In Homer's Odyssey the swineherd Eumaeus is a trusted slave of Odysseus' family, having been bought by Odysseus' father Laertes. Yet we are told in Book 14, lines 450 - 453, that Eumaeus himself owns a slave who he bought with his own resources, who waits on Eumeus and his guest:
'At last the swineherd sat to eat. Mesalius served the food - that was the slave bought by Eumaeus in his master's absence, with no help from his mistress or Laertes. He traded him from Taphians'.
This is the only example I have come across from the Ancient Greco-Roman World of a slave owning a slave, and this is a literary or mythical example, not a historical one.
Are there any other instances of it happening in Ancient Greece or Rome?
I know slaves could themselves own slaves in some other cultures, as in some parts of Pre-Colonial Africa. I also know that an ex-slave in Greece or Rome, after they were freed, could own slaves, but what about when they were still slaves themselves?
And what would happen to the 'slave of a slave' if the slave who owned them was sold to a new master?
And what rights, if any, would someone in the position of Odysseus or Laertes as Eumaeus' master have over Eumaeus's own slave?
Note: some people have pointed out that the question 'Could slaves have slaves?' has previously been asked on Wikipedia. With one exception, the answers to that were concerned only with other times and places than Ancient Greece & Rome, which are the subject of my question.
None of the answers dealt with Ancient Greece at all.
One did refer to a theoretical possibility in Roman law, but had no example of it actually happening, nor information as to, if it did actually occur sometimes, how it worked in practice or how common it was. Accordingly, I believe it is worth keeping this question open in case anyone can shed any light on this.
