Were this the case, men of
the highest rank would be slaves and the children of slaves if they or
their parents chance to have been taken captive and sold. Wherefore
Hellenes do not like to call Hellenes slaves, but confine the term
to barbarians. Yet, in using this language, they really mean the
natural slave of whom we spoke at first; for it must be admitted
that some are slaves everywhere, others nowhere. The same principle
applies to nobility. Hellenes regard themselves as noble everywhere,
and not only in their own country, but they deem the barbarians
noble only when at home, thereby implying that there are two sorts
of nobility and freedom, the one absolute, the other relative. The
Helen of Theodectes says:
Who would presume to call me servant who am on both sides
sprung from the stem of the Gods?
What does this mean but that they distinguish freedom and slavery,
noble and humble birth, by the two principles of good and evil? They
think that as men and animals beget men and animals, so from good
men a good man springs. But this is what nature, though she may intend
it, cannot always accomplish.
We see then that there is some foundation for this difference of
opinion, and that all are not either slaves by nature or freemen by
nature, and also that there is in some cases a marked distinction
between the two classes, rendering it expedient and right for the
one to be slaves and the others to be masters: the one practicing
obedience, the others exercising the authority and lordship which
nature intended them to have.
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