The Inscriptions and the Food Supply

The food supply naturally is an important matter for any large city, particularly one like Athens that could not produce enough food of its own and was, consequently, dependent on imports. A shortage of foodstuffs was a very serious matter; the food supply understandably, therefore, was a regular item on the agenda at every , i.e., every plenary session of the assembly. Indeed, it is hardly fortuitous that Aristotle mentions it and safeguarding the countryside in the same breath— .^[1] hole matter became even more important, of course, at those times when the citizens anticipated that the city might come under siege. It is not surprising then that the Athenians granted honors from time to time to various foreigners who helped feed the populace. It has been the strong tendency of scholars to associate these texts with times of serious shortages. Not every such inscription, however, need imply a major crisis. The food supply was always a matter for real concern.

In the years after the defeat at Chaironeia and down to about the year 320, several crises in the Athenian food supply have been identified.^[2] The best-documented and most discussed is the undoubtedly severe shortage of the years 330-326.^[3] It is most clearly attested in the multiple decrees

[1] Ath. Pol . 43.4.

[2] See S. Isager and M. H. Hansen, Aspects of Athenian Society in the Fourth CenturyB.C . (Odense 1975) 200-208; W. Will, Athen und Alexander , Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und Antiken Rechtsgeschichte no. 77 (1983) 107-113; P. Garnsey, Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge 1988) 150-164. For a general discussion of those involved in the import of food, see H. Montgomery," 'Merchants Fond of Corn': Citizens and Foreigners in the Athenian Grain Trade," Symbolae OsIoenses 61 (1986) 43-61. On the food supply and harbor measures controlling it, Isager and Hansen 19-29; and R. Garland, ThePiraeus (Ithaca 1987) 89-90, 201.

[3] The dates are usually given more broadly as 331-325/4. The narrower dates suggested here are based on the indications in the epigraphical evidence that the height of the crisis covered the years 330-327 or a bit later. See the discussions of Peçirka, Enktesis 70-72; and of J. Camp, "Greek Inscriptions," Hesperia 43 (1974) 323-324. See also A. Jardé, Les céreales dans l'antiquité grecque (Paris 1925) 43-47.

in honor of Herakleides of Salamis on Cyprus published as IG II² 360. He is praised in 325/4, when the crisis appears to have abated, for two actions. He was the first of the importers during the shortage (, lines 8-9) in 330/29 to bring in grain and sell it at a reasonable price (lines 8-10, 29-31), and in 328/7 he contributed 3,000 drachmas towards the cost of supplying food (lines 11-12, 70). The speech Against Phormio in the Demosthenic corpus describes the rationing of grain in Athens and Piraeus at this time.^[4] An important inscription from Kyrene in North Africa which dates to the early 320's mentions the same food shortage () and records grain distributions to a large number of Greek cities.^[5] This shortage was clearly serious and widespread. It was also at this time that Alexander's newly appointed treasurer Harpalos sent a large amount of food to Athens and was granted citizenship.^[6]

In the year 329/8, right in the midst of the crisis, the demos at Eleusis, clearly in reaction to the shortage and inflated prices, directed that the surplus wheat and barley from offerings to the sanctuary be sold at six and three drachmas respectively per medimnos.^[7] The only Athenian honorary inscription other than IG II² 360 that can be associated quite certainly with the shortage of these particular years is IG II² 363. This text honors a certain Dionysios and, since the restoration in lines 11-12 seems to be correct, reveals that he, like Herakleides of Salamis, did something in the first phase of the crisis (330/29) and is now being praised for having done more. It probably belongs, as Schwenk has argued,^[8] to the year 326/5. Finally, the naval accounts of 326/5 and the following year, IG II² 1628 and 1629, mention payments to the grain fund that could be deducted from fines levied on certain trierarchs of years past.^[9] These payments should almost certainly be connected with the

[4] 34.37.

[5] Tod, GHI no. 196. A Laronde, Cyrèe et laLibye hellénistique (Paris 1987) 30-34, provides a new text and discussion. For a recent discussion of the implications of this text, see E Brun, "La stèle des céréales de Cyrène et le commerce du grain en Égée au IV . s. av. J.-C.," ZPE 99 (1993) 185-196.

[6] Athenaios 13.586d; see Osborne, Naturalization III T82.

[7] IG II 1672 lines 282-288. These figures were probably below the then-current market prices.

[8] Schwenk pp. 327-329.

[9] IG II1628 lines 339-452 = IG II1629 lines 859-975; see also lines 60-85 of IG II 1631.

organized fund-raising effort which took place at the height of the crisis in 328/7.^[10] This must also have been the time that Demosthenes himself contributed a talent for the food supply.^[11]

Instead of one long shortage, Garnsey in his recent study has interpreted the problems in 330/29 and in 328/7 as two separate shortages that were only loosely, if at all, connected.^[12] This may be correct; but against it is the fact that the terms and seem to have been applied only to the difficulties of these years. If that is the case, these shortages were apparently viewed as one connected problem and more than temporary. Indeed this shortage of food was probably caused by widespread crop failures and shortfalls lasting several years.^[13] That is, it was of a different order from shortages caused by faulty distribution, blockades, or acts of piracy.^[14] Though serious, shortages of this nature could be remedied fairly quickly.

A few years later there was another shortage, which began perhaps during the Lamian War in 323/2 and lasted for several years.^[15] The inscriptions that attest to this shortage are:

IG II² 369 + — Osborne, Naturalization no. D25. This inscription dates to early 322 and, although it does not directly mention food in its preserved parts, it honors a Bosporan for services rendered. These services are likely to have included shipment of grain.

[12] Famine and Food Supply 154-158.

[15] The speech Against Dionysodoros , no. 56 in the Demosthenic corpus, attests in its opening sections (especially 8-10) to the fluctuations in price and to the difficulty of getting grain from Egypt at this time.

IG II² 398a —honors someone who had saved many after the sea battle in the Hellespont during the war and had sent grain to Athens a bit later.^[16]

IG II² 400—a decree proposed by Demades shortly before his death (see below 147); it honors a certain Eucharistos for supplying grain and promising more.

IG II² 401—this decree belongs to 321 or 320 and honors a citizen of Kyzikos for helping with the shipment of grain from Asia.

In addition to these two well-attested shortages, we learn from the speech Against Phormio of a crisis in the year in which Alexander demolished Thebes, i.e., 335.^[17] We have no certain epigraphical testimony for it. We thus have knowledge of three shortages during the years after Chaironeia and down to 320, namely in the years 335, 330-326, and 323-320.^[18]

The following inscriptions that mention the food supply have generally been associated with the period 331-ca . 320. None can be dated precisely enough to specify to which of the two shortages known in this decade they apply, and two of them, IG II² 408 and Agora I 7178, may well date prior to the year 330.

IG II² 342—re-edited with a new fragment by M. B. Walbank in ZPE 59 (1985) 107-111. This is a proxeny decree for two citizens of Tyre.

IG II² 343—Schwenk no. 84. This text honors Apollonides of Sidon.

IG II² 407—honors a Milesian for bringing grain to Athens.^[19]

IG II² 408—honors two Herakleotes. If Kirchner's restorations are

[16] M. B. Walbank, "Athens Grants Citizenship to a Benefactor: IG II 398a and 438," Ancient History Bulletin 1 (1987) 10-12, associates IG II 438 with this text.

[17] 34.38.

[18] IG II 312 almost certainly forms part of the dossier of evidence regarding the grain supply in these years. It is a very fragmentary and worn text that preserves a crown and a relief (Meyer, Urkundenreliefs pl. 45.1 for a good photograph). The relief depicts the prow of a ship with sheaves of grain. Surely it derives from an honorary inscription that praised someone for importing food.

[19] If M. Walbank is correct in making his tentative association of this inscription with Agora I 7050 ("IG ii , 407 and SEG xxxii, 94: Honours for a Milesian Grain-Dealer," ZPE 67 [1987] 165-166), then it refers to the shortage of the years 323-320.

correct ad loc ., prosopographical considerations point to a date around 335 B.C.^[20]

IG II² 409—honors two men for importing food from Sinope. See Wilhelm's restoration in "Att. Urktmden V," SB Wien 220.5 (1942) 150-152.

IG II²416b —honors a man from Kos for expediting the shipment of food to Athens and mentions prominently the support activities of the Athenian merchants and cleruchs on Samos.

IG II² 423—if the restoration in lines 13-14 is correct, this text should be assigned to the crisis at the beginning of the decade.

Agora I 4956—Hesperia 9 (1940) 332-333; honors Pandios the Herakleote.

Agora I 7178 —Hesperia 43 (1974) 322-324; honors Sopatros of Akragas in Sicily. This measure was proposed by Lykourgos; it could therefore also refer to the crisis in 335 and cannot postdate the death of Lykourgos in 324.

Such then is the evidence for the food supply and the shortages during the years 335-320.

We find again in the epigraphical evidence concern for the food supply at the end of the century and continuing into the third century, when lack of food and money became a nearly constant problem. EM 12825 (Hesperia 5 [1936] 201-205) of the year of the archon Euxenippos (305/4) praises an individual for his care for the food supply. IG II² 479 and its counterpart IG II² 480 of late 304 or early 303 honor an Herakleote for, among other things, his monetary contribution towards the purchase of grain in 307/6. IG II² 499 of the year 302/1 recounts in praise of someone that he sold grain at a good price and contributed money for purchase of food.^[21] These texts probably reflect the extra concern for the food supply caused by unsettled conditions that Athens faced during these years, particularly Kassandros' efforts to retake Athens in the years 307-304.

In 299/8 King Lysimachos donated 10,000 medimnoi of wheat.^[22] We

[22] IG II 657 lines 11-14.

hear from the literary evidence of a severe shortage during the siege of Athens by Demetrios Poliorketes probably in the spring of 295^[23] and of Demetrios' gift of 100,000 medimnoi after taking the city.^[24] In addition, there is a spate of inscriptions of the years 286-284 honoring foreigners for help with the food supply.^[25] At about this same time, as a result of the diplomacy of Phaidros of Sphettos, King Ptolemy provided both food and money.^[26] These actions clearly shored up the freedom of the Athenians that had recently been won from Demetrios Poliorketes.^[27]

Finally, Agora I 7360 honors a group of Rhodians for their help with the food supply. It was associated by its initial editor with the severe crisis of the years 330-326,^[28] but the hand of the cutter reveals that it must be dated later than 320.^[29] Indeed, most of this man's dated work falls in the years 295 and after. This fragmentary text, therefore, most probably belongs to the years after 287, when the Athenians successfully revolted from Demetrios Poliorketes' control. The Rhodians, who themselves had withstood a harsh siege by Demetrios in the years 305-304 and maintained their independence,^[30] no doubt were happy to support the Athenians against their former enemy.

[23] Ch. Habicht, Untersuchungen 1-8, supported de Sanctis' date (294); Osborne, "The Archonship of Nikias Hysteros and the Secretary Cycles in the Third Century BC ," ZPE 58 (1985) 275-295, argued for Ferguson's (295). Habicht now leans toward the earlier date; see "Athens and the Ptolemies" in Classical Antiquity 11 (1992) 68-69.

[24] Plutarch Demetrios 33-34.

[25] IG II650 (King Ptolemy's admiral), 651 (Habron and Matrias), 653 (King Spartokos of the Bosporos), 654 (King Audoleon of Paionia), 655 (King Audoleon's agent).

[26] IG II 682 lines 28-30.

[27] See also T. L. Shear, Jr., Kallias of Sphettos , Hesperia Suppl. 17 (1978) 26-27.

[28] M. B. Walbank, Hesperia 49 (1980) 251-255.

[29] It was inscribed by the Cutter of IG II 650, who was not at work in the decade 330-320.

[30] Diodoros 20.81-88, 91-100.