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

306 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
from xap6or&o-, 'sharpen,' ' make pointed,' " can be used for any pointed stake. In
Stele V, the modifying phrase V7T'O Tats a?TrE'Xotg makes clear that our reference is to
vine-props. In Aristophanes, Ach., 986, the reference, too, is clearly to vine-props.
The use of such props, usually of oak or olive wood, for grapevines is discussed, with
references to ancient literature, by Jarde in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v.
Vinum, p. 918 a.
Most vines needed props, as may be concluded from numerous references: Homer,
Il., XVIII, 563; Hesiod, Scutum, 298; Aristophanes, Ach., 986; Theokritos 3, 70;
Varro, I, 8. Some species remained on the ground, but the grapes were liable to be
eaten by mice and foxes. Some grew on trees, but this was not approved of by the best
authorities."59 The need for vine-props, then, in a country which specialized in vines,
was extensive.
Although it is well known that large timber, particularly for naval purposes, had
to be imported into Athens, a passage in Demosthenes, XXI, Agacinst Meidias, 167,
indicates that in the fourth century even small charakes were brought in by sea. At
the end of the Archidamian War we learn from the Pax of Aristophanes that the
price of a hundred vine-poles was not more than one drachma.'60 Stele II, line 254,
contains the entry 10200 vine-poles. The sale price is given as 59 drachmas. For each
hundred stakes the price was roughly 312 obols. These stakes were hardly new, for
they are described as being in a chorion at Phaleron. Similarly, in Stele V, lines 24-
25, the stakes were described as under the vines in a field at Athmonon (modern
Amaroussi). In the case of the entry in II, 254, the sale price is given to the left of the
entry for charakes, but it must include the price of the stone lenos in the line below,
the two entries being sold together.
In the Edict of Diocletian, Col. XIV, line 7 (A.D. 301), the maximum price for
charakes is given as 10 denarii per bundle of 100.
IX. WEAPONS
The Greek names for the various weapons used in their armies are collected by
P. Monceaux in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Exercitus. Only the spear and
the short spear occur in our lists. The present author is unaware of any definitive
treatment of individual Greek weapons corresponding to the study of the Roman
pilum by Schulten in the R.E. Petrie's 1917 study of weapons (Tools and Weapons)
is based on Egyptian material. Interest in Greek weapons seems to have been chiefly
in those of the Homeric period, for which Miss Lorimer's brilliant article in B.S.A.,
158 See Boisacq, Dictionnaire4, s.v.
'9 See Michell, Ec. of Anc. Greece, pp. 79-80.
160 Line 1263. Columella (XI, 2, 12) states that one man could cut 110 vine-props in a day.