The treatment of slaves was a matter of theoretical discussion by philosophers
and moralists. Plato, who dispensed with them in his ideal Republic, in his Laws,
accepts the institution of slavery as a fact of life and his recommendations about their
treatment are made pragmatically from the point of view of the owner for whom
slavery is largely a management problem (Laws 6, 7766–7778a). The same can be
said of Xenophon in his Oeconomicus and Aristotle in his Politics. The latter goes
further, enunciating a doctrine of natural slavery: ‘Clearly, then, some individuals are
by nature free, others by nature slaves; and for these latter slavery is both expedient
and right’ (Politics1255a). A fragment of the fourth century comic poet Philemon
138 THE GREEKS
FIGURE 37 Tattooed Thracian slave girl with a jar on her head; the lines on her neck
and arms signify her status and origin, Attic red-figure hydria, Louvre, Paris
Source:© JEtherington