The Twenty Thousand Slaves of Thucydidus 7.27.5

Abstract

The paper examines the context and possible origin of the famous claim made by Thucydides (7.27.5) that, after the Spartan capture of Decelea in 413 BC, "more than twenty thousand" Athenian slaves deserted to the enemy. Older historiography tended to accept this claim at face value and to use it as a basis for wider assumptions about size and socioeconomic importance of slave labor in 5th century Athens. Recent historiography was much more reluctant to believe and generally rejected the number as unreliable guesswork or even a figure of speech. However, there is enough evidence, both direct and circumstantial, that the number may originate from outside of Athens. Not, as it was recently suggested, from the Spartans, but from the Boeotians, who were the main beneficiaries of the Athenian misfortune. The runaway slaves, as it is well known, were bought by Boeotians at very low prices. The sale of slaves was regularly taxed and recorded by the Greek cities, a practice that is sufficiently attest in Classical and Hellenistic periods. Thucydides was generally very well informed about Boeotian affairs and, if the information on numbers of runaway and resoled slaves was recorded in Thebes, it was likely within his reach.