ pints, was the daily ration of a slave.

105 F. H. G. IV.375.

106 This number is exaggerated; the other numbers refer to adult males. The date is uncertain (see critical note), but may possibly be 309/8 B.C., the year when Demetrius was archon.

107 4.14.

108 Frag. 427 Rose.

109 F. H. G. III.194; see critical note.

110 F. H. G. III.264.

111 102‑99 B.C.; it is to be noted that such insurrections did not happen until Roman times. Gulick, Life of the Ancient Greeks, 69‑70.

112 See the interesting account of this medicine-man and revolutionary slave in Diodorus XXXIV.2.

113 Frag. 166 Hultsch.

114 F. H. G. III.255.

115 Latin, since Larensis is the speaker. See ed. min. p247 Peter.

116 Frag. 33 Koepke.

117 See Athen. 520A, and Cicero, De finibus II.8, "qui (i.e. prodigals) solem, ut aiunt, nec occidentem umquam viderunt nec orientem."

118 F. H. G. IV.464; for the title see 162E, note e.

119 Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artis intulit agresti Latio (Hor. Ep. II.1.156).

120 As in the World War, opposed to the war of movement.

121 The scutum, as opposed to the clipeus.

122 F. H. G. III.253.

123 Lit. "all other things in the category of possession.' See critical note.

124 Not an anticlimax, but one of many intimations in ancient literature that morality is rural, immorality urban.

125 Not silver and gold, as in the Greek eleusinia.

126 i.e., the very best to be had.

127 Athen. 1683.

128 The Lex Fannia of 161 B.C. Plin. H. N. X.71.

129 The nundinae.

130 The bootlegger is not a modern phenomenon.

131 Athen. 310E; see critical note.

132 Perhaps the sword-fish; but Plin. H. N. IX.9.11, compares the tursio with the dolphin.

133 Athen. 543A, cf. F. H. G. III.416, 83.

134 Chap. 24 Hultsch. Cf. Cato's complaint about the price of fish, Plutarch, Qu. Symp. IV.4.

135 F. H. G. III.253.

136 jjj is uncommon in this sense except in the passive; see critical note.

137 F. H. G. I.284.

Page updated: 27 Apr 20