122 Slaves and other farm-stock 



There no great cities drew the people away from the country. A 

 hardy and numerous population supplied the material for national 

 armies whenever needed, and loyalty to the reigning king gave unity 

 to national action. Hence the long domination of Macedon in Greece; 

 the only serious opposition being that of the Aetolian League. Of all 

 the Successor-kingdoms, Macedon alone was able to make any stand 

 against the advance of Rome. 



It remains to consider the few indications I can hardly call them 

 references from which we can get a little light on the labour-question. 

 The passages cited from Theophrastus and Theocritus point to the 

 prevalence of slave-labour. And the same may be said of Polybius. 

 In speaking 1 of the blunder in exaggerating the value of the booty 

 taken at Megalopolis, he says ' Why, even in these more peaceful and 

 prosperous days you could not raise so great a sum of money in all 

 the Peloponnese out of the mere movables (eV/7r\a>z/) unless you took 

 slaves into account (^o>pU cr&>/i,aTa>i>).' His word for live-stock not 

 human is Ope^ara. Evidently to him slave-property is a large item in 

 the value of estates. Again, speaking of the importance of Byzantium 2 

 on the Pontic trade-route, he insists on the plentiful and useful supply 

 of bestial and human stock to Greece by this traffic. The high farming 

 of rural Elis 3 is shewn in its being full of crcJ/Ltara and farm-stock 

 (fcaraa Kevfjs). Hence these ' bodies ' formed a considerable part of the 

 booty taken there by Philip. And in the claims 4 made at Rome in 

 183 BC against Philip a part related to slave-property. References to 

 the sale of prisoners of war, to piracy and kidnapping, are frequent: 

 but they only concern us as indicating time-honoured means of supply- 

 ing the slave-market. As for rowing ships, so for heavy farm-work, 

 able-bodied men were wanted. At a pinch such slaves could be, and 

 were, employed in war 6 , with grant or promise of manumission : but 

 this was a step only taken in the last resort. A curious remark 6 of 

 Polybius when speaking of Arcadia must not be overlooked. In 

 220 Be an Aetolian force invaded Achaia and penetrated into northern 

 Arcadia, where they took the border town of Cynaetha, and after 

 wholesale massacre and pillage burnt it on their retreat. The city had 

 for years suffered terribly from internal strife, in which the doings of 

 restored exiles had played a great part. Polybius says that the 

 Cynaethans were thought to have deserved the disaster that had now 

 fallen upon them. Why? Because of their savagery (djpioTrjro^). 

 They were Arcadians. The Arcadians as a race-unit (edvos) enjoy a 



1 n 62. 2 iv 38. 3 iv 73, 75. 4 xxni i n. 



5 In the famous case of the siege of Rhodes in 305-4 BC (Diodorus xx 84, 100) freedom 

 seems to have been a reward, as has been pointed out by A Croiset. 



6 iv 20, 21. Compare Vergil Buc X 32-3 soli cantare periti Arcades, vii 4-5. 



