but the justification fails 79 



such as the Peiraeus. It is also worth noticing that we find favourable 

 mention of apprenticeship 1 as a method of learning a trade. But this 

 principle also seems not applied to agriculture. Again, we are told 2 in 

 the Laws that one who has never served (&ov\vcra<;) will never turn 

 out a creditable master (BeffTror^). From the context this would seem 

 to refer only to the wardens of the country (a<ypov6/j,oi), who must be 

 kept under strict discipline in order to perform very responsible duties. 

 It does not apply to farmers. Another curious rule 3 is that kidnapping 

 of men is not to be allowed. Yet there are bought slaves, and there- 

 fore a market. That the dealer in human flesh should be despised 4 by 

 his customers is a feeling probably older than Plato, and it lasted down 

 to the days of Uncle Tonfs Cabin. In view of Plato's acceptance of the 

 sharp line drawn between Greek and Barbarian (and this does touch 

 rustic slavery) it is interesting to note that he observed 5 with care the 

 different characters of alien peoples. He also refers 8 to them without 

 contempt in various contexts side by side with Greeks, and cites 7 their 

 common belief as a proof of the existence of the gods. 



If I may venture to make a general comment on Plato's position 

 in relation to the labour-question, I would remark that he is already in 

 the same difficulty which proved embarrassing to Aristotle, and which 

 has always beset those who seek to find a theoretical justification for 

 slavery. True, he is less definite and positive than Aristotle . but the 

 attempt to regard a human being as both a man and a chattel is a 

 failure. This point need not be further pressed here. But it is well to 

 observe that agriculture is the department in which the absurdity most 

 strikingly appears. Heavy farm-labour without prospect of personal 

 advantage was recognized as a function that no man would willingly 

 perform. Hence to be sent to labour on a farm was one of the punish- 

 ments that awaited the offending domestic slave. Hence overseers 

 were employed to exact from rustic slaves their daily task under the 

 menace of severe and often cruel punishments. Hence the humaner 

 masters (as Xenophon shews us) tried to secure more cheerful and 

 effective service by a system of little rewards for good work. In short 

 there was in practical life a miserable attempt to treat the slave both 

 as a brute beast and as a moral being capable of weigiiing con-equences 

 and acting accordingly. One form of reward, manumission, was 

 apparently not at this time common 8 in Greece: and it was one not 



1 Republ 467 a, Laws 720 a, b. 2 Laws 762 e. 



3 Laws 823. 4 Republ 344 b. 



5 Republ 435 ^-436 a, Laws 747 c. 6 Rep 423 b, 452 c, 544 d, Laws 840 e. 



7 Laws 886 a, 887 e. 



8 It is not easy to reach a firm opinion on this matter. The inscribed records are nearly 

 all of a much later age. But even a more informal method of manumission would surely, if 

 common, have left more clearly marked traces in literature. See Index, Manumission. 



