A History Of Greece From Its Conquest By The Romans To The Present Time

Author : George Finlay
Publisher : Theclassics.Us
ISBN 13 : 9781230432618
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (326 download)

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Download or read book A History of Greece from Its Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time B. C. 146 to A. D. 1864 written by George Finlay and published by Theclassics.Us. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... SECT. VI.--Condition of the Greek Population under the Dukes of Athens. Chronicles and official documents replace in some degree the want of a Thucydides or a Xenophon, and enable us to reconstruct at least an outline of the political history of mediaeval Athens. But the blank left by the want of an Aristophanes is irreparable, and we are unfortunately completely ignorant of the condition of those whom Shakspeare calls--'The rude mechanicals, That worked for bread upon Athenian stalls.' Still, in order to mark the peculiarities of the period that witnessed the almost total extinction of rural slavery, it is necessary to pass in review the few facts that are recorded concerning the condition of the labouring classes during the Frank domination in Attica. There is no doubt that the conquest of the Byzantine empire by the Latins, and the division of the territory among several independent princes, must have tended to ameliorate the condition of the cultivators of the soil who were still slaves or serfs. The Sclavonian or Albanian slave found a protector against his Greek master in the Frank feudal chief; and whenever his condition became insupportable, he could without much difficulty escape into the territories of some neighbouring and generally hostile prince. It has been supposed, from the tendency of Justinian's legislation, compared with subsequent laws of the Byzantine emperors, that Christians were not retained in slavery by the Greeks in the thirteenth century; and that rural slavery had been long extinguished, and replaced by the labour of serfs or colons, who made fixed payments in produce and labour for the land to which they were attached. Two laws are frequently quoted to prove the advances made by the Byzantine government...