[*]There was probably next to no market for old women; old men in
broken health would also be worthless. Boys and maids that were
the right age for teaching a profitable trade would fetch the most.

[+]Xenophon, "Memorabilia," ii. 5, section 2.


41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens.--Once purchased, what is
the condition of the average slave? If he is put in a factory, he
probably has to work long hours on meager rations. He is lodged
in a kind of kennel; his only respite is on the great religious
holidays. He cannot contract valid marriage or enjoy any of the
normal conditions of family life. Still his evil state is partially
tempered by the fact that he has to work in constant association
with free workmen, and he seems to be treated with a moderate amount
of consideration and good camaraderie. On the whole he will have
much less to complain of (if he is honest and industrious) than
his successors in Imperial Rome.

In the household, conditions are on the whole better. Every Athenian
citizen tries to have at least ONE slave, who, we must grant, may
be a starving drudge of all work. The average gentleman perhaps
counts ten to twenty as sufficient for his needs. We know of
households of fifty. There must usually be a steward, a butler in
charge of the storeroom or cellar, a marketing slave, a porter,
a baker, a cook,[*] a nurse, perhaps several lady's maids,
the indispensable attendant for the master's walks (a graceful,
well-favored boy, if possible), the pedagogue for the children,
and in really rich families, a groom, and a mule boy. It is the