Chapter II (2)

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Making due allowance for difference of dimensions, and their greater or less magnificence, the same description will apply to the agoræ of all Grecian cities. But, as we are best acquainted with the features of that of Athens, if we can succeed in delineating a tolerably correct picture of it, some idea may, therefrom, be easily formed of all the others. We must imagine, therefore, a large circular open space,[551] about the centre of the city, surrounded on all sides by ranges of shops, temples, porticoes, and other public buildings.[552] It was traversed in various directions by avenues of plane-trees, planted shortly after the Persian war, which in summer constituted so many shady walks. About the middle stood the altars of Pity and the Twelve Gods, in a circle,[553] and near them were the statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton,[554] the tyrannicides, whose memory was cherished by the republic with the most religious veneration. By far the greater part of the space, however, was covered by rows of sheds, booths, and tents, furnished with seats[555] (the construction of which formed a separate branch of industry),[556] where every article of use or luxury known to the ancient world was exhibited with the utmost attention to display. Here were the embroidered veils, and shawls, and mantles, and sandals, of the mercer’s quarter;[557] there the chains of gold, the armlets, the anklets, the jewelled circlets for the head, the golden grasshoppers, the seals, the rings, the agraffes, the brooches, the cameos, and every description of engraved gems which constituted the attractions of the jewellers’ quarter. Here were waggons piled with jars, and skins filled with wine; there huge pyramids of apples and pears, and quinces and pomegranates, and dates and plums, and cherries and mulberries, black and white, and grape-clusters of every hue, and oranges and citrons, and rich purple figs, and melons and water-melons.[558]

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Footnote 551:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 137. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 125.

Footnote 552:

Cf. Demosth. cont. Con. § 3.

Footnote 553:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 295. Xenoph. de Off. Mag. Eq. iii. 2, with the
note of Schneider.—Throughout Greece, persons to whom especial honour
was designed had their statues erected in the agora, as Theodectes at
Phaselis. Plut. Alexand. § 17. The statue of the market Hermes stood
near the Stoa Pœcile, and was usually smeared with pitch, from the
practice of sculptors who came constantly to take casts from it with a
preparation of that substance. Lucian. Jup. Trag. § 33.

Footnote 554:

Aristoph. Lysist. 678.

Footnote 555:

Casaub. ad. Theoph. Char. p. 349.

Footnote 556:

Poll. vii. 125. On the terms connected with settling and buying, &c.
iii. 124, sqq.

Footnote 557:

Ἱματιόπωλις ἀγορά or σπειρόπωλις Poll. vii. 78. Cf. Xenoph. de
Vectigal, iv. 8.

Footnote 558:

See Book v. chapter ii.

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Touching upon these booths were the stalls of the green-grocers, of Eucharides[559] for example, where every vegetable produced in the kitchen-garden and the fields met the eye in profusion; among which were truffles of all kinds,[560] with the roots of the caraway[561] and jagged lettuce, which were eaten like those of the Egyptian bean[562] and the papyrus,[563] radishes,[564] long and round, bunches of turnips,[565] asparagus, broccoli,[566] heads of garlic, and summer savory, for the poor, all kinds of beans and pease, the vervain[567] for purification and amulets, wild myrtle sprigs instead of asparagus,[568] shoots of the black briony,[569] chokeweed to be boiled with vegetables for rendering them tender, tufts of the wild fig-tree, which performed the same service for beef,[570] goats-beard, clematis for seasoning,[571] with bunches of elm-leaves commonly used as a vegetable.[572] Next to these, were, perhaps, the stands of the flower-sellers,[573] where garlands of the richest colours and fragrance were ready wreathed for the brow,[574] some produced by careful culture in gardens, and others gathered where they grew wild by the women, who in time of peace spread themselves in troops over the whole country for this purpose.[575] In one corner were droves of horses, asses, and mules,[576] ready to have their teeth inspected by the buyers,[577] or groups of youthful slaves from all quarters of the world. In another, near a lofty poplar,[578] stood the auction-mart where goods of every description,[579] including even libraries,[580] were knocked down by the hammer. Close at hand, perhaps, stood the tempting booths of the chapmen who purveyed for the kitchen of the Athenians with hams, and sausages, and black-puddings,[581] and pickles, and cheese, and preserved fruits, and spices, from the farthest east. Here were the sellers[582] of salt-meat and fish from the Black Sea,[583] there the toy-shops and upholsterers, while ever and anon the crowds that thronged the passages were compelled to make way for a string of asses[584] laden with vegetables or wood from Parnes or Cithæron, with the ends sticking out on both sides and threatening the eyes of the buyers. Sometimes a porter,[585] with a wooden knot on his shoulders, bore along, like Protagoras, a load of faggots, the size of which astonished the beholders. At times, near the corner of the street leading from the Eleusinian Gate, you saw a half-starved Megarean[586] sneaking through the crowd and bringing along with him sucking pigs, and leverets, and cucumbers, and salt-fish, and garlic,[587] which if observed by the agoranomoi were, during wartime, seized as contraband. On the other hand the broad-faced jolly Bœotian[588] came smirking and grinning, like a Neapolitan, with mule-loads of wild marjoram, pennyroyal, eaten by sheep, mats, lampwicks, fowls,[589] ducks, locusts, jackdaws, francolins,[590] coots, divers, geese, hares, foxes, moles, hedgehogs, cats, pyctides, otters, and eels, from Lake Copaïs. Here in rows stood, black as chimney-sweeps, the charcoal-sellers from Acharnæ, with their mallequins and rush-baskets full piled before them.[591] Yonder were the cornchandlers,[592] surrounded by piles of sacks, measuring their grain, while a horde of ragged spermologoi[593] hovered round to collect what fell. Close at hand stood the flour-merchants, each beside his huge covered wooden trough,[594] from which he measured forth flour or barley-meal to the buyers. Beyond these were the stalls of the fishmongers,[595] the flambeau-sellers[596] and the shining jars of the oil-merchants, piled in heaps to the roof of the booths. In other rows were the shops of the potters,[597] where every variety of jugs, vases, and tureens, was exhibited with vessels of glass, and bronze, and ivory. Here and there, threading their way through the multitude, you beheld the pedlar[598] with his pack of small-wares, the hawker crying his fish or fruit,[599] or vegetables, or sausages, or wild-fowl, laid out on a board on his head; the female bread-seller, with a variety of delicate loaves and cakes piled up before her on a tray; the pastry-girl with sweetmeats; the flower-girl with nosegays of fresh violets from the meadows of Colonos and the banks of the Eridanos and Cephissos. Sheltered from the warm rays of the sun, beneath some magnificent marble colonnade, or the portico of some temple or chapel, sat whole bevies of female flute-players, citharists, or dancing-girls,[600] calling forth, from time to time, whilst waiting to be hired for a party, bursts of music from their instruments, or humming a war-song, or a Palladian hymn, or a merry scholion, the favourite ditties of the Athenian people. Near these, as being folks of the same kidney, the jugglers, cooks, and parasites,[601] took up their position; the former two ready to be hired for the day by the giver of some magnificent entertainment, the latter that they might discover in what direction they were to ply their craft and ferret out a dinner scotfree. Near the Eurysaceum in this neighbourhood stood that eminence called the Hill of the Agora,[602] or Misthios, because servants, in lack of a master, collected there to be hired, as they still do at fairs in most parts of England. Somewhere close at hand were the shops of those brokers who let out pots and pans, and lamps and plate, and the more delicate kind of crockery, to such persons as were too economical to keep such articles of their own.[603] In the midst of this profusion of wares might be seen, at all hours of the day, crowds of well-dressed persons[604] sauntering to and fro, chatting with each other, cheapening the goods of the shopkeepers, or laughing and jesting with the flower-girls or fluteplayers. At other times individuals, by no means deserving the name of loiterers, came thither, either to post up a bill[605] of some article which they had found, or in quest of some information respecting one they had lost, either from such bills or from the public criers who were there accustomed to make proclamation of treasure trove, or to cry that such or such an article of property had strayed from its lawful owner. Occasionally also people made known by criers what goods they had for sale.[606] The young men of rank, when fatigued by these promenades, used to retire into a perfumer’s or barber’s or armourer’s or bridle-maker’s shop,[607] overlooking the bustling scene, where they discussed nonsense or politics, according to their humour. Hither, too, the philosophers came with a view to inspire patriotic and manly sentiments into the minds of these future rulers of the democracy; so that at one period you might have beheld Socrates and Alcibiades and Critias, and Chæriphon and Crito, with Charmides and the divine Plato, engaged in those animated dialogues, the echo of which still rings sweetly in the ears of posterity. In some shops opposite these, as if with a view to rival or eclipse them, or round one of the umbrellas,[608] beneath which, on an elevated platform, the perfumers dispensed their wares in the agora, stood a group of sophists with their followers, such as Hippias of Elis, Prodicos of Cos, or the Agrigentine Polos, or Gorgias of Leontium, habited in purple robes, embroidered vests, flowered sandals, and with glittering crowns of gold upon their heads. Even their florid discourses, however, would fail to command the attention of their auditors when the youth of equestrian rank,[609] mounted on their chargers and drawn up in military array, swept round the outer circle of the agora, paying devout homage to each divinity whose fane they passed. Here also in a future age might be seen, strutting to and fro, the orator Æschines with his arms akimbo and a fashionable little hat[610] stuck knowingly on one side of his head, railing at Demosthenes, and pleading the cause of Philip. And here, too, the night after the fall of Elatea, a very different scene was witnessed when the citizens from every side of the Cecropian rock rushed tumultuously hither in the wildest alarm, and either not reflecting on what they did, or through ill-judged haste, set fire to the sheds and booths in order that they might find a clear space to deliberate on the public safety.

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Footnote 559:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 680. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 420. Acharn.
166. Eq. 493. Athen. xiii. 22.

Footnote 560:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 189. 191. Dioscor. ii. 200.

Footnote 561:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 4. 8. Dioscor. iii. 76.

Footnote 562:

Dioscor. i. 115.

Footnote 563:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 1. 4.

Footnote 564:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 1. 2.

Footnote 565:

Antich. di Ercol. t. ii. p. 52.

Footnote 566:

“The ancients were acquainted with curled cabbage and even some of
those kinds which we call _broccoli_. Under this term is understood
all those species, the numerous young flowery heads of which,
particularly in spring and autumn, can be used like cauliflowers. Such
young shoots are called _cymæ_, but not _turiones_; for the latter
term denotes the first shoots that arise, like those of hops,
asparagus, and other esculent plants. The broccoli used at present
was, however, first brought from Italy to France, together with the
name, about the end of the sixteenth century.” Beckmann, iv. 266.

Footnote 567:

Καλοῦσι δὲ αὐτοὶ ἱεραν βοτάνην διὰ τὸ εὔχρηστον ἐν τοῖς καθαρμεῖς
εἶναι εἰς περιάμματα. Dioscor. iv. 71.

Footnote 568:

Ἀντὶ ἀσπαράγου δε οἱ καυλοὶ νεοθαλεῖς λαχανευόμενοι ἐσθίονται.
Dioscor. iv. 146.

Footnote 569:

Id. iv. 185.

Footnote 570:

Αἱ δὲ κράδαι βοείοις κρέασι καθεψόμεναι, εὐέψητα ταῦτα ποιοῦσι.
Dioscor. i. 184. At Carthagena, the same effect is produced by
lemon-juice. “Une chose particulière qu’on remarque en cette ville à
l’égard des limons, c’est que les habitans ayent cette idée, qu’il ne
faut mettre la viande près du feu que trois quarts d’heure, ou une
heure avant le repas. Suivant cette opinion ils ne mettent jamais de
l’eau au pot avec la viande sans y exprimer en même tems le jus de
trois ou quatre de ces limons plus ou moins, selon la quantité de
viande; par ce moyen la viande s’amollit et se cuit si bien, qu’elle
est en état d’être servie au bout de ce court espace. Ces gens là sont
si accoutumés à cette facilité d’apprêter leurs viandes, qu’ils se
moquent des Européens, qui employent toute une matinée pour faire une
chose qui leur coute si peu de tems.” Ulloa, Voyage au Pérou. t. i. p.
68.

Footnote 571:

Dioscor. iv. 182.

Footnote 572:

Id. i. 111.

Footnote 573:

Cf. Plut. Arat. § 6. De Pauw, Rech. Phil. sur les Grecs, i. 3. p. 20.
Flowers seem to have been brought to market in corbels on asses.
Buonaroti, Oss. Istor. sop. alc. Medagl. Antich. p. 385.

Footnote 574:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1320.

Footnote 575:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 528.

Footnote 576:

Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 348. In wealthy states, says Xenophon, men
applied their riches to the purchase of costly arms, fine horses, and
magnificent houses and furniture; and the women to that of splendid
dresses and ornaments of gold. De Vectigal. iv. 8.

Footnote 577:

Lucian, Luc. siv. Asin. § 35.

Footnote 578:

Cf. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 257, seq.

Footnote 579:

Schol. Aristot. Eq. 103. Andocid. De Myrt. § 22.

Footnote 580:

Lucian. adv. Indoct. § 20.

Footnote 581:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 364. Athen. xiv. 75. See a pork-butcher’s shop in
Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 28.

Footnote 582:

Herod. iv. 53. ii. 15. 113.

Footnote 583:

Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 153. Dion Chrysost. i. 236. Cf. Leake,
Topog. of Athen. p. 64.

Footnote 584:

Eurip. ap. Poll. x. 112. Cf. Demosth. adv. Phœnip. § 3. Lucian,
Luc. siv. Asin. § 43.

Footnote 585:

Or perhaps water-carriers, this class of men having been numerous in
ancient cities, and remarkable for their insolence. Ælian. Var. Hist.
ix. 17. Even the camels employed in water-carrying are more vicious
than any other.

Footnote 586:

Aristoph. Acharn. 532, sqq.

Footnote 587:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 494, 500.

Footnote 588:

Aristoph. Acharn. 860, sqq.

Footnote 589:

See in Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 27, the representation of a
poulterer’s shop.

Footnote 590:

Sch. Aristoph. Ran. 257.

Footnote 591:

Id. Acharn. 314.

Footnote 592:

Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 83.

Footnote 593:

On the number of the corresponding class in London I possess no exact
information; but a modern writer who has displayed much curious
industry in describing the mechanism of the lower stages of society in
France gives the following estimate of _chiffonniers_ of Paris:—“En
exposant quels sont les principaux élémens de la classe pauvre mais
laborieuse, je ne dois pas omettre de faire connaître le nombre des
chiffonniers, espèce de manouvriers qui se rattachent aux manufactures
par la nature même des objets sur lesquels s’exerce leur industrie. Ce
métier, qui est un des moins honorés, a, malgré le dégoût qu’il
inspire généralement, un attrait particulier pour certaines gens et
surtout pour les enfans, parce qu’il n’assujettit à aucun
apprentissage, et qu’en outre, il permet à celui qui l’exerce, de
vaguer constamment sur la voie publique et de gagner aisément un
salaire raisonnable. On compte 2000 chiffonniers, et à-peu-près un
pareil nombre de femmes et d’enfans exerçant la même profession, en
tout 4000.” Frégier, Des Classes Dangereuses de la Population dans les
Grandes Villes, t. i. p. 27.

Footnote 594:

Τηλία. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 147.

Footnote 595:

Athen. vi. 5.

Footnote 596:

Plut. Arat. § 6.

Footnote 597:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 318.

Footnote 598:

Cf. Poll. i. 51.

Footnote 599:

Athen. ii. 45. The travelling fishmongers even frequented the
country-houses and villages, viii. 57. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 13, seq.
Eq. 1241, sqq. It was probably persons of this class that most
commonly used their mouths as a purse, as the Siamese do their ears.
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 194. Aristoph. Vesp. 791. Their baskets
were commonly of rushes. Athen. vii. 72. See a representation of them,
Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 21. p. 111.

Footnote 600:

Lucian, Amor. § 10. Plut. Arat. § 6.

Footnote 601:

Poll. ix. 48. Athen. ix. 22.

Footnote 602:

Chandler, ii. 104.

Footnote 603:

Athen. iv. 58.

Footnote 604:

Lucian. Bis Accus. § 16. Sch. Arist. Nub. 978.

Footnote 605:

Lucian. Demon. § 17.

Footnote 606:

Poll. iii. 124.

Footnote 607:

Andocid. De Myst. § 9, with the note of Reiske. Plut. Timol. § 14.

Footnote 608:

Athen. xiii. 94.

Footnote 609:

Xenoph. de Off. Mag. Eq. iii. 2.

Footnote 610:

Dem. de Fals. Leg. § 72. Cf. Athen. xi. 109. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art.
iii. 340.

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As there was a certain class of gods who presided over the market-place, so likewise were there particular laws enacted to regulate its transactions, with magistrates especially appointed to carry those laws into execution. These servants of the commonwealth, five in the city and five in the Peiræeus, were denominated Agoranomoi, and paraded all day to and fro, armed with whips of many thongs,[611] amid the crowds of buyers and sellers, both to preserve tranquillity in the market, and prevent or punish those petty acts of fraud and injustice to which persons who subsist by humble traffic are too often in all countries addicted. Thus we find that, not the vintners only, but even the cornchandlers kept small measures;[612] though, as there was a public meter appointed by the state, it could only be when purchasers neglected to employ him, that they lay open to this sort of imposition. Chapmen detected in cheating, or otherwise behaving with impropriety, were scourged by the Agoranomoi on the spot; and it is to be presumed, that, as often as necessary, these officers were attended by a detachment of that powerful and vigilant Scythian police, at one period a thousand strong, which Athens constantly maintained, and which formerly pitched its tents in the agora.[613] Another duty of the Agoranomoi[614] was to collect the tolls paid by Bœotians, Æginetæ, or Megareans, upon whatever articles they brought to the Athenian market. It should here be observed, however, that neither corn nor bread was in later times, at least, placed under the inspection of these magistrates, since there were others called Sitophylaces,[615] whose business it was to see that the public were not defrauded in such articles. The number of these officers, at first three, was afterwards increased to fifteen, of which ten presided over the city corn-market, and five over that of the harbour, where a portico was built by Pericles[616] for the special use of the cornchandlers and flour-merchants.

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Footnote 611:

Aristoph. Acharn. 723. Schol. 689. Bekk. Plaut. Captiv. iv. 2. 43.
These magistrates were afterwards called Logistæ. Schol. Acharn. 685.
Bekk. Cf. Poll. ii. 119. viii. 45. 99. x. 44. There was in use among
the ancients a horrid kind of whip in which small bones were
intertwisted with the thongs to render the strokes more painful.
Lucian, Luc. siv. Asin. § 38. Poll. x. 54.

Footnote 612:

Aristoph. Eq. 1005.

Footnote 613:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 54.

Footnote 614:

Id. 861.

Footnote 615:

Harpocrat. v. σιτοφύλακες p. 162. Dem. adv. Lept. § 8. Lys. cont.
Dardan. § 6.

Footnote 616:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 522.

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On the prices of articles,[617] our information is extremely incomplete: it is said, however, that an ox in Solon’s time, was sold for five drachmas,[618] a sheep for one; while about the same period, the former animal sold at Rome for a hundred oboloi, and the latter for ten. In the later, and what are called the more flourishing, ages of the commonwealth, a sheep, according to its age, size, and breed, fetched from ten to twenty drachmas, an ox from fifty to a hundred. The price of a fine saddle-horse, in the age of Pericles, was twelve minæ, or about fifty pounds sterling,[619] but a common animal for draught might be obtained for three minæ. The price of thirteen talents paid by Alexander for Bucephalos was a mere arbitrary piece of extravagance. A yoke of mules sold from five to eight minas; asses sometimes for thirty drachmas;[620] a sucking-pig for three drachmas;[621] a dove or a crow fetched three oboloi; a jackdaw or a partridge one obolos, though the philosopher Aristippos chose to give fifty drachmas for a single bird of this kind; seven chaffinches for an obolos. A chœnix of olives cost two chalci, and a cotyla of the best Attic honey five drachmas.

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Footnote 617:

Cf. Bœckh. Pub. Econ. i. 101, sqq. Diog. Laert. vi. 35. Dem. adv.
Call. §§ 7. 9. Dionys. Halicarn. i. 100.

Footnote 618:

Plut. Poplic. § 11. Sol. § 23. On the low prices of provisions in
Lusitania in the time of Polybius. Athen. viii. 1.

Footnote 619:

Aristoph. Nub. 20. 1226. Lys. adv. Fam. Obtrect. § 4. Some men brought
themselves to ruin by their fondness for magnificent horses. Xenoph.
Œcon. iii. 8.

Footnote 620:

Lucian. Luc. siv. Asin. § 35.

Footnote 621:

The same price was sometimes given for a Copaïc eel. Aristoph. Ach.
960, seq. Athen. xiv. 69.

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The weights and measures[622] in common use at Athens were the talent (65 lbs. 12 dwt. 5 grs.) equal to sixty minæ; the mina (1 lb. 1 oz. 4 grs.) equal to a hundred drachmas; the drachma (6 dwt. 2 grs.) equal to six oboloi; the obolos (9 grs.) equal to three keratia; the keration[623] three grains. The Athenian dry measures were the medimnos, equal to six hecteis;[624] the hecteus, equal to two hemihecteis; the hemihecton, equal to four chœnices; the chœnix, equal to two xestæ; the xestes, equal to two cotylæ; the cotyla, equal to four oxybapha; the oxybaphon, equal to one cyathos and a half;[625] the cyathos, equal to ten cochlearia.

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Footnote 622:

Goguet. ii. 196. Herod. i. 192. Poll. iv. 171. Schol. Aristoph. Nub.
450. Acharn. 108. See an exact representation of an ancient pair of
scales suspended from a bird’s bill in Mus. Cortonens. tab. 27.

Footnote 623:

Eisenschmid. De Pond. et Mens. Vet. p. 156.

Footnote 624:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 633. Eq. 95.

Footnote 625:

Eisenschmid. p. 168.

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Of the other measures that occur in ancient authors, it may be worth while to mention the Persian artabe,[626] (hodie ardeb,) which exceeded the Attic medimnos by about three chœnices; the akanè,[627] likewise a Persian measure, equal to forty-five Attic medimnoi or a Bœotian measure equal to two bushels; the addix[628] equal to four chœnices; the dadix[629] to six; the capithe to two; the maris to six cotylæ,[630] the cophinos, a Bœotian measure, to three choes.[631]

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Footnote 626:

Athen. xii. 73.

Footnote 627:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 108.

Footnote 628:

Etym. Mag. 16. 53.-17. 45.

Footnote 629:

Poll. iv. 168.

Footnote 630:

Id. x. 184.

Footnote 631:

Id. iv. 168.

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