In my dissertation one of the topics that I will address on in the Hellenistic period is how Greeks conceptualized their slaves in their cultural imagination. This approach is important because it is clear that the Greeks on the one hand understood perfectly well that “slave” was a legal label that did not reflect all the nuances of one’s character. However, the Greeks were also quite willing to do the opposite: that is, to label certain groups of people as inherently slavish.
The conflict between these two positions most readily comes to the fore in Greek complaints about how slaves appear the same as everyone else. The most famous example is that of the Old Oligarch that I quoted in an earlier post. Other examples include Demosthenes’ comments:
“And not only did they go off with my furniture, men of the jury, but they were even on the point of taking away my son, as though he were a slave, until Hermogenes, one of my neighbors, met them and told them that he was my son.” (Against Evergus and Mnesibulus 61, trans. Vlassopoulos).
“More than this, as they were neighbors and my farm adjoined theirs, they sent into it in the daytime a young boy who was an Athenian, and put him up to plucking off the flowers from my rose-bed, in order that, if I caught him and in a fit of anger put him in bonds or struck him, assuming him to be a slave, they might bring against me an indictment for assault.” (Again Nicostratus 16, trans. Vassopoulos)
In both of these examples a citizen is assumed to be able to pass as a slave easily. However, I think that it is important to keep in mind the rhetorical nature of these examples: in both of them Demosthenes is attempting to paint his opponents in the worst light possible. In the first, he wants to describe them as greedy beyond belief, so that they would even kidnap son since they were not content with the furniture. In the second, he wants to demonstrate the passion of their hatred for him and the lengths to which they will concoct schemes to indict him. Which is to say that I would be very hesitant to assume that either of these events happened as Demosthenes described them but I think that I we can talk Vlassopoulos’ word that they are further demonstrate for the blurry lines between slaves and Athenian citizens.
It is important to remember though that blurry lines do not mean that there are no distinctions. Indeed, Athenian laws were constructed so that Athenian men could operate at the expense of women, slaves and metics. The penalties for violating these boundaries was severe, as evidenced by this Dinarchus:
“You are the people who, for crimes far smaller than those Demosthenes has committed, have inflicted on men severe and irrevocable penalties. It was you who killed Menon the miller, because he kept a free boy from Pellene in his mill. You punished with death Themistius of Aphidna, because he assaulted the Rhodian lyre-player at the Eleusinian festival, and Euthymachus, because he put the Olynthian girl in a brothel.” (Dinarchus 1.23 trans. Burtt)
Here Dinarchus recalls how the Athenians sentenced a certain Menon to death because he had enslaved an Athenian citizen (Pellene is part of Attica). This Menon apparently took advantage of the how slaves and citizens are visually indistinguishable, but this tactic failed in the long term. Just as Hermogenes testified to the citizen status of Demosthenes’ son, presumably someone eventually testified to the citizen status of this slave boy, a process that began the lawsuit that resulted in Menon’s death.
The conflict between these two positions most readily comes to the fore in Greek complaints about how slaves appear the same as everyone else. The most famous example is that of the Old Oligarch that I quoted in an earlier post. Other examples include Demosthenes’ comments:
“And not only did they go off with my furniture, men of the jury, but they were even on the point of taking away my son, as though he were a slave, until Hermogenes, one of my neighbors, met them and told them that he was my son.” (Against Evergus and Mnesibulus 61, trans. Vlassopoulos).
“More than this, as they were neighbors and my farm adjoined theirs, they sent into it in the daytime a young boy who was an Athenian, and put him up to plucking off the flowers from my rose-bed, in order that, if I caught him and in a fit of anger put him in bonds or struck him, assuming him to be a slave, they might bring against me an indictment for assault.” (Again Nicostratus 16, trans. Vassopoulos)
In both of these examples a citizen is assumed to be able to pass as a slave easily. However, I think that it is important to keep in mind the rhetorical nature of these examples: in both of them Demosthenes is attempting to paint his opponents in the worst light possible. In the first, he wants to describe them as greedy beyond belief, so that they would even kidnap son since they were not content with the furniture. In the second, he wants to demonstrate the passion of their hatred for him and the lengths to which they will concoct schemes to indict him. Which is to say that I would be very hesitant to assume that either of these events happened as Demosthenes described them but I think that I we can talk Vlassopoulos’ word that they are further demonstrate for the blurry lines between slaves and Athenian citizens.
It is important to remember though that blurry lines do not mean that there are no distinctions. Indeed, Athenian laws were constructed so that Athenian men could operate at the expense of women, slaves and metics. The penalties for violating these boundaries was severe, as evidenced by this Dinarchus:
“You are the people who, for crimes far smaller than those Demosthenes has committed, have inflicted on men severe and irrevocable penalties. It was you who killed Menon the miller, because he kept a free boy from Pellene in his mill. You punished with death Themistius of Aphidna, because he assaulted the Rhodian lyre-player at the Eleusinian festival, and Euthymachus, because he put the Olynthian girl in a brothel.” (Dinarchus 1.23 trans. Burtt)
Here Dinarchus recalls how the Athenians sentenced a certain Menon to death because he had enslaved an Athenian citizen (Pellene is part of Attica). This Menon apparently took advantage of the how slaves and citizens are visually indistinguishable, but this tactic failed in the long term. Just as Hermogenes testified to the citizen status of Demosthenes’ son, presumably someone eventually testified to the citizen status of this slave boy, a process that began the lawsuit that resulted in Menon’s death.