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

THE ATTIC STELAI 281
foreign-born, three were homebred, and nine others may have been Greeks or born in
Greece. The ratio of foreigners to Greeks, then, was at least as high as 28:12, or 70%0,
and only 7127% of the slaves were homebred. For purposes of comparison, Glotz's
figures from the inscriptional deeds of manumission found at Delphi show that of 841
slaves freed, 217, or roughly 25%, were 'born in the house.' 3 One would expect a
percentage higher than normal from the Delphic manumissions because a master would
be more willing to free servants whom he had known since their childhood.
POSSESSIONS
Our lists preserve only the partial record of the sale of the property of one slave.
This slave, Aristarchos, had been owned by Adeimantos of Skambonidai, and is
described as a skytotomos. His possessions are itemized in VI, lines 33-46. No prices
are preserved. His property, insofar as the items can be restored, included beds and
tables, possessions of no high value. In the fourth century, according to Isaios, II,
Estate of Menekles, 29 and 35, a certain slave Menekles had goods to the value of
7000 drachmas, and in Isaios, XI, Estate of Hagnios, 42, it is stated that the value of
the private property of the slave Stratokles after his death amounted to 5 talents
3000 drachmas.38
VII. TILES AND BRICKS
I. TILES
In Stelai II and VII, we have preserved four terms meaning 'tile.' They are as
follows:
KaXvTr-71P
KEpac.K
. 1*
KEpauom ar-eya-rrY)p
According to Bluimner,1 the general terms for roof tile are keramis and keramos.2
The convex cover tile (Latin: imbrex) is kalypter. The concave bottom tile, flat in
the middle with flanged edges, is the keramos or the keramos stegaster (Latin:
37 Ibid., p. 230.
88
On the general subject of the possessions of slaves, see W. L. Westermann, R.E., s.v.
Sklaverei, 911 if.
1 Technologie, II, pp. 30-31. Cf. A. Jarde in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.vv. Tectum
and Tegula; and F. Ebert in R.E., s.v. Tegula.
2Thus, Thucydides (II, 4, 2; III, 22, 4 and 74, 1; IV, 48, 2) seems to use the two words
synonymously. Starkie (ad Aristophanes, Nubes, 1127) incorrectly defines keramos as 'unbaked
tile.'