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

THE ATTIC STELAI 259
average price of the 160 head would be about 11 drachmas. This is only slightly below
the average of prices for sheep and goats in the sacrificial tables published as I.G., 12,
1357. Sheep, including rams, would probably average a little more than goats.
In our Stele VI, line 73, the following entry occurs:
-- . . . A aatyE1 F'AFII KaE E'yyov[a roVrov].
The number of numerals in the original sales price is that determined above, p. 255.
The most likely restoration for the price of the 67 goats and their kids would
seem to be: [PHH]A (710 drachmas). The next larger figure would be [XAA]A
(1030 drachmas), the next lower one [P HA] A (620 drachmas). With the restoration
of the figure for 710 drachmas, the price of the single goat, omitting the young,
would be 10.6 drachmas apiece. This is not far from the price of 12 drachmas contained
in the fourth-century sacrificial calendar, our closest parallel. The kids were
numerous enough to receive mention; so the average per animal must have been under
10 drachmas.
3. rpo6,8arov (VI, 71). Sheep. In Attic, the word 7rpo',arov replaced o7g, the
regular word in Homer and most dialects, for 'sheep.'
According to Plutarch,33 the price of a sheep under Solon was one drachma. By
the time of Lysias,34 a lamb to be offered in sacrifice brought 16 drachmas. The price
of a small sheep, which had been selected for sacrifice, is given in Menander as 10
drachmas.35 In [Demosthenes], XLVII, Against Euergos and Mnesiboulos, the contention
is made that fifty fine-wool sheep together with the shepherd and a serving-boy
were worth more than the fine of 1313 drachmas 2 obols.36 Since no particular skill
was involved in herding sheep, the two slaves might be roughly valued at 360 drachmas
(180 drachmas x 2) ." The value of the fifty sheep, then, would be 950 drachmas, or
19 drachmas for each. In a fragment of an Athenian sacrificial calendar, which
Oliver, its editor, dates shortly after 403/2 B.C.,38 sheep are valued at 12, 15, and 17
drachmas. The ewe (oTs) sacrificed to a female divinity is priced at 12 drachmas, to
a male divinity at 15 drachmas.39 The ram (Kpto') is priced at 17 drachmas. Similarly,
in the Salaminioi inscription of 363/2 B.C., the price of the ois is given six times: three
(to male divinities) as 15 drachmas, three (to female divinities) as 12 drachmas.40 In
33 Solon, 23. Cf. Orth, R.E., s.v. Schaf, 379.
34 XXXII, Against Diogeiton, 21.
35 Kock, C.A.F., III, p. 91; F. Allinson, Menander, Loeb Classical Library, London, 1921,
p. 402.
36
57 and 64.
37 For the figure 180 drachmas, as about average for a slave, see below, pp. 276-278.
38 Hesperia, IV, 1935, p. 21.
39 Oliver (ibid., p. 27) suggests the difference in price corresponds to a difference in the
animals' ages.
40
W. S. Ferguson, Hesperia, VII, 1938, p. 5, lines 85-93.