Demosioi

Demosioi or Demosii (Ancient Greek: δημόσιοι, singular Demosios) generally referred to a class of public slaves in the system of slavery in ancient Greece at Athens, who were bought and owned by the state itself. They may in some cases have been privately owned slaves leased to the state. Their legal status in the Athenian state was complicated.

Demosios was a word that meant "public" or "of the state", but when used in the plural generally referred to this social class of public slaves. However the word had other applications. Some priesthoods were referred to as demosioi, presumably not because they were slaves, but on account of some state relationship. The word could also be used -- as in the phrase demosioi aethloi -- to refer to the various athletic games sponsored by the state.

Classes of demosioi

Scholar S. Waszynski proposed the demosioi were divided into three classes:

scythai, who formed a sort of police force

ergatai, common workers who toiled at forced labour

hyperetai, held positions of trust as assistants to the officials and governments of the state, or who were skilled in some exceptional way

Scythai, ergatai, and some lower classes of hyperetai were compensated at subsistence levels and lived in barracks provided by the state, while some higher classes of hyperetai appear to have made a competitive daily wage and were accorded some measure of independence unusual for a slave.

Functions of demosioi

Demosioi held several different roles in public life, and performed a number of tasks useful to the state. There was apparently a "standard" punishment for demosioi who had committed some infraction or failed in their duties in some way, of fifty lashes.