The penestai or penestae (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: oἱ πενέσται, ''hoi penéstai'') were a class of unfree labourers in

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

. These labourers were tied to the land they inhabited, comparable in status with the

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

helot The helots (; el, εἵλωτες, ''heílotes'') were a subjugated population that constituted a majority of the population of Laconia and Messenia – the territories ruled by Sparta. There has been controversy since antiquity as to their e ...

Status

Tradition made the penestae descendants of the Achaeans subjected by invading tribes arriving from

Thesprotia Thesprotia (; el, Θεσπρωτία, ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Epirus region. Its capital and largest town is Igoumenitsa. Thesprotia is named after the Thesprotians, an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the ...

. Archemachus (cited by

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

, VI, 264), a 3rd-century BC writer, believed instead that they were

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...

ns:

The Aeolian Boeotians who did not emigrate when their country
Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...
was conquered by the
Thessalia Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thess ...
ns, surrendered themselves to the victors on condition that they should not be carried out of the country, nor be put to death, but should cultivate the land for the new owners of the soil, paying by way of rent a portion of the produce of it, and many of them are richer than their masters.

The Thessalian lands were very productive and spacious with a low

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

; the penestae thus had goodly amounts of rich land to cultivate. The contributions given to the Thessalians and Archemachus' remark about their wealth imply that the penestae could freely dispose of the portions in excess of their ''rent'' payments and that they could possess goods. Certain penestae, known as ''latreis'', worked as house servants, receiving a salary in exchange. Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions (II, 9) that disobedient penestae were beaten and that generally speaking, they were treated like

chattel slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. They appear to have been much less numerous than the free Thessalians. From a passage in

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual pr ...

, it appears that the penestae sometimes accompanied their masters to battle, and fought on horseback as their knights or vassals. The penestae of Thessaly also resembled the

s in another respect for they often rose up in arms against their lords. There was also an Illyrian tribe was called " Penestae".Wilkes, J. J. ''The Illyrians'', 1992, page 172, .

, (1870) * Jean Ducat, ''Les Pénestes de Thessalie'', Belles Lettres, series "Centre de recherces d'histoire ancienne", 1994 * Yvon Garlan, ''Les Esclaves en Grèce ancienne'', La Découverte, series "Textes à l'appui", 1989 , pp. 106–107 *{{cite book, last=Mili, first=Maria, title=Religion and Society in Ancient Thessaly, publisher=Oxford University Press, year=2015, isbn=0198718012, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qs2SBQAAQBAJ Slavery in ancient Greece Ancient tribes in Macedonia Ancient tribes in Thessaly Greek tribes Government of ancient Thessaly

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See also