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

THE ATTIC STELAI 313
in consecutive lines of Stele I raises the question of what distinction is intended. The
present writer finds it hard to believe that the two words are identical and would
guess that the difference is one of size.
Price. In I, 93, eight obeliskoi were sold for 17 drachrnas, or slightly more
than 2 drachmas apiece. In I, 94, six obeliskoi brought 14 drachmas 2 obols. The
average price of fourteen was slightly less than 2 drachmas 1X2 obols.
Most obeliskoi were doubtless of iron. In two Delian accounts, where the meaning
of the word is 'bars' or 'rails ' of a balcony, Glotz has stated: " Des barreaux
qui valaient 7 ob. en 298 valent le meme prix en 250 pour une quantite plus que
double." 32 Glotz lists other prices from Delos. It should be noted, however, that
some of the Delian obeliskoi were made of oak-wood.33
Prices of iron objects in general are given in A. C. Johnson, " Roman Egypt,"
Economic Survey, II, p. 471.34 Nails, for example, varied in price between 2 and 8
drachmas per mina of weight.
9. o,/EXo6 (I, 95). Skewer, spit. The meaning and use of the word obelos have
been made the subject of a special and thorough study by M. N. Tod (Num. Chron.,
6th Ser., VII, 1947, pp. 1-27). Tod notes that obelos was the spelling for the word in
the sense of 'spit ' and that after 485 B.C. all Attic inscriptions use obolos for the coin
or sum of money.
Price. Whereas most skewers or spits were doubtless of iron, our object in I,
95 is specified as being of copper: " the single skewer brought the price of 200 drachmas.
Unfortunately, the weight is not given. In Insc. Delos, 313, frag. i, line 15
twelve copper obeliskoi averaged one mina apiece; so there is no reason to associate
the obelos or obeliskos with the standard obol of the Aeginetic and Attic-Euboic
weight standards.
10. vrapac-ro1uto (II, 198). The word is unknown elsewhere in Greek. It occurs
only here in the form 7rapao-ropta. It is preceded on the same line by a word of five
letters, of which only the final one, a sigma, is preserved. Presumably we have a
feminine adjective modifying a noun in the singular number.
32
Journal des savants, XI, 1913, p. 27. The references are to I.G., XI, 2, 148, line 70, and 287,
A, line 101.
33 I.G., XI, 2, 199, A line 62 (6 drachmas apiece); 203, A, line 50 (also 6 drachmas apiece).
34 No prices of iron are given in Heichelheim, Wirtschaftliche Schwankungen, or in Larsen's
Roman Greece," Economic Survey, IV. For a succinct account of the economic importance of
iron, see Rostovtzeff, Soc. and Ec. Ilist. of Hell. World, II, p. 1217.
35 The word xaAKro covered both 'copper' and its alloy with tin, 'bronze.' Buck (Dictionary,
p. 611) notes that the actual reference in the majority of cases would be to bronze, since this was so
much more extensively employed than pure copper. Cf. Bliimner, Technologie, IV, pp. 38-66. An
analysis of numerous specimens is summarized in K. C. Bailey, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on
Chemical Subjects, II, pp. 159-161.