Slave Trading in the Athenian Market

This brief chapter describes how buying and selling of slaves was taking place at the Athenian Agora and what informal “strategies” were followed by the Athenian citizens in order to secure slaves that would be “highly efficient” (in terms of labor performance, etc.) at the lowest possible cost. It also describes the fortification system of Athens, that, in a wider sense, should be seen as part of the overall public expenditure of the Athenian state, for the purpose of providing (what would nowadays be called as) the public good of defense.