TRIAL OF AN OLD GREEK CORN-RING 377 



presiding officials and the result is immediately announced by the 

 herald. Under the system, to say nothing of the natural feeling in 

 this case, there were no delays resulting from the failure of the jury 

 to agree; for a majority- vote decided the verdict. 



The penalty, in this case, was fixed by law — which did not always 

 happen — and, in default of a fixed penalty, not only actual damages 

 but the penalty also was a matter for the jury to assess. 



Athens and the Attic country-side, bounded by the mountains and 

 the Greek seas, were practically insular when the supply of wheat was 

 considered. A little nation, with only half the area of Ehode Island 

 but equal in population to that thickly settled commonwealth, would 

 thus present problems in plenty and corn-laws galore. The unpro- 

 ductive, light soil caused Solon early to forbid the exportation of any 

 farm product except olive oil; while the export of native grain was 

 absolutely forbidden by law, with the consequent encouragement of 

 the importation of cereals. Bread-stuffs must, in the main, come from 

 abroad and the fertile fields of Egypt and Sicily, to say nothing of 

 Ehodes and Cyprus, and, above all, the Black Sea country of modern 

 Russia were drawn on. The great problem in war, as well as in peace, 

 was to keep open a way for the corn-merchantmen, especially to that 

 north country; and on the failure or success in that vital work lay the 

 hope or despair of the Greek admiral or ruling statesman. Foreign 

 princes wooed the Athenian populace with presents of corn and Har- 

 palus, afterwards treasurer of Alexander the Great, won citizenship 

 at Athens by a gift of corn. 



Forced importation of grain was a cardinal principle of Athenian 

 economics, politics and law. The speeches of the "orators" are full 

 of regulations, restrictions and enactments, rigorously and mercilessly 

 enforced, against the dreaded day when city-folk and farmers alike 

 might see starvation at their doors. Both Athenian citizens and metics 

 (resident aliens) were forbidden to ship grain elsewhere than to Attic 

 ports or to lend importers money on vessels unless the mortgaged cargo 

 was to put in to the Piraeus, harbor-town of Athens. Another law 

 required that at least two-thirds of the cargo of every corn-ship that 

 touched at the port must be carried to the city. The popular assembly 

 called for reports and demanded provisions for a supply of grain at its 

 monthly sessions. 



Among the numerous corn-laws, one, intended to prevent specula- 

 tion and the artificial raising of the price of grain, went directly to the 

 heart of the traffic by prohibiting retail dealers, on penalty of death, 

 from buying more than fifty phormoi, or baskets, at any one time. 

 The phormos was a measure equal to about a bushel and a half and the 

 consequent seventy-five bushels — to the purchase of which each retailer 

 was limited on any one day — was probably a sufficient stock in trade 



VOL. lxxvi.— 26. 



