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

THE ATTIC STELAI 197
Furthermore, wheat, along with barley, lentils and bitter vetch, was sold in
Eretria in one lump sum as follows:
opo68ov op1itot Pll
HPA 4aKOv bopPo'9 I II, 91-95
'rTVpOv bopptoi AP
Kpt [ 0] OV'
E' [8&l] VOq
From the three references in Stele I, we see that the price of wheat varied between
6 and 6'2 drachmas per phormos. This variation is probably to be explained by the
difference in quality of the wheat, as seems to be the case in an inscription containing
prices paid for wheat in 329/8 B.C., where the record shows that most of the wheat
brought six drachmas per medimnos, but ten measures were sold for only five
drachmas."6'
For purposes of comparison, the following table gives the known prices of wheat
at Athens throughout the fourth century and in the first part of the third.
Prices of Wheat at Athens 162
Date Price per medimnos Reference
Beginning of 6 I.G., JJ2, 1356
fourth century
393 3 Arist., Eccl., 547-8
340-330 9 I.G., 112, 408, line 13
ca. 330 16 [Demosthenes], XXXIV, 39
5
330/29 5 I.G., 112, 360, line 9
329/8 6 I.G., JJ2, 1672, line 287
329/8 5 163 I.G., 112, 1672, line 288
324 5 I.G., JJ2 360
295 300 or 1800164 Plutarch, Demetr. 33
161 I.G., II2, 1672, lines 287-288.
162
This table is based on F. Heichelheim, R.E., Supplement VI, s.v. Sitos, 887-888.
163 The lower price in the same document is probably to be explained by inferior quality of the
wheat.
164 The preserved text of Plutarch states that 300 drachmas was the price for a modios (% of a
medimnos) during the seige of Athens by Demetrios Poliorketes. The lower figure rests on an
emendation of the text by Wilamowitz and is the one frequently adopted; see W. S. Ferguson,
Hellenistic Athens, London, 1911, p. 133 and A. Jarde, Cere'ales, p. 176, note 3. During the siege of
Athens by Sulla, a medimnos of wheat brought 1000 drachmas; see Plutarch, Sulla, 13. The author
of the second book of Aristotle's Oeconomicca gives several examples of extortion rates in times of
scarcity.