page_title: Slavery in ancient Greece
section_title: Population
hierarchical_section_title: Slavery in ancient Greece / Demographics / Population
caption_attribution_description: English: A young Ethiopian groom slave tries to calm a horse down. He holds a whip in his raised right hand and the reins in his left one. Funerary stele from Attica, right side of a two-panels relief. Pentelic marble, found near the Larisis railway station, date unknown (maybe 4th century BC or 1st century BC). If belonging to the later date, may have been made in hounour of king Mithridates of Pontus. Français&#160;: Stèle funéraire attique, en marbre pentélique, trouvée près la station de chemin de fer de Larisa. Le bas-relief est constitué de deux plaques jointes. Sur le côté droit, un jeune palefrenier éthiopien esclave essaie de calmer un grand cheval portant une peau de panthère. Il tient un fouet dans sa main droite dressée et les rênes dans la main gauche. Au-dessus du cheval la forme d'un casque macédonien est visible. L'importance donnée au cheval laisse penser que le propriétaire du monument, qui avait la forme d'un naiskos, était un soldat. Il y a désaccord sur la datation&#160;: pour certains le relief date de la fin du IVe s. av. J.-C., pour d'autres, c'est une œuvre classicisante du Ier s. av. J.-C. peut-être réalisée pour honorer Mithridate du Pont.
context_page_description: Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies of the time. Some Ancient Greek writers described slavery as natural and even necessary. This paradigm was notably questioned in Socratic dialogues; the Stoics produced the first recorded condemnation of slavery.
  The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, and as domestic servants. Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, with an average of three or four slaves per household, except in poor families. Slaves were legally prohibited from participating in politics, which was reserved for citizens.
  Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery versus land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs. The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel.
  The academic study of slavery in ancient Greece is beset by significant methodological problems.
context_section_description: It is difficult to estimate the number of slaves in ancient Greece, given the lack of a precise census and variations in definitions during that era. It is certain that Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, on average three or four slaves per household. In the 5th century BC, Thucydides remarked on the desertion of 20,890 slaves during the war of Decelea, mostly tradesmen. The lowest estimate, of 20,000 slaves, during the time of Demosthenes, corresponds to one slave per family. Between 317 BC and 307 BC, the tyrant Demetrius Phalereus ordered a general census of Attica, which arrived at the following figures: 21,000 citizens, 10,000 metics and 400,000 slaves. However, some researchers doubt the accuracy of the figure, claiming 13 slaves per free man appear unlikely in a state where a dozen slaves were a sign of wealth, nor is the population stated consistently with the known figures for bread production and import. The orator Hypereides, in his Against Areistogiton, recalls that the effort to enlist 15,000 male slaves of military age led to the defeat of the Southern Greeks at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), which corresponds to the figures of Ctesicles.
  According to the literature, it appears that the majority of free Athenians owned at least one slave. Aristophanes, in Plutus, portrays poor peasants who have several slaves; Aristotle defines a house as containing freemen and slaves. Conversely, not owning even one slave was a clear sign of poverty. In the celebrated discourse of Lysias For the Invalid, a cripple pleading for a pension explains "my income is very small and now I'm required to do these things myself and do not even have the means to purchase a slave who can do these things for me." However, the huge slave populations of the Romans were unknown in ancient Greece. When Athenaeus cites the case of Mnason, a friend of Aristotle and owner of a thousand slaves, this appears to be exceptional. Plato, owner of five slaves at the time of his death, describes the very rich as owning 50 slaves.
  Thucydides estimates that the isle of Chios had proportionally the largest number of slaves..
caption: An Ethiopian slave attempts to break in a horse, date unknown, National Archaeological Museum of Athens
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