Comment on Ancient Slavery Blog

...a slave is a living possession, and property a number of such instruments; and the servant is himself an instrument which takes precedence of all other instruments. For if every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others, like the statues of Daedalus, or the tripods of Hephaestus, which, says the poet, of their own accord entered the assembly of the Gods; if, in like manner, the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not want servants, nor masters slaves. Aristotle Politics Chapter 3, Book 1,

There are many ties between ancient imperialism and ancient slavery. A large part of the Just War Theory is justifying wars against “lesser” people. The same thought process goes into the dehumanization of slaves in the ancient world. In ancient times it was not uncommon to dehumanize your enemy thereby justifying a war with a less than human people.
In Benjamin Isaac’s book, “The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity”, he talks about Aristotle’s thoughts on cannibalism. It is important to note, as discussed in my earlier posts, that Aristotle was a key figure in theorizing about slavery and the just war theory. He dehumanized cannibals and in ancient times cannibalism was attributed to peoples that did not even practice it as a means of justifying war or slavery with these people. Aristotle also said that people who live in excessively hot or cold climates are naturally beastlike in both habits and appearance. In ancient times, this was a well-known extension of the environmental theory.
Aristotle said that people of the Pontus area show “an inclination for murder and cannibalism”. Herodotus also calls people from this area “Man-eaters”. It is interesting how ancient thinkers attributed cannibalism to beastliness. It is interesting that ancient people would attribute this trait to enemies and people that they wanted to enslave. Saying that you are enslaving or fighting a war against cannibals or murderers “justifies” war and slavery to the ancients.
Slavery was always closely tied to imperialism in the ancient world. As Aristotle’s theory suggests, those who win the war are naturally superior to those who lost and it is permissible to enslave these lesser people. Although slavery is not as common as it was in the ancient world, we still attribute sub-human characteristics to our enemies in war in order to justify killing them. The war-time propaganda during World War II depicted the Germans and beastly animals and the Japanese as apes. The dehumanization of the enemy is a very important part of justifying war both in ancient times and modern.

This is an ancient Greek depiction of a slave being punished.