Note 58 — Chapter VII · SLAVES.

We may probably, however, form some conjecture respecting the injuries they endured from the description of the atrocities practised by the Sicilians against their slaves. These unhappy men were compelled, as history informs us, to forego even the common reward of labour, and, though they toiled incessantly for their owners, to provide for their daily subsistence by plunder and murder:—βαρέως δ᾽ αὐτοῖς κατά τε τὰς ὑπηρεσίας ἐχρῶντο, καὶ ἐπιμελείας παντελῶς ὀλίγης ἠξίουν ὅσα τε ἐντρέφεσθαι καὶ ὅσα ἐνδύσασθαι· ἐξ ὠν οἱ πλείους ἀπὸ λῃστείας τὸ ζῇν ἐπορίζοντο, καὶ μεστὰ φόνον ἦν ἅπαντα καθάπερ στρατευμάτων διεσπαρμένων τῶν λῃστῶν. Diodor. Sicul. ap. Phot. ubi supra.