Farming in Ancient Greece

AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK IN ANCIENT GREECE | Facts and Details

The soil in Greece was generally poor. The Greeks grew grain at the bottom of the valleys and grapes and
olives on the hill slopes. Greek-farmer soldiers usually only possessed about 15 acres of land or less.
[Source: "History of Warfare" by John Keegan, Vintage Books]

According to myth, Promethius was caught stealing fire from the gods and consequentially brought the
harsh necessity of agricultural labour upon the Greeks. It was seen as a punishment imposed by a vengeful
Zeus because without this labour seeds could not be converted into edible plants (Garnsey 1999).

During the 5th century B.C. most farmers were small landowners. A typical farmer possessed olive and fig
trees, and grew some wheat and barley on their plots of land. From the third century B.C. onwards, the
sudden influx of cheap slave labor and the growth of abnormally large estates in Roman Italy dispossessed
many small landholders and tenant-farmers and sent them to swell the ranks of an ever-increasing urban
population." Former tenant farmers were claimed as slaves.||

Ancient Greek agricultural tools consisted of copper, bronze or iron sickles, shears, and pick axes.
Sometimes cattle were hooked up to primitive plows, but for the most part all the work was done by hand.
Fields were tilled with shovels and spades and olives were beaten out of trees with sticks and collected in
baskets.

One Italian archeobotanist told National Geographic that the Greeks "knew that some sites were good for
olives, others for vines or wheat. So they divided the land accordingly. They brought new tools for deeper
plowing. They rotated crops. They used cattle dung to fertilize fields. They knew that if you prune a tree
properly, you get a much better yield."

Religion in Greece
From : Ancient Greek Religion - World History Encyclopedia
In the ancient Greek world, religion was personal, direct, and present in all areas of life.
With formal rituals which included animal sacrifices and libations, myths to explain the
origins of mankind and give the gods a human face, temples which dominated the urban
landscape, city festivals and national sporting and artistic competitions, religion was never far
from the mind of an ancient Greek. Whilst the individual may have made up their own mind
on the degree of their religious belief and some may have been completely sceptical, certain
fundamentals must have been sufficiently widespread in order for Greek government and
society to function: the gods existed, they could influence human affairs, and they welcomed
and responded to acts of piety and worship.

The Olympian Gods

Polytheistic Greek religion encompassed a myriad of gods, each representing a certain facet
of the human condition, and even abstract ideas such as justice and wisdom could have their
own personification. The most important gods, though, were the Olympian gods led by Zeus:
1. Zeus
2. Athena
3. Apollo
 4. Poseidon
5. Hermes
6. Hera
7. Aphrodite
8. Demeter
9. Ares
10. Artemis
11. Hades
12. Hephaistos
13. Dionysos
These 12 Olympian gods were believed to reside on Mt. Olympus and would have been
recognised across Greece, albeit, with some local variations and perhaps particular attributes
and associations.

IN THE GREEK IMAGINATION, LITERATURE &

ART, THE GODS WERE GIVEN HUMAN BODIES
& CHARACTERS - BOTH GOOD & BAD.
In the Greek imagination, literature, and art, the gods were given human bodies and
characters - both good and bad - and just as ordinary men and women, they married, had
children (often through illicit affairs), fought, and in the stories of Greek mythology they
directly intervened in human affairs. These traditions were first recounted only orally as there
was no sacred text in Greek religion and later, attempts were made to put in writing this oral
tradition, notably by Hesiod in his Theogony and more indirectly in the works of Homer.
Gods became patrons of cities, for example, Aphrodite for Corinth and Helios for Rhodes,
and were called upon for help in particular situations, for example, Ares during war and Hera
for weddings. Some gods were imported from abroad, for example, Adonis, and incorporated
into the Greek pantheon whilst rivers and springs could take on a very localised personified
form such as the nymphs.
The temple (naos - meaning dwelling place in reference to the belief that the god dwelt in
that place, or at least temporarily visited during rituals) was the place where, on special
occasions, religion took on a more formal tone. Gods were worshipped at sacred sites and
temples in all major Greek communities in ceremonies carried out by priests and their
attendants.
 Temple of Hephaistos & Athena, Athens
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

At first, sacred sites were merely a simple altar in a designated area, but over time massive
temples came to be built in honour of a particular god and these usually housed a cult statue
of the deity, most famously the huge statue of Athena in the Parthenon of Athens or Zeus at
Olympia. In time, a whole complex of temples to lesser gods could spring up around the
main temple, creating a large sacred complex, often built on an acropolis dominating a city
or surrounding area. This sacred area (temenos) was separated from the rest of the community
by a symbolic gate or propylon, and in fact, it was believed that this area belonged to the
particular deity in question. Sacred sites also received financial donations and dedications of
statues, fountains and even buildings from the faithful, often to celebrate a great military
victory and give thanks to the gods, and larger sanctuaries also had permanent caretakers
(neokoroi) who were responsible for the upkeep of the site.

THE ANIMALS SACRIFICED WERE USUALLY

PIGS, SHEEP, GOATS OR COWS & ALWAYS
THE SAME SEX AS THE GOD WHICH WAS
BEING HONOURED.
The temple itself, though, was not used during religious practices as these were carried out at
a designated altar outside the temple. Ancient authors often show a reluctance to go into
explicit details of religious ceremonies and rites as if these were too sacred to be publicised in
the written word. What we do know is that the most common religious practices were
sacrifice and the pouring of libations, all to the accompaniment of prayers in honour of the
god. The animals sacrificed were usually pigs, sheep, goats or cows and always the same sex
as the god which was being honoured. The meat was then either burnt completely or cooked,
with part offered to the god and the rest eaten by some or all of the worshippers or taken
away to be eaten later. The actual killing of the animal was carried out by a butcher or cook
(megeiras) whilst a young girl sprinkled seeds onto the animals head, perhaps symbolic of
life and regeneration at the moment of the animal's death. Other such rituals included
examining the entrails of sacrificed animals to ascertain signs which could help predict future
events.
Priests then, orchestrated the religious ceremonies and delivered prayers. The position was
generally open to all and once assuming the role, particularly when wearing the sacred
headband, the body of the priest became inviolate. Priests served a specific god but they were
not necessarily religious experts. For theological questions, a citizen could consult an
exegetes, a state official, who was knowledgeable in religious affairs. Women could also be
priests, which is perhaps surprising given their lack of any other public role in Greek society.
Often, but not always, the priest was the same sex as the god they represented. Priestesses did
have the added restriction that they were most often selected because they were virgins or
beyond menopause. Worshippers, on the other hand, could be both sexes and those rituals
with restrictions could exclude either men or women.
 Seated Demeter Figurine
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Mysteries & Oracles

In addition to the formal and public religious ceremonies there were also many rites which
were open to and known only by the initiated who performed them, the most famous example
being the Mysteries of Eleusis. In these closed groups, members believed that certain
activities gave spiritual benefits, amongst them a better after-life.
Places could also acquire a divine connection; the great oracles such as that of Apollo at
Delphi and Zeus at Dodona may well have begun as places considered particularly good to
receive signs from the gods. Such places became hugely important centres with their priest
oracles consulted by both individuals and city-states so that the rather vague and ambiguous
proclamations might help guide their future conduct.
Festivals & Games
Athletic Games and competitions in music (especially playing the kithara and lyre) and
theatre (both tragedy and comedy) were held during festivals such as the City Dionysia of
Athens and the Panhellenic games at the most important sacred sites of Olympia, Delphi,
Nemea, and Isthmia to honour a particular god. These events were attended by visitors from
all over Greece and the experience was perhaps more akin to a pilgrimage rather than that of
a mere sports fan. Illustrating their sacred status, warfare was prohibited during these events
and pilgrims were guaranteed free-passage across Greece. However, there were also much
smaller festivals, sometimes only attended by a very select number of individuals, for
example, the Arrhephoria in Athens, where only priestesses and a maximum of four young
girls participated.

Greek Chariot
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Personal Religion
Although the historical record reveals much about formal religious occasions and ceremony,
we should remember that Greek religion was in fact practised anywhere, at any time, by
private individuals in a very personal way. Not only temples but also the hearth in private
homes was regarded as sacred, for example. Individuals could also visit a temple anytime
they wanted to and it was customary to say a prayer even when just passing them in the
street. People left offerings such as incense, flowers, and food, no doubt with a hopeful
prayer or in gratitude for a past deed. Individuals could also organise their own private
sacrifice if they had the means to do so, and these have been commemorated in thousands of
stone relief markers found at sacred sites. In addition, temples were often visited in order to
seek healing, especially at those sites associated with Asclepius the god of medicine, notably
at Epidaurus.
People also looked for signs from the gods in everyday life and to interpret these signs as
indicators of future events. Such signs could be birds in the sky or a spoken word between
friends said at a particular moment or even a simple sneeze which might be interpreted as an
auspicious or inauspicious omen.
Such beliefs and, indeed, certain aspects of religion such as the immorality of the gods as
portrayed in the arts, were severely criticised by intellectuals, artists, and philosophers from
the 5th century BCE, but these may or may not reflect the commonly held views of the wider
populace, and it is difficult to believe from the wealth of archaeological and written records
that religion was anything but a fundamental part of life for the ordinary inhabitants of the
ancient Greek world.

From: Ancient Greek Language Ancient Greece Language Alphabet

(ancientgreecefacts.com)

Language and Writing

The Greeks were one of the first races to devise a language system. The Ancient Greek
Language of the Greeks has been there since about 750 BC. That makes the ancient Greek
language 2750 years old.

Ancient Greek Language Alphabet

The language of the ancient Greeks was derived from the Canaanite / Phoenician alphabet.
The letter names which constituted of the Greek alphabet were derived from Phoenician. The
original names of the letters were not retained. For example, the word alpha comes from the
Canaanite word aleph which means ox and beta come from Beth meaning house.
Initially, the different cities of Greece used different alphabets. These were identified as local
alphabets. The local alphabets were called epichoric.

Epichoroics can be divided into 3 subdivisions:

1. Green
2. Blue
3. Red
But these alphabets were soon replaced by Ionic alphabets in the 4th century BC. The
modern-day Greek alphabets resemble the Ionic alphabets greatly. The minuscule letters and
the lower case letters appeared much later, around 800AD.

What were the prominent features of the ancient Greek language?

1. In written language, the Greeks were the first one to include vowels.
2. The sentences were written either from right to left or from left to right. It was a horizontal
pattern. It was only during 500 BC that they started writing from left to right in a horizontal
pattern.
3. Diacritics were introduced in the language. They represented the stress and relaxation of
the alphabets. This change was brought about in 200 BC.
4. Sigma contained a special meaning. It was used at the end of the word.
The Greek language is an Indo European language which is spoken by 14 million people
staying in Greece and in Cyprus. The Greek language is an official language in these 2 states.
Other countries also at times use the Greek language; these countries bring Turkey, Italy, and
Albania.
In the present times, the Greek alphabets are used only to write the Greek language. But in
the earlier times, the alphabets were used in several countries.
These languages were:
1. Lydian,
2. Phrygian,
3. Thracian,
4. Gaulish,
5. Hebrew,
6. Arabic,
7. Old Ossetic,
8. Albanian,
9. Turkish,
10. Aromanian,
11. Gagauz,
12. Surguch
13. and Urum.
The ancient Greek language consisted of numerical and also symbols. Some of the symbols
were delta, sigma, gamma, alpha, beta etc.The Greek language was enriched by the works of
literature that were composed in it.

Social Classes/Hierarchy
Ancient Greek Society - World History Encyclopedia
Although ancient Greek Society was dominated by the male citizen, with his full legal status,
right to vote, hold public office, and own property, the social groups which made up the
population of a typical Greek city-state or polis were remarkably diverse. Women, children,
immigrants (both Greek and foreign), labourers, and slaves all had defined roles, but there
was interaction (often illicit) between the classes and there was also some movement between
social groups, particularly for second-generation offspring and during times of stress such as
wars.
The society of ancient Greece was largely composed of the following groups:
 male citizens - three groups: landed aristocrats (aristoi), poorer farmers (perioikoi)
and the middle class (artisans and traders).
 semi-free labourers (e.g the helots of Sparta).
 women - belonging to all of the above male groups but without citizen rights.
 children - categorised as below 18 years generally.
 slaves - the douloi who had civil or military duties.
 foreigners - non-residents (xenoi) or foreign residents (metoikoi) who were below
male citizens in status.

Demeter & Persephone

Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)

Classes
Although the male citizen had by far the best position in Greek society, there were different
classes within this group. Top of the social tree were the 'best people', the aristoi. Possessing
more money than everyone else, this class could provide themselves with armour, weapons,
and a horse when on military campaign. The aristocrats were often split into powerful family
factions or clans who controlled all of the important political positions in the polis. Their
wealth came from having property and even more importantly, the best land, i.e.: the most
fertile and the closest to the protection offered by the city walls.
Follow us on Youtube!

A poorer, second class of citizens existed too. These were men who had land but perhaps less
productive plots and situated further from the city, their property was less well-protected than
the prime land nearer the city proper. The land might be so far away that the owners had to
live on it rather than travel back and forth from the city. These citizens were called the
perioikoi (dwellers-round-about) or even worse 'dusty-feet' and they collected together for
protection in small village communities, subordinate to the neighbouring city. As city
populations grew and inheritances became ever more divided amongst siblings, this
secondary class grew significantly.
A third group were the middle, business class. Engaged in manufacturing, trade, and
commerce, these were the nouveau riche. However, the aristoi jealously guarded their
privileges and political monopoly by ensuring only landowners could rise into positions of
real power. However, there was some movement between classes. Some could rise through
accumulating wealth and influence, others could go down a class by becoming bankrupt
(which could lead to a loss of citizenship or even being enslaved). Ill-health, losing out on an
inheritance, political upheavals, or war could also result in the 'best' getting their feet a little
dusty.

Women
Female citizens had few rights in comparison to male citizens. Unable to vote, own land, or
inherit, a woman's place was in the home and her purpose in life was the rearing of children.
Contact with non-family males was discouraged and women occupied their time with indoor
activities such as wool-work and weaving. Spartan women were treated somewhat
differently than in other states, for example, they had to do physical training (nude) like men,
were permitted to own land, and could drink wine.
 Greek Peplos Dress
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Women citizens had to marry as a virgin and marriage was usually organised by the father,
who chose the husband and accepted from him a dowry. If a woman had no father, then her
interests (marriage prospects and property management) were looked after by a guardian
(kurios), perhaps an uncle or other male relative. Married at the typical age of thirteen or
fourteen, love had little to do with the matching of husband and wife. Of course, love may
have developed between the couple but the best that might be hoped for was philia - a general
friendship/love sentiment; eros, the love of desire, was to be found elsewhere, at least for the
male. Marriages could be ended on three grounds. The first and most common was
repudiation by the husband (apopempsis or ekpempsis). No reason was necessary, only the
return of the dowry was expected. The second termination cause was the wife leaving the
family home (apoleipsis) and in this case the woman's new guardian was required to act as
her legal representative. This was, however, a rare occurrence and the woman's reputation in
society was damaged as a result. The third ground for termination was when the bride's father
asked for his daughter back (aphairesis), probably to offer her to another man with a more
attractive dowry. This last option was only possible, however, if the wife had not had
children. If a woman was left a widow, she was required to marry a close male relative in
order to ensure property stayed within the family.
Women, of course, were also present in the various other non-citizen classes. The group for
which we have most information is that of sex-workers. Women were here divided into two
categories. The first and perhaps most common was the brothel prostitute (pornē). The
second, was the higher-class prostitute (hetaira). These latter women were educated in music
and culture and often formed lasting relationships with married men. It was also this class of
women that entertained men (in every sense) at the celebrated symposium.

Children & Adolescents

Children of citizens attended schools where the curriculum covered reading, writing, and
mathematics. After these basics were mastered, studies turned to literature (for example,
Homer), poetry, and music (especially the lyre). Athletics was also an essential element in a
young person's education. At Sparta, boys as young as seven were grouped together under the
stewardship of an older youth to be toughened up with hard physical training. In Athens,
young adult citizens (aged 18-20) had to perform civil and military service and their
education continued with lessons in politics, rhetoric, and culture. Girls too were educated in
a similar manner to boys but with a greater emphasis on dancing, gymnastics, and musical
accomplishment which could be shown off in musical competitions and at religious festivals
and ceremonies. The ultimate goal of a girl's education was to prepare her for her role in
rearing a family.
 Child's Commode
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

An important part of a Greek youth's upbringing involved pederasty - for both boys and girls.
This was a relationship between an adult and an adolescent which included sexual relations
but in addition to a physical relationship, the older partner acted as a mentor to the youth and
educated them through the elder's worldly and practical experience.

Labourers
Greek society included a significantly larger proportion of labourers than slaves. These were
semi-free workers, wholly dependent on their employer. The most famous example is the
helot class of Sparta. These dependents were not the property of a particular citizen - they
could not be sold as a slave could - and they often lived with their families. Generally, they
formed arrangements with their employer such as giving a quantity of their produce to the
farm owner and keeping the rest for themselves. Sometimes the quota required may have
been high or low, and there may also have been some extra benefits to the serfs such as
protection and safety in numbers. However, the serf-class or helots could never achieve any
real security as they were given little or no legal status and harshly treated, even killed in
regular purges (especially in Sparta), in order to instil a fear which would ensure continued
subordination to the ruling class. In certain periods such as war, helots were required to serve
in the armed forces and, fighting well, they could even earn an escape from their lot and join
the intermediary social groups which existed below the level of full-citizen and included such
individuals as children with parents of mixed status (e.g.: father-citizen, mother-helot).

Slaves
In Greek society, slaves were seen as a necessary and perfectly normal part of city-life.
Acquired through war and conquest, kidnap and purchase, slaves were simply amongst life's
losers. There were even intellectual arguments from philosophers like Aristotle, which
propounded the belief that slaves were demonstrably inferior, a product of their environment
and inherited characteristics. Greeks persuaded themselves that it was they who had the best
environment and characteristics and the purest bloodline and were, therefore, born to rule.

Red-figure Tondo Depicting a Youth

Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

It is impossible to say with accuracy how many slaves (douloi) there were in Greek society
and what proportion of the population they made up. It is unlikely, due to the costs, that every
single citizen had their own slave but some citizens undoubtedly owned many slaves.
Accordingly, estimates of the slave population in the Greek world range from between 15 and
40% of the total population. However, a defence speech made in a court case in Athens by
Lysias, and hints from others such as Demosthenes, strongly suggest that if every citizen did
not have slaves then they certainly desired them and to be a slave owner was considered a
measure of social status. Slaves were not only owned by private individuals but also by the
state, which used them in municipal projects such as mining or, as in the case of Athens, the
police force.
The relationship between slaves and owners seems to have been much as in any other period
of history with a mix of contempt, distrust, and abuse from the owners and contempt, theft,
and sabotage from the enslaved. Source material is always from the viewpoint of the slave
owner but there are references in literature, particularly in Greek comedy, of friendship and
loyalty in at least some owner-slave relationships. Whilst the flogging of slaves is commonly
referred to in Greek plays, there were also treatises written extolling the benefits of kindness
and incentives in slave management.
Slaves worked in all spheres and over 200 hundred occupations have been identified. These
include working in the home, in agriculture, industry workshops (e.g.: making shields, food,
clothes and perfumes), mines, transport, retail, banking, entertainment, in the armed forces as
attendants to their owner or as baggage carriers, as rowers in naval vessels or even as fighters.
Farms were generally small affairs with even the richest citizens tending to own several small
farms rather than one large estate, therefore, slaves were not concentrated into large groups as
in later ancient societies.

Symposiast & Hetaira

Sebastià Giralt (CC BY-NC-SA)

For slaves there was, at least for some, a glimmer of hope to one day achieve their freedom.
There are instances when slaves, particularly those involved in manufacturing and industry,
living separately from their owners and given a certain financial independence, could pay for
their freedom with money they had saved. Also, slaves in the army were sometimes given
their freedom by the state following their victorious exploits.

Foreigners
Aside from slaves, most Greek poleis would have had a number of free foreigners (xenoi)
who had chosen to re-locate from other areas of Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Near
East, bringing with them skills such as pottery and metalworking. These foreigners usually
had to register their residence and so became a recognised class (lower in status than the full-
citizens) called the metics (metoikoi). In return for the benefits of 'guest' citizenship they had
to provide a local sponsor, pay local taxes, sometimes pay additional taxes, contribute to the
costs of minor festivals, and even participate in military campaigns when necessary. Despite
the suspicions and prejudices against foreign 'barbarians' which often crop up in literary
sources, there were cases when metoikoi did manage to become full citizens after a suitable
display of loyalty and contribution to the good of the host state. They then received equal tax
status and the right to own property and land. Their children too could also become citizens.
However, some states, notably Sparta, at times actively discouraged immigration or
periodically expelled xenoi. The relationship between foreigners and local citizens seems to
have been a strained one, particularly in times of wars and economic hardship.

Trade In Ancient Greece

Trade & Commerce in Ancient Greece (Collection) - World History Encyclopedia
The ancient Mediterranean was a busy place with trading ships sailing in all directions to
connect cities and cultures. The Greeks were so keen on the rewards of trade and commerce
that they colonized large parts of the coastal Mediterranean. In this collection of resources,
we examine the products they exported such as wine and olive oil, the goods on offer in the
agora markets that came via such important ports as the Piraeus, and the cultural
consequences of all this activity from spreading Greek architecture to minting coinage.
Such was the success of the Greeks in spreading their ideas and way of life that, even today,
the culture of the Mediterranean spans across such modern inventions as national borders.

Greek cities were soon attracted by the fertile land, natural resources, and good harbours of a
'New World' - southern Italy and Sicily. The Greek colonists eventually subdued the local
population and stamped their identity on the region to such an extent that they called it
'Greater Greece' or Megalē Hellas, and it would become the most 'Greek' of all the colonized
territories, both in terms of culture and the urban landscape with Doric temples being the
most striking symbol of Hellenization.
Trade was a fundamental aspect of the ancient Greek world and following territorial
expansion, an increase in population movements, and innovations in transport, goods could
be bought, sold, and exchanged in one part of the Mediterranean which had their origin in a
completely different and far distant region. Food, raw materials, and manufactured goods
were not only made available to Greeks for the first time but the export of such classics as
wine, olives, and pottery helped to spread Greek culture to the wider world.

From Local to International Trade

In Greece and the wider Aegean, local, regional, and international trade exchange existed
from Minoan and Mycenaean times in the Bronze Age. The presence, in particular, of
pottery and precious goods such as gold, copper, and ivory, found far from their place of
production, attests to the exchange network which existed between Egypt, Asia Minor, the
Greek mainland, and islands such as Crete, Cyprus, and the Cyclades. Trade lessened and
perhaps almost disappeared when these civilizations declined, and during the so-called Dark
Ages from the 11th to 8th centuries BCE international trade in the Mediterranean was
principally carried out by the Phoenicians.
The earliest written sources of Homer and Hesiod attest to the existence of trade (emporia)
and merchants (emporoi) from the 8th century BCE, although they often present the activity
as unsuitable for the ruling and landed aristocracy. Nevertheless, international trade grew
from 750 BCE, and contacts spread across the Mediterranean driven by social and political
factors such as population movements, colonisation (especially in Magna Graecia), inter-
state alliances, the spread of coinage, the gradual standardisation of measurements, warfare,
and safer seas following the determination to eradicate piracy.

Greek and Phoenician Colonization

Kelly Macquire (CC BY-NC-SA)

From 600 BCE trade was greatly facilitated by the construction of specialised merchant ships
and the diolkos haulway across the isthmus of Corinth. Special permanent trading places
(emporia), where merchants of different nationalities met to trade, sprang up, for example, at
Al Mina on the Orontes river (modern Turkey), Ischia-Pithekoussai (off the coast of modern
Naples), Naucratis in Egypt, and Gravisca in Etruria. From the 5th century BCE, Athens'
port of Piraeus became the most important trading centre in the Mediterranean and gained a
reputation as the place to find any type of goods on the market.
Follow us on Youtube!

Traded Goods
Goods which were traded within Greece between different city-states included:
 cereals
 wine
 olives
 figs
 pulses
 eels
 cheese
 honey
 meat (especially from sheep and goats)
 tools (e.g.: knives)
 perfumes
 fine pottery, especially Attic and Corinthian wares.

THE MOST IMPORTANT TRADE EXPORTS

WERE WINE AND OLIVES, WHILE CEREALS,
SPICES, & PRECIOUS METALS WERE
IMPORTED.
Fine Greek pottery was also in great demand abroad and examples have been found as far
afield as the Atlantic coast of Africa. Other Greek exports included wine, especially from
Aegean islands like Mende and Kos, bronze work, olives and olive oil (transported, like
wine, in amphorae), emery from Delos, hides from Euboea, marble from Athens and Naxos,
and ruddle (a type of waterproofing material for ships) from Keos.
The goods available at the market places (agorai) of major urban centres which were
imported from outside Greece included:
 wheat
 slaves from Egypt
 grain from the Black Sea (especially via Byzantium)
 salt fish from the Black Sea
 wood (especially for shipbuilding) from Macedonia and Thrace
 papyrus
 textiles
 luxury food such as spices (e.g.: pepper)
 glass
 metals such as iron, copper, tin, gold and silver.
 Silver Stater, Metapontum
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Trade Incentives & Protection

Maritime loans enabled traders to pay for their cargoes and the loan did not have to be repaid
if the ship failed to reach safely its port of destination. To compensate the lender for this risk,
interest rates (nautikos tokos) could be from 12.5 to 30% and the ship was often the security
on the loan.
The involvement of the state in trade was relatively limited; however, a notable exception
was grain. For example, so vital was it to feed Athens' large population and especially
valuable in times of drought, trade in wheat was controlled and purchased by a special 'grain
buyer' (sitones). From c. 470 BCE the obstruction of the import of grain was prohibited, as
was the re-exportation of it; for offenders the punishment was the death penalty. Market
officials (agoranomoi) ensured the quality of goods on sale in the markets and grain had its
own supervisors, the sitophylakes, who regulated that prices and quantities were correct.
Besides taxes on the movement of goods (e.g.: road taxes or, at Chalkedon, a 10% transit
charge on Black Sea traffic payable to Athens) and levies on imports and exports at ports,
there were also measures taken to protect trade. For example, Athens taxed those citizens
who contracted loans on grain cargo which did not deliver to Piraeus or those merchants who
failed to unload a certain percentage of their cargo. Special maritime courts were established
to tempt traders to choose Athens as their trading partner, and private banks could facilitate
currency exchange and safeguard deposits. Similar trading incentives existed on Thasos, a
major trading-centre and large exporter of high quality wine.
With the decline of the Greek city-states in the late Classical period, international trade
moved elsewhere; nevertheless, many Greek cities would continue to be important trading
centres in Hellenistic and Roman times, especially Athens and the free-trade ports of Delos
and Rhodes.
Did you like this article?