168 THE SLAVES VII
Thus it is clear that people who could not be called wealthy
owned a few slaves The jurors, whose fees were of some
importance to them (if sometimes only as pocket-money for
their daughters)3 might yet own a steward and several other
slaves.1 The woman who early in the morning herself brought
her home-spun work to the market for sale nevertheless kept
some maids.2 The sausage-seller,, when a boy, had stolen the
meat from the hearth in the presence of the cooks, we do
not know, however, in what kind of house this happened.3 It
goes without saying that Strepsiades, being the husband of a
niece of Megakles, had several slaves.4 But none of these
references proves that large numbers of slaves were kept
From all our evidence it has been concluded that numbers
varying from three to twelve were normal in most houses.5
There was sometimes a larger number of slaves in workshops,
but they are never mentioned in comedy Lysias, in speaking
of the 120 slaves owned by his father, who was an unusually
rich metic, included in that number slaves both of the house-
hold and of the workshop.6
Generally speaking, slaves were acquired by purchase,
though a slave in a temple may also have been given as an
offering to the god 7 The chief market-day for slaves (and
cattle) seems to have been the day of the new moon.8 'Who
is the man selling the slaves?7 someone shouts.9 Slaves for sale
frequently stood on a table, so that they could easily be seen
by everybody.10 Of course, the trader, the 'slave-dealer', tried
to make the slaves look as healthy and strong as possible, like
the bird-seller who manipulated his animals in various ways.11
I W 6o6£F 2 F 1346^ Mistaken by Knornnga, Emporos, 53
3 K 418f. The plural of the uctystpoi is remarkable. 4 C 5
5 Glotz, 200 It comes to shghly less when Gomme speaks of 4no more
than one domestic servant per adult among the hoplite and richer classes, and
very few among the thetes'. An average of three for a well-to-do household
(Michell, 161) seems an equally low estimate, Miss Sargent's detailed and differ-
entiated account of the slaves owned by members of the various social classes also
tends to present very moderate numbers
6 Lysias XII, 19 There is no evidence, as far as I can see, which could justify
the widely held view that the 120 were employed in the 'shield factory' alone
7 Eur Ion 310 8 K 43$ W i/of 9 Hermipp 50 10 frg. 874
II B xoyyiF. The slave-dealer was called ocvSparroSiarTis (PI 52i,cf. K 1030)
or dvSpQcrro5cbvr}$ (frg 312), and there could be also an ccv5pa7ro6oKonrn"|Ao$
(Isaios in Harpokr, s v ), cf above, p. 119, n 3. Euripides makes the slave-dealer
a ^AJXQtyooyos who is either a sorcerer or just a scoundrel (Eur frg 933)