Troubles of Attic agriculture 83 



fruitful Thessaly, is an object-lesson. The Greek race needs to expand 1 , 

 as it did of old, when Athens led the colonization of the Asiatic sea- 

 board. It is monstrous to try and wring contributions from (Sacrfjuo- 

 Xoyelv)* tne islanders, who have to till mountain sides for lack of room. 

 It is in Asia that the new Greece must find relief, at the expense of 

 Persia, whose subjects let vast areas He idle, while the parts that they 

 do cultivate keep them in great plenty; so fertile is the land. Attica 

 itself was once a prosperous farming country. In the good old days, 

 before the unhappy dissension between selfish rich and grudging poor, 

 agriculture was one of the chief means 3 used to avert poverty and 

 distress. Farms let at fair rents kept the people profitably employed, 

 and so out of mischief. Men could and did 4 live well in the country: 

 they were not jostling each other in the city to earn a bare subsistence 

 by pitiful state-fees beggars all as they are doing now. The great 

 pamphleteer may be overdrawing his picture, but that it contains much 

 truth is certain, and it seems pretty clear that he saw no prospect of a 

 local revival. Athens had run her course of ambitious imperialism, and 

 the old country life, developed in long security, could not be restored. 

 Any man who felt inclined to live a farmer's life would, if I read the 

 situation aright, prefer some cheap and profitable venture abroad to 

 the heavy and unremunerative struggles of a crofter in upland Attica. 

 Small farms in the rich lowland were I take it very seldom to be had. 

 And, if he had the capital to work a large farm, he was under strong 

 temptation to employ his capital in urban industries, state-contracts, 

 loans at interest, etc, and so to distribute his risks while increasing his 

 returns. For his main object was to make money, not to provide 

 himself and his family with a healthy and comfortable home. The 

 land-question in Attica is illustrated by a passage of Isaeus in which 

 he refers to the fraud of a guardian. The scoundrel, he says, has robbed 

 his nephew of the estate : he is sticking to the farm (rov dypov) and has 

 given him a hill pasture 5 (</>e\Xe'a). 



Farming enterprise abroad had been a product of the Athenian 

 empire with its cleruchies and colonies, and probably private ventures 

 of individuals, unofficial but practically resting on imperial protection. 

 The collapse of this system would ruin some settlers and speculators, 

 and impoverish more. Even those who returned to Athens still 

 possessed of considerable capital would not in all cases take to Attic 

 farming, even supposing that they were willing to face its risks and 

 that suitable farms were available. It was to Athens a most important 



1 Isocr Paneg 34-7 pp 47-8, de pace 24 p 164, Panalhen 13, 14, p 235, 43-4 

 p 241, etc. 



2 Isocr Paneg 132 pp 67-8. 3 Isocr Areopag 44 p 148. 

 4 Isocr depace 90 p 177, Areopag 54-5 pp 150-1, 83 p 156. 



6 Isaeus VIII 42 p 73, cf Aristophanes Nub 71-2. 



62 



