Economic Activities

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Economic Activities

Farming . The basis of the Greek economy, and of the ancient world in general, from first to last remained agriculture. In the main it took the form of subsistence farming; market farming, even after the introduction of coins, was limited. The typical farmer’s market was a place where farmers from a few miles around met to exchange produce with each other: in agriculture as in manufacture during this period there was no genuine mercantile element. Moreover, there was no exportation of agricultural produce. The vast majority of the colonies were self-sufficient agricultural settlements. The colonists for the most part worked their land themselves. Some relied on the labor of the neighboring non-Greek population, whom the settlers enslaved. Examples of such enslavement were the Killyrioi who were subjected by the settlers of Syracuse in Sicily, and the Mariandynians who became slaves of the citizens of Heraclea Pontica in Asia Minor.

Religious Cults . There were some other activities that, although they were not deliberately planned to do so, nevertheless contributed to economic life. One of these was religion. The polytheistic Greeks worshipped major gods and minor divinities in many places. Throughout Greece there arose large sanctuaries containing many buildings and various smaller sacred precincts. The best known were the sanctuaries where the great Panhellenic athletic festivals took place: Olympia, Delphi, the Isthmus of Corinth, and Nemea. The construction of temples, smaller shrines, ancillary buildings, and in time of theaters and stadiums provided work for many craftsmen and architects, who traveled to the sanctuaries to fulfill their commissions. The acquisition of building materials—stone, metals, wood—also stimulated economic life.

The Dedications . The custom of offering gifts to the gods in the from of dedications also had an effect on the economy. The dedications consisted of pottery, sculpture, decorated marble slabs, and other artifacts, all of which were commissioned and paid for by both private persons and state governments. Objects made of the precious metals and of the less valuable bronze, as well as ingots of all these metals, were offered up as gifts to the gods, not only by the Greeks, but also by foreign potentates. Two kings of Lydia in Asia Minor, Gyges and Croesus, sent such gifts to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. Most of the silver there came from Gyges; he also gave many golden vessels, including six golden bowls weighing nearly 2,500 pounds each. Croesus sent to Delphi 117 ingots, each eighteen inches long, nine inches wide, and three inches thick. Four of them were refined gold weighing 142 pounds each, the rest were electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, weighing 114 pounds each. He also sent a statue of a lion made of pure gold, and standing on a base of gold bricks were two huge bowls, one golden, the other silver.

Financial Centers . The gifts from the rich Lydian kings were of course exceptional, but the point is that in the Archaic Period the sanctuaries began to amass great wealth. Dedications of the Lydian type were not the only source of the sanctuaries’ wealth. More-modest gifts from ordinary but well-to-do people added to the wealth. It was also customary to give to the gods a portion of the booty captured in war, so that in the course of time the sanctuaries acquired huge quantities of valuable

goods looted from defeated countries. Thus, the religious centers of archaic Greece came to resemble modern financial centers, although it is not fully clear in what way the capital assembled there had an impact on the economy. In the fifth century it was possible to borrow with interest from the treasury of a deity to defray the state’s expenses. Around the middle of the fourth century the Phocians, a people in the vicinity of Delphi, plundered the sanctuary of Apollo and melted down many of the gold and silver votive offerings to pay for expenses they had incurred in war. On this occasion at least and in such a crude way, the capital of Delphi was spread around and no doubt spurred on some economies. Whether Delphi and other rich sanctuaries lent money in earlier times is not clear but quite possible.

First Fruits . Religious cults and the various activities connected with them contributed to the economy in yet another way. At the sites of the great international festivals and local religious celebrations and games there gathered during the holidays large crowds of worshippers, spectators, athletes and their trainers, and artistic performers and their coaches. The crowds, which could number in the thousands at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, and Nemea, had to pay for food and drink and whatever other services they required. The customary sacrifices offered to the gods, consisting of the choicest farm produce and termed “first fruits,” involved expenditures, as did the ritualistic communal meals. The various artistic and cultural activities such as dancing, singing, and plays required more outlays, as did ceremonial processions and initiations into cults. Some of these events and practices were so expensive that they were financed by a state or by smaller bodies such as cult associations and other corporate entities, and sometimes by wealthy individuals.

War . Only one-tenth of the booty from warfare went into the coffers of the sanctuaries; the rest of it remained in the communities of the victorious city-state. As a result, warfare had a sizable impact on the economy. Aristotle observed that war is a way of acquiring property, and his observation was based on practical experience: he observed victorious states acquiring the arable land of their enemies. While on campaign, armies maintained themselves from the crops of the territory they had invaded and from pillaging the inhabitants’ property.