In Ancient Greece it was extremely common for every household to own a slave. Slavery at this time underpinned the entire fabric of the society. All aspects of life including business, family and political life relied on a class of people who carried out menial and degrading tasks for their masters (Corr, 2000). The number of slaves in Ancient Greek times is somewhat varied, Dillon and Garland suggest that in 430 BC there may have been 70,000 slaves in Athens and at the time of it's greatest prosperity there may have been as many as 80-100,000. This essay will discuss how Greek slaves were acquired, how were they treated and were they a significant element in the work force? In order to answer this question properly I must first define what a slave is. A slave is someone who is the property of somebody else, according to the laws of the place they live in (History for kids, date unknown). The slaves in Ancient Greek times were thought of as property by their masters and were assigned names which they were called by and weren't permitted to use their own birth name. Much like we name a car in today's society.
There many ways in which salves could be acquired. A person could be born into slavery, as was the case for Laios' servant (Dillon and Garland 2000, 11.6). A person could also become a slave because their parents abandoned them as an infant, a passerby could claim the newborn baby as their own and make them a slave of the household. Slaves were often obtained during war times. If a city was attacked the inhabitants were commonly taken prisoner and made slaves. It was common for the army to have slaves to carry their baggage and perform small tasks such as preparing food (Dillon and Garland 2000). During the war between the Athenians and the Melians in the 5th Century BC, the Athenians killed many of the melian men and enslaved the women and children (Dillon and Garland 2000, 11.
