The Greek economy was the result of the combination of slaves, citizens and metics. The Metic, however, was the driving and most important force of the Greek economy. The slave was only used when deemed expedient. The citizen considered work inferior to the dignity of a free man. He left to others the work that he did not want to do himself. First of all, it should be noted that prejudice against manual labor among the Greeks was of relatively late origin. Certainly, in Homeric times, working with one's hands was not a shame. We think of the prowess of Odysseus, who was a powerful worker and who built his own house and even his own bed. (Hom. Od.13, 31-34) Nor was there any prejudice against manual labor in the time of Solon, who decreed that a father should see to it that his son learned a trade. (Plut. Solon, 22) To what then must we attribute the prejudices against manual labor in the latter part of the 5th and throughout the 4th century BC? Before continuing, it should be noted that most of our evidence about Greek civilization comes from literary works. The majority of which come from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle. While they cover all aspects of the Greek world, they focus more on political, military and diplomatic history, particularly that of Athens. This gives us a biased and prejudiced view of the views of the author himself and those of Athenian society. As such, any evidence must be treated with caution, and although we cannot say with complete certainty that what they say is true, through the comparison of several works we are able to draw conclusions solid and reasonable. , when the "Marathon Men" were glorified, and the lives of the sold...... middle of paper ...... part of the citizens are easy to find. As the Metics had no political rights, there was nothing to fear from them and there was everything to be gained by having them as numerous and wealthy as possible, as a convenient source of income by which the life of the citizen was made easy and enjoyable. . - It is naive to generalize this; “Greek civilization itself was based on and enabled by slavery. » I recognize the number of slaves, but preventing the creation of a union due to the prevalence of slave labor equates to the number of slaves. But as I have shown, the Greek economy did not depend on it. They played an important role, especially in low-skilled sectors, but they were by no means the main feature of the Greek economy. On the contrary, the Greek economy depended on the existence, exercise and effluence of trade...