Wage-labour and poverty 29 



the whole context. It is remarkable that in enumerating seven classes 

 of the Egyptian population he mentions no class 1 as devoted to the 

 tillage of the soil, but two of herdsmen, in charge of cattle and swine. 

 Later authorities mention 2 the ye&pyoi,, and connect them with the 

 military class, rightly, it would seem: for Herodotus 3 refers to the 

 farms granted by the kings to this class. They are farmer-soldiers. It 

 would seem that they were free, so far as any Egyptian could be called 

 free, and worked their land themselves. If this inference be just, we 

 may observe that a Greek thought it a fact worth noting. Was this 

 owing to the contrast 4 offered by systems of serfage in the Greek world ? 



It is curious that wage-labour is hardly ever directly mentioned. 

 In describing 5 the origin of the Macedonian kings, who claimed descent 

 from an Argive stock, he says that three brothers, exiles from Argos, 

 came to Macedon. There they served the king for wages as herdsmen 

 in charge of his horses cattle sheep and goats. The simplicity of the 

 royal household is emphasized as illustrating the humble scale of 

 ancient monarchies. Alarmed by a prodigy, the king calls his servants 

 (TOV? dfjras) and tells them to leave his country. The sequel does not 

 concern us here : we need only note that work for wages is referred to 

 as a matter of course. The same relation is probably meant in the 

 case of the Arcadian deserters 6 who came to Xerxes after Thermopylae, 

 in need of sustenance (ftiov) and wishing to get work (evepyol elvai). 

 But the term Oyreveiv is not used. And the few Athenians who stayed 

 behind 7 in the Acropolis when Athens was evacuated, partly through 

 sheer poverty (VTT da-devei^ /3/ov), would seem to be d^res. It is fair 

 to infer that hired labour is assumed as a normal fact in Greek life. 

 For the insistence on poverty 8 as naturally endemic (<rvvrpo<t>os) in 

 Hellas, only overcome by the manly qualities (dperrj) developed in the 

 conquest of hard conditions by human resourcefulness (0-0^/77), shews us 

 the background of the picture present to the writer's mind. It is his 

 way of telling us that the question of food-supply was a serious one. 

 Out of her own soil Hellas was only able to support a thin population. 

 Hence Greek forces were absurdly small compared with the myriads 

 of Persia: but the struggle for existence had strung them up to such 

 efficiency and resolute love of freedom that they were ready to face 

 fearful odds. 



The passage occurs in the reply of Demaratus the Spartan to a 

 question of Xerxes, and refers more particularly to Sparta. In respect 



1 Isocrates Busiris 15-20 pp. 224-5 a l so allows for no special class of yeupyol in Egypt. 



2 Plato Timaeus p 24. Diodorus I 28, 73-4 (Pfrom Hecataeus of Abdera, latter half of 

 3rd cent BC). 



3 n 141, 168. See Index under Egypt. 



4 The passage of Isocrates just cited seems to favour this view. 



5 vin 137. 6 vni 26. 7 vm 51. 8 vn 102. 



