Without a sign his knife the hungry draws,
And asks no omen but his supper's cause—

endure and listen to what more you have all got to say.

101. And when he was silent, Masyrius said,—But since some things have still been left unsaid in our discussion on servants, I will myself also contribute some "melody on love" to the wise and much loved Democritus. Philippus of Theangela, in his treatise on the Carians and Leleges, having made mention of the Helots of the Lacedæmonians and of the Thessalian Penestæ, says, "The Carians also, both in former times, and down to the present day, use the Leleges as slaves." But Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his History, says that the Byzantians used the Bithynians in the same manner, just as the Lacedæmonians do the Helots. But respecting those who among the Lacedæmonians are called Epeunacti, and they also are slaves, Theopompus gives a very clear account in the thirty-second book of his History, speaking as follows:—"When many of the Lacedæmonians had been slain in the war against the Messenians, those who were left being afraid lest their enemies should become aware of their desolate condition, put some of the Helots into the beds of those who were dead; and afterwards they made those men citizens, and called them Epeunacti, because they had been put into the beds[426:1] of those who were dead instead of them." And the

[[427]]same writer also tells us, in the thirty-third book of his History, that among the Sicyonians there are some slaves who are called Catonacophori, being very similar to the Epeunacti. And Menæchmus gives a similar account in his History of the affairs of Sicyon, and says that there are some slaves called Catonacophori, who very much resemble the Epeunacti. And again, Theopompus, in the second book of his Philippics, says that the Arcadians had three hundred thousand slaves, whom they called Prospelatæ, like the Helots.

102. But the class called Mothaces among the Lacedæmonians are freemen, but still not citizens of Lacedæmon. And Phylarchus speaks of them thus, in the twenty-fifth book of his History—"But the Mothaces are foster-brothers of Lacedæmonian citizens. For each of the sons of the citizens has one or two, or even more foster-brothers, according as their circumstances admit. The Mothaces are freemen then, but still not Lacedæmonian citizens; but they share all the education which is given to the free citizens; and they say that Lysander, who defeated the Athenians in the naval battle, was one of that class, having been made a citizen on account of his preeminent valour." And Myron of Priene, in the second book of his history of the Affairs of Messene, says, "The Lacedæmonians often emancipated their slaves, and some of them when emancipated they called Aphetæ,[427:1] and some they called Adespoti,[427:2] and some they called Erycteres, and others they called Desposionautæ,[427:3] whom they put on board their fleets, and some they called Neodamodes,[427:4] but all these were different people from the Helots." And Theopompus, in the seventh book of his history of the Affairs of Greece, speaking of the Helots that they were also called Eleatæ, writes as follows:—"But the nation of the Helots is altogether a fierce and cruel race. For they are people who have been enslaved a long time ago by the Spartans, some of them being Messenians, and some Eleatæ, who formerly dwelt in that part of Laconia called Helos.

103. But Timæus of Tauromenium, forgetting himself, (and Polybius the Megalopolitan attacks him for the assertion,

[[428]]in the twelfth book of his Histories,) says that it is not usual for the Greeks to possess slaves. But the same man, writing under the name of Epitimæus, (and this is what Ister the pupil of Callimachus calls him in the treatise which he wrote against him,) says that Mnason the Phocian had more than a thousand slaves. And in the third book of his History, Epitimæus said that the city of the Corinthians was so flourishing that it possessed four hundred and sixty thousand slaves. On which account I imagine it was that the Pythian priestess called them The People who measured with a Chœnix. But Ctesicles, in the third book of his Chronicles, says that in the hundred and fifteenth Olympiad, there was an investigation at Athens conducted by Demetrius Phalereus into the number of the inhabitants of Attica, and the Athenians were found to amount to twenty-one thousand, and the Metics to ten thousand, and the slaves to four hundred thousand. But Nicias the son of Niceratus, as that admirable writer Xenophon has said in his book on Revenues, when he had a thousand servants, let them out to Sosias the Thracian to work in the silver mines, on condition of his paying him an obol a day for every one of them. And Aristotle, in his history of the Constitution of the Æginetæ, says that the Æginetans had four hundred and seventy thousand slaves. But Agatharchides the Cnidian, in the thirty-eighth book of his history of the Affairs of Europe, says that the Dardanians had great numbers of slaves, some of them having a thousand, and some even more; and that in time of peace they were all employed in the cultivation of the land; but that in time of war they were all divided into regiments, each set of slaves having their own master for their commander.

104. After all these statements, Laurentius rose up and said,—But each of the Romans (and this is a fact with which you are well acquainted, my friend Masyrius) had a great many slaves. For many of them had ten thousand or twenty thousand, or even a greater number, not for the purposes of income, as the rich Nicias had among the Greeks; but the greater part of the Romans when they go forth have a large retinue of slaves accompanying them. And out of the myriads of Attic slaves, the greater part worked in the mines, being kept in chains: at all events Posidonius, whom you are often quoting, the philosopher I mean, says that once

[[429]]they revolted and put to death the guards of the mines; and that they seized on the Acropolis on Sunium, and that for a very long time they ravaged Attica. And this was the time when the second revolt of the slaves took place in Sicily. And there were many revolts of the slaves, and more than a million of slaves were destroyed in them. And Cæcilius, the orator from Cale Acte, wrote a treatise on the Servile Wars. And Spartacus the gladiator, having escaped from Capua, a city of Italy, about the time of the Mithridatic war, prevailed on a great body of slaves to join him in the revolt, (and he himself was a slave, being a Thracian by birth,) and overran the whole of Italy for a considerable time, great numbers of slaves thronging daily to his standard. And if he had not died in a battle fought against Licinius Crassus, he would have caused no ordinary trouble to our countrymen, as Eunus did in Sicily.

105. But the ancient Romans were prudent citizens, and eminent for all kinds of good qualities. Accordingly Scipio, surnamed Africanus, being sent out by the Senate to arrange all the kingdoms of the world, in order that they might be put into the hands of those to whom they properly belonged, took with him only five slaves, as we are informed by Polybius and Posidonius. And when one of them died on the journey, he sent to his agents at home to bring him another instead of him, and to send him to him. And Julius Cæsar, the first man who ever crossed over to the British isles with a thousand vessels, had with him only three servants altogether, as Cotta, who at that time acted as his lieutenant-general, relates in his treatise on the History and Constitution of the Romans, which is written in our national language. But Smindyrides the Sybarite was a very different sort of man, my Greek friends, who, when he went forth to marry Agaroste, the daughter of Cleisthenes, carried his luxury and ostentation to such a height, that he took with him a thousand slaves, fishermen, bird-catchers, and cooks. But this man, wishing to display how magnificently he was used to live, according to the account given to us by Chamæleon of Pontus, in his book on Pleasure, (but the same book is also attributed to Theophrastus,) said that for twenty years he had never seen the sun rise or set; and this he considered a great and marvellous proof of his wealth and happiness. For he, as it seems, used