“The Athenians truly have enslaved your country; and the others would regain its freedom.”
Chap. 64. Ἀπελείπετε γὰρ αὐτὴν, καὶ παραβὰντες, ξυγκατεδουλοῦσθε μᾶλλον Αἰγινήτας, καὶ ἄλλους τινὰς τῶν ξυνομοσάντων, ἤ διεκωλύετε.
“You renounced, you violated first the oaths, which rather concurred to enslave the Æginetæ and some other people of the same association, than endeavoured to prevent it.”
Chap. 70. Ὑπάγουσιν αὐτον οὗτοι οἱ ἄνδρες εἰς δίκην, λέγοντες Ἀθηναίοις τὴν Κέρκυραν καταδουλοῦν.
“And therefore against him the accomplices prefer an accusation, as plotting how to subject Corcyra to Athenian slavery.”
Chap. 71. Δράσαντες δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ ξυγκαλέσαντες Κερκυραίους, εἶπον ὅτι ταῦτα καὶ βέλτιστα εἴη, καὶ ἥκιστ’ ἄν δουλωθεῖεν ὑπ’ Ἀθηναίων.
“After this bold assassination, they summoned the Corcyreans to assemble immediately, where they justified their proceedings as most highly for the public good, and the only expedient of preventing Athenian slavery.”
Chap. 73. Τῇ δ’ ὑστεραίᾳ ἠκροβολίσαντό τε ὀλίγα, καὶ ἐς τοὺς ἀγροὺς περιέπεμπον ἀμφότεροι, τοὺς δούλους παρακαλοῦντες τε, καὶ ἐλευθερίαν ὑπισχνούμενοι. καὶ τῷ μὲν δήμῳ τῶν οἰκετῶν τὸ πλῆθος παρεγένετο ξύμμαχον, τοῖς δ’ ἐτέροις ἐκ τῆς ἠπείρου ἐπίκουροι ὀκτακόσιοι.
“The day following they skirmished a little with their missive weapons, and both parties sent out detachments into the field to invite concurrence of the slaves, upon a promise of their freedom. A majority of the slaves came in to the assistance of the people, and the other party got eight hundred auxiliaries from the continent.”
It will be noticed that οἰκετῶν in this passage is also translated slave; but the οἰκετος was a slave whose condition was above the mere δοῦλος. In English the word will imply a house-slave. The οἰκετος enjoyed a greater portion of his master’s confidence, and consequently was under a less rigorous government. The truth of what Thucydides states is evident to those acquainted with the character: the higher class of slaves ever take sides with their masters in such cases. It is this word St. Paul uses, by which he describes the character of Onesimus in his letter to Philemon. He had acted as Paul’s house-slave at Rome.