Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

---

And since among the different questions proposed by Ulpian, there is this one about the slaves, let us now ourselves recapitulate a few things which we have to say on the subject, remembering what we have in former times read about it. For Pherecrates, in his Boors, says—

For no one then had any Manes,¹ no,
Nor home-born slaves; but the free women themselves
Did work at everything within the house.
And so at morn they ground the corn for bread,
Till all the streets resounded with the mills.

And Anaxandrides, in his Anchises, says—

There is not anywhere, my friend, a state
Of none but slaves; but fortune regulates
And changes at its will th' estates of men.
Many there are who are not free to day,
But will to-morrow free-men be of Sunium,
And the day after public orators;
For so the deity guides each man's helm.