Fancy farms 109 



into the apartments of his wife and daughters. A party protesting 

 against being struck off the deme-register says 1 that his enemies made 

 a raid on his cottage in the country (olicLSiov ev dypco). He is probably 

 depreciating the house, in order not to have the dangerous appearance 

 of a rich man. 



We hear also of farms near Athens, the suburban position of which 

 no doubt enhanced their value. In the large mixed estate inherited 

 and wasted by Timarchus, Aeschines 2 mentions (344 BC) a farm only 

 about a mile and a half from the city wall. The spendthrift's mother 

 entreated him to keep this property at least : her wish was to be buried 

 there. But even this he sold, for 2000 drachms (less than 80). In 

 the speech against Euergus and Mnesibulus the plaintiff tells 3 how his 

 opponents raided his farm and carried off 50 soft-wooled sheep at 

 graze, and with them the shepherd and all the belongings of the flock, 

 also a domestic slave, etc. Tjiis was not enough : they pushed on into 

 the farm and tried to capture the slaves, who fled and escaped. Then 

 they turned to the house, broke down the door that leads to the garden 

 (KTITTOV), burst in upon his wife and children, and went off with all the 

 furniture that remained in the house. The speaker particularly points 

 out 4 that he had lived on the place from childhood, and that it was near 

 the race-course (777)05 rco iTnroSpofjLco). It must then have been near 

 Athens. The details given suggest that it was a fancy-farm, devoted 

 to the production of stock valued for high quality and so commanding 

 high prices. The garden seems to be a feature of an establishment 

 more elegant than that of a mere peasant farmer. It corresponds to 

 the rose-bed in a case referred to above: Hyperides 5 too mentions a 

 man who had a ^TTO? near the Academy, doubtless a pleasant spot. 

 The farm in the plain (6 ev Tre&Lto aypos) 6 belonging to Timotheus, and 

 mortgaged by him to meet his debts, is only mentioned in passing 

 (362 BC) with no details: we can only suppose it to have been an 

 average holding in the rich lowland. 



A few passages require separate consideration in connexion with 

 the labour-question. In the speech on the Crown (330 BC) Demosthenes 

 quotes 7 Aeschines as protesting against being reproached with the 

 friendship (%evlav) of Alexander. He retorts 'I am not so crazy as to 

 call you Philip's fez/o? or Alexander's c/u'Xo?, unless one is to speak of 

 reapers or other wage-earners as the friends of those who hire them 

 ...but on a former occasion I called you the hireling (pur 6 COT ov) of 

 Philip, and I now call you the hireling of Alexander.' Here the reaper 



1 Dem Eubulid$6$ p 1319. 2 Aeschin Timarch 99 p 14. 



3 [Dem] Euerg Mnes 52-3 p 1155. 4 Twice, 53, 76. 



6 Hyperid in Demosth fragm col 26. 6 [Dem] c Timoth n p 1187. 



7 Dem de Cor 51-2 p 242. 



