Pasion was an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 slave from the 4th century BC. He was owned by the bankers Antisthenes

Antisthenes

Antisthenes was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates. He adopted and developed the ethical side of Socrates' teachings, advocating an ascetic life lived in accordance with virtue. Later writers...

 and Archestratus, located at Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

, the harbor five miles out of Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. During his slavery, he quickly rose to chief clerk in charge of a money-changing table at the port (Argyramoibos

Argyramoiboi

Argyramoiboi were professional money-changers and assayers in ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire.-References:...

), and proved so valuable that he was finally freed in gratitude of his faithful service. When his owners retired, Pasion inherited the bank and established a shield factory. The gifts he provided Athens entailed one thousand shields and a trireme

Trireme

A trireme was a type of galley, a Hellenistic-era warship that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar...

. Ultimately, Pasion was granted Athenian citizenship and started investing in real estate in order to accumulate more wealth. When he became too old to work, Pasion had Phormio, another slave, take care of the bank. When Pasion died, his widow married Phormio in order to keep the bank in the family.

Pasion's son, Apollodorus, did not engage in banking but lived off his inheritance like a gentleman; Pasion had left 20 talents in land and 40 in outstanding debt. Much of what we know about Pasion comes from speeches Apollodorus gave in lawsuits. These come down to us among the speeches Demosthenes wrote for litigants, but it is now thought that Apollodorus wrote them himself.

There is also a Greek mercenary leader of the Ten Thousand Expedition

Ten Thousand (Greek)

The Ten Thousand were a group of mercenary units, mainly Greek, drawn up by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II...

also named Pasion.

Sources

• Meltzer, Milton. Slavery: A World History. Da Capo, 1993. ISBN 0306805367
• Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Pasion.