actors, and musicians. Their education was often superior to that of the coarse and brutal masters who owned them.

slaves

The number of slaves, though great enough in Athens and other Greek cities, reached almost incredible figures during the later period of Roman history. Every victorious Number and battle swelled the troops of captives sent to the cheapness of slave markets at Rome. Ordinary slaves became as cheap as beasts of burden are now. The Roman poet Horace tells us that at least ten slaves were necessary for a gentleman in even moderate circumstances. Wealthy individuals, given to excessive luxury, might number their city slaves by the hundreds, besides many more on their country estates.

Slaves engaged in a great variety of occupations. They were domestic servants, farm laborers, miners, artisans, factory hands, and even shopkeepers. Household slaves

Slaves' tasks

at Rome were employed in every conceivable way. Each part of a rich man's residence had its special staff of servants. The possession of a fine troop of slaves, dressed in handsome liveries, was a favorite method of showing one's wealth and luxury.

It is difficult for us to realize the attitude of ancient peoples toward their slaves. They were regarded as part of the chattels of the house as on a level with domestic animals Treatment of rather than human beings. Though Athenian law slaves forbade owners to kill their slaves or to treat them cruelly, it permitted the corporal punishment of slaves for slight offenses. At Rome, until the imperial epoch,' no restraints whatever existed upon the master's power. A slave was part of his property with which he could do exactly as he pleased. The terrible punishments, the beating with scourges which followed the slightest misconduct or neglect of duty, the branding with a hot iron which a runaway slave received, the fearful penalty of crucifixion which followed an attempt upon the owner's life all these tortures show how hard was the lot of the bondman in pagan Rome.

A slave, under some circumstances, could gain his freedom.

1 See page 215.

of freedom

In Greece, where many little states constantly at war bordered Possibilities one another, a slave could often run away to liberty. In a great empire like Rome, where no boundary lines existed, this was usually impossible. Freedom, however, was sometimes voluntarily granted. A master in his

SCHOLASTIONSPTENEMENE VSLAMI

A SLAVE'S COLLAR

A runaway slave, if recaptured, was sometimes compelled to wear a metal collar riveted about his neck. One of these collars, still preserved at Rome, bears the inscription: Servus sum dom (i)ni mei Scholastici v(iri) sp(ectabilis). Tene me ne fugiam de domo.- "I am the slave of my master Scholasticus, a gentleman of importance. Hold me, lest I flee from home."

Permanence

of slavery

will might liberate his favorite slave, as

a reward for the faithful service of a lifetime. A more common practice permitted the slave to

keep a part of his earnings until he had saved enough to purchase his freedom.

Slavery in Greece

and Italy had existed from the earliest times. It never was more flourishing than in the great age of classical history. Nor did it pass away when the Roman world became Christian. The spread of Christianity certainly helped to improve the lot of the slave and to encourage his liberation. The Church, nevertheless, recognized slavery from the beginning. Not until long after ancient civilization had perished did the curse of slavery finally disappear from European lands.1

94. Greek Literature

The literature of Greece begins with epic poetry. An epic may be defined as a long narrative in verse, dealing with some large and noble theme. The earliest epic poetry of Epic poetry the Greeks was inseparable from music. Wandering minstrels sang at feasts in the palaces of kings and accompanied their lays with the music of the clear-toned lyre. In time, as his verse reached a more artistic character, the singer was able to give up the lyre and to depend for effect solely on the poetic power of his narrative. Finally, the scattered lays.

were combined into long poems. The most famous are the Iliad and the Odyssey, works which the Greeks attributed to Homer.1

Several centuries after Homer the Greeks began to create a new form of poetic expression - lyric poetry. In short poems, accompanied by the flute

Lyric poetry

or the lyre, they found a
medium for the expression of personal
feelings which was not furnished by
the long and cumbrous epic. The
greatest lyric poet was Pindar. We
still possess forty-four of his odes,
which were written in honor of victo-
rious athletes at the Olympian and
other national games.2 Pindar's
verses were so popular that he be-
came, as it were, the "poet laureate"
of Greece. When Alexander the
Great destroyed Thebes, the native
town of Pindar, he spared that poet's
birthplace from the general ruin.

SOPHOCLES

Lateran Museum, Rome This marble statue is possibly a copy of the bronze original which the Athenians set up in the theater of Dionysus. The

The three great masters of the tragic drama lived and wrote in Athens during the splen- Athenian did half century between tragedy the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars. Such was the fertility of their genius that they are said to have written altogether nearly three hundred feet and the box of manuscript plays. Only thirty-two have come down to us. Eschylus, the first of the tragic poets, had fought at Marathon and Salamis. One of his works, the Persians, is a magnificent song of triumph for the victory of Hellas. Sophocles, while yet a young man, gained the prize in a dramatic contest with Eschylus. His plays mark the perfection of Greek

1 See page 73.

See page 80.

3 See page 120.

4 See page 265.

tragedy. After the death of Sophocles the Athenians revered him as a hero and honored his memory with yearly sacrifices. Euripides was the third of the Athenian dramatists and the most generally popular. His fame reached far beyond his native city. We are told that the Sicilians were so fond of his verses that they granted freedom to every one of the Athenian prisoners captured at Syracuse who could recite the poet's lines.

Athenian comedy

Athenian comedy during the fifth century B.C. is represented by the plays of Aristophanes. He was both a great poet and a great satirist. In one comedy Aristophanes attacks the demagogue Cleon, who was prominent in Athenian politics after the death of Pericles. In other comedies he ridicules the philosophers, makes fun of the ordinary citizen's delight in sitting on jury courts and trying cases, and criticizes those responsible for the unfortunate expedition to Sicily. The plays of Aristophanes were performed before admiring audiences of thousands of citizens and hence must have had much influence on public opinion.

The "father of history," Herodotus, flourished about the middle of the fifth century B.C. Though a native of Asia Minor, Herodotus spent some of the best years of his life History at Athens, mingling in its brilliant society and coming under the influences, literary and artistic, of that city. He traveled widely in the Greek world and in the East, as a preparation for his great task of writing an account of the rise of the Oriental nations and the struggle between Greece and Persia. Herodotus was not a critical historian, diligently sifting truth from fable. Where he can he gives us facts. Where facts are lacking, he tells interesting stories in a most winning style. A much more scientific writer was Thucydides, an Athenian who lived during the epoch of the Peloponnesian War and became the historian of that contest. An Athenian contemporary of Thucydides, Xenophon, is best known from his Anabasis, which describes the famous expedition of the "Ten Thousand" Greeks against Persia.1

Of the later prose writers of Greece it is sufficient to name

1 See page 121.

the immortal Plutarch. He was a native of Cha

Biography

ronea in Boeotia and lived during the first century of our era. Greece at that time was only a province of the Roman Empire; the days of her greatness had long since passed away. Plutarch thus had rather a melancholy task in writing his Parallel Lives. In this work he relates, first the life of an eminent Greek, then of a famous Roman who in some way resembled him; and ends the account with a short comparison of the two men. Plutarch had a wonderful gift of sympathy for his heroes and a keen eye for what was dramatic in their careers. It is not surprising, therefore, that Plutarch has always been a favorite author. No other ancient writer gives us so vivid and intimate a picture of the classical world. From the foregoing survey it is clear that the Greeks were pioneers in many forms of literature. They first composed artistic epic poems. They invented lyric and dramatic poetry. They were the first to write histories and biographies. In oratory, as has been seen, they also rose to eminence.1 We shall now find that the Greek intellect was no less fertile and original in the study of philosophy.

95. Greek Philosophy

Originality of
Greek litera-

ture

The Greek philosophy took its rise in the seventh century B.C., when a few bold students began to search out the mysteries of the universe. Their theories were so many The sophists and so contradictory, however, that after a time philosophers gave up the study of nature and proposed in turn to study man himself. These later thinkers were called sophists. They traveled throughout Greece, gathering the young men about them and lecturing for pay on subjects of practical interest. Among other things they taught the rhetoric and oratory which were needed for success in a public career.

Socrates

One of the founders of Greek philosophy and the greatest teacher of his age was Socrates the Athenian. He lived and taught during the period of the Peloponnesian War.

Socrates resembled the sophists in his

1 See page 117.