82 Letting to tenants. Mixed estates 



it would seem that land was not generally cultivated by its owners. 

 Letting to tenant farmers 1 was the plan adopted by the state in deal- 

 ing with public lands, and the collection of the rents was farmed out 

 in its turn to capitalist speculators by public auction. We have several 

 specimens 2 of mixed estates, described by an orator in connexion with 

 some litigation. From these we may fairly infer that the policy of not 

 putting all their eggs into one basket found favour with Athenian 

 capitalists. Landed estate is in such cases but one item, side by side 

 with house-property, mortgages and money at interest on other 

 securities, slaves and other stock employed or leased to employers, 

 stock in hand, specie and other valuables, mentioned in more or less 

 detail. Consistently with this picture of landlord and tenant is the 

 statement 3 that formerly, in the good old times before Athens entered 

 upon her ill-starred career of imperialism, the country houses and es- 

 tablishments of citizens were superior to those within the city walls ; 

 so much so, that even the attraction of festivals could not draw them 

 to town from their comfortable country-seats. Evidently a great change 

 had come over rural Attica, if the writer is to be trusted. We are not 

 to suppose that personal direction of a farm by the owner of the land 

 was altogether a thing of the past. Suburban farms at least were, as 

 we learn from Xenophon, sometimes managed by men living in the 

 city and riding out to superintend operations and give orders. The 

 injured husband 4 defended by Lysias may even have gone to and fro 

 on foot. He does not seem to have been a wealthy man, and he may 

 have been a avrovpyos, taking part in the labours of his farm : that he 

 earned his night's rest and slept sound seems suggested by the context 

 of his curious story. 



That there was no lack of interest in the prospects of agriculture 

 generally may be inferred from various references to the different 

 qualities of soils not only in Attica but in other parts of Greece and 

 abroad. The smallness of the cultivable area in rocky Samothrace 5 was 

 noted by Antiphon. Isocrates remarked 6 that in Laconia the Dorian 

 conquerors appropriated not only the greater part of the land but the 

 most fertile. The results of their greed and oppression had not been 

 wholly satisfactory in the long run : adversity carried with it the peril 7 

 of Helot risings. No fertility of soil can compensate for the ill effects 

 of bad policy and lack of moderation : the independence and well-being 

 of cramped rocky Megara, contrasted 8 with the embarrassments of wide 



1 Andoc de myster 92-3 p 12, Bockh-Frankel Staatsh I 372-7. For private letting 

 of farm-lands see Lysias vn 4-10 pp 108-9 ( one tenant was a freedman), Isaeus XI 42. 



2 Isaeus VI 19-22, vin 35, XI 41-4. 3 Isocr Areopagiticus 52 p 150. 

 4 Lysias I n, 13, p 92. 5 Antiphon fragm 50 Blass. 



6 Isocr Panath 1 79 p 270. 7 i socr philippus 48-9 pp 91-2. 



8 Isocr deface 117-8 p 183. 



