capital of 50 talents (£11,700), had 11 talents (£2,593) lent by private persons. CHAPTER XV. SLAVERY. Slaves in Ancient Greece--Captives Taken in War--The Slave Trade--The Price of Slaves--Native Serfs--The Helots--The Penestae and the Clarotae--The Status of the Slave--Protection against Ill-treatment--The Slave’s Duties--Modes of Liberation. All the social and economic conditions of antiquity are based on the institution of slavery, and without it would have been impossible; in fact, slavery is so closely interwoven with the whole life of antiquity that even the political development of the ancient nations and their achievements in the domain of art and industry would be inexplicable without the existence of a large slave population. So great was the importance of slavery in antiquity that any account of Greek life would be incomplete, which did not give some slight sketch of these peculiar conditions. The institution of slavery in Greece is very ancient; it is impossible to trace its origin, and we find it even in the very earliest times regarded as a necessity of nature, a point of view which even the following ages and the most enlightened philosophers adopted. In later times voices were heard from time to time protesting against the necessity of the institution, showing some slight conception of the idea of human rights, but these were only isolated opinions. From the very earliest times the right of the strongest had established the custom that captives taken in war, if not killed or ransomed, became the slaves of the conquerors, or were sold into slavery by them. This custom, which was universal in the Homeric age, continued to exist in the historic period also, so that not only was it adopted in contests between Hellenes and barbarians, but even in the numerous feuds between Hellenes and Hellenes they often condemned their own countrymen to the hard lot of slavery; in later times, however, it was only in cases of special animosity that they resorted to this expedient; as a rule, they exchanged or ransomed captive Greeks. Besides the wars, piracy, originally regarded as by no means dishonourable, supplied the slave markets; and though in later times endeavours were made to set a limit to it, yet the trade in human beings never ceased, since the need for slaves was considerable, not only in Greece, but still more in Oriental countries.