52 Land-lots and residence 



population be sound (and I am not in a position to challenge it), we must 

 also assume a certain degree of genuine land-hunger, at least more 

 than the Attic territory could satisfy. If there was such land-hunger, 

 it is perhaps not unreasonable to connect it with the survival of old 

 Attic traditions of country life. And it would seem that the settlers, 

 cleruchs or colonists, did as a rule 1 stay and live in their settlements. 

 They would probably work their lands on much the same general plan 

 as their brethren in Attica, and their labour-arrangements would be 

 much the same. But in 427 BC, when Pericles was dead and there was 

 surely no surplus population, at least of able-bodied men, owing to the 

 war, we find a curious record. Reconquered Lesbos 2 had to be dealt 

 with. It was not subjected to an assessed tribute (4>6po<s), but parcelled 

 into 3000 allotments, 2700 of which were reserved for 2700 Athenian 

 citizens, those who drew the lucky lots (TOW? Xa^oi/ra?), and these 2700 

 were sent out. But they did not stay 3 there. They let their shares to 

 the old inhabitants as cultivating tenants, at a rent of two minae per 

 share per annum, and evidently returned to Athens. By this arrange- 

 ment a sum of about 21000 a year would come in to the shareholders 

 in Athens, who would have a personal interest in seeing that it was 

 punctually paid. Whether these non-resident landlords were chosen 

 by lot from all citizens, rich or poor, is not stated. We know that in 

 some cases 4 at least the choice of settlers was confined to members 

 of the two lowest property-classes; and it may well be that on this 

 occasion the opportunity 5 was taken to compensate to some extent 

 members of rural families, who had suffered loss from the invasions of 

 Attica, but did not wish to go abroad. In any case their tenants would 

 farm as they had done before, employing or not employing slave labour 

 according to their means and the circumstances of the several farms. 

 So too in cases of lands let on lease, and in the confiscations and re- 

 distributions of lands, proposed or carried out, it was simply their own 

 profit and comfort that attracted the lessees or beneficiaries. We are 

 entitled to assume that if it paid to employ slaves, and slaves were to 

 be had, then slaves were employed. In short, the scraps of evidence 

 furnished by Thucydides leave us pretty much where we were. 



1 For instance, in Euboea and Aegina. 



2 ill 50. Herodes, whose murder was later the occasion of a speech of Antiphon, is 

 thought to have been one of the cleruchs. 



3 Arnold's note explains the situation well, and Beloch p 83 agrees. 



4 See the inscription relative to Brea, G F Hill Sources ill 317. 



5 See the hint in the speech of Pericles I 143 4. 



