previous next

Now of all the Greeks, I conceive that the Chians were the first people who used slaves purchased with money, as is related by Theopompus, in the seventeenth book of his Histories; where he says,—“The Chians were the first of the Greeks, after the Thessalians and Lacedæmonians, who used slaves. But they did not acquire them in the same manner as those others did; for the Lacedæmonians and the Thessalians will be found to have derived their slaves from Greek tribes, who formerly inhabited the country which they now possess: the one having Achean slaves, but the Thessalians having Perrhæbian and Magnesian slaves; and the one nation called their slaves Helots, and the others called them Penestæ. But the Chians have barbarian slaves, and they have bought them at a price.” Theopompus, then, has given this account. But I think that, on this account, the Deity was angry with the Chians; for at a subsequent period they were subdued by their slaves. Accordingly, Nymphodorus the Syracusan, in his Voyage along the Coast of Asia, gives this account of them:—"The slaves of the Chians deserted them, and escaped to the mountains; and then, collecting in great numbers, ravaged the country-houses about; for the island is very rugged, and much overgrown with trees. But, a little before [p. 417] our time, the Chians themselves relate, that one of their slaves deserted, and took up his habitation in the mountains; and, being a man of great courage and very prosperus in his warlike undertakings, he assumed the command o the runaway slaves, as a king would take the command of an army; and though the Chians often made expeditions against him, they were able to effect nothing. And when Drimacus (for that was the name of this runaway slave) found that they were being destroyed, without being able to effect anything, he addressed them in this language: 'O Chians! you who are the masters, this treatment which you are now receiving from your servants will never cease; for how should it cease, when it is God who causes it, in accordance with the prediction of the oracle? But if you will be guided by me, and if you will leave us in peace, then I will be the originator of much good fortune to you.'

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Greek (Charles Burton Gulick, 1927)
load focus Greek (Kaibel)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: