Pasion, Apollodoros, and Athenian Society

Abstract Nothing is known of Pasion’s life before he came to Athens. He was probably not a Greek, and the theophoric name which he gave to his first son Apollodoros suggests that he may have been of Semitic extraction; it has indeed been argued that he was originally a Phoenician. We are similarly ill-informed about how and when he came to work as the slave of the bankers Archestratos and Antisthenes, or of the status which he enjoyed as a skilled slave. He was clearly a valued worker, as the speaker of Dem. 36 emphasizes. There is some evidence that Athenian slaves could do quite well for themselves, and that particularly in the commercial world of the Piraeus the usual sharp divide between slave and free became blurred. In addition, slaves who worked independently of their masters (chōris oikountes) were allowed to keep some of the money which they earned. There is, however, no evidence that Pasion was ever in that position: the fact that he worked at the bank meant that he was always closely supervised. Nor should we exaggerate the privileges afforded even to skilled slaves: an opponent of Pasion later showed no compunction in demanding that Kittos, who acted as chief cashier of his bank, be surrendered for interrogation under torture (Isoc. 17. 13).