the attic stelai - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

THE ATTIC STELAI 277
For purposes of comparison, the following evidence from fourth-century Athenian
writers is presented.4 The table is based in part on Westermann, R.E., Supplement
VI, 1935, s.v. Sklaverei, 915-916.
TABLE: PRICES OF SLAVES IN FOURTH-CENTURY AUTHORS
Reference
Price
Xenophon Mem., II, 5, 2 Prices varied 50-1000 dr. per slave
Vect., IV, 23
180 dr. (average price for slaves working in
silver mines. Computed) .6
Demosthenes XXVII, 9 200 dr. apiece (20 pawned in lieu of a debt
and 18
of 4000 dr.).7
XXVII, 9
300-600 dr. (32-33 slaves in sword-factory
worth 500-600 dr. each; none less than
300 dr.).
XXVII, 18
200 dr.
XLI, 8
200 dr.
[Demosthenes] LIII, 1
125 dr.
LIX, 29
3000 dr. (for a courtesan)
Hyperides III (V), 2 300 dr. (for a courtesan)
The average price in 414 B.C. is seen to be somewhat lower than the prices of the
fourth century, but it must be borne in mind that most of the fourth-century literary
references are to skilled artisans who naturally brought a large sum. The effect which
the skill of a slave had on his value comes out clearly from a passage in Aischines
which gives the profit of a shoemaker as two obols a day, and of an overseer three
obols; 8 whereas Xenophon had computed the profit of a slave in the mines as an obol
a head.9
The following table shows the nationalities of all slaves for whom the sales price
is completely preserved in our inscriptions:
4For slave prices in Greece after 200 B.C., see J. A. 0. Larsen, " Roman Greece," Economic
Survey, IV, p. 414. The majority of prices in this period range from 300 to 500 drachmas.
5 Of the prices of slaves recorded in W. L. Westermann's important presentation in R.E., s.v.
Sklaverei, 915, eight will be found to be different from the prices given in our tables. Westermann's
reference to the editio minor is erroneous, and it is possible that he was working from an incorrect
copy. These same errors are perpetuated in his The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity,
Philadelphia, 1955, p. 14. Moreover, Westermann did not utilize the new evidence of our document.
6 See F. Oertel, Rh. Mus., LXXIX, 1930, pp. 236-237. Cf. J. H. Thiel, Xenophontos Poroi,
Diss. Amsterdam, 1922, pp. 52-54.
7 The slaves were presumably worth more on the open market.
8 I, Against Timarchos, 97.
9 Vect., IV, 23.