Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/202

178 of the Hellenic world; other States had the same advantage, and most of them used it in a much narrower spirit than Athens. The number of slaves in Attica is now estimated at 100,000 at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, as against a free population of about 135,000. And this means that all their menial work, and no doubt a great part of the work which is now done by what we call the industrial classes, was done for the Athenians by persons who were in no sense members of the State, who had neither will nor status of their own, and whose one duty in life was to obey the orders of their masters. The citizen at Athens had leisure to attend to his public duties, to educate himself for them, to enjoy himself at festivals and at the theatre, chiefly because he had at home and in his workshop a sufficient number of slaves to carry on his affairs in his absence. It need hardly be said that from all such education, public business, and enjoyment, the slave was most carefully excluded.

This is not the place to enter into a discussion of slavery, either at Athens or in the ancient world generally. I shall be content with hazarding the remark that, all things considered, it is hard to grudge Athens her 100,000 slaves, if they really were, as I think we must believe, essential to the realisation of that "good life" of the free minority