A large number of Athenians were relieved from the necessity of working for themselves through the system of state pay introduced by Pericles. Jurors, soldiers, and sailors received money for their services. Later, in the fourth century, citizens accepted fees for attending the Assembly. These payments, though small, enabled poor citizens to devote much time to public duties. INDUSTRIAL ATHENS Athens contained many skilled workmen whose daily tasks gave them scant opportunity to engage in the exciting game of politics. The average rate of wages was very low. In spite of cheap food and modest requirements for clothing and shelter, it must have been difficult for the laborer to keep body and soul together. Outside of Athens, in the country districts of Attica, lived the peasants whose little farms produced the olives, grapes, and figs for which Attica was celebrated. SLAVERY There were many thousands of slaves in Athens and Attica at this period. Their number was so great and their labor so cheap that we may think of them as taking the place of modern machines. It was the slaves who did most of the work on the large estates owned by wealthy men, who toiled in the mines and quarries, and who served as oarsmen on the ships. The system of slavery enabled many an Athenian to live a life of leisure, but it lowered the dignity of labor and tended to prevent the rise of the poorer citizens to positions of responsibility. In Greece, as in the Orient, [13] slavery cast its blight over free industry. COMMERCIAL ATHENS The Athenian city was now the chief center of Greek commerce. [14] "The fruits of the whole earth," said Pericles, "flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other Commercial countries as freely as of our own." [15] Exports of Athens wine and olive oil, pottery, metal wares, and objects of art were sent out from Piraeus [16] to every region of the Mediterranean. The imports from the Black Sea region, Thrace, and the Aegean included such commodities as salt, dried fish, wool, timber, hides, and, above all, great quantities of wheat. Very much as modern England, Athens was able to feed all her people only by bringing in food from abroad. To make sure that in time of war there should be no interruption of food supplies, the Athenians built the celebrated Long Walls, between the city and its port of Piraeus. (See the map below) Henceforth they felt secure from attack, as long as their navy ruled the Aegean. [Illustration: Map, THE VICINITY OF ATHENS] ARTISTIC AND INTELLECTUAL ATHENS