As in most of history, the majority of folks would’ve been subsistence farmers and, outside of Sparta, free (though not necessarily enfranchised) folk.
Athens is one of the major slaver cities, but even there the percentage of slaves is somewhere between 20%-33%; a horrific amount, but far from the majority. Most of those slaves, as well, would not have been in the high-mortality mines. For that matter, Diogenes himself was a slave for a time in his life.
To put a finer point on that “outside of Sparta” note:
In Sparta, we’re talking about 15-20% free folk depending on the point in time. Even other Greek cities looked at Sparta and its 85% population of Helots and go “Okay, that’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?” Plutarch, himself belonging to the (non-Spartanian) Greek elite, at some point remarks that “in Sparta the free man is more free than anywhere else in the world, and the slave more a slave”.
Slavery was never rosy, but Sparta made a contest out of who could treat them worst.
As in most of history, the majority of folks would’ve been subsistence farmers and, outside of Sparta, free (though not necessarily enfranchised) folk.
Athens is one of the major slaver cities, but even there the percentage of slaves is somewhere between 20%-33%; a horrific amount, but far from the majority. Most of those slaves, as well, would not have been in the high-mortality mines. For that matter, Diogenes himself was a slave for a time in his life.
To put a finer point on that “outside of Sparta” note:
In Sparta, we’re talking about 15-20% free folk depending on the point in time. Even other Greek cities looked at Sparta and its 85% population of Helots and go “Okay, that’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?” Plutarch, himself belonging to the (non-Spartanian) Greek elite, at some point remarks that “in Sparta the free man is more free than anywhere else in the world, and the slave more a slave”.
Slavery was never rosy, but Sparta made a contest out of who could treat them worst.