The Agriculture is the base of the economic life in ancient Greece . It occupies close to 80  % of the population and her place is dominating in the Greek economic channel. Sphere of activity par excellence for a citizen, it gave rise to an ideal of life and manners which perdurent throughout the Antiquité.

Constraints of the medium

Greece present of the relatively homogeneous natural conditions if one excludes the cities of the coasts of minor Asia. The mountains represent 80  % of space, even 90  % as regards the islands of Aegean Sea. They strongly reduce space available for the culture and the breeding. Moreover, they are rocky, and thus of poor quality. Only some rare plains as that of Messénie can be qualified the fertile ones.

The Mediterranean Climat is characterized by two great seasons: one dries (the rivers are drained) and heat, from April at September; the other wet one, marked by the often violent precipitations, brought by the winds of west, with soft temperatures, without freezing. This climate presents variations. Thus the mountains, know rigorous and snow-covered winters. The Attic, the Cyclades, the south of the Peloponnese and the Crete are mediums more arid than the remainder of Greece.

Agricultural produce

Cultures

As of the antiquated period, as of it the Odyssey attests, Greek agriculture is founded on the culture of the Céréale S, bases food: Barley ( κριθαί / kritaí ), durum Wheat ( πύρος / pýros ), less often millet or common Wheat. The generic term σῖτος / sitos , traditionally translated by “French corn”, can in makes indicate all kinds of cereals: actually, 90  % of the cereal grounds are devoted to the barley. If the Old ones are quite conscious of the best nutritional contribution of corn, the barley is less demanding and offers a higher output. Various attempts were made to calculate the cereal outputs attics, but without giving conclusive result.

Enough quickly, the production appears quite insufficient for the needs. “Narrowness” of the ground ( στενοχωρία / stenokhôría ) thus explains the Greek Colonisation and the importance which will have, with the traditional time, the Clérouquie S of minor Asia in the control of the corn supply.

On the other hand, the Greek ground is adapted to the growth of the olive-tree, which provides the Olive oil. Its culture appears at the time antiquated. To plant olive-trees is a long-term company: the tree puts more than 20 years to give fruits, and produces only one year out of two. The Vigne also of course pushes the rocky ground, but request much for care. Its culture goes back to the Bronze Age.

These basic resources are supplemented by market gardenings (cabbage, Oignon, garlic) and leguminous plants: lenses, Chick-pea S, Broad bean S) and fruit-bearing (Fig S, Almond S, grenade S). He is necessary to add to it grasses (Sauge, Menthe, Thym, Sarriette, Origan, etc) and the oleaginous plants like the flax, the Sésame and the Pavot.

Breeding

The breeding, proposed like signs capacity and of richness in the Homeric epopees, is in fact little developed because of the lack of grounds available. If the Civilization mycénienne knows indeed a bovine breeding , this one moves back quickly thereafter, because of geographical expansion. Very quickly, the most animals are the Chèvre S and the Mouton S, not very difficult and suppliers of meat, Laine and Lait (consumed in the form of Fromage), as well as the Porc S and the Volaille S (Poulet S, Oie S). The ox, rare, is employed like animal of ploughing and, to a lesser extent, like animal of sacrifice (cf Hécatombe). The ass, the Mule and their various crossings are high like animals of pack or feature.

Lastly, the Cheval is high in the flat thessaliennes and in Argolide: it is an animal of luxury, aristocratic signs of life. the Clouds , comedy of Aristophane, illustrates well the equestrian snobbery of the Athenian aristocrats : the son of the hero, Phidippidès (translated into “Galopingre” by V.  Debidour), ruin his/her father in horses of race, called κοππατίας / koppatías or σαμφόρας / will samphóras according to the antiquated letters of the Greek alphabet - respectively Koppa and san - which is used to mark them.

It is probable that many exploitations practiced an auxiliary breeding: some poultries and of the smaller live-stock, feeding in the garrigues or nourishing remainders of kitchen. It was to also exist mixed farms, agro-pastoral, and finally of the exploitations specialized in the breeding. An inscription thus mentions certain Eubolos of Élatée, in Phocide, owner of 220 oxen and horses and at least 1000 sheep and goats. The herds of sheep transplant, on short distances, between the plain (in winter) and the mountain (in summer). Special taxes are planned for the transit or the stop of herds in the cities.

Other productions

The Bois is exploited intensively, mainly initially for a domestic use: the house and the carriages are out of wood, just as the Araire used to plow. The Greek wooded solid masses, located in mountainous area, are also put at evil by the goats and the coal : it is very quickly necessary to import, in particular for the construction of boats (cf Trière).

Lastly, the Apiculture provides Miel, only known source of Sucre of the Greeks. It also enters the composition of drugs and is used to manufacture the Hydromel.

Work

Work and the Days of Hésiode (eighth century BC) and Economic the of Xénophon () provide invaluable information on the work of the ground.

End of the autumn until the beginning of the winter, one collects olives, with the hand or Gaulle. They are then piled up in wicker baskets and are left ferment during ten days before being in a hurry. The press with screw, although called “Greek press” by Pline Old the (XVIII, 37), is a relatively late Roman invention (about second century BC). Oil is preserved in terra cotta vases to be useful throughout the year. It is also the moment of the size of the vines and the trees, as well as culture of leguminous plants.

Spring is the rain season: the peasants benefit from it to turn over the Jachère. The Greeks practice the biennial Assolement indeed (alternation ground cultivated/one year fallow on the other) - the attempts to introduce a three-year rotation, with leguminous plants in third element of the cycle, run up against the poverty of the Greek ground and the insufficiency of the labor in the absence of any mechanization. In addition, the Greeks are unaware of the animal manure, perhaps because of the weakness of the bovine breeding. The only amendment of the grounds consists in turning over bad grasses of the fallow.

In summer, the Irrigation is essential to avoid a too great drying of the grounds. In June, one harvests using Faucille S with hand - the Faux is not used. The corn is beaten by the animal force: one simply makes trample oxen, asses or mules. The grain is then garnered. It will return to the women and to the slaves to grind it and to make bread of it.

The autumn is the most important season. At the beginning of the autumn, one cuts wood to prevent that it did not rot and to prepare wood provisions of heating: if the winter is soft on the coast, it is harder in the mountainous regions. It is also a question of breaking the dry crust which was constituted in summer on the grounds with cereals. With this intention, three passages are necessary: the swing-plow is out of wood, and the rather rare Soc of iron. A hoe and a mallet supplement the equipment to break the lumps of earth. One then sows, with the flight, the fallow of the following year. It is also the season of the vintage. The bunches are then pressed with the foot in large tanks, and the wine put to ferment in earthenware jars.

Between Hésiode and Xénophon, nearly four centuries run out, without one perceiving improvement in the work methods agricultural. The tools remain poor and no invention comes to facilitate human or animal work. It will be necessary to await the Romains to see inventing the water mill, making it possible to substitute for the muscular force the hydraulic power. Neither the irrigation, neither the amendment of the grounds, nor the breeding make progress. As a whole, the outputs are poor. Only the very rich grounds, like that of Messénie, tolerate two successive harvests.

Agrarian structures

The agrarian structures are badly known, except in the case of Athens or certain cities for which sights of plane revealed traces of cadastration. As of the antiquated time, it is certain that the ground belongs to the land great landowners, like the Eupatrides in Attique. Still the structures can vary from one area to another: in Attic, the fields are parcelled out, whereas those of Thessalie are of only one holding.

As of eighth century BC, tensions are done day between the great landowners and the small farmers, for whom it is increasingly difficult to survive. They are probably explained by a demographic expansion due to the reduction in the mortality, worsened by the practice of the levelling division of the grounds at the time of the successions (attested at Homère and Hésiode). In Athens, the crisis is solved with the come to power of Solon in 594, which prohibits the constraint for debts and takes intended measures to help the small farmers. When it establishes the bases of the distribution of the capacity, however, it bases its classes censitaires on the agricultural production.

To the 5th century, always in Athens, the practice of the Liturgie, obliging richest to ensure what would be public services today, leads in a reduction of the great properties. It is estimated that the hoplitic majority of the citizens of row have approximately 5 hectares of ground. However, we also know that in 403 av. J. - C., the Athenian Parliament disallows the proposal of Phormisios, aiming at restricting the political rights to the landowners. According to Denys d' Halicarnasse ( On the speeches of Lysias , 52), which brings back the event, that would have resulted in depriving of their rights 5000 citizens, which accounts for 20 to 25% of the ensembel citizens. To Sparte, the “reform of Lycurgue” leads more radically to a division of the grounds in batches ( kleroi ) equal (from 10 to 18 hectares), distributed to each citizen. Elsewhere, the Tyran S proceed to redustributions of grounds confiscated with political enemy rich person.

As of, however, one attends with a concentration of the properties, including Sparte where, according to Aristote ( Politique , II, 6,1415), “ground then last in little with hands”. It is difficult rerésenter more precisely this assertion, because we have only very few figures relating to the properties. According to Moses Finley the data, literature and inscriptions included/understood, are reduced to five digits:

  • the property of certain Phainippos, of which we know only the biggest length and the greatest width, is 180 to 400 hectares, according to the conformation of the ground (pseudo-Démosthène, 42,5, towards 330 av. J. - C.);

  • the property of Alcibiade (450-404 av. J. - C.), vast of 28 hectares (Plato, First Alcibiade , 123c);
  • the property of called Aristophane (distinct from the comic author), vast of 28 hectares also, confiscated in 390 av. J. - C. by the Athenian State (Lysias, 19,29);
  • a ground eubéenne given at the end of the 5th century by the Athenian with Lysimaque, wire of Aristide, vast State of 18 hectares;
  • a property of 5,5 hectares, quoted in example by the speaker Isée for his exiguity (V, 22).

The great Greek aristocratic fields thus make pale figure with respect to large the latifundia Roman.

So much about Greek authors, about the antiquated time until the hellenistic period, about the “new rich person” big businessmen complain, the ground is closely related to the idea of richness. The father of Démosthène has 14 talents and has for only real estate value only its house, but it is about an exception. When the banker Pasion makes fortune, it hastens to buy a ground.

Lastly, a considerable part of the Greek ground public and/or is crowned. Each city has some and it is estimated that in Athens, the traditional period, these grounds represent a tenth of the surface cultivateds. They are the property of the city itself, an administrative division (for example, in Attique, a Dème) or of a temple. They are rented with private individuals, most of the time rather fortunate.

Ancient sources

The Geoponici (the Latinized shape of the Γεωπονικοι Greek) is a term which gathers the Greek or Roman authors on the breeding and agriculture. Many works and compilations (Géoponiques) aim to the improvement of the techniques and are regarded by the Greeks as treaties of economy.

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