[1796] See Dig XXXII § 99 (Paulus), and XXXIII 7 passim, especially § 25¹.
[1797] That religious scruple was opposed to keeping members of the same race-unit in slavery is most probable. This trans Tiberim rule is known from Gellius XX 1 § 47, referring to debt-slaves. Greeks however, even when abhorring the enslavement of Greek by Greek in principle, did not discontinue the practice. E Meyer Kl Schr p 202 compares the medieval scruple in reference to brother Christians. See also his remarks p 177. For Hebrew law and custom see Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903) vol IV and Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1902) vol IV, articles Slavery.
[1798] Different also from the position of a food-producer class in a great territorial state, being based on local conditions.
[1799] Illustrated with great clearness in the provisions of the Gortyn laws.
[1800] Varro RR I 17 § 2 on obaerarii or obaerati.
[1801] The relative importance of land and the means of cultivation [especially oxen] in early times, the power thus gained by chiefs granting cattle to tenants, and the connexion of these phenomena with legends of debt-slavery, are instructively discussed in Maine’s Early history of Institutions, lecture VI.
[1802] Mr G G Coulton kindly reminds me of an analogy observable in the history of Art. It is progressive on simple lines up to a certain point. Then it begins to ramify, and differences of taste become more acute. Hence an anarchy of taste, driving men to yearn (like Ruskin, Morris, etc.) for the old simplicity. So the peasant up to a point is useful and noble. But fresh currents of civilization alter his position. Then men yearn for the old simplicity, only defective through being essentially simple.
[1803] Mr Zimmern, The Greek Commonwealth pp 265 foll, has some interesting remarks on craftsmen as wage-earners, and points out their preference for serving the state rather than private employers. The latter plan would have put them almost in the position of slaves.
[1804] When food was provided, we must reckon it as part of his wage.
[1805] A vast number of Greek records of manumission refer to such cases.