Pasion

Pasion (also Pasio; ; 440 – 370 BC) was a slave who rose to become a successful banker and Athenian citizen in Ancient Athens in the early 4th century BC.

==Life== Pasion was born some time before 430 BC. It is unknown where Pasion came from nor when he arrived in Athens. It is widely presumed that he originated from Syria and the Levant, 440 BC when vast numbers of Syrian slaves were brought to Greece through Phoenician ports, Tyre and Sidon. In Athens, he was owned by the bankers Antisthenes and Archestratus, who had a bank at the Piraeus, the harbour five miles out of Athens. During his slavery, he quickly rose to chief clerk (Argyramoibos) in charge of a money-changing table at the port, and proved so valuable that by 394 BC, he had been manumitted and granted resident alien status as reward for his faithful service.