Firewood

Six groups of wood prices meet both criteria (279, 274, 272 or 271, 246, and 200). All fall in years for which military activity in the Kyklades is attested or very likely. In 279 B.C. , when wood sold for 15.1 percent above the mean, Ptolemaios II and Antiokhos were fighting a war that, as we have just seen, may have involved the Kyklades. Two wood prices for 274 B.C. of 15.1 and 29.6 percent above the mean may be associated with the First Syrian War, which affected Krete and may have involved an expedition by Egyptian forces to the Pontos; the Kyklades may have served as a staging ground for this expedition. Unfortunately, we do not know to what months the prices for these years applied. It therefore remains possible that they might be explained by seasonal factors. For the rest of the prices, months are attested, and we are on commensurately more solid ground.

In 272 (or 271) B.C. , another wood price of 15.1 percent above mean appears in Panemos. This price cannot be attributed to seasonal variation, since it falls in the summer in the middle of the sailing season, when demand for wood was low and availability high. The First Syrian War continued until 271 B.C. It seems at least plausible to blame this rather high wood price on the presence of troops in or around the Kyklades. It would be nice to know whether this price corresponds with the Pontic expedition of Ptolemaios II, but its exact date, like other details, remains an enigma.

For 246 B.C. , we have a series of high summer prices for firewood, spanning Thargelion, Second Panemos, and probably Metageitnion. Because the year was intercalary, Thargelion and Panemos must have fallen about a month earlier than usual, that is, in March-April and April-May. The prices, about 11.6–15.1 percent above mean, thus spanned spring and early summer. The Third Syrian, or Laodikean, War began this year, and there is now convincing evidence to put a Ptolemaic fleet in the Kyklades in the spring and early summer; it fought a battle at Andros and then liberated Ephesos from Seleukid control.^[122] It is very tempting to suggest that the naval operations conducted as part of the war both raised local demand for basic goods like firewood and grain and disrupted the local trade network. With its small demand, Delos was especially susceptible to the distrainment or diversion of cargo ships.

Finally, 200 B.C. recorded two wood prices 13.3 percent above mean in

Thargelion and Panemos. Prices on either side of these months were perfectly in line with average prices. The spring of 200 B.C. saw widespread activity in the islands. Philip V returned to Greece from Karia, where he had wintered, early in the spring, and following an award by Athens, also in the spring, of isopoliteia, the Rhodians put a fleet to sea, visited Keos, and obtained alliances with all of the islands except Andros, Paros, and Kythnos, which had Makedonian garrisons. The high spring wood prices could well be a consequence of this activity.^[123]

Unfortunately, the years of the war against Perseus, which saw an almost continuous Roman and allied naval presence not only in the islands but also on Delos itself, and in 168 B.C. included attacks on shipping by both sides, report either normal (171) or low (169) wood price.^[124]

Despite the troubling exception of the war against Perseus, the evidence seems to support the view that wood prices were affected by military activity. This activity did not need to be centered directly on Delos, as with the pig prices of 302 and 301 B.C. , to exercise its influence; it seems to have sufficed that fleets or troops moved through the islands or operated in the vicinity.

As we have seen, armies were most likely to raise prices either directly through blockades and sieges or indirectly by competing with local consumers or disrupting supplies. Since direct measures can be ruled out for Delos—as a sacred precinct it was exempt from direct military intervention, and fighting was banned there^[125] —troops could have raised prices there only by their demand or by interrupting supplies. In none of the cases we have examined is a military presence on Delos itself explicitly attested (although presumably any military commander who passed through the islands would have stopped to pay his respects to the god and make a dedication),^[126] but twice, in 246 and 200 B.C. , military actions are reported for the vicinity of Delos (Andros; the Kyklades generally). This situation can be accounted for by assuming that firewood reached the island from sources that, while not distant, did embrace most of the Kyklades. The picture of the trade in firewood that emerges from an examination of seasonal price variations finds confirmation in the reaction of prices to military activity.