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

THE ATTIC STELAI 289
grass,'0 papyrus,11 hemp,12 ox-hide 13 and hair. The price of hair twisted into rope is
given in the Edict of Diocletian as 10 denarii per pound.14 Hemp was priced at 4-6
denarii per pound.'5
2. aQcwv (II, 127). Axle.'6 Various types of axles, including those rigidly
attached to the framework of the wagon and those which revolved with the wheels,
are discussed by Miss H. L. Lorimer in her illustrated article, " The Country Cart of
Ancient Greece." 1 More recently, the word has been studied by Thiel in connection
with the axon mentioned in Hesiod, Erga 424.18 He discusses the possibility that the
word refers to the pivot or the axis of a pounding-machine,'9 to which Polybios in I,
22, 5-7, compares a boarding-bridge (corvus).`2 Since Hesiod refers to a cart in line
426, it seems difficult to interpret the axon of line 424 as anything other than a cartaxle.
It is true that the enumeration of parts of the wagon is interrupted by mention of
a mallet in line 425, and the length of the axle is given as seven feet. Hesiod, however,
is referring to the season for cutting wood, and the mallet is to be made from the
timber hewn at the same time as that for the axle. The width of the cart is explained
by the fact that the wagon had to be low and of broad axle to prevent its overturning.2'
The Hesiodic wagon was doubtless a one-axle vehicle.2"
We have preserved at least one Athenian price for axles. The epistatai of Eleusis
in recording the building account for the temple of Demeter and Persephone in the
year 327/6 B.C. listed the price of 5 drachmas apiece for 17 new axles. The total was
10
Pliny, H.NT., XIX, 29-30. The plant spartum was found in Spain and Africa. Pliny comments
on the costliness of this type of rope.
11 See, for example, Theophrastos, H.P., IV, 8, 4.
12 Theophrastos, H.P., IX, 2, 1. The hemp-ropes of Syria and Babylonia were well known at
least in Roman times. See F. M. Heichelheim, " Roman Syria," Economic Survey, IV, p. 131.
130 d., II, 426.
14
Col. XI, 3.
15 Col. XXXII, 16-17.
16
For other meanings of axon, see, for example, Robinson, Olynthus, X, p. 295.
17
J.H.S., XXIII, 1903, pp. 132-151. Cf. E. Saglio in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v.
Currus, p. 1635; and F. Studniczka, " Der Rennwagen im syrisch-ph6nikischen Gebiet," Jahrbuch,
XXII, 1907, pp. 147-196.
18 History of Roman Sea-Power before the Second Punic War, A msterdam, 1954, pp. 107 if.
19 For axon meaning 'door-pivot' see Robinson, Olynthus, XII, p. 455 and the references there
given. Cf. also the study of the Solonian axones in A.J.A., XLV, 1941, especially pp. 354-355.
20 Op. cit., p. 110.
21 Paley in his edition of Hesiod (ad line 424) quotes Tzetzes' observation: " Hesiod calls
the seven-feet axle very convenient in size: I should call it very inconvenient, though no great
farmer myself." Thiel (op. cit., p. 108) wrote as follows: " Personally I have never seen a cart with
an axle of seven feet in my life and, though it is a rather rash supposition, it is tempting to suppose
that such a cart has never existed anywhere, certainly not in ancient Greece: think of the Greek
roads." But the normal interval between wheel ruts in ancient roads in Greece is ca. 1.50 m., i. e.
presumably five feet. The axle, of course, would have to be considerably longer.
22
Cf. A. W. Mair, Hesiod, Oxford, 1908, pp. 155-158.