Galley-slaves!
Slavery is as old as humanity! Since the beginning, men have found it necessary to keep other men in bondage for economical or more personal reasons. When we think of slavery, we have this vision of slaves toiling to build the pyramids of ancient Egypt - a belief not borne out by the records. Rather than slaves, the ancient Egyptian peasantry built the tombs for their god-kings as an act of devotion.
Slavery is as old as humanity! Since the beginning, men have found it necessary to keep other men in bondage for economical or more personal reasons. When we think of slavery, we have this vision of slaves toiling to build the pyramids of ancient Egypt - a belief not borne out by the records. Rather than slaves, the ancient Egyptian peasantry built the tombs for their god-kings as an act of devotion.
The other form of slavery that excites our imaginations is that of the galley-slave. This was real and countless men served at the oars as slaves in different cultures for many centuries.
Artwork by Teracles: the text is mine.
Artwork by Teracles: the text is mine.
Historians have (rightly) dedicated thousands of books, of scientific articles, or research & doctoral dissertations etc. to the History of Slavery, of Slave Trade, of their “sources”, their prices etc.etc.
ReplyDelete“Rightly” because, as you opportunely remind, Chris, Slavery is one of the most ancient and most “instinctive” habits of humanity, since the very first prehistoric times, since the “dawn” of Man on Earth.
Since the first “war of conquest” fought between prehistoric men, our ancestors realized that it was extremely convenient, profitable and a great source of power, welfare, wealth and even luxury to capture and TAME not only wild animals (like cattle, horses, donkeys, camels etc.) but also OTHER MEN ! capturing, trading, considering, treating and exploiting / using those captured men exactly like those ANIMALS !
And in fact a Roman author naively but sincerely said that “animals are divided into two categories: beasts and slaves” or – as you rightly mention in another post- “semi-vocalia instrumenta” (“semi-talking tools” i.e. beasts) and “vocalia instrumenta” (“talking tools” i.e. slaves).
Moreover, in capturing and using newer and newer slaves, Masters realized also that often slaves had several and important advantages over other animals for hard labors.
E.g. a muscular slave (given his slenderer physical size) might turn for 12 hours per day and even more an individual conical grindstone for wheat, that –in Roman farms- were gathered in groups of 10 or even 20 grindstones in one room, so close one to the other that a donkey or a mule could have never been able to turn given its bigger body and to pass between two adjacent grindstones..
Of course a horse, an ox or a mule could have never rowed on a ship ! ……. or could have never dug in a mine or broken and cut stones in a quarry.
Even for other hard labors in farms traditionally destined to beasts like oxen or draft-horses, like e.g. pulling a plow, often Masters (especially Roman ones) soon realized that frequently it was much more profitable ……. at equal “animal strength” ……… yoke to a plow a couple of very muscular young slaves, in the place of a horse, or four very brawny enslaved men in the place of an ox (if the plow was heavier).
Often, especially at the climax of Roman power and military conquests, at equal “animal strength”, the “animal strength” given by two or four very strong and muscular slaves was MUCH CHEAPER than the one of a horse, an ox, or a mule !
As Cicero is said to have asserted: “Unfortunately there are no wild tribes of oxen or of horses that we can capture and enslave for the hard-labors in our properties.”.
Slaves were the most abundant and often the cheapest source of muscular strength for all possible hard labors.
Last but not least, slaves had another and important advantage over the other animals: being animals with a HUMAN LOOK, and often quite “attractive”, they were animals that could be used for SEX ! ……. differently of course for all other species of beasts !
A particular liking also for the splendid Artwork by Teracles, who –for his galley slave- is using the face of one of the most stunningly handsome young actors of today ! Very exciting.
Karel
P.S. With your vast historical knowledge, Chris, you also rightly mention that there were cases in which (differently from what most people believe) certain very hard labors were performed by “voluntary” free peasantry e.g. as “devotion” and an act of worship towards a deified ruler / king like the building of Egyptian pyramids. But these were “exceptions” due not only to the existence of a god-king (that existed also in other ancient civilizations) but also to the very particular and almost unique “rhythm” of Egyptian agriculture. Due to the Nile’s flooding, the farm works in ancient Egypt were divided into three seasons; the flooding season, the growing season, and the harvest season.
ReplyDeleteDuring the flooding season and the end of the harvest one, Egyptian peasants had at least FIVE months per year (from May to September) in which they were unable to work in their fields.
Therefore the building of pyramids served also, for the first Pharaohs as a “vent for possible social troubles” by keeping engaged, in a “religious work”, a mass of populace that otherwise might have caused social troubles or even revolts.
For the rest also Egyptians owned and traded many and many slaves …….. and treated them very hardly !
Karel