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Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists

BOOK 6, Pages 262-275

Translated by C.D.Yonge (1854). A few words and spellings have been changed.

See key to translations for an explanation of the format. The page numbers in the Greek text are shown in red. The chapter numbers in the translation are shown in green.


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[81.] G   [262] When Democritus had made this speech, and had asked for some drink in a narrow-necked sabrias, Ulpianus said, And what is this sabrias? And just as Democritus was beginning to treat us all to a number of interminable stories, in came a troop of servants bringing in everything requisite for eating. Concerning whom Democritus, continuing his discourse, spoke as follows:- I have always, O my friends, marvelled at the race of slaves, considering how abstemious they are, though placed in the middle of such numbers of dainties; for they pass them by, not only out of fear, but also because they are taught to do so; I do not mean being taught, as in the Slave-teacher of Pherecrates, but by early habituation; and without its being necessary to utter any express prohibition respecting such matters to them, as in the island of Cos, when the citizens sacrifice to Hera. For Macareus says, in his third book of his treatise on Coan Affairs, that, when the Coans sacrifice to Hera, no slave is allowed to enter the temple, nor does any slave taste any one of the things which are prepared for the sacrifice. And Antiphanes, in his Dyspratus, says -
  'Tis hard to see around one savoury cakes,
  And delicate birds half eaten; yet the slaves
  Are not allowed to eat the fragments even,
  As say the women.

And Epicrates, in his Dyspratus ['Hard to Sell'], introduces a servant expressing his indignation, and saying -
  What can be worse than, while the guests are drinking,
  To hear the constant cry of, Here, boy, here!
  And this that one may bear a chamber-pot
  To some vain beardless youth; and see around
  Half eaten savoury cakes, and delicate birds,
  Whose very fragments are forbidden strictly
  To all the slaves - at least the women say so;
  And him who drinks a cup men call a belly-god;
  And if he tastes a mouthful of solid food
  They call him greedy glutton:
from the comparison of which iambics, it is very plain that Epicrates borrowed Antiphanes's lines, and transferred them to his own play.

[82.] G   And Dieuchidas says, in his history of the Affairs of Megara- "Around the islands called Araeae (and they are between Cnidus and Syme) a difference arose, after the death of Triopas, among those who had set out with him on his expedition, and some returned home, and others remained with Phorbas, and came to Ialysus, and others proceeded with Periergus, and occupied the district of Cameirus. And on this it is said that Periergus uttered curses againt Phorbas, and on this account the islands were called Araeae. But Phorbas having met with shipwreck, he and Parthenia, the sister of Phorbas and Periergus, swam ashore to Ialysus, at the point called Schedia. And Thamneus met with them, as he happened to be hunting near Schedia, and took them to his own house, intending to receive them hospitably, and sent on a servant as a messenger to tell his wife to prepare everything necessary, as he was bringing home strangers. [263] But when he came to his house and found nothing prepared, he himself put corn into a mill, and everything else that was requisite, and then ground it himself and feasted them. And Phorbas was so delighted with this hospitality, that when he was dying himself he charged his friends to take care that his funeral rites should be performed by free men. And so this custom continued to prevail in the sacrifice of Phorbas, for none but free men minister at this sacrifice. And it is accounted profanation for any slave to approach it."

[83.] G   And since among the different questions proposed by Ulpianus, there is this one about the slaves, let us now ourselves recapitulate a few things which we have to say on the subject, remembering what we have in former times read about it. For Pherecrates, in his Boors, says -
  For no one then had any Manes, no,
  Nor home-born slaves; but the free women themselves
  Did work at everything within the house.
  And so at morn they ground the corn for bread,
  Till all the streets resounded with the mills.

And Anaxandrides, in his Anchises, says -
  Slaves are not citizens, my friend,
  Of any city; but fortune regulates
  And changes at will the state of these men.
  Many there are who are not free today,
  But will tomorrow free-men be of Sunium,
  And the day after public orators;
  For so the deity guides each man's helm.

[84.] G   And Poseidonius, the stoic philosopher, says in the eleventh book of his History [ Fr_8 ], "That many men, who are unable to govern themselves, by reason of the weakness of their intellect, give themselves up to the guidance of those who are wiser than themselves, in order that receiving from them care and advice, and assistance in necessary matters, they may in their turn requite them with such services as they are able to render. And in this manner the Mariandyni became subject to the people of Heracleia, promising to act as their subjects for ever, it they would supply them with what they stood in need of; having made an agreement beforehand, that none of them would be sold outside of the territory of Heracleia, but that they would stay in that district alone. And perhaps it is on this account that Euphorion the epic poet called the Mariandyni Bringers of Gifts, saying -
  And they may well be called Bringers of Gifts,
  Fearing the stern dominion of their kings.

And Callistratus the pupil of Aristophanes says that they called the Mariandyni tribute-bearers [δωροφόροι], by that appellation taking away whatever there is bitter in the name of servants, just as the Spartans did in respect of the Helots, the Thessalians in the case of the Penestae, and the Cretans with the Clarotae. But the Cretans call those servants who are in their houses chrysoneti ['bought with gold'], and those whose work lies in the fields Amphamiotae, being natives of the country, but people who have been enslaved by the chance of war; but they also call the same people Clarotae, because they have been distributed among their masters by lot (κλῆρος).

And Ephorus, in the third book of his Histories, says, "The Cretans call their slaves Clarotae, because lots have been drawn for them; and these slaves have some regularly recurring festivals in Cydonia, during which no freemen enter the city, but the slaves are the masters of everything, and have the right even to scourge the freemen." But Sosicrates, in the second book of his history of Cretan Affairs, says, "The Cretans call public servitude μνοία, but the private slaves they cell aphamiotae; and the perioeci, or peop1e who live in the adjacent districts, they call subjects. [264] And Dosiadas gives a very similar account in the fourth book of his history of Cretan Affairs.

[85.] G   But the Thessalians call those Penestae who wore not born slaves, but who have been taken prisoners in war. And Theopompus the comic poet, misapplying the word, says -
  The wrinkled counsellors of a Penestan master.

And Philocrates in the second book of his history of the Affairs of Thessaly, if at least the work attributed to him is genuine, says that the Penestae are also called Thessaloecetae, or servants of the Thessalians. And Archemachus in the third book of his history of the Affairs of Euboea, says, "When the Boeotians had founded Arnaea, those of them who did not return to Boeotia, but who took a fancy to their new country, gave themselves up to the Thessalians by agreement, to be their slaves; on condition that they should not take them out of the country, nor put them to death, but that they should cultivate the country for them, and pay them a yearly revenue for it. These men, therefore, abiding by their agreement, and giving themselves up to the Thessalians, were called at that time Menestae ['stayers']; but now they are called Penestae; and many of them are richer than their masters. And Euripides, in his Phrixus, calls them latriae in these words-
  Servant-toiler of my ancient home [λάτρις πενέστης ἁμὸς ἀρχαίων δόμων].

[86.] G   And Timaeus of Tauromenium, in the ninth book of his Histories, says, "It was not a national custom among the Greeks in former times to be waited on by purchased slaves;" and he proceeds to say, "And altogether they accused Aristotle of having departed from the Locrian customs; for they said that it was not customary among the Locrians, nor among the Phocians, to use either maid-servants or house-servants till very recently. But the wife of Philomelus, who took Delphi, was the first woman who had two maids to follow her. And in a similar manner Mnason, the companion of Aristotle, was much reproached among the Phocians, for having purchased a thousand slaves; for they said that be was depriving that number of citizens of their necessary subsistence for that it was a custom in their houses for the younger men to minister to the elder."

[87.] G   And Plato, in the sixth book of the Laws [ 776'b ], says,- "The whole question about servants is full of difficulty; for of all the Greeks, the system of the Helots among the Lacedaemonians causes the greatest perplexity and dispute, some people affirming that it is a wise institution, and some considering it as of a very opposite character. But the system of slavery among the people of Heracleia would cause less dispute than the subject condition of the Mariandyni; and so too would the condition of the Thessalian Penestae. And if we consider all these things, what ought we to do with respect to the acquisition of servants? For there is nothing sound in the feelings of slaves; nor ought a prudent man to trust them in anything of importance. And the wisest of all poets says [ Hom:Od_17'322 ] -
  Zeus fixed it certain that whatever day
  Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.

And it has been frequently shown by facts, that a slave is an objectionable and perilous possession; especially in the frequent revolts of the Messenians, and in the case of those cities which have many slaves, speaking different languages, in which many evils arise from that circumstance. And also we may come to the same conclusion from the exploits and sufferings of all sorts of robbers, who infest the Italian coasts as piratical vagabonds. And if any one considers all these circumstances, [265] he may well doubt what course ought to be pursued with respect to all these people. Two remedies now are left to us - either never to allow, for the future, our slaves to be one another's fellow-countrymen, and, as far as possible, to prevent their even speaking the same language; or to keep them well, not only for their sake, but still more for our own; and we should behave towards them with as little insolence as possible. But it is right to chastise them with justice; not admonishing them as if they were free men, so as to make them arrogant: and every word which we address to slaves ought to be, in some sort, a command. And a man ought never to play at all with his slaves, or jest with them, whether they be male or female. And as to the very foolish way in which many people treat their slaves, allowing them great indulgence and great licence, they only make everything more difficult for both parties: they make obedience harder for the one to practice, and authority harder for the other to exercise.

[88.] G   Now of all the Greeks, I conceive that the Chians were the first people who used slaves purchased with money, as is related by Theopompus, in the seventeenth book of his Histories; where he says,- "The Chians were the first of the Greeks, after the Thessalians and Lacedaemonians, who used slaves. But they did not acquire them in the same manner as those others did; for the Lacedaemonians and the Thessalians will be found to have derived their slaves from Greek tribes, who formerly inhabited the country which they now possess: the one having Achaean slaves, but the Thessalians having Perrhaebian and Magnesian slaves; and the one nation called their slaves Helots, and the others called them Penestae. But the Chians have barbarian slaves, and they have bought them at a price." Theopompus, then, has given this account. But I think that, on this account, the Deity was angry with the Chians; for at a subsequent period they were subdued by their slaves. Accordingly, Nymphodorus the Syracusan, in his Voyage along the Coast of Asia, gives this account of them :- "The slaves of the Chians deserted them, and escaped to the mountains; and then, collecting in great numbers, ravaged the country-houses about; for the island is very rugged and much overgrown with trees. But, a little before our time, the Chians themselves relate, that one of their slaves deserted, and took up his habitation in the mountains; and, being a man of great courage and very prosperous in his warlike undertakings, he assumed the command of the runaway slaves, as a king would take the command of an army; and though the Chians often made expeditions against him, they were able to effect nothing. And when Drimacus (for that was the name of this runaway slave) saw that they were being destroyed, without being able to effect anything, he addressed them in this language: 'O Chians! you who are the masters, this treatment which you are now receiving from your servants will never cease; for how should it cease, when it is God who causes it, in accordance with the prediction of the oracle? But if you will be guided by me, and if you will leave us in peace, then I will be the originator of much good fortune to you.'

[89.] G   "Accordingly, the Chians entered into a treaty with him, and made a truce for a certain time. Drimacus prepared measures and weights, and a private seal for himself; and, throwing it to the Chians, he said, 'Whatever I take from any one of you, I shall take according to these measures and these weights; and when I have taken enough, I will then leave the storehouses, having sealed them up with this seal. And as to all the slaves who desert from you, I will inquire what cause of complaint they have; and if they seem to me to have been really subject to any incurable oppression, which has been the reason of their running away, I will retain them with me; but if they have no sufficient or reasonable ground to allege, [266] I will send them back to their masters.' Accordingly, the rest of the slaves, seeing that the Chians agreed to this state of things very good-humouredly, did not desert nearly so much for the future, fearing the judgment which Drimacus might pass upon them. And the runaways who were with him feared him a great deal more than they did their own masters, and did everything that he required, obeying him as their general; for he punished the disobedient with great severity: and he permitted no one to ravage the land, nor to commit any other crime of any sort, without his consent. And at the time of festivals, he went about, and took from the fields wine, and such animals for victims as were in good condition, and whatever else the masters were inclined or able to give him; and if he perceived that any one was intriguing against him, or laying any plot to injure him or overthrow his power, he chastised him.

[90.] G   "Then (for the city had made a proclamation, that it would give a great reward to any one who took him prisoner, or who brought in his head,) this Drimacus, as he became older, calling one of his most intimate friends into a certain place, says to him, 'You know that I have loved you above all men, and you are to me as my child and my son, and as everything else. I now have lived long enough, but you are young and just in the prime of life. What, then, are we to do? You must show yourself a wise and brave man; for, since the city of the Chians offers a great reward to any one who shall kill me, and also promises him his freedom, you must cut off my head, and carry it to Chios, and receive the money which they offer, and so be prosperous.' But, when the young man refused, he at last persuaded him to do so; and so he cut off his head, and took it to the Chians, and received from them the rewards which they had offered by proclamation: and, having buried the corpse of Drimacus, he departed to his own country. And the Chians, being again injured and plundered by their slaves, remembering the moderation of him who was dead, erected a Heroum in their country, and called it the shrine of the Gentle Hero. And even now the runaway slaves bring to that shrine the first-fruits of all the plunder they get; and they say that Drimacus still appears to many of the Chians in their sleep, and informs them beforehand of the stratagems of their slaves who are plotting against them: and to whomsoever he appears, they come to that place, and sacrifice to him, where this shrine is."

[91.] G   Nymphodorus, then, has given this account; but in many copies of his history, I have found that Drimacus is not mentioned by name. But I do not imagine that any one of you is ignorant of what the prince of all historians, Herodotus [ 8.105 ], has said about Panionius of Chios, who castrated free boys and sold them, and the just punishment which he suffered.  # But Nicolaus the Peripatetic, and Poseidonius the Stoic [ Fr_38 ], in their Histories, both state that the Chians were enslaved by Mithridates, the tyrant of Cappadocia; and were given up by him, bound, to their own slaves, for the purpose of being transported into the land of the Colchians,- so really angry with them was the Deity, as being the first people who used purchased slaves, while most other nations provided for themselves by their own industry. And, perhaps, this is what the proverb originated in, "A Chian bought a master," which is used by Eupolis, in his Friends.

[92.] G   But the Athenians, having a prudent regard to the condition of their slaves, made a law that, there should be a charge of outrage [γραφὴ ὕβρεως], even against men who ill treated their slaves. Accordingly, Hypereides, the orator, in his speech against Mantitheus, on a charge of assault [αἰκία], says, [267] "They made these laws not only for the protection of freemen, but they enacted also, that even if any one personally ill-treated a slave, there should be a power of preferring an indictment against him who bad done so." And Lycurgus made a similar statement, in his first speech against Lycophron; and so did Demosthenes, in his oration against Meidias. And Malacus, in his Annals of the Siphnians, relates that some slaves of the Samians colonized Ephesus, being a thousand men in number; who in the first instance revolted against their masters, and fled to the mountain which is in the island, and from thence did great injury to the Samians. But, in the sixth year after these occurrences, the Samians, by the advice of an oracle, made a treaty with the slaves, on certain agreements; and the slaves were allowed to depart uninjured from the island and, sailing away, they occupied Ephesus, and the Ephesians are descended from these ancestors.

[93.] G   But Chrysippus says that there is a difference between a δοῦλος and an οἰκέτης; and he draws the distinction in the second book of his treatise on Similarity of Meaning, because he says that those who have been emancipated are still δοῦλοι, but that the term οἰκέτης is confined to those who are not discharged from servitude; for the οἰκέτης, says he, is a δοῦλος, being actually at the time the property of a master. And all the following are called δοῦλοι, as Cleitarchus says, in his treatise on Dialects; ἄζοι and θεράποντες and ἀκόλουθοι, and διάκονοι, and ὑπηρέται and also ἑπάμονες and λάτρεις. And Amerias says, that the slaves who are employed about the fields are called ἕρκιται. And Hermon, in his treatise on the Cretan Dialects, says that slaves of noble birth are called μνῶτες. And Seleucus says, that both men and maid servants are called ἄζοι; and that a female slave is often called ἀποφράση and βολίζη; and that a slave who is the son of a slave is called σίνδρον; and that ἀμφιπόλος is a name properly belonging to a female slave who is about her mistress's person, and that a πρόπολος is one who walks before her mistress.

But Proxenus, in the second book of his treatise on the Lacedaemonian Constitution, says that female servants are called among the Lacedaemonians, χαλκίδες. But Ion of Chios, in his Laertes, uses the word οἰκέτης as synonymous with δοῦλος, and says-
  Alas, O servant, go on wings and close
  The house lest any man should enter in.

And Achaeus, in his Omphale, speaking of the Satyr, says -
  How rich in slaves [εὔδουλος] and how well housed he was [εὔοικος];
using, however, in my opinion, the words εὔδουλος and εὔοικος in a peculiar sense, as meaning rather, good to his slaves and servants, taking εὔοικος from οἰκέτης. And it is generally understood that an οἰκέτης is a servant whose business is confined to the house, and that it is possible he may be a freeborn man.

[94.] G   But the poets of the old comedy, speaking of the old-fashioned way of life, and asserting that in olden time there was no great use of slaves, speak in this way. Cratinus, in his Pluti, says -
  As for those men, those heroes old, -
  Who lived in Saturn's time,
  When men did play at dice with loaves,
  And Aeginetan cakes
  Of barley well and brownly baked
  Were rolled down before men
  Who did in the palaestra toil,
  Full of hard lumps of dough . . .

And Crates says, in his Beasts -
  (A)   Then no one shall possess or own
  One male or female slave,
  But shall himself, though ne'er so old,
  Labour for all his needs.
  (B)   Not so, for I will quickly make
  These matters all come right..
  (A)   And what will your plans do for us?
  (B)   Why everything you call for
  Should of its own accord come forth,
  As if now you should say,
  O table, lay yourself for dinner,
  And spread a cloth upon you.
  You kneading-trough, prepare some dough;
  You cyathus, pour forth wine;
  Where is the cup? come hither, cup,
  And empty and wash yourself.
  Come up, O cake. You sir, you dish,
  Here, bring me up some beetroot.
  Come hither, fish. "I can't, for I
  Am raw on the other side."
  Well, turn round then and baste yourself
  With oil and melted butter.

[268] And immediately after this the man who takes up the opposite side of the argument says -
  But argue thus: I on the other hand
  Shall first of all bring water for the hot baths
  On columns raised as through the Paeonium
  Down to the sea, so that the stream shall flow
  Direct to every private person's bath.
  Then he shall speak and check the flowing water.
  Then too an alabaster box of ointment
  Shall of its own accord approach the bather,
  And sponges suitable, and also slippers.

[95.] G   And Telecleides puts it better than the man whom I have just quoted, in his Amphictyons, where he says-
  I will tell you now the life
  Which I have prepared for men.
  First of all the lovely Peace
  Everywhere was always by,
  Like spring water which is poured
  Over the hands of feasted guests.
  The earth produced no cause for fear,
  No pains and no diseases.
  And everything a man could want
  Came forth unasked for to him.
  The streams all ran with rosy wine,
  And barley-cakes did fight
  With wheaten loaves which first could reach
  A hungry man's open month.
  And each entreated to be eaten,
  If men loved dainty whiteness.
  Fish too came straight unto men's doors,
  And fried themselves all ready,
  Dished themselves up, and stood before
  The guests upon the tables.
  A stream of soup did flow along
  In front of all the couches,
  Rolling down lumps of smoking meat;
  And rivulets of white sauce
  Brought to all such as chose to eat
  The sweetest forced-meat balls.
  So that there was no lack, but all
  Did eat whatever they wanted.
  Dishes there were of boiled meat too,
  And sausages likewise and pasties;
  And roasted thrushes and rissoles
  Flew down men's throats spontaneously.
  Then there were sounds of cheesecakes too
  Crushed in men's hungry jaws:
  While the boys played with dainty bits
  Of tripe, and paunch, and liver.
  No wonder men did on such fare
  Get stout and strong as giants.

[96.] G   And in the name of Demeter, my companions, if these things went on in this way, I should like to know what need we should have of servants. But the ancients, accustoming us to provide for ourselves, instructed us by their actions while they feasted us in words. But I, in order to show you in what manner succeeding poets (since the most admirable Cratinus brandished the before-cited verses like a torch) imitated and amplified them, have quoted these plays in the order in which they were exhibited. And if I do not annoy you, (for as for the Cynics I do not care the least bit for them,) I will quote to you some sentences from the other poets, taking them also in regular order; one of which is that strictest Atticist of all, namely Pherecrates, who in his Miners says -
  (A)   But all those things were heaped in confusion
  By overgrown wealth, abounding altogether
  In every kind of luxury. There were rivers
  With tender pulse and blackest soup overflowing,
  Which ran down brawling through the narrow dishes,
  Bearing the crusts and spoons away in the flood.
  Then there were dainty closely kneaded cakes;
  So that the food, both luscious and abundant,
  Descended to the gullets of the dead.
  There were black-puddings and large boiling slices
  Of well-mixed sausages, which hissed within
  The smoking streamlet just like oysters.
  There too were cutlets of broiled fish well seasoned
  With sauce of every kind, and cook, and country.
  [269] There were huge legs of pork, most tender meat,
  Loading enormous platters; and boiled trotters
  Sending a savoury steam; and paunch of ox;
  And well-cured ribs of pork, red with salt,
  A dainty dish, on fried meat balls upraised.
  There too were cakes of groats well steeped in milk,
  In large flat dishes, and rich plates of beestings.
  (B)   Alas, you will destroy me. Why do you
  Remain here longer, when you thus may dive
  Just as you are beneath deep Tartarus?
  (A)   What will you say then when you hear the rest?
  For roasted thrushes nicely browned and hot
  Flew to the mouths of the guests, entreating them
  To deign to swallow them, besprinkled o'er
  With myrtle leaves and flowers of anemone,
  And plates of loveliest apples hung around
  Above our heads, hanging in air as it seemed.
  And maidens in the most transparent robes,
  Just come to womanhood, and crowned with roses,
  Did through a strainer pour full red cups
  Of fragrant wine for all who wished to drink.
  And whatsoever each guest did eat or drink
  Straight reappeared in twofold quantity.

[97.] G   And in his Persians he says -
  But what need, I pray you now,
  Have we of all you ploughmen,
  Or carters, mowers, reapers too,
  Or coopers, or brass-founders?
  What need we seed, or furrow's line?
  For of their own accord
  Rivers do flow down every road
  (Though half choked up with spice-cakes)
  Of rich black soup, which rolls along
  Within its greasy flood
  Achilles' fat barley-cake,
  And streams of sauce which flow
  Straight down from Plutus' own springs,
  For all the guests to relish.
  Meantime Zeus rains down fragrant wine,
  As if it were a bath,
  And from the roof red strings of grapes
  Hang down, with well made cakes,
  Watered the while with smoking soup,
  And mixed with savoury omelettes.
  Even all the trees upon the hills
  Will put forth leaves of paunches,
  Kids' paunches, and young cuttlefish,
  And smoking roasted thrushes.

[98.] G   And why need I quote in addition to this the passages from the Tagenistae of the incomparable Aristophanes? For you are all of you full of his mockery. And when I have just repeated the passage out of the Thurio-Persae of Metagenes I will say no more, and discard all notice of the Sirens of Nicophon, in which we find the following lines -
  Let it now snow white cakes of pulse;
  Let loaves arise like dew; let it rain soup;
  Let gravy roll down lumps of meat in the roads,
  And cheese-cakes beg the wayfarer to eat them.

But Metagenes says this-
  The river Crathis bears down unto us
  Huge barley-cakes, self-kneaded and self-baked.
  The other river, called the Sybaris,
  Rolls on large waves of meat and sausages,
  And boiled rays all wriggling the same way.
  And all these lesser streamlets flow along
  With roasted cuttlefish, and crabs, and lobsters;
  And, on the other side, with rich black-puddings
  And forced-meat stuffings; on the other side
  Are herbs and lettuces, and fried bits of pastry.
  [270] Above, fish cut in slices and self-boiled
  Rush to the mouth; some fall before one's feet,
  And dainty cheese-cakes swim around us everywhere.
And I know too that the Thurio-Persae and the play of Nicophon were never exhibited at all; on which account I mentioned them last.

[99.] G   Democritus now having gone through this statement distinctly and intelligently, all the guests praised him; but Cynulcus said,- O messmates, I was exceedingly hungry, and Democritus has given me no unpleasant feast; carrying me across rivers of ambrosia and nectar. And I, having my mind watered by them, have now become still more exceedingly hungry, having hitherto swallowed nothing but words; so that now it is time to desist from this interminable discussion, and, as the Paeanian orator says [ Demosthenes, 3'33 ], to take some of these things, "which if they do not put strength into a man, at all events prevent his dying" -
  For in an empty stomach there is no room
  For love of beauteous objects, since fair Aphrodite
  Is always hostile to a hungry man;
as Achaeus says in Aethon, a satyric drama. And it was borrowing from him that the wise Euripides wrote -
  Aphrodite abides in fullness, and avoids
  The hungry stomach.

And Ulpianus, who was always fond of contradicting him, said in reply to this, - But still,
  The market is of herbs and loaves too full.

But you, you dog, are always hungry, and do not allow us to partake of, or I should rather say devour, good discussion in sufficient plenty: for good and wise conversation is the food of the mind. And then turning to the servant he said,- O Leucus, if you have any remnants of bread, give them to the dogs. And Cynulcus rejoined,- If I had been invited here only to listen to discussions, I should have taken care to come when the forum was full; for that is the time which one of the wise men mentioned to me as the hour for declamations, and the common people on that account have called it πληθαγόρα:
  But if we are to bathe and sup on words,
  Then I my share contribute as a listener;
as Menander says; on which account I give you leave, you glutton, to eat your fill of this kind of food -
  But barley dearer is to hungry men
  Than gold or Libyan ivory;
as Achaeus the Eretrian says in his Cycnus.

[100.] And when Cynulcus had said this, he was on the point of rising up to depart; but turning round and seeing a quantity of fish, and a large provision of all sorts of other eatables being brought in, beating the pillow with his hand, he shouted out,-
  Gird thyself up, O poverty, and bear
  A little longer with these foolish babblers,
  For copious food and hunger sharp subdues thee.

But I now, by reason of my needy condition, do not speak dithyrambic poems, as Socrates says, but even epic poems too. For, reciting poems is very hungry work. For, according to Ameipsias, who said in his Sling, where he utters a prediction about you, O Larensis, -
  There are none of the rich men
  In the least like you, by Hephaestus,
  [271] Who enjoy a dainty table,
  And who every day can eat
  All delicacies that you wish.

For, as Heniochus says in his Busybody:
  Now I see a thing beyond belief -
  A prodigy; all sorts of kinds of fish
  Sporting around this cape-tenches and char,
  White and red mullet, rays, and perch, and eels,
  Tunnies, and blacktails, and cuttlefish and pipe-fish,
  And hake, and cod, and lobsters, crabs and scorpions.

I must, therefore, as the comic poet Metagenes says -
  Without a sign his knife the hungry draws,
  And asks no omen but his supper's cause -
endure and listen to what more you have all got to say.

[101.] And when he was silent, Masurius said,- But since some things have still been left unsaid in our discussion on servants, I will myself also contribute some "melody on love" to the wise and much loved Democritus. Philippus of Theangela, in his treatise on the Carians and Leleges, having made mention of the Helots of the Lacedaemonians and of the Thessalian Penestae, says, "The Carians also, both in former times, and down to the present day, use the Leleges as slaves." But Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his History [ Fr_8 ], says that the Byzantines used the Bithynians in the same manner, just as the Lacedaemonians do the Helots. But respecting those who among the Lacedaemonians are called Epeunacti, and they also are slaves, Theopompus gives a very clear account in the thirty-second book of his History, speaking as follows:- "When many of the Lacedaemonians had been slain in the war against the Messenians, those who were left being afraid lest their enemies should become aware of their desolate condition, put some of the Helots into the beds of those who were dead; and afterwards they made those men citizens, and called them Epeunacti, because they had been put into the beds of those who were dead instead of them." And the same writer also tells us, in the thirty-third book of his History, that among the Sicyonians there are some slaves who are called Catonacophori, being very similar to the Epeunacti. And Menaechmus gives a similar account in his History of the affairs of Sicyon, and says that there are some slaves called Catonacophori, who very much resemble the Epeunacti. And again, Theopompus, in the second book of his Philippics, says that the Arcadians had three hundred thousand slaves, whom they called Prospelatae, like the Helots.

[102.] But the class called Mothaces among the Lacedaemonians are freemen, but still not citizens of Lacedaemon. And Phylarchus speaks of them thus, in the twenty-fifth book of his History [ Fr_43 ] - "But the Mothaces are foster-brothers of Lacedaemonian citizens. For each of the sons of the citizens has one or two, or even more foster-brothers, according as their circumstances admit. The Mothaces are freemen then, but still not Lacedaemonian citizens; but they share all the education which is given to the free citizens; and they say that Lysander, who defeated the Athenians in the naval battle, was one of that class, having been made a citizen on account of his pre-eminent valour." And Myron of Priene, in the second book of his history of the Affairs of Messene, says, "The Lacedaemonians often emancipated their slaves, and some of them when emancipated they called Aphetae, and some they called Adespoti, and some they called Erycteres, and others they called Desposionautae, whom they put on board their fleets, and some they called Neodamodes, but all these were different people from the Helots." [272] And Theopompus, in the seventh book of his history of the Affairs of Greece, speaking of the Helots that they were also called Heleatae, writes as follows:- "But the nation of the Helots is altogether a fierce and cruel race. For they are people who have been enslaved a long time ago by the Spartans, some of them being Messenians, and some Heleatae, who formerly dwelt in that part of Laconia called Helos ['marsh']."

[103.] But Timaeus of Tauromenium, forgetting himself, (and Polybius of Megalopolis attacks him for the assertion, in the twelfth book of his Histories [ 12.6 ],) says that it is not usual for the Greeks to possess slaves. But the same man, writing under the name of Epitimaeus, (and this is what Ister the pupil of Callimachus calls him in the treatise which he wrote against him,) says that Mnason the Phocian had more than a thousand slaves. And in the third book of his History, Epitimaeus said that the city of the Corinthians was so flourishing that it possessed four hundred and sixty thousand slaves. On which account I imagine it was that the Pythian priestess called them 'The People who measured with a choenix'.  # But Ctesicles, in the third book of his Chronicles, says that in the hundred and fifteenth Olympiad, there was an investigation at Athens conducted by Demetrius Phalereus into the number of the inhabitants of Attica, and the Athenians were found to amount to twenty-one thousand, and the metics to ten thousand, and the slaves to four hundred thousand. But Nicias the son of Niceratus, as that admirable writer Xenophon has said in his book on Revenues [ 4.14 ], when he had a thousand servants, let them out to Sosias the Thracian to work in the silver mines, on condition of his paying him an obol a day for every one of them. And Aristotle, in his history of the Constitution of the Aeginetans, says that the Aeginetans had four hundred and seventy thousand slaves. But Agatharchides the Cnidian, in the thirty-eighth book of his history of the Affairs of Europe, says that the Dardanians had great numbers of slaves, some of them having a thousand, and some even more; and that in time of peace they were all employed in the cultivation of the land; but that in time of war they were all divided into regiments, each set of slaves having their own master for their commander.

[104.] After all these statements, Larensis rose up and said,- But each of the Romans (and this is a fact with which you are well acquainted, my friend Masurius) had a great many slaves. For many of them had ten thousand or twenty thousand, or even a greater number, not for the purposes of income, as the rich Nicias had among the Greeks; but the greater part of the Romans when they go forth have a large retinue of slaves accompanying them. And out of the myriads of Attic slaves, the greater part worked in the mines, being kept in chains:  # at all events Poseidonius, whom you are often quoting, the philosopher I mean, says [ Fr_35 ] that once they revolted and put to death the guards of the mines; and that they seized on the Acropolis on Sunium, and that for a very long time they ravaged Attica. And this was the time when the second revolt of the slaves took place in Sicily. And there were many revolts of the slaves, and more than a million of slaves were destroyed in them. And Caecilius, the orator from Cale Acte, wrote a treatise on the Servile Wars. And Spartacus the gladiator, having escaped from Capua, a city of Italy, about the time of the Mithridatic war, prevailed on a great body of slaves to join him in the revolt, (and he himself was a slave, being a Thracian by birth,) and overran the whole of Italy for a considerable time, [273] great numbers of slaves thronging daily to his standard.  # And if he had not died in a battle fought against Licinius Crassus, he would have caused no ordinary trouble to our countrymen, as Eunus did in Sicily.

[105.] But the ancient Romans were prudent citizens, and eminent for all kinds of good qualities.  # Accordingly Scipio, surnamed Africanus, being sent out by the Senate to arrange all the kingdoms of the world, in order that they might be put into the hands of those to whom they properly belonged, took with him only five slaves, as we are informed by Polybius and Poseidonius. And when one of them died on the journey, he sent to his agents at home to bring him another instead of him, and to send him to him.  # And Julius Caesar, the first man who ever crossed over to the British isles with a thousand vessels, had with him only three servants altogether, as Cotta, who at that time acted as his lieutenant-general, relates in his treatise on the History and Constitution of the Romans, which is written in our national language. But Smindyrides of Sybaris was a very different sort of man, my Greek friends, who, when he went forth to marry Agariste, the daughter of Cleisthenes, carried his luxury and ostentation to such a height, that he took with him a thousand slaves, fishermen, bird-catchers, and cooks. But this man, wishing to display how magnificently he was used to live, according to the account given to us by Chamaeleon of Pontus, in his book on Pleasure, (but the same book is also attributed to Theophrastus,) said that for twenty years he had never seen the sun rise or set; and this he considered a great and marvellous proof of his wealth and happiness. For he, as it seems, used to go to bed early in the morning, and to get up in the evening, being in my opinion a miserable man in both particulars. But Hestiaeus of Pontus boasted, and it was an honourable boast, that he had never once seen the sun rise or set, because he had been at all times intent upon study, as we are told by Nicias of Nicaea in his Successions.

[106.] What then are we to think? Had not Scipio and Caesar any slaves? To be sure they had, but they abided by the laws of their country, and lived with moderation, preserving the habits sanctioned by the constitution. For it is the conduct of prudent men to abide by those ancient institutions under which they and their ancestors have lived, and made war upon and subdued the rest of the world; and yet, at the same time, if there were any useful or honourable institutions among the people whom they have subdued, those they take for their imitation at the same time that they take the prisoners. And this was the conduct of the Romans in olden time; for they, maintaining their national customs, at the same time introduced from the nations whom they had subdued every relic of desirable practices which they found, leaving what was useless to them, so that they should never be able to regain what they had lost. Accordingly they learnt from the Greeks the use of all machines and engines for conducting sieges; and with these engines they subdued the very people of whom they had learnt them. And when the Phoenicians had made many discoveries in nautical science, the Romans availed themselves of these very discoveries to subdue them. And from the Etruscans they derived the practice of the entire army advancing to battle in close phalanx; and from the Samnites they learnt the use of the shield, and from the Iberians the use of the javelin. And learning different things from different people, they improved upon them: and imitating in everything the constitution of the Lacedaemonians, they preserved it better than the Lacedaemonians themselves; but now, having selected whatever was useful from the practices of their enemies, they have at the same time turned aside to imitate them in what is vicious and mischievous.

[107.] [274] For, as Poseidonius tells us, their national mode of life was originally temperate and simple, and they used everything which they possessed in an unpretending and unostentatious manner. Moreover they displayed wonderful piety towards the Deity, and great justice, and great care to behave equitably towards all men, and great diligence in cultivating the earth. And we may see this from the national sacrifices which we celebrate. For we proceed by ways regularly settled and defined. So that we bear regularly appointed offerings, and we utter regular petitions in our prayers, and we perform stated acts in all our sacred ceremonies. They are also simple and plain. And we do all this without being either clothed or attired as to our persons in any extraordinary manner, and without indulging in any extraordinary pomp when offering the first-fruits. But we wear simple garments and shoes, and on our heads we have rough hats made of the skins of sheep, and we carry vessels to minister in of earthenware and brass. And in these vessels we carry those meats and liquors which are procured with the least trouble, thinking it absurd to send offerings to the gods in accordance with our national customs, but to provide for ourselves according to foreign customs. And, therefore, all the things which are expended upon ourselves are measured by their use; but what we offer to the gods are a sort of first-fruits of them.

[108.] Now Mucius Scaevola was one of the three men in Rome who were particular in their observance of the Lex Fannia; Quintus Aelius Tubero and Rutilius Rufus being the other two, the latter of whom is the man who wrote the History of his country.  # Which law enjoined men not to entertain more than three people besides those in the house; but on market-days a man might entertain five. And these market-days happened three times in the month. The law also forbade any one to spend in provisions more than two drachmae and a half. And they were allowed to spend fifteen talents a year on cured meat and whatever vegetables the earth produces, and on boiled pulse. But as this allowance was insufficient, men gradually (because those who transgressed the law and spent money lavishly raised the price of whatever was to be bought) advanced to a more liberal style of living without violating the law.  # For Tubero used to buy birds at a drachma apiece from the men who lived on his own farms. And Rutilius used to buy fish from his own slaves who worked as fishermen for three obols for a pound of fish; especially when he could get what is called the Thurian; and that is a part of the sea-dog which goes by that name.  # But Mucius agreed with those who were benefited by him to pay for all he bought at a similar valuation. Out of so many myriads of men then these were the only ones who kept the law with a due regard to their oaths; and who never received even the least present; but they gave large presents to others, and especially to those who had been brought up at the same school with them. For they all clung to the doctrines of the Stoic school.

[109.]  # But of the extravagance which prevails at the present time Lucullus was the first originator, he who subdued Mithridates, as Nicolaus the Peripatetic relates. For he, coming to Rome after the defeat of Mithridates, and also after that of Tigranes, the king of Armenia, and having triumphed, and having given in an account of his exploits in war, proceeded to an extravagant way of living from his former simplicity, and was the first teacher of luxury to the Romans, having amassed the wealth of the two before-mentioned kings.  # But the famous Cato, as Polybius tells us in the thirty-first book of his History [ 31.25 ], was very indignant, and cried out, [275] that some men had introduced foreign luxury into Rome, having bought an earthen jar of pickled fish from Pontus for three hundred drachmae, and some beautiful boys at a higher price than a man might buy a field.

"But in former times the inhabitants of Italy were so easily contented, that even now," says Poseidonius, "those who are in very easy circumstances are used to accustom their sons to drink as much water as possible, and to eat whatever they can get. And very often," says he, "the father or mother asks their son whether he chooses to have pears or nuts for his supper; and then he, eating some of these things, is contented and goes to bed." But now, as Theopompus tells us in the first book of his history of the Actions of Philip, there is no one of those who are even tolerably well off who does not provide a most sumptuous table, and who has not cooks and a great many more attendants, and who does not spend more on his daily living than formerly men used to spend on their festivals and sacrifices.

And since now this present discussion has gone far enough, let us end this book at this point.


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