ABSTRACT
A result of the Greek and Roman tendency to see free men and slaves as distinct and exclusive status groups was that punishments prescribed by law for slaves were of a different degree of severity to those for free men. Interrogation is the usual method to bring out the truth about a criminal accusation. There was no feeling that the occasions on which interrogation under torture was called for should be restricted: on the contrary, by late antiquity torture had been extended from slaves to all citizens except those of the highest status. Xenophon’s account of the conversations of Socrates shows that it was taken for granted that a master would punish a slave who failed in any way to do as his master wished. Socrates is conversing with the anarchist Aristippos, who claims that it is neither ruling others nor being a slave, but simply being independent, that brings one closest to happiness.
