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

For the prices of orobos, see below, p. 199.
THE ATTIC STELAI 189
12. irvp6s (I, 126-139; II, 93). Pyros is a generic term,89 which included both
hulled and naked types of wheat.90 N. Jasny, in his 1944 monograph on " The Wheats
of Classical Antiquity," 91 has made a strong case for the theory that the wheat
grown in Greece was of the emmer group, including both hulled and naked types,
almost to the exclusion of other groups. By far the most common subspecies has been
identified as durum.92 From his study of the Mediterranean climate and soil, Jasny
concluded that production of wheat was not likely to have been large in the southeastern
part of Greece, including Attica. Wheat production became increasingly
greater northward and westward from Attica.93
For prices of pyros, see below, pp. 196-198.
13. a-,qo-aiov (II, 136). Sesame, Sesamumn indicum. Evidence for the extent
of the cultivation of sesame, from India to the Mediterranean, is collected by Steier in
R.E., S.v. Sesamon. In Syria sesame-seed was more expensive than wheat-seed,94 for
sesame oil was there regarded as a substitute for olive oil. Babylonia, which in places
could not produce the olive, used sesame oil, and prices of it in the third century B.C.
are given by B. Meissner.95
In Greece, where Steier states that sesame is today grown in Thera and Attica,
its cultivation in antiquity must have been common; for Theophrastos frequently uses
the sesame for comparison with unfamiliar plants.9" Sesame was a summer crop and
did well with irrigation.97 It was used for medical purposes and as an ingredient of
perfumes and drugs.98 References to sesame bread and sesame cake are numerous.
The latter was frequently referred to by Aristophanes as a favorite dainty, and was
the recognized wedding cake at Athens.99 Athenaeus lists sesame-seeds among des-
89 Galen, De alimentorum facultatibus, l, 6, 1. For derivation of the term, see Buck, Dictionary,
p. 515.
90 Naked grain is that in which the kernels fall out of their hulls in threshing. In hulled grain
the kernels remain enclosed in threshing.
91 See above, note 1.
92 J. and Ch. Cotte, Atude sur les bles de l'antiquite clacssique, Paris, 1913, p. 93; and N. Jasny,
Amer. Hist. Rev., XLVII, 1942, p. 762.
93 "Wheats," p. 117. For the major sources of Athenian grain in the fifth century, see L.
Casson, T.A.P.A., LXXXV, 1954, p. 168.
94 Bab. Baba Megia, 21a, 104b. Cf. Heichelheim, " Roman Syria," Economic Survey, IV, p. 132.
95 "' Warenpreise in Babylonien," Abh. der pr. Akad. der Wissenschaften, No. 1, Berlin, 1936,
p. 9.
96 H.P., III, 16, 6; III, 18, 13; IV, 8, 14; VI, 5, 3; etc.
97 Ibid., VII, 7~ 3.
9) Theophrastos, De odoribus, 20; H.P., IX, 11, 9; and Pliny, H.N., XIII, 11; XXIII, 95; etc.
99Pax, 689; Thesm., 570; Ach., 1092.