ABSTRACT
Slavery and servile labour played a very important part in the economy and society of Greek city-states throughout Greek history, and slaves are in fact documented as early as the Mycenaean age in the Linear B tablets. Without slaves, metics and serfs, the face of Greek society would have changed markedly, and they were an essential component of Greek life throughout the archaic and classical periods. It is difficult to estimate the actual numbers of slaves in any city at any given time, but Thucydides (doc. 11.14) tells us that when the Spartans fortified Dekeleia in Attica in 413 more than 20,000 Attic slaves deserted, a large part of them skilled manual workers; these would not of course have included slaves employed in the city itself.
