Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The People 111
in the mines were terrible, and work continued uninterruptedly for
24 hours a day. From the discovery of miners’ lamps containing oil,
it has been estimated that shifts were 10 hours in length.
Only occasionally do sources shed light on the terrible living conditions that
some slaves faced, as in the following passage.
Slaves who work in the mines produce unimaginable revenue for their masters,
wearing their bodies out toiling day and night in the shafts underground. Many
of them die due to the terrible conditions. They get no respite or interruption in
their toil but are forced by their overseers, who beat them, to endure their terrible
conditions. And so their lives are thrown away, though there are some who
endure the hardship over a long period of time, due to their physical strength
and psychological stamina. For them death is preferable to life because of the
enormity of their sufferings. (Diodorus Siculus 5.38.1)
Greeks as Slaves
It has already been noted that Greeks were sometimes constrained
to sell themselves into slavery as a result of debt, a practice that
may well have persisted in parts of the Greek world throughout
antiquity. From around 275 b.c.e. onward, Greeks as prisoners of
war began to arrive in Rome, where they were sold into slavery.
The first influx of Greek prisoners occurred after the battle of Pydna
in 168 b.c.e., when the Romans defeated the Macedonian king Perseus.
A second wave occurred in the 80s b.c.e. , following the conclusion
of the wars fought against Mithradates VI of Pontos.
Most well-to-do Roman households would have aspired to own
a Greek slave as a status symbol. It is therefore likely that Greeks
would have been treated better than slaves of any other ethnicity.
Since, moreover, Greek males tended to be literate, they were often
placed in positions of trust and authority, notably as tutors. Because
the Romans regularly freed their slaves, many Greeks would eventually
have found themselves in competition with freeborn Romans,
not least as clients of their former masters, who would have subsequently
tended to their welfare. Ramsey MacMullen (Changes in the
Roman Empire, 179) has suggested that, around the middle of the
first century b.c.e., Rome may even have tied with Alexandria for
first place as the city with the largest Greek-speaking population.
Conclusions
Although it had its critics, the institution of slavery was never
seriously challenged in the ancient world. Even philosophers such
as the Cynics and Stoics, who professed to believe in the brother-