Belcher. — Land-system of the Iliad. 21 



Art. II. — Notes on the Land-system of the Iliad. 



By Henry Belcher, Fellow of King's College, London, 

 Eector of the High School, Otago. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, Tuesday, Sth October, 1889.] 



The general word for wealth springs from a radical v'KT. 



Hence KTijfjiara, KTeara (/creap), KTrJcrt?, KTepa^, 7roAi'(CTTy/xcor, k.t.A. 



In the early reckoning of Wealth the notion of property in 

 Land is not included. Thus, as noticed by Varro (L.L.), 

 cattle (pec-ora) are the staple of wealth. Pec-unia is used of 

 crops, goods in kind, and coined money. So i'o/xio-/xa, i/o/xos, 

 VO/U.OS, ve/Aw, niimus, to denote custom, customary coin, custom 

 in land, assigned land out of the common land. 



In Greek literature no coined money is mentioned prior to 

 Hdt. i. 94, on which Eawlinson and others state that no 

 coined money has been found in Assyrian or Lydian ruins. 

 There is no reference to money as coined by the Jews prior to 

 1 Maccab. xv. 6. Wealth is reckoned, then, in kind or cattle ; 

 not in land or money. So, a wealthy person is called — 

 TroXvKTrjfjiwv, 7roXv)(aXKo<;, 



77oAi'/x?yAo9, TToAvKArypo?, 



—oXvapvi, TToAuArytos 



7roXvTrdfJL(j)v, 7ro\v/3ovT7]^, 



7roXvy^v<TO<;, dA^e(jt/3ota. 



Many of these w^ords are restored from oblique cases. Of 

 these, three alone have any traceable reference to property in 



land : TroAuKTij/x.wr, TroArA^io?, ttoAvkAt^pos. 



V. KTacrOai, according to L. and S., is not used of property 

 in land, in any place in Greek literature. It is not used of 

 land-property in the Iliad. In II. ix. 402 (wherein the form is 

 Ionic) it is used of the capture of a town : 



"Wlov iKTYjcOai (.V iatOjU,evov iTToXUOpov. 



In Od. xxiv. 193 it is used of winning a wife : 



7] apa (Tvv jX^yaXrj apirfj iKTi](ru> ukoltlv. 



(A wife of worth abundant hast thou surely gotten thee. — 

 W. M.) 



The meaning of wealth vanishes from the noun in Babrius, 

 Fab. lii. :— 



TroXvKTrjfxuiv is atra^ Acyo/xcvov in Homer, wherein the caution 

 of Phrynichus (§ 206) may be noted : Ty/xei? ov toIs aira^ dp-qixivois 



Trpo(Te)(oixev tov vow, dAAa tois TroAAaKts K£;^r//xci'ot9. 



The ^7ra$ in H. is II. v. 613 : 



OS p ivi Ilatcrw 

 vate TToXvKTrifxciiv TroXvXrjLos. 



