two mine [$36.00 (1914) or $640.80 (2000)] and others barely half a mina [$9.00 (1914) or $160.20 (2000)]; some sell up to five mine [$90.00 (1914) or $1,602.00 (2000)] and even for ten [$180.00 (1914) or $3,204.00 (2000)].  Nicias, the son of Nicaretus, is said to have given a talent [over $1,000.00 (1914) or $17,800.00 (2000)] for an overseer in the mines."[+] The father of Demosthenes owned a considerable factory.  He had thirty-two sword cutters worth about five mine each, and twenty couch-makers (evidently less skilled) worth together 40 mine [about $720.00 (1914) or $12,816.00 (2000)].  A girl who is handsome and a clever flute player, who will be readily hired for supper parties, may well command a very high price indeed, say even 30 mine [about $540.00 (1914) or $9,612.00 (2000)].

[*]There was probably next to no market for old women; old men in broken health would also be worthless.  Boys and maids that were the right age for teaching a profitable trade would fetch the most.

[+]Xenophon, “Memorabilia,” ii. 5, section 2.

41.  The Treatment of Slaves in Athens.—­Once purchased, what is the condition of the average slave?  If he is put in a factory, he probably has to work long hours on meager rations.  He is lodged in a kind of kennel; his only respite is on the great religious holidays.  He cannot contract valid marriage or enjoy any of the normal conditions of family life.  Still his evil state is partially tempered by the fact that he has to work in constant association with free workmen, and he seems to be treated with a moderate amount of consideration and good camaraderie.  On the whole he will have much less to complain of (if he is honest and industrious) than his successors in Imperial Rome.

In the household, conditions are on the whole better.  Every Athenian citizen tries to have at least one slave, who, we must grant, may be a starving drudge of all work.  The average gentleman perhaps counts ten to twenty as sufficient for his needs.  We know of households of fifty.  There must usually be a steward, a butler in charge of the storeroom or cellar, a marketing slave, a porter, a baker, a cook,[*] a nurse, perhaps several lady’s maids, the indispensable attendant for the master’s walks (a graceful, well-favored boy, if possible), the pedagogue for the children, and in really rich families, a groom, and a mule boy.  It is the business of the mistress to see that all these creatures are kept busy and reasonably contented.  If a slave is reconciled to his lot, honest, cheerful, industrious, his condition is not miserable.  Athenian slaves are allowed a surprising amount of liberty, so most visitors to the city complain.  A slave may be flogged most cruelly, but he cannot be put to death at the mere whim of his master.  He cannot enter the gymnasium, or the public assembly; but he can visit the temples.  As a humble member of the family he has a small part usually in the family