Slavery In Ancient Greece

Through the course of history, slavery’s roots have dug deep into the soil of Western Civilization’s culture and economy. The first records of slavery lie in the history of Babylon, specifically in the laws of Hammurabi’s Code. Initially, slavery was not viewed as immoral or unjust, but rather as an economic necessity. Since that point, slavery evolved as it expanded; first it divided societies through class systems, then it began to make slaves out of prisoners of war and debt bondage. This form of slavery lead to and was used by Ancient Greece. By the creation of Ancient Greece in 7th century BC, slavery had already become an integral part of society. Greece was divided into city states, with its main city states known as Athens and Sparta, …show more content…
The family would acquire the slave through a slave auction or a current slave could have a child born into slavery. Slaves served the paterfamilias, the father of the family, however female slaves generally worked for the materfamilias, the mother of the family. In Athens there was an inherent trust between a master and their slave due to the extent of jobs and work that a slave did for their master. These jobs included anything from running errands to helping the children with their schoolwork. The fact that a master put enough trust into their slave to look after their children and wife demonstrates a mutual loyalty between servant and owner. The city slaves in Athens served the city through a variety of work. Craftsmen and artisans bought and employed skilled slaves to work for them, while less skilled slaves worked as agricultural workers or workers in the Laurium Silver Mines. Agricultural work was very long and hard for the workers and the Laurium Silver Mines were very dangerous due to the risk of cave-ins. Despite the dangers the slaves faced, they were vital to the production of food, currency, and jewelry through their services. The Spartans’ form of slave labor was a collection of …show more content…
Slaves were directly related to the Battle of Marathon fought in 490 BC during the first Persian Invasion. King Darius I attacked with a large Persian army against the smaller Greek army. Athens needed as many fighters as they could get to stand up against the Persians. To create a sizable fighting force, Athens had to bring their slaves to the front lines. The slaves that fought for Athens were set free before the battle with the promise that they would be allowed to live out a good life if they fought and survived. Any of the slaves that died in the battle were buried with the free men alongside of whom they fought. This showed the respect that Athens was able and willing to show the people that helped them regardless of their status. On the other hand, Sparta had to put down multiple slave revolts throughout its history due to the inherent dysfunctionality of the Spartan system. The first slave revolt took place in 665 BC and is known as the Second Messenian War. The helots attacked when the Spartans were at their weakest after their defeat at the Battle of Hysiae. The revolt took nearly twenty years to put down and demonstrated the lack of loyalty between the helots and Spartans. After the first revolt, many other revolts were started and put down again and again by the Spartans until the largest revolt came in 464 BC. Once again, the