3o The food-question 



of courage and military efficiency the claim is appropriate: but poverty 

 was surely characteristic of nearly all the European Hellas, and the 

 language on that point is strictly correct, probably representing the 

 writer's own view. It is also quite consistent with the statement 1 that 

 in early times, before the Athenians had as yet driven all the in- 

 digenous population out of Attica, neither the Athenians nor the 

 Greeks generally had slaves (oltceras). The context seems to indicate 

 that domestic slaves are specially meant. I do not lay much stress on 

 this allegation, urged as it is in support of a case by one party to the 

 dispute : but it is a genuine tradition, which appears again in the later 

 literature. In the time of Herodotus there were plenty of domestic 

 slaves. Accordingly he finds it worth while to mention 2 that Scythian 

 kings are attended by persons of their own race, there being no bought 

 servants employed. 



Herodotus is a difficult witness to appraise justly, partly from the 

 occasional uncertainty as to whether he is really pledging his own 

 authority on a point, partly because the value of his authority varies 

 greatly on different points. But on the whole I take his evidence to 

 suggest that agriculture was carried on in Greece either by free 

 labouring farmers employing hired men when needed, or by serfs. I 

 do not see any evidence to shew that no slaves were employed. The 

 subject of his book placed him under no necessity of mentioning them : 

 and I can hardly believe that farm-slavery on a small scale had died 

 out all over Greece since the days of Hesiod. Nor do I feel convinced 

 on his authority that the poverty of Greece was, so far as mere food 

 is concerned, as extreme as he makes Demaratus represent it. When 

 the Spartans heard that Xerxes was offering the Athenians a separate 

 peace, they were uneasy, and sent a counter-offer 3 on their own behalf. 

 Not content with appealing to the Hellenic patriotism of Athens, they 

 said 'We feel for you in your loss of two crops and the distress that 

 will last some while yet. But you shall have all this made good. We, 

 Spartans and confederates, will find food for your wives and your 

 helpless families 4 so long as this war lasts/ Supposing this offer to 

 have been actually made, and to have been capable of execution, 

 surely it implies that there were food-stuffs to spare in the Pelo- 

 portnese. It may be that I am making too much of this passage, and 

 of the one about poverty. The dramatic touch of Herodotus is present 

 in both, and I must leave the apparent inconsistency between them as 

 it stands. The question of Peloponnesian agriculture will come up 

 again in connexion with a passage of Thucydides. 



1 VI 137. 2 IV 72. 3 vm i 42 . 



4 otKcrtuv here = members of the family, as often. Stein refers to vm 4, 41, 44, 106. 

 Compare the use of okefo in the Iliad, and see Aesch Agam 733, Eur Suppl 870. 



