the attic stelai - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

286 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
in the commentary on line 123 in Part I, the fourth letter of what is now the third
word cannot be an Attic gamma. This would enable us to read the word 4EiyE. The
base of an upright stroke may, however, be taken as part of the sign for the numeral
one hundred, and the word for 'pairs ' was abbreviated.
Hesychius defines stegaster as a-wXA4v. The critical passage for the definition of
the latter word is Plutarch, Mor., 526 B (De cupid. divit., 7) ,29 where the reference is
to the pan tile, or the lower tile.30
II.
BRICKS
rAtXvOog (V, 36). Brick.3' The word was originally applied to a 'slab of stone,' 32
and this meaning must be understood in I.G., I2, 372, lines 10 ff.38 More commonly,
plinthos was used for 'brick.' It was applied to sun-baked as well as fire-baked brick.
Ordinary building was carried out with unbaked bricks.34 This was certainly true of
private buildings,35 and Pausanias, in addition, gives a long list of temples which were
built of such material."0 Robinson-Graham have reported on the strength and advantages
of these common sun-dried bricks, of which most house walls at Olynthos were
constructed."7 They correct the impression that such material was primitive and that
houses built of it must have been small and unpretentious. This method of construction
was more durable than that in which soft stones were used, and Demosthenes speaks
of houses of illustrious men which had lasted from an earlier age.38
PRICES OF BRICKS 39
Date
Price per
ELEUSIS Thousand Reference
329 B.C. Plinthoi, including trans- 38 dr.
portation within Eleusis I.G., II2, 1672, line 26
Plinthoi, 1k/2 ft. long 36 dr. II2, 1672, line 56
Plinthoi with geonion 40 40 dr. II2, 1672, line 57
29
See Bliimner, Technologie, II, p. 31, note 3.
30
See also Durrbach ad I.G., XI, 2, 203 B, line 97.
31 See Ebert in R.E., s.v. Later.
32
See Buck, Dictionary, p. 603. For a somewhat different etymology ('clod of earth'), see W.
Belardi, Doxa, III, 1950, p. 218.
33 In one inscription, I.G., JV2, 102, plinthos is used for both 'stone slab' and 'clay brick.'
34 See Xenophon, Mem., II, 1, 7; and Vitruvius, II, 8, 16.
3 Plutarch, Demnosthenes, 11.
36
II, 27, 6; X, 35, 5.
37 Olynthus, VIII, pp. 224-229. Cf. Robinson, Olynthus, XII, p. 468.
38 XXIII, Against Aristokrates, 207; cf. III, Third Olynthiac, 25.
39 Prices do not include transportation unless so specified.
40 This is the only occurrence of the word geonion. It indicates the price at which the clay was
purclased. So C. Tsountas, 'E. 'ApX., 1883, p. 131; Dittenberger (ad Syll.2, 587); Kirchner (ad
I.G., J_ 1672); and Liddell-Scott-Jones. Michell (Ec. of Anc. Greece, p. 130) apparently takes
the woru to mean 'mortar.'