I] FARM EQUIPMENT— SLAVES 51 



who are able to stand hard work, who are not less 

 than twenty-two years old, and who will be quick 

 to learn the work of a farm. You may form an 

 opinion about this from the way they have performed 

 other tasks, or by asking those of them who are 

 new to farm work what they have been accustomed 

 to do when with their former master. The slaves 

 should not be timid nor yet of too high spirit. Those 

 ^et over them ought to know how to read and write 

 and should have received some slight education; 

 they should be of good character and older than the 

 labourers mentioned above — for the latter obey them 

 more readily than they do younger men. In addition 

 to this the one quality necessary in an overseer is 

 practical skill in farm work: for his duty is not 

 merely to give orders, but to set an example, that 

 those under him may imitate him as he works, and 

 realize that his superiorposition is not without cause, 

 S but is the result of superior knowledge. Nor must 

 an overseer be allowed to enforce his orders by the 

 whip rather than by words, provided that the same 

 lesult can be obtained equally well by the latter. It 

 is well, too, not to have too many slaves of the 

 same tribe, for this is a principal cause of quarrels 

 in the household. 



You should quicken the interest of the over- 

 seers in their work by means of rewards, and should 

 see that they have something of their own, and 

 women slaves to live with them and bear them 

 children, for this makes them steadier and more 

 attached to the estate. The slaves from Epirus are 



