As trade develops, slavery becomes a factor of the Greek economy. Hesiod describes in his work Works and Days, at the end of the 8th century or in the beginning of the 7th century BC, the evolution of slavery in his birthplace, Boeotia, in the small village Ascra (Hesiod, Works and Days 405-406, 597-608). There are references to slaves in the lyric poetry of the 7th and 6th century BC in Archilochus, Hipponax (Hipponax, no 115 in Fowler,1992) and Theognis (Theognis, extract 535-538 in Loeb, Elegy and Iambus I).


Slave trade included hetairai and non-specialized workers for labouring in ports, workshops, shops and in the fields. They were also used as manpower in mines, quarries, in stone transportation and other construction activities. The price of a slave depended on sex, age, his or her professional abilities and mostly on the proportion of demand and offer in the region. A decree dating from the 6th century BC from Cyzicus informs us about a tax, the "andrapodonie", which probably relates to the use of slaves (Pleket, 1964, no 21). Slaves came mostly from Lydia, Paphlagonia and Phrygia. Regions such as Chios, Ephesus and Byzantium, played a leading part in slave trade. Moreover, the historian Theopompus mentions that Chios was the first place in Greece that used slaves from beyond the limits of the Greek mainland.

At the same time that the citizen's freedom is a prerequisite for the existence of the polis -but also its corollary- the subjugation of other peoples is considered indispensable in order to acquire and maintain this freedom. As to the justification of the procedure that led to this phenomenon, there are two basic approaches. According to the first one, economic progress led to the development of slavery, which in its turn promoted democracy. The second one, on the contrary, maintains that the evolution of democracy led to the development of slavery thus giving an impulse to economic progress.

Arguments for the first opinion can be the development of trade and artistic activity, the decrease in available manpower and the colonization movement from the 8th until the 6th century BC. On the other hand, those who support the second opinion, found their views on the reinforcement of the deme to the aristocracy's detriment after a series of incidents headed by various tyrants. These incidents were the result of the increasing significance of artists and trade, as well as of the demand of soldiers after the hoplite tactics had prevailed, already since the 7th century BC.

Rhodopis

Herodotus refers to the case of the hetaira Rhodopis from Thrace, who was famous in the time of Amasis' reign, between 569 and 526 BC. She was the slave of Xanthis from Samos, who brought her to Egypt. Charaxus from Mytilene, brother of the poetess Sappho, set her free, after paying a large sum of money (Herodotus, Historia 2.134-135, Strabo, Geographia 17.1.33).


| introduction | agriculture | trade | state organization | Archaic Period

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