76 MINING IN 



CHAP. II. 



slave owners, much of the advantage gained 

 must have passed into their hands. Whole fami- 

 lies, consisting of hundreds of individuals, were 

 hired for these purposes, and worked under the 

 supervision of others,^ who were possessed of 

 knowledge and experience in mining operations, 

 but who were, notwithstanding, in like manner 

 hired slaves. In some cases these overseers, 

 though slaves, were the farmers of the mines ; 

 for it was not unusual in Athens for the pro- 

 prietors of manufactories, of workshops, and of 

 cultivated land, to farm them out to their own 

 slaves, or to the slaves of other owners. 



The common condition of such letting was, 

 that the overseer who hired the property with 

 the slaves was to pay daily a given sum for 

 each ; and this condition seems to have been the 

 same, whether the object let to farm was of an 

 agricultural, a manufacturing, or a mining na- 

 ture. The general rate of payment for slaves 

 in the mines was an obolus a day, or, in our 

 money, about three shillings a month ; besides 

 providing them with food and clothing. The 

 farmer also was bound to replace such slaves as 

 made their escape, and always to keep up the 

 number originally let to him. In order to pre- 

 vent their running away, the slaves were con- 

 stantly kept in companies and under rigid in- 

 spection. No work beyond what fear induced _ 

 them to perform was to be expected from la- 



