Runaway slaves 51 



Deceleia, is made to state 1 the advantages of that move thus 'For of 

 all the farm-stock in the country the bulk will at once come into your 

 possession, some by capture, and the rest of its own accord (avro^ara)! 

 I take the last words to refer especially to slaves, rustic slaves. In 

 recording the success of the plan, the historian tells 2 us that more than 

 20000 slaves, a large part of whom were artisans (^eipore^vai), deserted 

 to the enemy. We may guess that many or most of the artisan slaves 

 had escaped from Athens. Their loss would be felt in the reduction of 

 manufacturing output, so far as such enterprise was still possible at the 

 time, and perhaps in the dockyards. But the rest would be rustic slaves, 

 many of them (to judge by the map) from a district 3 in which there 

 were probably many small farms. On the other hand, the slaves wel- 

 comed by the Megarians were probably from larger estates in the 

 Thriasian plain. Turning from Attica, we find references to rustic slaves 4 

 in Corcyra (42760) and Ghios (41260), where they were numerous 

 and important in their effect on operations. And in other passages 

 where the slaves belonging to the people of this or that place are men- 

 tioned we are not to assume that only urban slaves are meant. For to 

 live in a town, and go out for the day's work on the land, was and is 

 a common usage in Mediterranean countries. An extreme case 5 is 

 where people live on an island and cross water to cultivate farms else- 

 where. It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that rich slave-owners, 

 who could afford overseers, did not need to reside permanently on their 

 estates. Such a man might have more than one farm, and in more than 

 one district, not necessarily in Attica at all, as Thucydides himself 

 exploited a mining concession in Thrace. In any case a well-equipped 

 ' country place ' was a luxury, and is characterized as such 6 in words 

 put into the mouth of Pericles, who as the democratic statesman was 

 concerned to stifle discontent by insinuating that it was a mere ex- 

 pression of the selfishness of the rich. 



The settlement of Athenians in colonies (dTroi/ciai) or on allotments 

 of conquered land (/cXrjpovxlai,), in the islands or on the seaboard has 

 been fully treated 7 by Dr Grundy. He shews that this movement had 

 two aims, the occupation of strategic points as an imperial measure of 

 security, and the provision of land-lots for poorer citizens as a measure 

 of economic relief. The latter purpose is part of a general plan for 

 reducing the financial liabilities of the state with respect to its citizen 

 population, the necessity for which Dr Grundy explains. By these 

 settlements abroad some surplus population was removed and provided 

 with means of livelihood. If the assumption of a surplus citizen 



1 VI 91 7. 2 VII 27 5 . 



3 Trygaeus in Aristoph Pax is a farmer from this district. 



4 in 73, vni 40 2. 6 in 88 3. 6 II 62 3. 

 7 opus cit chapters iv, vii. 



42 



