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

THE ATTIC STELAI 199
OROBOS
The price of orobos can be roughly estimated from the five line entry in II, 91-95,
the total of which amounted to 160 drachmas. If we allow 97' 2 drachmas for the
fifteen phormoi of wheat (6? dr. per phormos) and approximately 3 drachmas for
the medimnos of barley,"' we are left with 59Y2 drachmas for the 7 phormoi of orobos
and the one phormos of phakos. If the two latter sold at the same rate, the price per
phormos would be 7' 2 draclimas. Records of the sale of orobos are few. In a papyrus
from Karanis dated in A.D. 191 (some 600 years later than our figure) the price of an
artaba of orobos and an artaba of wheat is identical: eighteen drachmas.'72 Barley,
incidentally, was slightly more than one-half this price. In the Edict of Diocletian
(A.D. 301) the price of orobos was fixed at the same price as wheat (sitos), 100 denarii
for one castrensis modius.'73 As to the price of phakos, there is more abundant evidence
from Egypt, for lentils were there equated with wheat in payment of tax.174
Similarly, in the Edict of Diocletian, the maximum price of lentils was made the same
as the price of wheat (sitos) and orobos.'75 Our figure then, which indicates that
certainly orobos, and probably phakos, was a drachma per phormos higher than
wheat, seems not entirely unreasonable.
OINOS
The two entries in our Stelai which preserved wine prices are as follows: 176
Price Entry Reference
[..]HFAAA olvoao[p [----1 VI, 60-61
1PAAAA Tp [eL] XOE[ ]
profit was allowed to the priests (Staatshaushaltung der Athener3, I, p. 132); and hence that these
documents should not be used as evidence for current prices (cf. J. H. Oliver, Hesperia, IV, 1935,
p. 27). Other sacrificial calendars (cf. S.E.G., X, 348) consistently establish prices, but such prices
seem to be indicated by numerals. It is not clear where numerals would be inscribed in our text,
which preserves both right and left sides at the place in question. Finally, Tod (Num. Chron., 6th
Ser., VII, 1947, p. 1) has defined these obeloi as ' spits' and has cited the parallel of a Coan sacrificial
calendar. In any case, one would hesitate to use the lines in question as evidence for retail
prices.
171 The price of barley was normally about half that of wheat; see Jarde, Ce're'ales, pp. 182-183.
Cf. Larsen, op. cit., p. 384. In I.G., 112, 1672, lines 283 ff., 298 ff., where the price of wheat is given
as 5-6 drachmas, the price of barley is 3 to 3% drachmas; and in I.G., 112, 408, the prices of wheat
and barley are 9 and 5 drachmas, respectively.
172 E. J. Goodspeed, " Greek Papyri from the Cairo Museum," University of Chicago Decennial
Publications, V, Chicago, 1904, p. 33.
173 Col. I, 16.
174
Grenfell, Hunt, and Hogarth, Fayum Towns and their Papyri, London, 1900, 101; and
Westermann and Keyes, Columbia Papyri, Greek Series II, New York, 1932, I. 6.
175 Col. I, 11.
176
For the number of letter spaces in the sales prices, see below, p. 255.