Slavery in ancient Greece was considered not only necessary but
natural; neither the Stoics nor the Early Christians questioned the
practice. However, some isolated debate began to appear, notably in
Socratic dialogues, as early as the 4th century BC. Although slaves as
dependent groups existed, such as the Penestae of Thessaly, the
Spartan Helots or even the Klarotes of Crete, these were more like
Medieval serfs. Other parts of Greece practiced chattel slavery, where
the individual is deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner
who may buy, sell, or lease him or her as one might any chattel good.
The study of slavery in Ancient Greece poses a number of significant
methodological problems. Documentation is disjointed and very
fragmented, focusing on the city of Athens. No treatise is
specifically devoted to the subject. Judicial pleadings of the 4th
century BC were interested in slavery only as a source of revenue.
Comedy and tragedy represented stereotypes. Iconography made no
substantial differentiation between slave and craftsman. Even the
terminology is often vague.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Greece
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
War of the Sixth Coalition: Blücher's Prussian forces defeated
Napoleon's troops at the Battle of Laon near Laon, France.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Laon)
1831:
King Louis-Philippe of France created the French Foreign Legion as a
unit of foreign volunteers because foreigners were forbidden to serve
in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion)
1861:
Toucouleur forces led by El Hadj Umar Tall seized Ségou and
conquered the Bamana Empire in present-day Mali.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamana_Empire)
1906:
More than a thousand coal miners were killed in the Courrières mine
disaster in Northern France, Europe's worst mining accident.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courri%C3%A8res_mine_disaster)
1952:
Forbidden by law to seek re-election, former President Fulgencio
Batista staged a coup d'état to resume control in Cuba.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista)
2000:
The NASDAQ stock market index peaked at 5048.62, the high point of
the dot-com boom.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
hunker: To crouch or squat close to the ground.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hunker)
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Wikiquote of the day:
We are tired of having a "sphere" doled out to us, and of being told
that anything outside that sphere is "unwomanly". We want to be
natural just for a change … we must be ourselves at all risks.
-- Kate Sheppard
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Sheppard)