The Apophora and the “Leasing” of Property to Slaves and Manumitted Slaves in Classical Athens

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The Apophora and the “Leasing” of Property to Slaves and Manumitted Slaves in Classical Athens
Porter, Jason D.

From the journal Historia Historia, Volume 70, June 2021, issue 2

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 11429 Words
Original language: English
Historia 2021, pp 185-205
https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2021-0008

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Abstract

This paper argues that a prominent economic strategy amongst classical Athenian elite was to rent out income-earning property to slaves and manumitted slaves, in order to create tenants over whom property owners held a large amount of power. It examines the language used to describe these relationships in our sources and finds that they were sometimes described with the same language as tenancies between freepersons, even when the tenants were slaves. Furthermore, though these positions gave slaves and manumitted slaves the ability to earn (occasionally considerable) wealth and freedoms, their subordinate position is still clear from our evidence.

Author information

Jason D. Porter

Keywords

Slavery | Freedpersons | Leasing | Management | Apophora | Classical Athens

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