by him they could demand to be sold, on the
chance of falling into better hands. But there is no suggestion in
the Laws that a slave who tried to escape should be branded with the
words--kateche me, pheugo, or that evidence should be extracted from him
by torture, that the whole household was to be executed if the master
was murdered and the perpetrator remained undetected: all these were
provisions of Athenian law. Plato is more consistent than either the
Athenians or the Spartans; for at Sparta too the Helots were treated in
a manner almost unintelligible to us. On the one hand, they had arms put
into their hands, and served in the army, not only, as at Plataea, in
attendance on their masters, but, after they had been manumitted, as a
separate body of troops called Neodamodes: on the other hand, they were
the victims of one of the greatest crimes recorded in Greek history
(Thucyd.). The two great philosophers of Hellas sought to extricate
themselves from this cruel condition of human life, but acquiesced in
the necessity of it. A noble and pathetic sentiment of Plato, suggested
by the thought of their misery, may be quoted in this place:--'The right
treatment of slaves is to behave properly to them, and to do to them, if
possible, even more justice than to those who are our equals; for he
who naturally and genuinely reverences justice, and hates injustice, is
discovered in his dealings with any class of men to whom he can easily
be unjust. And he who in regard to the natures and actions of his slaves
is undefiled by impiety and injustice, will best sow the seeds of virtue
in them; and this may be truly said of every master, and tyrant, and of
every other having authority in relation to his inferiors.'

All the citizens of the Magnesian state were free and equal; there was
no distinction of rank among them, such as is believed to have prevailed
at Sparta. Their number was a fixed one, corresponding to the 5040 lots.
One of the results of this is the requirement that younger sons or those
who have been disinherited shall go out to a colony. At Athens, where
there was not the same religious feeling against increasing the size of
the city, the number of citizens must have been liable to considerable
fluctuations. Several classes of persons, who were not citizens by
birth, were admitted to the privilege. Perpetual exiles from other
countries, people who settled there to practise a trade (Telfy), any one
who had shown disti