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LUXURY AND WEALTH IN SPARTA AND THE PELOPONNESE
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S parta HinINDSIGHT andINthe
G REEK AND R OMAN P eloponnese H ISTORY edited by Stephen Hodkinson and Editor Chrysanthi Gallou Anton Powell Contributors Sophia Aneziri, Alain Bresson, Lucia Cecchet, Paul Christesen, Alain Duplouy, P.J. Finglass, Contributors Elena Franchi, Chrysanthi Gallou, Emily Baragwanath, Roger Brock, Lisa Irene Hau, Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras, Ellen Millender, Katherine Low, Felix K. Maier, Alexander Meeus, Sarah C. Murray, Robin Osborne, Annalisa Paradiso, Christopher Pelling, Anton Powell, Helen Roche Selene Psoma, James Roy
The Classical Press of Wales
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First published in 2021 by The Classical Press of Wales 15 Rosehill Terrace, Swansea SA1 6JN [email protected] www.classicalpressofwales.co.uk Distributor in North America. E-book distributor world-wide ISD, 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2, Bristol, CT 06010, USA Tel: +1 (860) 584-6546 Fax: +1 (860) 516-4873 www.isdistribution.com © 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN hard-back 978-1-910589-83-0; e-book 978-1-910589-84-7 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset by Louise Jones, and printed and bound in the UK by Gomer Press, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales ––––––––––––––––– The Classical Press of Wales, an independent venture, was founded in 1993, initially to support the work of classicists and ancient historians in Wales and their collaborators from further afield. It now publishes work initiated by scholars internationally, and welcomes contributions from all parts of the world. The symbol of the Press is the Red Kite. This bird, once widespread in Britain, was reduced by 1905 to some five individuals confined to a small area known as ‘The Desert of Wales’ – the upper Tywi valley. Geneticists report that the stock was saved from terminal inbreeding by the arrival of one stray female bird from Germany. After much careful protection, the Red Kite now thrives – in Wales and beyond
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In memory of Anton Powell: friend, collaborator, inspirer and editor supreme
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CONTENTS Page In memory of Anton Powell Stephen Hodkinson
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Introduction Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou
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PART I GENERAL PERSPECTIVES 1 The politics of flashing: from wealth of material to discourse of luxury in a world full of gods Robin Osborne (University of Cambridge)
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PART II SPARTA AND LAKONIKE¯ 2 Alcman’s early transmission and archaic Spartan society P.J. Finglass (University of Bristol) 3 ‘as we carry a robe to the dawn Goddess’: luxurious textiles in Spartan and Lakedaimonian sanctuaries Chrysanthi Gallou (University of Nottingham)
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4 Kyniska: production and use of wealth Annalisa Paradiso (Università della Basilicata) and James Roy (University of Nottingham)
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5 Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis Alain Bresson (University of Chicago)
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6 Spartan female luxury? Wealth, τρυφή, and Sparta’s ‘loose’ women Ellen Millender (Reed College) 7 Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta Paul Christesen (Dartmouth College)
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Contents PART III THE WIDER PELOPONNESE AND BEYOND 8 Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth: the making of citizen communities 139 Alain Duplouy (Université de Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne)
9 Women in gold: luxurious objects, excellence and prestige in the Peloponnese Elena Franchi (Università di Trento)
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10 Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras (University of Athens)
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11 Paths to wealth in Central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese Sarah C. Murray (University of Toronto)
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12 Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief Lucia Cecchet (Universität Mainz)
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13 Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese: the epigraphic evidence Sophia Aneziri (University of Athens)
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14 Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese Selene Psoma (University of Athens)
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Index
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IN MEMORY OF ANTON POWELL Stephen Hodkinson Shortly after this volume was submitted to the Classical Press of Wales (CPW), the world of Spartan and Peloponnesian studies suffered a great loss with the untimely death in June 2020 of the press’s founder and General Editor, Dr Anton Powell. Since the late 1980s Anton has been a towering figure in the field of Spartan studies. Not only has he personally authored many important and seminal articles on archaic, classical and hellenistic Spartan history and society; equally importantly, he has developed a diverse global community of like-minded academic colleagues within the International Sparta Seminar and has used the CPW as a venue for the Seminar’s deliberations to appear in print. Since 1999, CPW has published no fewer than 15 books on Spartan history and its modern reception, including several monographs by international colleagues. The astounding renaissance of Spartan history over the last generation would have been impossible without Anton Powell. It was therefore a great pleasure to us at the Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies (CSPS) when Anton agreed to add the present volume from our 4th International Conference in 2016 to CPW’s distinguished list of publications. That agreement was rooted in Anton’s long-standing association with Nottingham. He lived in the city for four years in the late 1980s, purposely choosing a house overlooking the Trent Bridge cricket ground from which he could view the field of play. During the summers of 1986 and 1987 Anton used to time his breaks from academic work to coincide with bowling spells by Nottinghamshire’s world-renowned fast bowler, the New Zealander Sir Richard Hadlee – who was subsequently awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Letters by the University of Nottingham. Anton had a deep love for the city of Nottingham, both for its lively intellectual life and for its rich workingclass culture. My wife and I had recently moved our family home to the Nottingham area and it was our physical proximity and our close personal and family friendship during those years that underpinned Anton’s and my subsequent long-term academic collaborations. Maintaining his Nottingham links in later years, Anton became a frequent visitor to CSPS. Alongside his academic talks, he used his popup CPW bookstall to spend much time talking with and assisting our students. It is hence a matter of great sadness to us that this volume has come to fruition at a time when Anton is no longer with us to see it in print. His death leaves a gaping hole in the personal and academic lives of many people here in Nottingham and around the world. Fare well, dear colleague, dear friend. We will not forget you.
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INTRODUCTION Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou This volume is the product of the 4th International Conference of the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies, held at the University on 14th–15th April 2016 and organised by Bill Cavanagh and ourselves. The idea for the conference theme, ‘Luxury and Wealth in the Archaic to Hellenistic Peloponnese’, was prompted by the exhibition ‘What is Luxury?’ held the previous year at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from 25 April to 27 September 2015 – and referenced in the volume’s opening chapter by Robin Osborne, based on his keynote lecture at the conference. The opening words of the conference title were intended as a partial echo of Hodkinson’s earlier monograph, Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta (2000). Introducing the new theme of ‘luxury’ – not explicitly discussed as such in PWCS – and considering its application in Sparta and in the wider Peloponnese seemed to us a stimulating way of developing further discussion of the role of wealth, especially because of its thought-provoking, and perhaps even counter-intuitive, character. A ‘Spartan’ lifestyle is proverbially one of austerity rather than luxury; and in ancient Greece luxury was stereotypically associated with Ionia and the oriental world rather than with the Peloponnese. The validity of these stereotypes was one of the conference’s central concerns. The advertisement for the conference outlined its key aims as follows: The theme of the conference is timely as it aims to stimulate scholarly thinking and dialogue into past attitudes to luxury, wealth and austerity from a historical, philological and archaeological perspective, which in turn should challenge current understandings of luxury and wealth, and generate reflection on current socioeconomic conditions and possible alternatives. Luxury and wealth are positioned within their most general contexts, with emphasis placed on their relationships to past lifestyles and choices made.1 Several of the issues outlined in this problématique are taken up in various ways by contributors to this volume. The importance of analysing luxury https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/humanities/archaeology/ luxury-and-wealth-in-the-archaic-to-hellenistic-peloponnese/index.aspx. 1
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Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou in terms of human behaviour and lifestyle choices, and others’ perception of them, rather than viewing it as innate in certain objects or things – as did the V&A exhibition – is emphasised from the start by Robin Osborne (Chapter 1). Whereas wealth, grounded in the differential distribution of resources, has been omnipresent since early human history, behaviour deemed luxurious in character has been contingent on a certain level of societal development involving the existence of conspicuous leisure – for an elite, at least – and of structured social events which provided opportunities for display. The historical Greek world reached this level only in the late seventh century. Luxurious behaviour was often represented in highly gendered terms, typically associated with women, especially in the context of religious sanctuaries, partly because the practice of male nudity in the gymnasium and in athletics offered little opportunity for display. As Osborne argues, such behaviour was very much present in the Peloponnese, including in Sparta. This argument is developed in several of the papers on Sparta in Part II of the volume. In Chapter 2 P.J. Finglass examines the subsequent transmission of the most substantial body of evidence for luxurious display in archaic Sparta, the corpus of Alkman, especially the depiction of the chorus of girls in his First Partheneion. The evidence that Alkman remained for centuries afterwards a key part of the Spartan repertoire – an essential step in the survival of a substantial quantity of his poetry into Hellenistic times – implies both the Spartans’ continuing familiarity with such luxurious display and its continuing ideological palatability even in the classical period, normally viewed as a time of self-imposed austerity. In Chapter 3 Chrysanthi Gallou examines archaeological and textual evidence from the archaic period for the production and dedication, both public and private, of elaborate clothing and other textiles in sanctuaries at Sparta itself and elsewhere in its territory. Owing to the non-survival of the textiles themselves, the archaeological evidence is necessarily indirect: metal dress fasteners such as pins and fibulae; tools used in the manufacture of textiles such as loom weights, spindle-whorls and weaving combs; and ivories, terracottas and miniature lead figurines depicting dressed female figures or textile models. But this evidence strongly suggests that Spartan and Lakedaimonian women participated fully in the adoption of elaborate and exotic attire seen throughout Greece around 600 bc. The evidence drops away after 500, but its indirect nature forbids any necessary conclusion about a decline in textile dedications per se, still less an onset of austerity, especially since this decline coincides with a general trend across the Greek world towards more simple female attire.
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Introduction In contrast, in Chapter 4 Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy analyse an aspect of Spartan luxurious living that increased significantly during the classical period, one in which citizen women became involved for the first time: the most expensive and ‘useless’ of leisure activities, the breeding of horses for chariot-racing. They view this activity through the case of the first-ever female victor at the Olympic Games: Kyniska, the daughter and sister of kings of the Eurypontid royal house, victor probably in 396 and 392 bc. Her engagement in the sport required not only large amounts of traditional forms of wealth such as land and helots, but also considerable holdings of precious metal currency. Kyniska’s behaviour after her Olympic success – commissioning for erection at the sanctuary a grandiose victory monument which far exceeded the monuments of previous victors and included a boastful inscription vaunting her unique achievement – was a striking illustration of an activity undertaken purely for show. Although her Olympic victories and their primary celebratory monuments were located outside Sparta, her preparation for the Games almost certainly involved previous displays of wealth and success at festivals within Spartan territory which would have been well-known within the Spartiate population, both female and male. The gendered association between luxury and women highlighted by Osborne – and illustrated in different ways in the papers of Finglass, Gallou, and Paradiso and Roy – is explicitly tackled in a Spartan context in Ellen Millender’s contribution in Chapter 6. Examining Euripides’ repeated characterisations of assertions about Helen of Sparta’s desire for barbarian luxury (τρυφή, tryphe¯ ), she notes that surviving fifth-century sources never associate the term with Spartan men, despite their frequent reputation for bribery and love of gold and silver. Furthermore, his representation of criticisms of Helen’s daughter Hermione for her freedom of speech linked to her considerable wealth, Euripides also anticipates a somewhat different conceptualisation of the tryphe¯ of Spartan women by Plato and Aristotle. In their writings tryphe¯ signifies no longer luxury in the sense of extravagance, but rather the latitude enjoyed by Spartan women within their households: their excessive license to do as they pleased, owing to the lack of public training, legislation and oversight of their private activities. In Aristotle’s view, it was this female license which corrupted the supposedly austere lifestyle of Spartan men, inculcating a love of money and the prioritisation of private over public interests. Central to Millender’s discussion is the argument that the meanings and applications of tryphe¯ changed over time and between different texts and contexts. In his examination of Plutarch’s references to tryphe¯ in his accounts of Sparta, Paul Christesen (Chapter 7) likewise highlights the
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Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou broad array of meanings which tryphe¯ could represent in classical texts: a sense of privilege (the original meaning when the term first emerged in the late fifth century); the quality of softness; an easy, enjoyable lifestyle; a sense of entitlement bordering on arrogance; decadence; or invidious ostentation. He also notes the problems of translation deriving from the fact that meanings of the term ‘luxury’ have also changed in modern times, during the last two-plus centuries largely losing their former pejorative overtones of moral disapproval. Following a line of argument perhaps initiated by the fourth-century historian Ephorus, Plutarch gave tryphe¯ a fundamental role in his accounts of Sparta across his various Spartan lives: originally rampant, it was extinguished by Lykourgos, re-appeared following the Peloponnesian War, and survived the attempted reforms of Agis and Kleomenes. But what did he mean by the term? Plutarch’s accounts are often cited as a major source of evidence for Spartan austerity. Considering all the relevant texts, however, Christesen argues that for Plutarch tryphe¯ signified not ‘luxury’ as such, but rather ‘decadence’ or ‘invidious, tasteless ostentation’. Inspired by Aristotelian ethics, Plutarch’s view of the proper response to such excesses was not extreme asceticism, but a healthy mean. According to his account, in eliminating tryphe¯ Lykourgos did not remove all luxury but inculcated in the Spartans an elegant simplicity which took pleasure in tasteful, beautifully-made items. Contrary to standard interpretations, Plutarch’s evidence accords with earlier texts which suggest a Sparta characterised by well-mannered and restrained affluence. The opening paper in Part III ‘The Wider Peloponnese and Beyond’, Alain Duplouy’s discussion of funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth (Chapter 8), starts by surveying the meaning and changing moral connotations of the term most usually associated with luxury before the emergence of tryphe¯ in the later fifth century: habrosyne¯ , also briefly discussed by Osborne and Christesen. Duplouy, however, eschews use of this emic, largely Eastern and Western Greek, definition of luxury (which found little echo in the early Peloponnese), applying instead the etic concept of conspicuous consumption to the archaeological evidence for funerary practices. Despite differences in the types of burials, patterns of funerary practices in Corinth and Argos followed similar, though not synchronous, sequences of change during the eighth to sixth centuries bc: early increases in the number of tombs and in the quantity and quality of grave goods; followed by complete breaks with the past with the use of new burial types and the near disappearance of grave goods; finally, the return of grave goods at a less lavish level. Duplouy rejects existing interpretations of these changes: not only those based on ethnic
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Introduction divides between Dorians and non-Dorians, but also those focused on the supposed rise of aristocracy followed by a general decrease in wealth and/ or by restrictive funerary legislation, and those which relate the changes to a broadening of the burial group and the emergence of the egalitarian polis. Instead, he links the changes to community development through a behavioural conception of Archaic citizenship, explaining pre-Classical Argive and Corinthian burial customs in terms of Bourdieu’s concept of habitus: the lifestyle, values, dispositions and expectations of social groups acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life. The differences between Argive and Corinthian burial customs reflect the distinctive habitus of the two communities. Their similar pattern of changes over time reflect comparable evolutions in each community’s developing habitus and changing composition: from a period of lavish display, competition and social instability, through a time of restrictions and greater stratification, back (in part) to a more competitive conception of society. Elena Franchi (Chapter 9) examines a historiographical episode concerning a later period of Argive history: Herodotus’ reference to the prohibition on Argive women from wearing gold following the city’s defeat in the general battle that followed the ‘Battle of the Champions’ in the mid-sixth century. Traditional interpretations view this prohibition as a mourning ritual or as a restriction on the display of luxury goods during funerals, but Franchi argues that it also had wider implications. In Herodotus’ account, the prohibition on women’s wearing gold is paired with the injunction that no Argive man should grow long hair; and both restrictions are to apply until the lost territory of Thyrea was recovered. Noting the linkage between the wearing of gold and habrosyne¯ , a lifestyle which combined wealth and excellence, including victory in war benefitting the whole community, she interprets the prohibition as a limitation on displaying such a lifestyle of excellence, and especially on displaying the kind of prestige generated by prowess in war, in the wake of the Argives’ military defeat. Once more we see the gendered association between women and the display of luxury, as in earlier chapters. Moving the focus from individual communities to the region at large and from individual to public expenditure and display, Georgia KokkorouAlevras (Chapter 10) highlights a notable contrast in the construction of sacred buildings in the Archaic period between the materials used by Peloponnesian cities and those used by cities from other regions, with a particular spotlight on the use of marble. Its regular use in temples in the Cyclades, where marble was readily available on the surface, was unexceptional; but its costly importation for use elsewhere, such as on
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Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou the Athenian acropolis in the late seventh or early sixth century, was a clear indication of magnificence. The Peloponnese mostly lacked goodquality marble and its use was extremely limited throughout the Archaic period, except on the most extravagant projects such as the sixth-century throne of Apollo at Amyklai, which utilised grey marble from Taygetos along with imported white marble from Doliana in Arkadia. An especially notable contrast became evident at Delphi from the sixth century onwards. Whereas the treasuries of other cities were typically made entirely of marble, those of Peloponnesian cities used traditional local materials such as soft limestone (poros), a material which also remained in considerable, though not exclusive, use into the Classical period at Olympia. The Peloponnesians’ non-use of marble cannot be plausibly explained in terms of limited wealth or incompatibility with the Doric architectural order. It perhaps betokens a more fundamental ‘conservative’ religious attitude (or habitus) evident also in their contemporary monumental sculpture. In Chapter 11 Sarah C. Murray highlights another, potentially related, regional peculiarity of the archaic Peloponnese. Examination of references to non-coercive acquisitive behaviour across a range of literary texts (Herodotus, Pindar and lyric poetry) reveals a consistent pattern in which references to or concerns about sudden or capricious mobility of wealth are far less common in accounts of Peloponnesian society or in works for Peloponnesian audiences compared with accounts of, or works for audiences in, central Greece or Ionia. The clear impression given is that the Peloponnese was a region marked by greater stability of wealth and fewer opportunities for getting rich quickly. Part of the explanation may lie in a lower degree of the kind of major military activity that decimated populations and their accumulated wealth. Part may also lie in fewer opportunities for upward mobility by craftsmen, especially in Sparta with its comparatively high level of disdain for such persons, its allocation of (at least some) professions according to heredity rather than merit, and its comparative lack of famous or even named architects and sculptors. Was it perhaps concern about the destabilising potential of prospering artisans rather than the corrupting potential of their products that underpinned the Spartans’ reputation for material austerity? The focus on the Peloponnese as a whole is maintained in the two papers on the Hellenistic period by Sophia Aneziri (Chapter 13) and Selene Psoma (Chapter 14), which reveal interesting continuities and changes from Murray’s account of the Archaic period. Focusing on epigraphic evidence for euergetism, Aneziri highlights further indications of Peloponnesian distinctiveness, both in the limited and unbalanced nature of the evidence compared with other regions and in the unusual
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Introduction and delayed development of euergetism. Evidence of benefactions for religious purposes publicly acknowledged by the community are not attested before the first century bc, when they become relatively common. Although a small number of religious donations are attested from the previous 2–3 centuries, in no case is there evidence of public recognition of the donors or their gifts. Up till the late second century there are several honorific inscriptions for donors of non-religious benefactions, especially for donations relating to the gymnasium; but from that period onwards honorific inscriptions increase markedly and the donations concern a wide range of civic purposes, a trend which continues into the Imperial period. This unusual paucity of inscriptional evidence for euergetism in the early Hellenistic Peloponnese cannot plausibly be ascribed to lack of an ‘epigraphic habit’ or to the absence of civic financial need. It may be better explained by political factors: the prominence of tyrants who inhibited displays of public generosity and the demands on elite resources by the Achaean League. The removal of these obstacles in the later Hellenistic period, along with ever-increasing civic financial difficulties, may have released civic benefactors to fund a wider range of community needs and to participate in the general re-organisation and financing of cults that were taking place around the Greek world. Selene Psoma undertakes a broad survey of the evidence for luxury and wealth in the Peloponnese, embracing coins and inscriptions as well as literary evidence. She shows that, despite the initial comparative absence of euergetism from the epigraphic record, the Hellenistic period was from its earliest years a time of enhanced wealth for the region’s elites – although not reaching the scale of the Greek East. Notable evidence of increased elite prosperity compared with earlier periods includes a significant increase in possession of silverware, the sizeable number of hoards of silver and sometimes gold coinage, the large number of Olympic victors, and literary evidence for major expenditures and displays, including in third-century Sparta. The region’s rich range of natural agricultural and pastoral resources, especially in Elis and in newly-liberated Messenia, continued to underpin the kind of stability of wealth noted by Murray. However, Alexander the Great’s conquests in the East opened up lucrative new opportunities for acquiring wealth not present in the Archaic period, such as for Peloponnesian mercenaries serving in Macedonian forces. In addition, the quantity of coin hoards is testimony to the destabilising impact on accumulated wealth of the ongoing warfare that characterised the period. This survey has left until last two papers purposely included in the conference to examine certain important aspects of the flip-side of luxury
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Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou and wealth. Alain Bresson’s paper (Chapter 5) examines Sparta’s extreme socio-economic crisis – rooted in social inequality and resulting in the decline in its citizen population between 480 and 244 bc to less than onetenth of its previous size – from the perspective of its closed economy and the resulting problem of debt. In an argument chiming with certain aspects of Murray’s thesis regarding the restricted opportunities for wealth acquisition in the Peloponnese as a whole, Bresson analyses the constraints on economic development imposed by key features of the Spartan economy. The lack of market incentive for helot farmers to transform their agricultural processes stagnated potential increases in production. The prohibition of their private manumission and of their sale outside the state removed other sources of profit and cost-cutting flexibility that were available for masters elsewhere. The helots’ drastically reduced purchasing power also impeded the creation of a developed market economy. The fiat iron spit currency separated domestic from foreign exchange, which was itself limited in the Classical period, as attested by the sparse finds of coin hoards or of individual coins. Limited monetisation was accompanied by the hoarding of precious metal by a minority of wealthy Spartiates. In this situation, in which the main source of wealth was a form of agriculture constrained in its productive capacity and limited to an internal market, indebtedness, a prevalent feature of Spartan society, had devastating consequences. Less wealthy Spartiate landowners who had fallen into serious debt in years when bad harvests had left them short of their mess contributions and when grain prices were high could not recoup their losses in years of good harvests, when prices were correspondingly low. If Classical Sparta was a society in which one could not get rich quickly, it was certainly a society in which increasing poverty could become inescapable. Lucia Cecchet’s paper (Chapter 12) reminds us that in Greek antiquity, as in the present-day world – including in Greece – since the financial crash of 2008, austerity could result not only from self-imposed measures or from ones designed to control expenditure and display by the rich; it could also result from measures imposed upon the poor or it could involve a deprived lifestyle necessarily adopted by the poverty-stricken. Arguing, however, that in Greek antiquity such generalised austerity affecting a broad section of a city’s population differed from its modern counterpart in that it was not used as a tool for tackling economic crisis, she surveys a range of cases involving austerity, or relief from austerity, for ordinary and poor citizens. Some procedures were imposed specifically on ordinary citizens by their own state: for example, a measure against those living beyond their means and hence suspected of making their money through criminal activities; also laws attested in many cities against idleness
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Introduction or unemployment. The ascription of both these class-based procedures to oligarchic Corinth should perhaps not surprise. Other procedures were, like modern punitive international sanctions, imposed by external powers: most notably, the Megarian decree imposed by the Athenians, which brought hardship in Megara to small farmers and the landless reliant on purchasing goods in the marketplace. In contrast, the poverty-driven austerity that formed an inescapable part of many people’s lives was ameliorated by certain types of relief. One type involved temporary periods of ritual inversion: some focused on slaves such as at Peloponnesian Troezen, others on the free poor. The latter typically acted as safety valves for the wealthy, although ritual threats could spill over into genuine violence and occasionally even compel the rich to make concessions of debt relief, as apparently at both Megara and Corinth. (The killing of wealthy Corinthians who refused to do so adds to the picture of classbased divisions mentioned above.) More regular relief, especially in the Hellenistic and Imperial periods, came from acts of euergetism by the rich, whether by native citizens or foreigners. Many of their donations or loans, including late Hellenistic examples from Argos and Kotyrta in Laconia, were made to the city at large. Some rare examples, attested exclusively outside the Peloponnese, were targeted specifically at the poor, including funding the marriage dowries of girls from poor families. Such measures, occasionally institutionalised, also strengthened the well-being of the city at large, reducing social tensions and the likelihood of conflict – as modern programmes of social welfare have done. What, then, of the austere and unluxurious stereotypes of Sparta and the Peloponnese with which this Introduction started? Clearly, no single answer should be expected to apply over the many centuries of significant historical developments covered in this volume. In Sparta, for example, there were clear differences in the role that wealth played in the lifestyle of its citizens both between the Archaic and Classical periods and between the Classical and Hellenistic. Nevertheless, the studies in this volume suggest that, even in the more restrained society of the Classical period, the lives of Spartiate citizens were characterised more by simplicity than by austerity. Moreover, although luxurious display may have declined and altered in its character and incidence in that period, it never entirely ceased or completely lost acceptability, partly because it took new forms through activities such as engagement in chariot-racing. Its gendered association with women continued, although partly complicated by philosophical criticisms which focused on other supposedly reprehensible aspects of female behaviour. The volume’s studies also suggest that in other regions of the Peloponnese luxurious display was likewise often very much present,
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Stephen Hodkinson and Chrysanthi Gallou but never uniformly so, sometimes alternating with lengthy periods of greater restrictions, sometimes decreasing or increasing dramatically as a consequence of transformative historical events such as the Argives’ loss of Thyrea or the conquests of Alexander. That said, certain features of both Sparta and the Peloponnese explored in this volume do seem to support certain facets of the stereotype, especially in the late Archaic and Classical periods. Here again we must beware of painting a uniform picture: Corinth and Sparta, for example, differed considerably in their economies and, apparently, in their attitude towards artisans. Overall, however, a combination of interrelated factors that applied to much of the peninsula – economies largely agrarian in character, relatively limited internal markets, greater stability of wealth and fewer opportunities for self-enrichment, alongside political systems mostly inclined towards oligarchy – seems to have limited the roles of luxury and wealth in comparison with other areas of the Greek world. Even during the times of enhanced wealth and greater opportunities in the Hellenistic period, the development of euergetism was relatively delayed and luxurious displays never reached the scale of the Greek East. *
*
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It remains for us to thank the many people and organisations who made the original conference a success and who have helped to turn the conference into the present volume. Pride of place must go to Bill Cavanagh, Jim Roy and Peter Davies, who made significant contributions to the conference planning as fellow members of CSPS’s Management Board. Bill and Jim also chaired conference sessions, as did Ellen Millender and Paul Christesen, and critiqued several draft papers for the volume. Peter was also part of an efficient and dedicated team of conference assistants, in company with Elisavet Fergadiotou, Kendell Heydon and Vasiliki Brouma. We are equally indebted to invaluable administrative help from the School of Humanities Management and Research Office, especially Monica Beale and Nicola Tuxford. We also gratefully acknowledge generous financial support from a variety of sources: the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation; the University of Nottingham’s School of Humanities Strategic Fund and Faculty of Arts PVC Fund; and the NottinghamLeicester Ancient History Fund. A grant from the Classical Association enabled us to provide several student bursaries. Besides the chapters in this volume, the conference itself was graced by excellent papers from Lyndsay Coo, Thomas Coward, Kate Gilhuly and
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Introduction Hans van Wees. We thank them for their outstanding contributions to the event. Finally, we wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to the small team of people who have taken over the running of the Classical Press of Wales following Anton Powell’s untimely death: his wife Dr Ioanna Kralli and his friends Nancy Bouidghaghen and Professor Stephen Mitchell. We thank them for their commitment to fulfilling Anton’s wishes for the publication of this volume.
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PART I GENERAL PERSPECTIVES
1 THE POLITICS OF FLASHING: FROM WEALTH OF MATERIAL TO DISCLOSURE OF LUXURY IN A WORLD FULL OF GODS Robin Osborne Distinguishing wealth and luxury If there was ever a time when there was no such thing as wealth, that time must have preceded the age of hunter-gatherers. As soon as resources of any sort are differentially distributed, we can talk of wealth, which is always a comparative term. The mark of wealth is to have something others lack, or more of something that others have but would like to have more abundantly. Luxury is a different matter. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) offers two current meanings: 1) ‘(habitual indulgence in) choice of costly surroundings, possessions, food etc.;’ 2) ‘a means or source of luxurious enjoyment; spec. something desirable for comfort or enjoyment, but not indispensable’. This neatly indicates the two different ways in which we think about luxury – we think about luxury as things (‘means of luxurious enjoyment’, as the dictionary puts it) or we think about luxury as behaviour (‘choice of costly surroundings etc.’). But a closer look suggests that luxury as things is highly problematic: in the contemporary world we do not actually use the term luxury for ‘something desirable for comfort or enjoyment, but not indispensable’: televisions have long since ceased to be regarded by anyone as a luxury, for instance; nor is a gold wedding ring. When people said something like ‘taking taxis in the winter is my little luxury’, or ‘having an ice cream on a Sunday is my little luxury’ (phrases none of us
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Robin Osborne has probably heard for many years), which is the usage the Shorter Oxford seems to be imagining under sense 2, they were not in fact identifying taxis or ice creams as the luxury, it was the choice to take taxis or eat ice cream, to prefer pleasure or comfort to the small but significant economic loss entailed, that was in question. Just how problematic it is to think that luxury resides in things emerged from an exhibition staged from 25 April to 27 September 2015 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition was entitled ‘What is luxury?’, and curated by Jana Scholze and Leanne Wierzba. The curators claimed that the show addressed ‘the production of exceptional objects, which demonstrate an extraordinary investment in time and hand making’ and that it explored ‘how attitudes to luxury are shaped by cultural concerns and personal dreams’. Using terms like ‘pleasure’, ‘exclusivity’, ‘passion’, ‘authenticity’ ‘as aids to framing and focusing the interpretation of objects on display and to stimulate thinking and reflecting on the meanings of luxury’, the exhibition showed many objects ‘characterised by the significant investment of time and application of exceptional skill on the part of their makers’.1 But as the reviewer in the magazine Crafts noted, although there was no doubting ‘the levels of skill, patience, love and determination on display’, how exactly the relationship of these to luxury was supposed to work was often unclear: ‘I’m not convinced I got any closer to unpicking the nature of luxury by the time I left’.2 The V & A exhibition took the fact that something is a luxury to reside in the object itself, but luxury is something that applies to people and their behaviour – their indulgence, choice, enjoyment – it is not innate in things. As Grewe and Hofmeester have recently insisted ‘Objects and practices thought to be [luxurious] in one sociocultural context are deemed profane and everyday in another such context’ (2016a, 8). There are indeed features of material objects that make it possible for them to be luxuries – that they are very durable or very fleeting, very effective or very finely crafted; that they appeal to one or more of the senses because of how they feel, smell, look, sound or taste; that they are hard to come by – but none of these is either a necessary or a sufficient condition for something to become a luxury. An old-master painting stored in a bank vault contributes to its owner’s wealth, but will never be a luxury. There can indeed be private luxuries, but those require that the object is enjoyed.3 Luxury as a moral matter Since ‘luxury’ is about behaviour it is always potentially a moral issue. This makes it attractive to legislators, for whom the moral high ground is always an advantage, but not always easy to legislate about. Ancient
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The politics of flashing sumptuary laws, to which I shall return, targeted behaviour (how you bury, what you can wear in the way of jewellery), but did not always persuade people to change what they did (note all the opposition in the Roman Republic to the Lex Oppia, for instance).4 Modern states have sometimes attempted to tax supposedly luxury things. So the Bush administration in 1991 introduced a Luxury Tax, rated at 10% on boats over $100,000, cars over $30,000, aircraft over $250,000, and furs and jewellery over $10,000. The tax had a massive effect: an estimated 100,000 people lost their jobs in yacht-building and related industries. Two years later it was deemed to have failed, and everything except the tax on expensive cars, which lasted another decade, was withdrawn. Taxing luxury items will always be vain, since living a life of luxury does not demand any particular item, it demands being perceived to behave in a particular way. Singling a particular item out for control may serve only to make it a particularly desirable symbol of luxury: repeated Japanese laws limiting the size of tortoiseshell hair ornaments in the eighteenth century only resulted in larger and thicker tortoiseshell combs being used at the end of the century than at the point when legislation was first introduced.5 But if luxury is a particular kind of behaviour, how are we to identify that behaviour? Not all behavioural issues have a moral dimension, and the assumption that luxury is necessarily a moral issue distorts history.6 Vanessa and Robert Gorman have recently devoted a 450-page book to looking for Corrupting Luxury in Ancient Greek Literature. ‘Corrupting luxury’ is the expression they use for ‘a widely accepted truism of Western culture that luxury corrupts’ (2014, 1). They end up arguing that one cannot find this notion until the first century bc and that it is effectively a product of the Roman world.7 In other words, what they are looking for is the luxuria of Sallust, and they demonstrate that no-one writing in Greek tries to express a similar idea until Sallust, Cicero and Livy have put luxuria and its corrupting effects onto the mental map of what Rome’s empire has done to Republican Rome. The fact that there is a word for corrupting luxury in Latin, luxuria, might encourage us to think that if it is Greek luxury we are keen to understand, we should find the Greek word for it. The usual candidate for such a word is τρυφή (tryphê ), the word used by Athenaios and other later Greek authors to translate the Roman weight of luxuria, but not used by classical authors in that sense.8 So how is τρυφή used in the classical world? It turns out that τρυφή is not used at all until the later fifth century, appearing initially in Euripides’ Suppliant Women and reappearing all over Aristophanes. Tρυφή is the mark of those who are comfortable and confident in their position, pride
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Robin Osborne themselves on it, and are a bit precious about it; τρυφή marks the behaviour of those who put themselves and their comfort and material interests first.9 So Euripides has Theseus remark on the many distinguishing features of humanity (speech, reason, agriculture, sailing) and then say ‘Do we not display τρυφή when god gives us such equipment for life but we reckon this isn’t sufficient?’.10 Similarly, he has Iphigeneia describe the three goddesses judged by Paris as ‘Cypris who displays τρυφή in desire, Pallas in the spear, and Hera in the royal bed of lord Zeus’.11 Theseus’ remarks show that humankind as a whole might be self-indulgent and precious, but the term nevertheless has gendered connotations: some sort of fastidiousness and pride is expected of women, but for humans in general to display it constitutes behaviour worth noting. Grewe and Hofmeester have noted in a rather different context that, ‘Gender seems to be very important in defining the meaning of a luxury object’ (2016b, 306); it is even more important in defining the meaning of luxury as a practice or behaviour. The appearance of τρυφή only in the second half of the fifth century does suggest that something changed at that point. But that change is much more that luxury acquired a particular, and particularly dangerous, political implication than that luxury itself was invented.12 There was no shortage of individuals preening themselves on their appearance before the age of Alcibiades. Scholars have explored a range of other terms which occur in archaic Greek literature and have similar connotations, in particular ἁβρότης/ἁβροσύνη and χλιδή.13 Signal here, though unusual in its negative overtones, is Xenophanes’ description of the people of Kolophon as They learned useless habrosunai from the Lydians, while they were free of hateful tyranny, and went into the marketplace wearing purple cloaks, no fewer than a thousand in number all told, boastful, taking pleasure in their handsome coiffure, anointed with unguents of contrived perfume.14
Here are people who not only preen themselves on their looks, but who do so by virtue of forming close links with foreigners and turning a blind eye to matters closer to home. As with images on Athenian pots of men dressed in chitons as well as himatia and carrying parasols, so also here the question of whether the image conjured up is purely foreign or also feminised is hard definitively to answer on the basis of this passage alone.15 But there is little doubt of the specifically feminine world conjured up when the similar range of χλιδή is advertised by Sophocles’ Electra. She distinguishes her own position from that of her sister Chrysothemis by saying that ‘I would never yield to [Clytemnestra and Aigisthos], not even if someone were about to bring me the gifts you have received,
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The politics of flashing in which you now luxuriate (χλιδᾷς)’.16 These studies of words give us grounds for reckoning that the history of luxury, as a particular form of self-indulgent behaviour which tends to be associated particularly with women, starts before the fifth century;17 but if they are to tell us anything about the history of luxury, these word-studies need to be more broadly contextualised. To do that, it is useful to return to the comparison of luxury and wealth, and to see where luxury is missing, as well as where luxury is present. The birth of luxury: the literary evidence There is a lot of wealth around in the Homeric epics. Both Greek and Trojan rulers have storehouses full of it, from which they bring suitable gifts for gods (e.g. in Iliad 6) or guests (Menelaos to Telemachos), or to reward or appease others (the prizes at Patroklos’ Funeral Games; the goods variously offered to Achilles). Individuals distinguish themselves by the expense of what they wear – as in the gold armour of Glaukos (Iliad 6. 236; cf. the gold shield of Nestor, Iliad 8.193), or the gold jewellery worn by Amphimachos ‘like a girl’ (Iliad 2.872; cf. Euphorbos with silver and gold hair ornaments at Iliad 17.52).18 That remark about the feminising effect of wearing gold and silver aside, the Homeric epics are very matter of fact about the display of wealth – notoriously it is only at the moment that he exchanges his armour with Diomedes that Glaukos’ armour is revealed to be gold. Far from being useless, these stores of wealth emerge as they are used – in gift-exchanges that create on-going bonds of indebtedness that serve even to save lives. But if there is plenty of wealth in the Homeric epics, is there any luxury? Certainly not amongst the suitors, whose behaviour is marked by excess, but not by luxury. Nor do we find a life of luxury in Phaeacia, or on Kalypso’s island, or in Troy. Their modern reputation might encourage us to think of the Lotos-eaters as living in luxury, but all they have is the lotos, a food so delicious that it leaves them thinking of nothing else. Nor is it clear that there are individuals who luxuriate. Even Paris, for all that his bedroom is fragrant and his bed adorned with spirals (Iliad 3.382, 391), is not presented as living luxuriously. There is not much luxury to be found in Hesiod, either. Again, we might expect Perses to be criticised for his life of luxury, or the bribe-devouring basileis to use the bribes to feather their own beds in a more or less literal way, but neither they nor Pandora display luxurious living. Hanging around the smithy and chattering the day away is Hesiod’s image of frivolous behaviour, not spending one’s resources on fine clothes or fine food and being attended by servants.
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Robin Osborne The first person in Greek literature to have a claim to be portrayed as indulging in the choice of costly surroundings, that is in luxury, is arguably the woman of whom Semonides, writing in the seventh century, says: A mare with delicate mane bore her. She avoids servile work and trouble and would not touch the mill or lift the sieve or throw dung out of the house, nor sit by the oven – she shuns soot. Only when she has to, does she make love to her husband. She washes off the dirt twice every day, sometimes three times, and anoints herself with scent; she has her hair always combed out, and is shaded with flowers. Such a woman is a fine sight for others, but a bad thing for the husband who has her, unless he is some tyrant or ruler who glories in his heart at such things.19
The ‘habitual indulgence in the costly’ here is acknowledged to produce stunning results and, although there is no narrative of corruption as such, it goes with behaviour incompatible with doing a wife’s work. Hipponax and Anacreon in the sixth century give us further glimpses of luxury life-styles, without using any single term to describe luxury. Hipponax offers a vignette of a luxury life that proved ruinous: One of them, dining at his ease and lavishly every day on tuna and savoury sauce like a eunuch from Lampsacus (ὥσπερ Λαμψακηνὸς εὐνοῦχος), ate up his inheritance; as a result he has to dig a rocky hillside, munching on cheap figs and coarse barley bread, fodder for slaves (frg. 26, trans. Gerber, quoted by Athenaios 304b); not champing on partridges and hares, not seasoning pancakes with sesame, and not dipping waffles in honey (frg. 26a, trans. Gerber, quoted by Athenaios 645c).20
Anacreon tells us of one Artemon who has, by contrast, gone from rags to riches: Once he went about in an old cap, the wasped-headdress of a Cimmerian, with wooden astragals in his ears, and about his ribs a hairless ox hide that had been the unwashed cover of a wretched shield—the scoundrel Artemon who made a fraudulent living by consorting with bread wenches and whores-for-choice, with his neck often in the stocks or else on the wheel, and his back often flogged with the leather scourge and his hair and beard plucked out; but now he goes in a carriage, wearing gold earrings and carrying an ivory sunshade just like women: σκιαδίσκην ἐλεφαντίνην φορεῖ | γυναιξὶν αὕτως (Anacreon 388, trans. Edmonds). 21
Once more the explicit gendering of these descriptions is to be noted – ‘like a eunuch’, ‘just like women’.
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The politics of flashing The birth of luxury: the non-literary evidence If the literary evidence suggests that the life of luxury starts in the late seventh century, and starts with women, what about non-literary evidence? There is no question that the archaeological record is full of wealth. At different periods the goods deposited in graves are more or less varied and at some periods there seems to be some attempt to limit the degree of funerary display and control what goes into graves – something that can be shown from literary and epigraphic evidence to be explicitly attempted in the historical period. But throughout the early Iron Age, from the Lefkandi Toumba burial on, some burials are marked out by the conspicuously precious objects buried in them. The signs of riches include, in particular, gold jewellery of various sorts.22 But these rich objects in early Iron Age tombs nevertheless do not seem to be signs of luxury. Although there is a sense in which those choosing to bury the dead with such objects are indulging in choice of costly goods, the objects buried are treated as personal to the deceased. The objects themselves tend to be rather random – various sorts of jewellery are placed in graves; no single precious item is found repeatedly that might be taken to be the badge or token of a particular lifestyle, nothing that could signal luxury as a practice or behaviour. For all that cities come to like to legislate about funerals, that legislation is much more concerned with the ostentation of the events surrounding the burial than with clamping down on the display of luxury as such.23 What about the objects dedicated in sanctuaries? During the eighth century, as Snodgrass (1980, 52–4) famously showed, not only is there a very significant increase in the amount of wealth being deposited in sanctuaries, but there is a shift from depositing goods in graves to depositing them in sanctuaries. The sorts of items that mark the vast increase in dedications during the eighth century, however, are anything but luxury items – small bronze and terracotta animal figurines, pins and fibulae. But during the archaic period the nature of dedications changes markedly.24 This is partly seen in the arrival of large-scale sculptural dedications in the form of kouroi, korai, and mounted figures, but it is also seen in the differential deposit in different sanctuaries of dedications which reflect different particular life-styles. The kalathoi (wool-baskets) of the acropolis sanctuary at Emborio on Chios, by contrast to the bronze belts from the harbour sanctuary there, have come to symbolize this, but they are just one example.25 The differential offerings at different sanctuaries well illustrate the ways in which Greek polytheism worked to offer a place of display for every lifestyle. The offerings found at a given sanctuary certainly relate to
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Robin Osborne the deity worshipped there – it is no accident that Apollo gets many kouroi in his Ptoion sanctuary in Boiotia, Athena many korai on the Athenian acropolis. But the offerings also relate to the worshipping group. This is perhaps most nicely illustrated by the tens of thousands of small lead soldiers found among the votive offerings at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta. The mutual implication of worshipper and deity comes from the twin role of dedications, both as memorials of things achieved by the dedicator with the help of the deity and as ‘things of delight’ to the deity. So the bronze discus dedicated by Exoida to commemorate his victory over ‘the great-spirited Kephallenians’ in the third quarter of the sixth century clearly says something about him; the ‘vaguely phallus shaped’ boulder dedicated in the later fifth century at Antibes explicitly identifies itself as ‘Pleaser’ (Τέρπων), servant of Aphrodite, clearly saying something about the goddess to whom the dedication is made; and, although the dedicators are in fact never named, it advertises too the sorts of people who frequent and make dedications in this sanctuary.26 Votives both put on display the nature of the deity in question and gave an impression of what sort of person the dedicator was. It is the advertisement of what sort of person the dedicator was, that is, effectively the advertisement of their customary behaviour, that is most significant in this context. When in Aristophanes Wealth 842–9 the just man, newly enriched by a Ploutos who can now see, proposes to dedicate his old clothes to the god, Karion points out that this is problematic: χαρίεντα γ᾽ ἥκεις δῶρα τῷ θεῷ φέρων – ‘Those are charming gifts you have brought to the god!’ (849). In general, we are left merely to guess which dedications were reckoned out of place at a particular sanctuary, but from the end of the sixth century there survive various inscribed sanctuary regulations that seem to seek to place restrictions on what sorts of identities dedicators can advertise. The luxury of Peloponnesian sanctuaries A text from Sparta, known only from a copy made by the Abbé Fourmont in the eighteenth century, appears to outlaw dedication of any fabric not woven on the instructions of the polianomos.27 The text is incomplete and, with the original lost, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds this example. But if Beattie’s reconstruction is correct, we have here a sensitivity to what garments it is appropriate to display, to show off, in this sanctuary, probably a sanctuary of Demeter. More common, and more important for the discussion of luxury, are the sacred laws, again predominantly from the Peloponnese, that seek to control not what worshippers dedicate but what they themselves wear.
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The politics of flashing A bronze tablet from north Arcadia dating to somewhere around 500 bc forbids the wearing of a ζτεραῖον λo͂πος, on pain of having to dedicate it or suffer a harsh penalty: ‘If a woman wears a garment made of the skin of a wild beast, it is to be consecrated to Demeter Thesmophoros. If she does not consecrate it, may she die a bad death for her conduct unfavourable to the cult’.28 Later inscriptions show wearing of jewellery and other particular clothes being regulated. So a third-century regulation from Dyme forbids women at festivals of Demeter from wearing more than tiny weights of gold, or coloured or decorated clothing, or make-up, or from playing the aulos.29 A regulation of similar date from the sanctuary of Despoina at Lykosoura insists that the only gold that can be brought in is for dedications, and that there should be no brightly coloured or black clothing, and no shoes, rings, flowers, or braided hair.30 Even more elaborate are the regulations made in the first century bc or first century ad, and perhaps in special circumstances, for the Mysteries at Andania in Messenia.31 These prohibitions have sometimes been seen in the context of pollution, but although the combination of prohibition on gold and coloured clothing with prohibition on pregnant or breast-feeding women in the Lykosoura regulations might seem to justify this, it is important to put these prohibitions also into the context of what we know about festivals. The accounts of festivals from the archaic period on that make it clear that they were occasions for dressing up and showing off.32 The Homeric Hymn to Apollo mentions the Ionians in their long chitons (ἑλκεχίτωνες) gathering for a festival of Apollo on Delos and imagines what someone seeing them would say: a man who came upon them on that occasion when the Ionians are all together would say that they were immortal and ageless. For he would see the charm of them all and would feel delight in his heart when he set eyes on the men and the women with their beautiful girdles and their swift ships and their many possessions.33
The (probably) sixth-century poet Asios of Samos similarly talks of those who combed their flowing locks and went, all dressed in fine garments, to the sanctuary of Hera; their snow-white linen robes adorned with cicada-shaped golden brooches reached to the floor of the broad earth; their hair, with golden grips, waved in the wind and skilfully-crafted bracelets encircled their arms.34
In Sparta too Alkman, in describing the demands made by Hagesichora, describes how the girls’ chorus is decked out when he writes ‘no such
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Robin Osborne abundance of purple is available as to come up [to her demands], nor high-wrought serpentine bracelet of solid gold nor Lydian headband, pride of dark-eyed girls; nor the hair of Nanno’. Hagesichora is herself described earlier as having hair that has ‘the bloom of undefiled gold’.35 Those described (or imagined) by Asios and Alkman were advertising their indulgence in choice of costly possessions. The trope of the imagined spectator employed in the Homeric Hymn, and the trope of having one member of the chorus comment on the other members in Alkman, reinforce the sense that these are gatherings to watch, not simply to take part in. What is going on here is not private between worshipper and deity. Sanctuaries in general, and festivals in particular, put behaviour on display and hence provide the context luxury demands, a context where how an individual luxuriates in her costly possessions can be observed. The stronger the sense that certain forms of display were or were not appropriate for a given sanctuary, the stronger the statement made, one way or another, when that (appropriate or inappropriate) display was put on. In a museum exhibition, the trailing chitons or the gold cicada-brooches become mere signs of wealth. Wear them, or dedicate them, within a sanctuary and they become a statement of luxury, a matter of indulging in the costly. The gender of luxury We observe again here that luxury is gendered. It is sanctuaries of Demeter and Despoina that advertise their restrictions, and they advertise their restrictions specifically with regard to behaviours that are either directly attributed to women or characteristic of women worshippers. It is the chorus of young girls which catches the eye of Alkman, as well as the self-regarding eyes of its participants, and although both the Homeric Hymn to Apollo and Asios are scrupulous in making their language inclusive (by use of masculine plurals), the particular features that are noted – beautiful girdles, trailing robes, golden hair-grips and brooches – are predominantly characteristic of women (though the ‘swift ships’ of the Homeric Hymn are no doubt the ancient equivalent of the characteristic modern man’s luxury, the sports car, but they are not displayed in the sanctuary, and are only in question because this is a festival on Delos to which people have travelled over the sea).36 Wealth is in question as soon as it is possible to compare different material circumstances. Luxury comes into question only when there are social situations which provide opportunities for conspicuous display in a context of conspicuous leisure. Only then can indulgence in choice of costly surroundings be observed. We cannot have luxury until we have
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The politics of flashing a society sufficiently sophisticated to have a structure of leisure events, a society where there are not simply wealthy individuals, but where the wealthy devote trouble to competing in the display of the enjoyment of their wealth, and where they do so in places where they are seen. The conditions required are sufficiently stringent that there will in general be few occasions for such competitive display. It is these stringent conditions that make luxury so heavily gendered in Greek society, and in traditional societies more generally. We might expect that the structured leisure time afforded by the gymnasium offered a context for male luxury, but the nature of Greek athletics militated against that. For most events there was nothing that money could buy that would give a competitive advantage: naked bodies do not lend themselves to displays of luxury beyond those offered by a stylish haircut, and fancy boxing thongs do not enable a more effective punch.37 Only in the chariot race could money speak, but even then it was hiring the most effective driver that counted for more than the appearance of the chariot itself. This is clear in a dedication by the Athenian Alkmeonides at the Ptoion sanctuary to mark his Panathenaic victory: I am a fair gift for Phoibos, son of Leto: Alkmeonides, the son of Alkmeon dedicated me after the victory of his swift mares, which Knopiadas the – – drove when there was a festive gathering for Pallas at Athens.
The horses and the driver give the victory, even if the owner takes the glory.38 Since the display required for luxury demanded not only spectators but also that the display could not be construed as instrumental, the funeral too offered limited opportunity for male display: any display there might reasonably be reckoned as directed at the honour of the deceased – and the regulations that surround funerals reinforce this in as far as they concentrate on how the deceased is treated and commemorated (Garland 1989). Festivals too might seem other-directed, as humans put themselves before the eyes of the gods, seeking to please the gods and to do so by making a return to the gods for the favour that the gods had bestowed. But the regulations on what humans could wear, or give, to please the gods themselves show that Greek communities were sceptical about how other-directed some types of display were. Given that causing the utmost pleasure to the god was every worshipper’s aim, the worshipper who stood out because of what they wore, or dedicated, inevitably directed attention to themselves. Giving thanks for wealth was one thing, appropriately undertaken by giving a tithe of that wealth, but giving thanks for being able habitually to indulge demanded a display of that habitual indulgence – an habitual indulgence manifested not simply by expensive jewellery
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Robin Osborne but by the ‘comely locks, anointed with unguents of rich perfume’ of Xenophanes or by the bloom of the hair in Alkman. In this context one further ritual occasion demands examination: the wedding. Representations on Athenian pottery from shortly after 600 of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis reveal the scope that weddings gave for display. The gods who are the guests at this wedding are shown bringing wedding gifts and dressed up in extremely elaborate dresses.39 Here again one could see this elaborate display as other-directed, as designed to give honour and glory to the bride and groom; but, as with festivals, so here the fine clothing and jewellery drew attention to the wearer, not just to those in whose honour they were worn. But, as with festivals, so here the textual evidence points to a peculiar Peloponnesian dimension. We do not know about the specific marriage practices of every city, but Plutarch comments on the specific practices of Sparta and of Argos. Plutarch (Lykourgos 15.3) describes the practice of ‘marriage by capture’ at Sparta, where the bride is stolen away by the bridegroom, has her hair cut short, is dressed in man’s clothes and sandals, and awaits her husband in the dark. He also tells us that in Argos women were required to wear beards when sleeping with their husbands (Mulierum virtutes, Moralia 245f), and this has sometimes been taken to relate to Argive marriage practices.40 But there is some doubt as to whether either of these testimonies relate to actual weddings.41 Lupi (2000, 65–94) has linked the Spartan practice of gendering the bride male to the testimony of Hagnon (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 602d–e) that ‘among the Spartans it is the custom to have sexual relations with maidens prior to marriage as lovers of boys do’.42 Plutarch’s reference to ‘marriage’ in that case would not be a reference to a wedding ceremony but would be euphemistic, or, better, proleptic.43 Even at Sparta marriage involved a change of residence for the bride, and it is the procession of the bride to a new residence and the arrival of guests with gifts that lie at the centre of wedding imagery on Athenian pots (Oakley and Sinos 1993). It was that procession that gave an opportunity for display, and there is no reason to believe that such opportunities were less taken in the Peloponnese than in Attica.44 Indeed, if it is correct to link Alkman’s Partheneia to wedding preparations, then we have strong evidence for thinking that wedding preparations involved an exceptional display of female beauty, both natural and through adornment.45 To what extent the absence of continuing evidence for wedding display from the classical period indicates that such display was toned down, it is impossible to tell; certainly Aristophanes’ imitations (Birds 251; Lysistrata 1296–1315) suggest that Alkman went on being performed, as Finglass argues in Chapter 2.
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The politics of flashing Conclusion: how luxury slipped into politics I return to where I started, and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. For such behaviour was a form of flashing, in the sense of flash v. ‘II.8 Chiefly slang. a v.i. Make a flash or display, show off’. Such flashing was enabled by a political society and was itself political. It was political in a class sense, in that it drew attention to wealth and leisure; and it was political because personal. The gendering is important here, for flashing was at the same time a source of power for disempowered women and possible only because women had no instrumental role in the city. The rows of fancily dressed korai that would come to dominate sanctuaries such as the Athenian Acropolis further insisted that women’s display was for the gods. But in vain; Semonides makes it clear that once luxury entered the discourse, it also entered the household. As with other behaviours, so with this, establishing a particular relationship to the gods required encouraging individuals to act in ways that, outside the sanctuary, cities were wary of.46 The luxury of the sanctuary was at the same time unavoidable and regretted. Peloponnesian cities did not need to await the invention of a term for corrupting luxuria, they turned to laws at the first flash of luxury in the sanctuary. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Bill Cavanagh, Chrysanthi Gallou and Steve Hodkinson for their invitation to give the keynote lecture at the conference, and to all participants for their engagement and comments. I am grateful to Caroline Vout and to an anonymous reader for Classical Press of Wales for comments on an earlier draft. Abbreviations CGRN Collection of Greek Ritual Norms, http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be. LSCG F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, Paris, 1969. LSS F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, supplément, Paris, 1962. ThesCRA Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum. Los Angeles, 2004–. Notes 1 Crafts: The Magazine for Contemporary Craft 255, August 2015, Special Section 10. 2 Crafts 255, August 2015, 72. 3 Grewe and Hofmeester 2016a, 8–18 with Table 1, provides a helpful discussion; as examples of private luxuries they offer silk underwear and a tortoiseshell dildo. My use of ‘behaviour’ corresponds broadly to what Grewe and Hofmeester call ‘practices’. 4 Livy 34.1–8, debate over whether to repeal the law of 215 bc.
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Robin Osborne Chaiklin 2016, 238–9; cf. 232. See further Alain Duplouy in this volume, Chapter 8. 7 For anticipations of this argument, Kurke 1992, 100–1. 8 Gorman and Gorman 2014, 329. 9 Gorman and Gorman 2014, 35–40. See further Paul Christesen in this volume, Chapter 7. 10 Eur. Supp. 214–15: ἆρ᾽ οὐ τρυφῶμεν θεοῦ κατασκευὴν βίῳ | δόντος τοιαύτην, οἷσιν οὐκ ἀρκεῖ τάδε; for further discussion of Euripides and luxury, with particular reference to Helen and to Sparta, see Ellen Millender in this volume, Chapter 6. 11 Eur. IA 1303–7: ἃ μὲν ἐπὶ πόθῳ τρυφῶσα | Κύπρις, ἃ δὲ δορὶ Παλλάς, | Ἥρα τε Διὸς ἄνακτος εὐναῖσι βασιλίσιν. Other early uses of τρυφή discussed by the Gormans include Eur. Supp. 549–55 and Ar. Lys. 387–90. 12 Associations with tyranny and with Persia acquired a much more serious political side to them during the Peloponnesian War: Davidson 1993; Miller 1997. 13 On the former term the classic discussion is Kurke 1992. 14 Xenophanes frg. 3 West, quoted by Athenaios 526a–b: ἁβροσύνας δὲ μαθόντες 5 6
ἀνωφελέας παρὰ Λυδῶν | ὄφρα τυραννίης ἦσαν ἄνευ στυγερῆς, | ἤιεσαν εἰς ἀγορὴν παναλουργέα φάρε᾽ ἔχοντες, | οὐ μείους ὥσπερ χείλιοι εἰς ἐπίπαν, | αὐχαλέοι, χαίτηισιν †ἀγαλλομεν εὐπρεπέεσσιν | ἀσκητοῖς ὀδμὴν χρίμασι δευόμενοι: see Kurke 1992, 92–4.
But note that not only does Athenaios introduce the passage with reference to Phylarchos on the Kolophonians in general, the insistence of Xenophanes that there were 1,000 or more men parading like this shows that Kurke (1992, 94) is mistaken to identify this behaviour as ‘aristocratic’ (whatever that might mean in an archaic Greek context, on which see Duplouy 2006). 15 For these pots, often referred to as ‘booners’ or ‘Anacreontic’, Kurtz and Boardman 1986; Frontisi-Ducroux and Lissarrague 1990. The comparison with these pots is already made by Kurke (1992, 97–8) who, however, clings unnecessarily to the idea that the effeminate and the foreign are mutually exclusive. For sunshades identified as distinctly feminine, Anacreon 388 (quoted below, n. 21). 16 Soph. El. 359–61: ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἄν ποτ᾽, οὐδ᾽ εἴ μοι τὰ σὰ | μέλλοι τις οἴσειν δῶρ᾽, ἐφ᾽ οἷσι νῦν χλιδᾷς, | τούτοις ὑπεικάθοιμι; Gorman and Gorman 2014, 29. Kurke’s attempt (1992, 99) to deny that ἁβροσύνη has feminine overtones seems particularly strained when the wider context of these cognate terms is taken into account. 17 This is important in the face of the claim of Kurke (1992 and, more generally, 1999) that the whole world of luxury underwent a revaluation at the end of the sixth century. 18 For the question of whether it is Amphimachos or his brother Nastes who is decked in gold, and how outlandish the gold is, Kirk 1985, 261. For a further catty remark about women and jewellery, Iliad 5.421–5. 19 Semonides 7.57–70. The translations of line 62 is disputed: other possibilities are ‘she makes her husband a friend of necessity’ (i.e. by bankrupting him with her costly taste), or ‘she makes her husband love her’ (i.e. although she is so useless, because she is so beautiful). These lines are also quoted by Kurke 1992, 94–5. 20 Frg. 26: ὁ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν ἡσυχῇ τε καὶ ῥύβδην | θυννίδα τε καὶ μυττωτὸν ἡμέρας πάσας | δαινύμενος, ὥσπερ Λαμψακηνὸς εὐνοῦχος, | κατέφαγε δὴ τὸν κλῆρον ὥστε χρὴ σκάπτειν | πέτρας τ᾽ ὀρείας σῦκα μέτρια τρώγων | καὶ κρίθινον κόλλικα, δούλιον χόρτον;
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The politics of flashing frg. 26a: οὐκ ἀτταγᾶς τε καὶ λαγὼς καταβρύκων, | οὐ τηγανίτας σησάμοισι φαρμάσσων, | οὐδ᾽ ἀττανίτας κηρίοισιν ἐμβάπτων. 21 Anacreon 388: πρὶν μὲν ἔχων βερβέριον, καλύμματ᾽ ἐσφηκωμένα, | καὶ ξυλίνους ἀστραγάλους ἐν ὠσὶ καὶ ψιλὸν περὶ | πλευρῇσι βοός, | νήπλυτον εἴλυμα κακῆς ἀσπίδος, ἀρτοπώλισιν | κἀθελοπόρνοισιν ὁμιλέων ὁ πονηρὸς Ἀρτέμων,| κίβδηλον εὑρίσκων βίον, | πολλὰ μὲν ἐν δουρὶ τιθεὶς αὐχένα, πολλὰ δ᾽ ἐν τροχῷ, | πολλὰ δὲ νῶτα σκυτίνῃ μάστιγι θωμιχθείς, κόμην | πώγωνὰ τ᾽ ἐκτετιλμένος·| νῦν δ᾽ ἐπιβαίνει σατινέων, χρύσεα φορέων καθέρματα, †πάις Κύκης†, καὶ σκιαδίσκην ἐλεφαντίνην φορεῖ | γυναιξὶν αὕτως. For a useful collection of wealthy female burials from the early Iron Age, Stampolidis (ed.) 2012, 58–81, 88–105. 23 For this view of the concerns occasioning funerary restrictions, Seaford 1994, 74–92. On funerary legislation generally, Garland 1989. 24 This is the change that Snodgrass (1989/90) described as being from ‘raw’ to ‘converted’ items, that is from the deposit of goods that were used in other aspects of life to the deposit of goods especially made for dedication. 25 For Emborio, Morgan 1990, 230–2. 26 Exoida’s discus: British Museum, Bronzes 3207, IG ix.1 836; ThesCRA I 2d 34/205. Antibes dedication: ThesCRA I 2d 49/216. 27 LSS 28.1–3: – - – ] ά. ντ.ο μ. εδὲ τ.ο ͂ ϝεμ.ο ͂ | [ἐνυφ]ασ.άσ.θσ., ..τὶ μ.ὲ π. ο[λι|ανόμ]ο. ς ἔθεκε· for the text and interpretation adopted here, Beattie 1951. 28 LSS 32.1–4: [εἰ γυ]ν.ὰ. ϝέσετοι ζτεραῖον λο π͂ ος,|[ἱερὸ]ν ἐ ν͂ αι τᾶι Δάματρι τᾶι Θεσμοφόροι·|[εἰ δὲ] μὲ ὐνιερὸήσει, δυμενὲς ἔασα ἐπὲ ϝέργο,|[κακο]ς ζ᾽ ἐξόλοιτυ: text and translation follow Dubois 1986, 196–202, but once more the fundamental work on this text was done by Beattie (1947). Exactly what the zteraion lopos was (whether ‘skin of a wild beast’ or brightly coloured garment) remains uncertain, as does the precise force of wearing it. I take it here at least to signal showing off. 29 Rizakis 2008, no. 6; LSS 33.1–7: Δ[α]|ματρίοις τὰς γυν[αῖ]|κες μήτε χρυσίον ἔ|χεν 22
πλέον ὀδελοῦ ὁλ|κάν, μηδὲ λωπίον ποικί|λον, μήτε πορφυρέαν,| μήτε ψημυθιοῦσθαι | μήτε αὐλῆν. 30 LSCG 68.1–10; CGRN 126.1–10: μὴ ἐξέστω | παρέρπην ἔχοντας ἐν τὸ ἱερὸν τᾶς | Δεσποίνας μὴ χρ[υ]σία ὅσα μὴ ἰν ἀνά|θεμα, μηδὲ πορφύρεον εἱματισμὸν | μηδὲ ἀνθινὸν μηδὲ [μέλ]ανα μηδὲ ὑπο|δήματα μηδὲ δακτύλιον· εἰ δ’ ἄν τις | παρένθη ἔχων τι τῶν ἁ στάλα [κ]ωλύει, | ἀναθέτω ἐν τὸ ἱερόν· μηδὲ τὰς τ[ρί]|χας ἀμπεπλεγμένας, μηδὲ κεκαλυμ|μένος, μηδὲ ἄνθεα παρφέρην· μηδὲ | μύεσθαι vacat κύενσαν μηδὲ θη|λαζομέναν·
LSCG 65; CGRN 222. Parker 1983, 83 and n. 36, in his chapter on ‘The works of Aphrodite’. For more general discussion of what is at stake in Greek reference to pollution, Osborne 2011, 158–84, esp. 171–7, which refers to the material discussed here. 33 Homeric Hymn to Apollo 147–8, 151–5: ἔνθα τοι ἑλκεχίτωνες Ἰάονες ἠγερέθονται 31
32
|αὐτοῖς σὺν παίδεσσι καὶ αἰδοίῃς ἀλόχοισιν ... φαίη κ᾽ ἀθανάτους καὶ ἀγήρως ἔμμεναι αἰεί, | ὃς τόθ᾽ ὑπαντιάσει᾽, ὅτ᾽ Ἰάονες ἀθρόοι εἶεν· | πάντων γάρ κεν ἴδοιτο χάριν, τέρψαιτο δὲ θυμὸν | ἄνδρας τ᾽ εἰσορόων καλλιζώνους τε γυναῖκας | νῆάς τ᾽ ὠκείας ἠδ᾽ αὐτῶν κτήματα πολλά. 34 frg. 13, quoted by Athenaios 525F οἱ δ᾽ αὔτως φοίτεσκον ὅπως πλοκάμους κτενίσαιντο | εἰς Ἥρας τέμενος, πεπυκασμένοι εἵμασι καλοῖς, | χιονέοισι χιτῶσι πέδον
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Robin Osborne χθονὸς εὐρέος εἶχον | χρύσειαι δὲ κορύμβαι ἐπ᾽ αὐτῶν τέττιγες ὥς· | χαῖται δ᾽ ᾐωρεῦντ᾽ ἀνέμῳ χρυσέοις ἐνὶ δεσμοῖς, δαιδάλεοι δὲ χλιδῶνες ἄρ᾽ ἀμφὶ βραχίοσιν ἦσαν. 35 Alkman 1.64–9: οὔτε γάρ τι πορφύρας |τόσσος κόρος ὥστ᾿ ἀμύναι,| οὔτε ποικίλος δράκων | παγχρύσιος, οὐδὲ μίτρα | Λυδία, νεανίδων | ἰανογ[λ]εφάρων ἄγαλμα, | οὐδὲ ταὶ Ναννῶς κόμαι; and on Hagesichora (lines 51–4): ἁ δὲ χαίτα | τᾶς ἐμᾶς ἀνεψιᾶς | Ἁγησιχόρας ἐπανθεῖ | χρυσὸς [ὡ]ς ἀκήρατος. In the main text I adapt the translation of
Tsantsanoglou 2012, 162. 36 As I wrote this in autumn 2017, the fashion designer Ralph Lauren chose to show his latest collection during New York Fashion week in the context of his own collection of priceless vintage sports cars: https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/ fall-2017-ready-to-wear/ralph-lauren, accessed 14 September 2017. 37 Archaic sculpture suggests that the stylish haircut might extend to the pubic hair. 38 IG i3 1469: [Φοί]βο μέν εἰμ’ ἄγαλ[μα Λ]α. τ. [οί]δα καλ[ό]|ν·| [ℎο δ’ Ἀ]λκμέονος ℎῦις Ἀλκμεονίδες | [ℎ]ίπ(π)οισι νικ[έσας ἔ]θεκέ μ.’ [ὀκέαις], |ℎὰς Κνοπ.ι[άδα]ς ἔλαυν’ ℎο [– –̆ –] ̆ | ℎότ’ ἐ� Ἀθάναις Παλ(λ)άδος πανέ.[γυρις]; see Schachter (1994) whose translation I use
here. See also Nicholson (2005), who, however, exaggerates his case and engages in considerable fantasy in discussing this particular inscription. For the question of whether Alkman 1.58–9; cf. 50–51 demonstrates general discrimination between different pedigrees of horse – Ibenian, Kolaxaian, etc. – and hence whether we should think of men showing off by the breed of horse they raced, see Tsantsanoglou (2012, 50–5, 59–62), who argues that Alkman is not dealing with fine distinctions. 39 Fine examples of this can be found on the dinos by Sophilos in the British Museum (1971 11–1.1) and the volute krater in Florence by Kleitias and Ergotimos (‘the François vase’, Museo Archeologico Florence 4209). 40 Vidal-Naquet 1986, 114: ‘in Argos, young women sported a (false) beard when they got married’. The Plutarch passage reads: ‘a law made, that married women should wear beards when they lay with their husbands’. 41 Cf. Patterson 1998, 77: ‘Plutarch’s often-cited account of the clandestine abduction of the transvestite bride, however, is not supported by classical authors, who seem to imply the existence of ordinary marriage arrangements, at least among those élite households of which we have record’. 42 παρὰ δὲ Σπαρτιάταις, ὡς ῞Αγνων φησὶν ὁ ᾽Ακαδημαϊκός, πρὸ τῶν γάμων ταῖς παρθένοις ὡς παιδικοῖς νόμος ἐστιν ὁμιλεῖν; commentators take this to mean ‘in ways that did not involve vaginal intercourse’. 43 That Demaratos stole Leotychidas’ intended bride (Hdt. 6.65.2) does not make the stealing into the wedding, just the event after which a wedding became inevitable. See also now Meister 2020, who argues that Plutarch’s account of Spartan marriage was invented by Plutarch and has no historical value. 44 Contrast Hodkinson 2000, 230; ‘Clearly, Spartiate weddings gave no room for the public display of wealth.’ 45 The classic statement is Griffiths 1972. 46 I explore this paradox further in Osborne 2019.
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The politics of flashing Bibliography Beattie, A.J. 1947 ‘Notes on an archaic Arcadian inscription concerning Demeter Thesmophoros’, CQ 41, 66–72. 1951 ‘An early Laconian Lex Sacra,’ CQ n.s. 1, 46–58. Chaiklin, M. 2016 ‘Imports and autarky: tortoiseshell in early modern Japan’, in Grewe and Hofmeester (eds) 2016, 218–41. Davidson, J. 1993 ‘Fish, sex and revolution at Athens’ CQ n.s. 43, 53–66. Dubois, L. 1986 Recherches sur le dialecte arcadien, Vol. 2 Corpus Dialectal, Louvain. Duplouy, A. 2006 Le prestige des élites: recherches sur les modes de reconnaissance sociale en Grèce entre les Xe et Ve siècles avant J.-C., Paris. Frontisi-Ducrous, F. and Lissarrague, F. 1990 ‘From ambiguity to ambivalence: a Dionysiac excursion through the ‘Anacreontic’ vases’, in D. Halperin, J.J. Winkler, and F.I. Zeitlin (eds) Before Sexuality: The construction of erotic experience in the ancient Greek world, Princeton, NJ, 211–56. Garland, R. 1989 ‘The well-ordered corpse: an investigation into the motives behind Greek funerary legislation’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 36, 1–15. Gorman, R.J. and Gorman, V.B. 2014 Corrupting Luxury in Ancient Greek Literature, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Grewe, B.-S. and Hofmeester, K. 2016a ‘Introduction: Luxury and Global History’, in Grewe and Hofmeester (eds) 2016, 1–26. 2016b ‘Luxury as a global phenomenon: Concluding remarks’, in Grewe and Hofmeester (eds) 2016, 301–10. Grewe, B.-S. and Hofmeester, K. (eds) 2016 Luxury in Global Perspective: Objects and practices 1600–2000, Cambridge. Griffiths, A.H. 1972 ‘Alkman’s Partheneion: the morning after the night before’, Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 14, 1–30. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London. Kirk, G.S. 1985 The Iliad: A commentary. Vol. 1: Books 1–4, Cambridge. Kurke, L. 1992 ‘The politics of ἁβροσύνη in archaic Greece’, Classical Antiquity 11, 91–120. 1999 Coins, Bodies, Games and Gold: The politics of meaning in archaic Greece, Princeton, NJ. Kurtz, D. C. and Boardman, J. 1986 ‘Booners’, Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum 3, 35–70.
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Robin Osborne Lupi, M. 2000 L’ordine delle generazioni: classi di età e costume matrimoniali nell’antica Sparta. Bari. Meister, F. 2020 ‘Plutarch and the Spartan marriage ceremony’, JHS 140, 206–12. Miller, M.C. 1997 Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century bc: A study in cultural receptivity, Cambridge. Morgan, C.A. 1990 Athletes and Oracles: The transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the eighth century bc, Cambridge. Nicholson, N. 2005 Aristocracy and Athletics in Archaic and Classical Greece, Cambridge. Oakley, J.H. and Sinos, R.H. 1993 The Wedding in Ancient Athens, Madison, WI. Osborne, R. 2011 The History Written on the Classical Greek Body, Cambridge. 2019 ‘Unruly women and Greek sanctuaries. Gendered expectations and their violation’ in K.-J. Hölkeskamp, J. Hoffmann Salz, K. Kostopoulos and S. Lentzsch (eds) Die Grenzen des Prinzips. Die Infragestellung von Werten durch Regelverstöße in antiken Gesellschaften, Stuttgart, 25–45. Parker, R.C.T. 1983 Miasma: Pollution and purification in early Greek religion, Oxford. Patterson, C.B 1998 The Family in Greek History, Cambridge, MA. Rizakis, A.D. 2008 Achaïe III: Les cités achéennes: épigraphie et histoire, Athens. Schachter, A. 1994 ‘The politics of dedication: Athenian dedications at the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoieus in Boeotia’, in R. Osborne and S. Hornblower (eds) Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian democratic accounts presented to David Lewis, Oxford, 291–306. Seaford, R.A.S. 1994 Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and tragedy in the developing city-state, Oxford. Snodgrass, A.M. 1980 Archaic Greece: The age of experiment, London. 1989–90 ‘The economics of dedication at Greek sanctuaries’, Scienze dell’antichità 3–4, 287–94; reprinted in A.M. Snodgrass, Archaeolog y and the Emergence of Greece: Collected papers on early Greece and related topics (1965–2002), Edinburgh 2006, 258–68. Stampolidis, N. (ed.) 2012 Princesses of the Mediterranean in the Dawn of History, Athens. Tsantsanoglou, K. 2012 Of Golden Manes and Silvery Faces: the Partheneion 1 of Alcman, Berlin. Vidal-Naquet, P. 1986 The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World, Baltimore.
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PART II SPARTA AND LAKONIKE¯
2 ALCMAN’S EARLY TRANSMISSION AND ARCHAIC SPARTAN SOCIETY P.J. Finglass A book about luxury and wealth in the ancient Peloponnese could hardly do without a chapter on Alcman. The very first line of his poetry, as arranged in the Alexandrian edition during the Hellenistic period, began χρυσοκόμα φιλόμολπε, ‘Golden-haired goddess who delights in song’.1 That conventional address, probably to the Muse,2 opens a poetic oeuvre where the emphasis on luxury and wealth is pervasive, giving a glamorous portrayal of Spartan society in the late seventh and perhaps early sixth century.3 Take this passage from the First Partheneion: ἐγὼν δ’ ἀείδω Ἀγιδῶ. ς τὸ φῶς· ὁρῶ Ϝ’ ὥτ’ ἄλιον, ὅνπερ ἇμιν Ἀγιδὼ μαρτύρεται φαίνην· ἐμὲ δ’ οὔτ’ ἐπαινῆν οὔτε μωμήσθαι νιν ἁ κλεννὰ χοραγὸς οὐδ’ ἁμῶς ἐῆι· δοκεῖ γὰρ ἤμεν αὐτὰ ἐκπρεπὴς τὼς ὥπερ αἴ τις ἐν βοτοῖς στάσειεν ἵππον παγὸν ἀεθλοφόρον καναχάποδα τῶν ὑποπετριδίων ὀνείρων·
ἦ οὐχ ὁρῆις; ὁ μὲν κέλης Ἐνετικός· ἁ δὲ χαίτα τᾶς ἐμᾶς ἀνεψιᾶς Ἁγησιχόρας ἐπανθεῖ χρυσὸς ὡ. ς ἀκήρατος·
40
45
50
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P.J.Finglass τό τ’ ἀργύριον πρόσωπον, διαφάδαν τί τοι λέγω; Ἁγησιχόρα μὲν αὕτα· ἁ δὲ δευτέρα πεδ’ Ἀγιδὼ τὸ Ϝεῖδος ἵππος Ἰβηνῶι Κολαξαῖος δραμήται· ταὶ Πεληάδες γὰρ ἇμιν Ὀρθρίαι φᾶρος φεροίσαις νύκτα δι’ ἀμβροσίαν ἅτε Σήριον ἄστρον ἀυηρομέναι μάχονται· οὔτε γάρ τι πορφύρας τόσσος κόρος ὥστ’ ἀμύναι, οὔτε ποικίλος δράκων παγχρύσιος, οὐδὲ μίτρα Λυδία, νεανίδων ἰανογ[λ]εφάρων ἄγαλμα...
55
60
65
Now my song’s of the radiance of Agido: she to my eyes shines like the sun she calls to be our witness. But I must not speak good or ill or her when the dancers’ famous principal herself stands out like a racehorse set among the sheep, a thundering winner, the sort you see in dreams as you doze in a cavern’s shade. Ah look – the mount’s a Venetic; that combed-out hair of cousin Hagesichora has a sheen like purest gold, and that silver face – why say it in words? There’s Hagesichora; while Agido’s nearest challenger for looks will be a Scythian nag to an Ibenian. The rising Pleiades, like Sirius, fight us as we bear to the goddess of dawn a robe through the ambrosial night. Our purple finery is not the treasure that defends us, no coiled snake-bangle of solid gold, nor Lydian headband splendid upon girls with big dark eyes...
Alcman fr. 1 Hutchinson (trans. West, adapted)4
The exact context of this song baffled commentators in antiquity, and certainly cannot be recovered today.5 Relevant to our purposes are
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Alcman’s early transmission and archaic Spartan society the terms in which the chorus of girls who deliver these lines praise Hagesichora and Agido: first by referencing the sun (40–3), but then through comparisons involving an outstanding prizewinning horse (45–9), horses from specified geographical regions, all far from Sparta (50–1, 58–9),6 and the precious metals of silver and gold (51–7). A list of what seems to be the girls’ own accoutrements includes cloth imbued with expensive purple dye, a golden ornament, and a head covering from Lydia (64–9). Such references would make no sense in Alcman’s poetry unless the Spartan audience for whom it was composed were familiar with such items and regarded them as desirable, as the kind of things that marked out individuals of high status. The fraction of the Spartan population with access to luxuries of this kind cannot have been large; but understanding the poem presupposes widespread familiarity with their social significance, and thus a culture which set value upon them. Alcman’s First Partheneion may be the most dramatic portrayal of the status of luxury for the higher reaches of archaic Spartan society, but it is certainly not isolated within what remains of his corpus. So in another fragment, perhaps from a song composed for a similar occasion, the speaker seems to want to secure the love of a girl called Astymeloisa by giving her a silver cup (fr. 2.77 H.), on which Hutchinson comments, ‘even in this hypothetical situation the present luxury is stressed. (Humbler love-gifts are normal.)’.7 The same poem refers in an unclear context to a ‘golden shoot’ (fr. 2.68); and just as the other partheneion highlights a Lydian head-dress, so this one mentions how ‘the [ –h]aired moist charm of Cinyras sits on maidens’ tresses’ (–κ]ομος νοτία Κινύρα χ[άρ]ις | [ἐπὶ π]αρσενικᾶν χαίταισιν ἵσδει, fr. 2.71–2), referring to a legendary king of Cyprus, famed for his wealth (cf. Pindar, Nemean 8.18). Hutchinson calls this ‘another luxurious foreign enhancement of beauty’.8 Elsewhere in the fragments we find ‘a golden necklace with petals of soft chrysanthemums’ (χρύσιον ὅρμον ἔχων ῥαδινᾶν πετάλοισι καλχᾶν, fr. 91 PMGF ),9 and ‘seven couches and as many tables filled to the brim with loaves of poppy-seed, linseed, and sesame, and golden-? in wooden bowls’ (κλίναι μὲν ἑπτὰ καὶ τόσαι τραπέσδαι | μακωνιᾶν ἄρτων ἐπιστεφοίσαι | λίνω τε σασάμω τε κἠν πελίχναις | †πεδεστε† χρυσοκόλλα, fr. 19 PMGF ), a passage which ‘focuses on several
types of snacks, many with connotations of sweetness and decadence’.10 An intriguing recent article on a fragment in which the gift of a tripod is accompanied by a vivid description of the soup which Alcman intends to drink out of it, ‘as the people do’ (ὥπερ ὁ δᾶμος, fr. 17.7), argues that ‘Alcman’s dedication...shows us some of the class tensions in archaic Sparta and some of the fault lines between elite and non-elite’;11 if true, this too provides evidence, albeit of a negative kind, for elite valorisation
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P.J.Finglass of luxurious living. Overall we may fairly say of Alcman, with Hutchinson, that he ‘might seem to revel in the luxury which has come to Sparta’;12 it is striking to see Alcman’s most recent commentator reaching so frequently for the noun which begins the title of the present volume. Nor is this picture at variance with the archaeological record. In the words of one scholar, ‘literary and archaeological sources paint a picture of Sparta in the seventh century and the first part of the sixth as a prosperous, outward-looking intellectual and artistic center, very different from the proverbially austere city of the centuries that followed. As regards its material culture, excavations have revealed a late-blooming but vigorous Orientalizing phase in the seventh century, marked by an increase in the production of luxury goods, such as bronzes and ivories, as well as painted pottery.’13 Every year brings new archaeological discoveries, although unfortunately it is a while since any papyrus of Alcman has come to light. With reference to archaic Sparta, one scholar declared, ‘Possibly our views might be enlarged if we had the works of Sosibius, the third-century Lacedaemonian, on Spartan chronology and on Alcman; for my part I would rather have 200 consecutive new lines from Tyrtaeus’;14 but an equivalent amount of new poetry by Alcman would be at least as enlightening for our understanding of Spartan society. Nevertheless, a fair amount of Alcman’s work did survive, at least in antiquity: fully six books in the Alexandrian edition put together by Hellenistic scholars, probably in the second century bc, which compares to three for Anacreon, seven for Ibycus, perhaps nine for Sappho, ten for Alcaeus, seventeen for Pindar, and twenty-six for Stesichorus.15 We do not know what proportion of the poetry that Alcman wrote was edited at Alexandria, although some is likely to have been lost before the Hellenistic period. Nevertheless, six books represents a substantial amount of text: at least seven thousand lines, perhaps as many as twelve thousand.16 The mere historical fact that so much archaic poetry by Alcman was available to readers nearly half a millennium after his death is remarkable, and tells us something about the societies that preserved it on its journey from Sparta to Alexandria. Part of that journey has been skilfully analysed by Christopher Carey, who emphasises the Panhellenic aspects of Alcman’s poetry. In Carey’s view, ‘Alcman sites his song linguistically at the boundary between pan-Greek and local... The poetry looks outward to the Greek world as well as inward to Laconia. And that by implication includes the prospect of pan-Hellenic reception.’17 So, in addition to the geographical range identified above in the items of luxury mentioned in his works, we may note that the figures of myth included in his poetry stretch well beyond
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Alcman’s early transmission and archaic Spartan society purely Laconian characters; moreover, his oeuvre includes genres such as theogonic/cosmological narrative (fr. 5) and erotic poetry (fr. 59a) typical of Greek poetry more generally rather than anything specifically Spartan.18 Moreover, ‘as well as bringing the Greek world into Sparta the poetry also projects an image of Sparta outward into the rest of Greece. Alcman’s poetry is cultural export, not just a conduit for cultural import’;19 that exportation process no doubt became more important as Sparta’s influence in the Greek world grew, stimulating interest in Spartan culture. This Panhellenic aspect is significant because if Alcman’s poetry had been of interest only to Spartans, not even fragments of his work would survive today, since ‘at base the survival of poetry is linked to its ability to reach beyond its local audience to a larger...public’.20 Survival into the second half of the fifth century was particularly crucial in terms of canon formation. Of the nine lyric poets later regarded as canonical, Herodotus names five, Aristophanes names or cites eight;21 few others appear at this time. Long before Hellenistic scholars got to work, processes were already underway that had a crucial impact on which archaic poets’ works would survive, and which would be entirely lost. The evidence of Aristophanes means that ‘there is good reason to believe that in some form or another some of Alcman’s choral poetry was widely known and was recognisable to a large audience in fifth-century Athens, seemingly so remote from seventh-century Spartan culture’.22 Carey explains this by positing that Alcman’s poetry circulated around Athens like a collection of fragments, sung in symposia and thus part of the shared literary hinterland of the individuals who frequented them. Carey’s argument has been supported by Ewen Bowie, who has noted how even individual partheneia would not have been too long for symposiastic performance at Athens.23 This emphasis on the Panhellenic potential of Alcman’s achievement is a helpful corrective to views of Alcman which see him purely as a local, epichoric poet, of little interest to those beyond Sparta: the mere fact of his transmission tells against that, even before we consider the references to him in fifth-century literature. Nevertheless, Alcman’s Panhellenism is of a different order from that of Stesichorus, to take the most striking counter-example. Not a single one of Stesichorus’ many fragments can be tied to performance in a particular place within the Greek world; none relies on any specialist knowledge on the audience’s part with regard to cult, myth, or performance context, beyond the basic familiarity with myth that was the patrimony of any Greek, wherever located. Much of Alcman’s poetry, on the other hand, demands exactly that specialist knowledge. The fragment of the First Partheneion is almost the longest lyric text that the papyri have vouchsafed us; yet it remains
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P.J.Finglass probably the most disputed, since in our ignorance of the ritual and social context we cannot be sure what is actually being described. After a time, that would not have prevented it from being appreciated outside Sparta, as the work of a classic poet whose other, more approachable poems had kept him in the repertoire, and as a poem with a beauty of its own despite its obscurity; but it is hard to imagine any other society in the archaic period being much interested in this kind of locally-focused work. At that time lyric poetry suitable for choruses was still being written across many centres in the Greek world, which thus had access to poetry suitable for their own communities without the need to adopt, or adapt, something so obviously written for a Spartan context. It is possible that Alcman’s poetry circulated to some extent outside Sparta thanks to the travel of poets which took place during the archaic period;24 but that would hardly have guaranteed the preservation of so many thousands of lines of poetry intended for a home audience above all. The continued performance of Alcman at Sparta, on the other hand, is not in doubt. As Osborne puts it, ‘His poetry, like that of Tyrtaios, achieved classic status at Sparta and seems to have been continually reperformed; for Aristophanes (Birds 251, Lysistrata 1296–315), Alcman’s lyrics were the choral poetry of Sparta.’25 Specific passages attest to continued reperformance in Laconia.26 So Plutarch tells us καί φασιν...ἐν τῆι Θηβαίων εἰς τὴν Λακωνικὴν στρατείαι τοὺς ἁλισκομένους εἵλωτας κελευομένους ἄιδειν τὰ Τερπάνδρου καὶ Ἀλκμᾶνος καὶ Σπένδοντος τοῦ Λάκωνος παραιτεῖσθαι, φάσκοντας οὐκ ἐθέλειν τοὺς δεσποσύνους.
And they say that during the Theban invasion of Laconia, the helots who were captured and ordered to sing the works of Terpander, Alcman, and Spendon the Laconian, declined, saying that their masters did not want them to.
Plutarch, Lycurgus 28.5 = Alcman test. TB8 PMGF
The implication is that singing Alcman, like performing Terpander, another great poet in Sparta, was something reserved for Spartiates, and thus a mark of social prestige. Neither the otherwise unknown Spendon, nor Terpander, whose poetry barely survives, seems to have been popular in Athens, and the transmission of their work was thereby cut short, however high its reputation in Sparta. At any rate the Thebans had heard of them and by implication regarded them as classic Spartan poets. A fragment of Sosibius, a Spartan scholar of the late third or early second century bc, confirms this picture: Θυρεατικοί· οὕτω καλοῦνταί τινες στέφανοι παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίοις, ὥς φησι Σωσίβιος ἐν τοῖς Περὶ Θυσιῶν, ψιλίνους αὐτοὺς φάσκων νῦν ὀνομάζεσθαι,
24
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Alcman’s early transmission and archaic Spartan society ὄντας ἐκ φοινίκων. φέρειν δ᾽ αὐτοὺς ὑπόμνημα τῆς ἐν Θυρέαι γενομένης νίκης τοὺς προστάτας τῶν ἀγομένων χορῶν ἐν τῆι ἑορτῆι ταύτηι, ὅτε καὶ τὰς Γυμνοπαιδιὰς ἐπιτελοῦσιν. χοροὶ δ᾽ εἰσὶν τὸ μὲν πρό ἕω παίδων, τὸ δ᾽ ἐξ ἀρίστου ἀνδρῶν, γυμνῶν ὀρχουμένων καὶ ἀιδόντων Θαλητᾶ καὶ Ἀλκμᾶνος ἄισματα καὶ τοὺς Διονυσοδότου τοῦ Λάκωνος παιᾶνας.
Thyreatikoi: this is what some particular garlands are called amongst the Lacedaemonians, so Sosibius says in On Sacrifices, asserting that they are now called psilinoi, since they are from palm fronds. And the leaders of the choruses in that festival when they also hold the Gymnopaidiai carry them as a memorial of the victory at Thyrea. And there are choruses, the one of boys towards dawn, and the one after the midday meal of men, who dance naked and sing lyric odes by Thaletas and Alcman, and the paeans of Dionysodotos the Laconian. Sosibios BNJ 595 F 5 = test. TB7 PMGF (ed. and trans. A. Bayliss, slightly adapted)
Again Alcman is mentioned alongside (and again in between, without even the consolation of first place) lyric poets whose works did not survive: in this case Thaletas of Gortyn and the otherwise unknown Dionysodotos of Laconia. Alcman was a key part of the Spartan repertoire and clearly remained so for centuries, and ‘this continuous tradition [of performance at Sparta] required a textual base, given the scale of Alcman’s corpus’.27 The alternative idea that Alcman’s poetry was preserved orally at Sparta until it was written down in the Hellenistic period requires improbable and unnecessary feats of memory by successive generations of chorus-members and directors; moreover, it would have led to a text continually shifting in the direction of present-day language and performance contexts, whereas the preserved partheneia fragments are clearly archaic, requiring substantial exegesis later in antiquity to make sense of them. This continued performance tradition, requiring the continued copying of written texts over the generations, will have been central to the survival of Alcman’s poetry; such written copies will, directly or indirectly, have been the source of the Hellenistic edition. And crucially, such continued copying and continued reperformance requires us to posit a Sparta for which the focus on luxury seen in much of Alcman’s poetry was still ideologically palatable. Alcman’s survival depended on the continuing relevance of his poetry for Spartan society, and that tells us something about the nature of that society and the values that it celebrated. We are more used to this being asserted about that other archaic Spartan poet whose works survived, Tyrtaeus. Plato claims in the Laws (629b) that the Spartan Megillos must be ‘saturated’ (διακορής) with Tyrtaeus’ poems; and as Andrew Bayliss has argued:
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P.J.Finglass the repetition of his Messenian war poems before, during, and after combat, would have kept the Spartans in a permanent Messenian war footing. Regular invocation of the death or glory struggle for Messenia would have inspired young Spartans to be “unsparing of themselves in battles” as Plutarch states.28
In other words, the continued preservation of Tyrtaeus’ poetry at Sparta was the result of its continued relevance for Spartan society;29 any poetry not so relevant would have been lost.30 The point seems obvious when applied to Tyrtaeus, given the martial focus of his poetry. Yet it applies just as much to Alcman. A society which, according to the old yet enduring stereotype, shunned the values of luxury and wealth on display in Alcman’s poetry would not have continued to perform it; and without such continued reperformance there would have been no impetus to preserve texts of his poetry. The mere fact that Alcman survived thus sheds some light on the nature of Spartan society long after his death. We may thus agree with Robert Wade-Gery when, in a review of Denys Page’s 1951 edition of Alcman’s First Partheneion, he took Page’s presentation of the development of Spartan society to task: Professor Page ... shares the common belief that the Partheneion portrays a brief Spartan civilisation which was extinguished by a wave of Puritan reforms at the end of the seventh century bc. ‘Over Lacedemon darkness and silence were soon enough to fall ... There is a splendour, a gaiety and glow about these verses which will not be found again in the ... history of Laconia.’ This ... is scarcely justified by the evidence ... in the early fifth century the Sparta that Pindar knew and loved was still as gay and gracious as Alcman’s.31
So far from not being found again, Alcman’s poetry continued to be known and enjoyed in Sparta; and that suggests a Sparta more complicated than the one that the traditional paradigm, followed by Page, had to offer. Poetry is preserved by people for whom it still means something. In consequence, the works of any classical poet known to us today only in fragments must have followed a complex path of transmission; as Glenn Most puts it, An author whose fragments a later age collects must originally have been located within some more or less loose canon of those writers deemed worth reading, or his texts would never have survived him at all in any form, complete or incomplete. But at some later point his works must have been at least partially excluded from the canon, for otherwise they would have survived intact and whole rather than in the form of excerpts ... or fragments ... And then in a still later period those works must finally have become canonical once again, if scholars were willing to go to the immense trouble of collecting, editing, and commenting on his texts.’32
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Alcman’s early transmission and archaic Spartan society Alcman’s transmission has a particular fascination because his works can seem so tied to a particular performative moment in a particular society; considering how his works have nevertheless never been wholly lost can offer insights into the societies that preserved them, beginning with Alcman’s own. Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Editors, Dr James Roy, and the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. Abbreviations BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby (https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/), Leiden, 2007–. PMG = D. L. Page (ed.) Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford, 1962. PMGF = M. Davies (ed.) Poetarum Melicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, 1 vol. to date, Oxford, 1991–. Notes 1 Alcman fr. S1 PMGF. 2 For the association of the Muses with gold, Finglass 2013, 5 n. 36. 3 For the date, West 1965, 192–4; 1992a = 2011–13, ii.17–27, with the ‘Supplementary Note’ at 2011–13, ii.27. The adventurous chronology advocated by Shaw (2003, 189–209), which puts Alcman in the second half of the sixth century, should not be relied on; see the review by Huxley (2006). 4 The text of this difficult poem found at Hutchinson 2001, 3–8 (slightly adapted above) is the best available, marking an advance on Page’s edition in Alcman fr. 1 PMG (printed unchanged by Davies in fr. 1 PMGF ) and preferable to the bold text found (with translation) in Tsantsanoglou 2012, 143–62. The translation above is from West 1993, 31–2. 5 For the ancient commentaries on Alcman, including on this poem, Römer 2013, with Schironi 2014, a useful review. For the context of the poem, Luginbill 2009. 6 ‘The place-name presumably gives a pithy suggestion of modern luxury, and connoisseurship’ (Hutchinson 2001, 88, on 50–4). The exact significance of some of these geographical names is inaccessible today, but the same will not have been true at the original performance: ‘for his success Alcman depended on being comprehensible to both performers and audience’ (Zaikov 2004, 81); ‘the imagery and sentiments with which the text confronts us were part of the cultural patrimony of the community at large’ (Ferrari 2008, 8) 7 Hutchinson 2001, 111. 8 Hutchinson 2001, 110. 9 Translation slightly adapted from Boterf 2017, 229. 10 Boterf 2017, 230. 11 Boterf 2017, 237. 12 Hutchinson 2001, 94, on 64–9. 13 Ferrari 2008, 8, citing further references.
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P.J.Finglass Starr 1965, 260. For the evidence for these figures, Finglass 2014, 19–20. 16 The shortest book of Pindar’s poetry, the Nemeans, contains 1,261 lines; the longest, the Pythians, has 1,983, which gives an idea of what the upper and lower limits for an ancient book of lyric poetry would have been like. 17 Carey 2011, 443. 18 Archytas refers to Alcman as ‘the leader of erotic songs’ (τῶν ἐρωτικῶν μελῶν ἡγεμόνα, fr. 59 PMGF; cf. D’Alessio 2016, 65), which indicates that this aspect of his poetry, at least, was important for one fourth-century Greek living outside Sparta. (Probably Archytas of Mytilene, rather than Archytas of Tarentum: Huffman 2005, 26–7.) 19 Carey 2011, 444. 20 Carey 2011, 441. 21 For references, Carey 2011, 452 n. 41, 457–60. 22 Carey 2011, 451. Contrast the unreasonable pessimism of Hinge (2004, 306–7), for whom ‘In classical Athens, the poetry of Alcman appears to have been practically unknown except for a couple of popular songs like the famous fr. 26 about the halcyon... I suppose that, bound up as it was with a cultic context, most of Alcman’s poetry was of such character that no one bothered to export it to other Greek cities in classical times.’ 23 Bowie 2016, 30, 38 ‘The argument that earlier melic poets from other poleis, Alcman, Stesichorus, and Ibycus, were well known at least among the sympotic classes in fifth-century Attica because excerpts of these poets’ songs were sung at symposia has been developed very persuasively by Chris Carey with special reference to Alcman... A poem of Alcman at 140 lines, which was probably the length of the first Partheneion, would not sufficiently exceed the length of the 125 (or more) trimeter Semonides fr. 7 W. to give a singer problems, even though the musical challenges were of a different order.’ 24 Cf. West 1992b, 334, ‘in the light of the evidence at our disposal, Lesbos and Sparta stand out as the great centres of musical excellence in the seventh century’ and Stewart 2017, 51, ‘As a vibrant centre for poetry, Sparta was inevitably linked to the network of festivals in the Aegean and Asia Minor’, both with references. 25 Osborne 2009, 170–1. 26 The two passages below are cited by Carey 2011, 454–5. 27 Carey 2011, 456, against Hinge 2006, 304–11, who argues for oral preservation. 28 Bayliss 2017, 79–80. 29 Hodkinson (2006, 117) argues for a more limited role for Tyrtaeus’ poetry in Spartan society: ‘although Plato claims that the Spartans were surfeited with the poems, the only precise context of performance mentioned by either writer is Lykourgos’ reference to the singing of the poems in the king’s tent during campaigns...in other words, Tyrtaios’ martial poems are described as being performed in the military context to which they were suited. There is no indication of their performance outside the context of military campaigns, still less that their influence was such as to instil military values throughout the entirety of citizen life’. Whether we take a maximalist or minimalist view of the controversy, all sides agree that Tyrtaeus’ poetry continued to be regularly performed on at least some occasions in Spartan society. 30 So Bayliss (2017, 77–8) argues that ‘while some of Tyrtaeus’ poetry would have 14
15
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Alcman’s early transmission and archaic Spartan society had a relevance long after the seventh century, much of his poetry would probably have been less helpful in later times and perhaps quietly forgotten by a society that favoured only functional literacy, which would help explain why so little of Tyrtaeus’ poetry, especially his Eunomia, has survived the cloak of “post-austerity” Sparta. The fact that Tyrtaeus seems not to have known Lycurgus the mythical lawgiver would have become increasingly awkward as the Spartans re-remembered their past in such a way that gave Lycurgus the primary role in arranging their prized Eunomia.’ 31 Wade-Gery 1957, 324. 32 Most 2009, 10. For the emergence of the Greek lyric canon, see now Hadjimichael 2019. Bibliography Bayliss, A. 2017 ‘Good to slaughter the lives of young men? The role of Tyrtaeus’ poetry in Spartan society’, in L. F. Bantim de Assumpção (ed.) Esparta: Política e Sociedade, Curitiba, 49–86. Boterf, N. 2017 ‘Alcman gourmand: the politics of eating in archaic Sparta’, AJP 138, 205–42. Bowie, E. 2016 ‘Quo usque tandem...? How long were sympotic songs?’, in Cazzato, Obbink, and Prodi (eds) 2016, 28–41. Carey, C. 2011 ‘Alcman: from Laconia to Alexandria’, in L. Athanassaki and E. L. Bowie (eds) Archaic and Classical Choral Song: Performance, politics and dissemination. Trends in Classics Suppl. 10, Berlin and Boston, 437–60. D’Alessio, G.B. 2016 ‘Bacchylides’ banquet songs’, in Cazzato, Obbink, and Prodi (eds) 2016, 63–84. Cazzato, V., Obbink, D. and Prodi, E.E. (eds) 2016 The Cup of Song: Studies on poetry and the symposion, Oxford. Ferrari, G. 2008 Alcman and the Cosmos of Sparta, Chicago and London. Finglass, P.J. 2013 ‘How Stesichorus began his Sack of Troy’, ZPE 185, 1–17. 2014 ‘Introduction’, in M. Davies, and P. J. Finglass, Stesichorus. The Poems, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries 54, Cambridge, 1–91. Hadjimichael, T.A. 2019 The Emergence of the Lyric Canon, Oxford. Hinge, G. 2004 ‘Dialect colouring in quotations of classical Greek poetry’, in G. Rocca (ed.) Dialetti, dialettismi, generi letterari e funzioni sociali, Alexandria, 303–11. 2006 Die Sprache Alkmans: Textgeschichte und Sprachgeschichte (Serta Graeca 24), Wiesbaden. Hodkinson, S. 2006 ‘Was classical Sparta a military society?’, in S. Hodkinson and A. Powell (eds) Sparta and War, Swansea, 111–62.
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P.J.Finglass Huffman, C.A. 2005 Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, philosopher, and mathematician king, Cambridge. Hutchinson, G.O. 2001 Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on selected larger pieces, Oxford. Huxley, G.L. 2006 Review of Shaw 2003, CR n.s. 56, 148–51. Luginbill, R.D. 2009 ‘The occasion and purpose of Alcman’s Partheneion (1 PMGF )’, QUCC n.s. 92, 27–54. Most, G.W. 2009 ‘On fragments’, in W. Tronzo, (ed.) The Fragment: An incomplete history, Los Angeles, 9–20. Osborne, R. 2009 Greece in the Making, 1200–479 bc, 2nd edn. London. [1st edn. 1996]. Römer, C. 2013 Alcman, Commentaria et lexica Graeca in papyris reperta pars I – commentaria et lexica in auctores, vol. 1 Aeschines – Bacchylides, fasc. 2.1, Berlin and Boston. Schironi, F. 2014 Review of Römer 2013, BMCR 2014.09.28. Stewart, E. 2017 Greek Tragedy on the Move: The birth of a panhellenic art form c.500–300 bc, Oxford. Shaw, P.-J. 2003 Discrepancies in Olympiad Dating and Chronological Problems of Archaic Peloponnesian History, Historia Einzelschriften 166, Stuttgart. Starr, C.G. 1965 ‘The credibility of early Spartan history’, Historia 14, 257–72. Tsantsanoglou, K. 2012 Of Golden Manes and Silvery Faces: The Partheneion 1 of Alcman, Trends in Classics Suppl. 16, Berlin and Boston. Wade-Gery, R.L. 1957 Review of D.L. Page, Alcman. The Partheneion, Oxford 1951, JHS 77, 323–4. West, M. L. 1965 ‘Alcmanica’, CQ n.s. 15, 188–202 [pp. 192–4 = 2011–13, ii.24–7]. 1992a ‘Alcman and the Spartan royalty’, ZPE 91, 1–7 [= 2011–13, ii.17–24]. 1992b Ancient Greek Music, Oxford. 1993 Greek Lyric Poetry: The poems and fragments of the Greek iambic, elegiac, and melic poets (excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) down to 450 bc, Oxford. 2011–13 Hellenica: Selected papers on Greek literature and thought, 3 vols., Oxford. Zaikov, A.V. 2004 ‘Alcman and the image of Scythian steed’, in C.J. Tuplin (ed.) Pontus and the Outside World: Studies in Black Sea history, historiography and archaeolog y, Colloquia Pontica 9, Leiden and Boston, 43–67.
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’
3 ‘AS WE CARRY A ROBE TO THE DAWN GODDESS’: LUXURIOUS TEXTILES IN SPARTAN AND LAKEDAIMONIAN SANCTUARIES Chrysanthi Gallou In early Greece the use of sanctuaries as a context for the disposal of wealth largely replaced earlier practices of deposition and ritual destruction in burials. It was linked, in Ian Morris’s view, ‘to a need to represent aristocratic competition as having a wider communal meaning at a time of great social stress’.1 The dedication of votive gifts in sanctuaries was a widespread phenomenon in the 2nd and 1st millennia bc, but archaeological research has focused mainly on offerings that have survived the passage of time, in particular those of intrinsic value. Although votives made of perishable materials – such as textiles and garments, masterpieces made of wood and accessories of leather – are rarely preserved to the present, they formed a significant portion of the material culture associated with the sacred. Dedicated textiles and garments, in particular, could be luxurious and expensive items, reflecting and advertising their dedicators’ elevated status and wealth. Through their dedication to the divine, they were placed on public display and became part of a sanctuary’s property,2 where they were used in an active way – in gift exchange, redistribution and special ceremonies.3 With the exception of a few textile fabric pseudomorphs,4 the archaeological invisibility of textiles themselves in sacred contexts and deposits may be counterbalanced by iconographic representations and epigraphic records, especially temple inventories.5 Dedicating garments, clothing accessories, and spinning and weaving equipment was a feature of a number of archaic and classical cults associated mostly with Artemis (for example, at Thebes, Tanagra, Delos, Sparta and Brauron) and to a lesser degree with Artemis ‘look-alikes’ such as Iphigeneia and Eileithyia, as well as with Athena and Aphrodite.6 The earliest evidence for the practice comes from the Amyklaion near Sparta in the mid/late 10th century bc. It is thus appropriate in a volume about luxury and wealth in the ancient Peloponnese to consider archaic and classical Spartan and Lakedaimonian sanctuaries. I will examine the significance of the votive
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Chrysanthi Gallou deposition of images of dressed female figures (votaries and deities), textile models, dress fasteners and textile tools, either during formal rites or as expressions of private worship. I will also discuss the ‘biographies’ of textile-related votives both in their own right and within the context of contemporary socio-political developments. Textile manufacture in ancient Sparta and Lakedaimon The earliest evidence for engagement with some sort of fabric manufacture in Lakonia comes from the end of the 4th millennium bc, as suggested by clay spindle whorls and bone needles from the Alepotrypa Cave at Diros Bay on the western coast of the Tainaron Peninsula.7 At Early Helladic Geraki tangible evidence for weaving activities is provided by terracotta and stone loom-weights, spindle whorls, spools, crescent-shaped items (the last being rather rare finds and interpreted as loom-weights by analogy with other Late Neolithic and Copper Age sites in south-east Europe),8 and by the clear imprint of weft-faced linen fabric of medium-to-fine quality, probably locally produced in the Eurotas valley, on the obverse of two clay sealings and the reverse of a third one.9 The archaeologicaloceanographic survey at the prehistoric town at Pavlopetri in the territory of the (later) perioikic polis of Boia has identified a large number of terracotta loom-weights dating from as early as the 3rd millennium bc, attesting weaving activities and textile production and consumption (garments, sails) at the site,10 similar to the evidence from the domestic layers at Agios Stephanos.11 Textile production continued in the Middle Bronze Age, as implied, for example, by several pieces of calcified(?) textile, apparently in tabby weave, preserved in a Middle Helladic grave at the Menelaion and by the occurrence of spindle whorls at Agios Stephanos in southern Lakonia.12 In the Late Bronze Age, at least one of the published Linear B tablets, found in the area of the Mycenaean administrative centre at Agios Vasileios in central Lakonia is associated with the textile economy and records quantities of textiles of the tela+pa and *146 types.13 The recorded evidence is corroborated by the discovery of spinning and weaving equipment in other Lakonian settlement and burial assemblages, including at the Menelaion and Agios Stephanos.14 During the Bronze Age, and possibly the Early Iron Age, Sparta and Lakedaimon would have become famous for the luxurious textiles and the production of murex purple dye. Quite apart from the commercial and strategic importance of certain coastal Lakedaimonian sites (e.g. Gytheion, Epidauros Limera and Boia) and the island of Kythera, the superior quality of murex shell dye may already have attracted Minoan interest in the area as early as the 3rd millennium bc, followed by the
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ Phoenicians in the early 1st millennium bc, and the Spartans from the early archaic period.15 Murex shells were fished and processed around the Lakonian Gulf and Kythera from the Bronze Age onwards, in particular at Cranae near Gytheion, Agios Stephanos and Pavlopetri (where a midden of murex shells was also identified during the 2009–2011 survey).16 Their colour secretions were used for textile production and perhaps also for leather colouring.17 The early use of the precious purple dye in the manufacture of lavish textiles may be reflected in Book 4 of the Odyssey, where Queen Helen spins the violet-dark (ἰοδνεφὲς) wool that fills her silver wool-basket, using her golden distaff (Odyssey 4, 125–136). Her weaving implements, we learn, were gifts bestowed upon her by Alkandre, wife of Polybos who lived in Egyptian Thebes. In another passage, Helen picks out her favourite peplos, one ‘which she has made herself ’, from one of the many cloth-chests kept in the palace’s storerooms (Odyssey 15.104–105; cf. 2.339; 21.51–2; Iliad 6.288–90). She presents it to Telemachos for his future bride ‘as a memento from Helen’s hands’ (Odyssey 15.130). What we see here is that, as with other Homeric queens and princesses like Penelope, Hekabe and Andromache, Helen was in the habit of spinning and weaving highly decorated and precious cloth and clothing. Furthermore, in Book III of the Iliad (lines 125–7, 130–2) Helen weaves a purple double-layered pictorial tapestry. Not much archaeological evidence for spinning and weaving activities is available for the period after the collapse of the Bronze Age palatial system (c. 1200–1050 bc), although it could be argued that the paucity of material evidence for textile manufacture from the 12th century to the end of the Early Iron Age (c. 700 bc) may be due to limited excavated contexts and the severe disturbance of Protogeometric and Geometric domestic layers by later building activity. Apart from the stone conical whorl from the Protogeometric pithos burial 2 from Amyklai (the Konidaris plot),18 no further weaving implements have been published from the admittedly scarce burial offerings.19 However, garment fasteners were sometimes deposited with the dead as part of their funerary attire, e.g. the Submycenaean/Early Protogeometric bronze fibulae (brooches or clasps) from chamber tomb 5 at Peristeri near Skala, southern Lakonia; a number of Protogeometric-Geometric bronze or iron pins from two plots in Sparti; two bronze pins from a Geometric pithos burial at Longanikos, Agios Konstantinos, c. 30 km north of Sparta; and Protogeometric pins from the Konidaris plot at Amyklai.20 The absence of spinning and weaving evidence from households and burials in the archaic period should be attributed to the limited excavated
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Chrysanthi Gallou and published domestic contexts. It is clear that austerity in Spartan clothing did not come in during this period, if one takes into account the descriptions of lavish garments and elaborate headgear in Alkman’s First Partheneion and the continuation of bronze jewellery dedications at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and the Menelaion until 550 bc at least21 – and perhaps later if more of the finds were published and dated. It is also likely that the purple/crimson robe known as the phoinikis was introduced during this period as the garment par excellence of Spartan soldiers.22 During the classical period, there was a certain degree of material simplicity to Spartan life (as shown by Xenophon), but it was by no means as un-luxurious as is often claimed. Scholars have over-relied on the unreliable evidence of late literary sources, especially Plutarch,23 who has also been read incorrectly as saying that luxury was absent from Sparta.24 In 5th and 4th century Sparta, the purple/crimson colour was used only as part of the soldier’s standard phoinikis,25 which ‘became a festive uniform’.26 With reference to wool-working and the manufacture of textiles in this period, Xenophon claims that while ‘the rest of the Greeks expect their girls to imitate the sedentary life typical of handicraftsmen – to keep quiet and do wool-work’, the labour of slave women (doulai ) was sufficient to supply clothing for the Spartans.27 In Plato’s Laws (7, 805e–806a), which describes how women in different places can act, we learn for Sparta: The girls must share in gymnastics and music, and the women abstain from wool-work, but weave themselves instead a life that is not trivial at all nor useless, but arduous (γυναῖκας δὲ ἀργοὺς μὲν ταλασίας, ἀσκητικὸν δέ τινα βίον καὶ οὐδαμῶς φαῦλον οὐδ᾽ εὐτελῆ διαπλέκειν), advancing as it were halfway in the path of domestic tendance and management and child-nurture, but taking no share in military service.
One of the Sayings of Spartan Women preserves another weaving- and textile-related anecdote: When a woman from Ionia showed vast pride in a bit of her own weaving, which was very valuable, a Spartan woman pointed to her four sons, who were most well-behaved, and said: ‘Such should be the employments of good and honourable women, and it is over these that she should be elated and boastful.’28
This saying emphasises the intended distinction between the Spartans and the ‘others’, and probably underpins the exaggerated statements by Plato and Xenophon regarding Spartan women’s lack of involvement in wool-working and textile manufacture. In this respect, Hodkinson’s doubts are therefore fully justified: ‘That at least was the theory. One wonders, however, whether in practice poorer citizen households could
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ always maintain sufficient domestic staff to cover every time-consuming household task, and whether their females did not sometimes turn their hands to activities avoided by their wealthier peers’.29 Textile-related dedications in Spartan and Lakedaimonian sanctuaries The dedication of textiles, dressing accessories and spinning/weaving tools is a well-known practice at Greek sanctuaries. This practice is reflected in votive offerings of clothing produced by individuals and dedicated privately for their own personal reasons. Such offerings often included dress fasteners like pins and fibulae or tools used for the manufacture of textiles. A prominent role in such dedications was played, in particular, by what is known as ‘peplophoric ritual’: the production and presentation of special clothing (a sacral garment) by a community for dressing the image of the deity being honoured.30 Such sacral garments were not always produced specifically for dedication at particular religious festivals. In times of crisis, women sometimes dedicated, for their own private or personal interests, garments/textiles that had been made, and often already used, for other purposes.31 The dedication of loom-weights and spindle whorls was often related to female donors, and they occasionally occur as possible attachments to unfinished textile dedications. In such types of dedications, female worshippers mostly stood as the lead dedicators, either as individuals and families in the context of personal dedications, or as part of a community in rituals associated with ‘dressing’ the deity. Dressing the Deity In Alcman’s First Partheneion, a chorus of Spartan maidens sing about ceremonially presenting the xoanon (carved image) of the goddess Orthia with a purple pharos-garment.33 The girls sing of other luxuries too, including their own purple garments worn during their religious duties, and they appear to be familiar with Lydian fashion trends, particularly in headgear: Our purple finery is not the treasure that defends us, no coiled snake-bangle of solid gold, nor Lydian headband splendid upon girls with big dark eyes...
Alkman fr. 1 Hutchinson (trans. West)34
During the celebration of the Hyakinthia, too, a chiton (tunic) was offered to Apollo at Amyklai (Pausanias III.16.2). The dressing of the cult image
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Chrysanthi Gallou of a male deity was by no means exclusive to Sparta.35 For example, the statue of Asklepios at Titane near Sikyon was also reportedly clad in a white woollen chiton and a himation (cloak), leaving just its face, hands and the feet uncovered (Pausanias II.11.6).36 Although dedication of sacral garments to gods was a regular practice in ancient Greece, the ritual weaving of textiles for the statue or the temple was not common to every sanctuary.37 In Sparta, Apollo’s chiton was woven in a building also called Chito¯n located in the northern sector of the city (Pausanias III.16.2). Kourinou has proposed the area occupied by the hills of Xenia and Gerokomeio within the boundaries of the modern town of Sparti as the likely location of the Chitón, near the sanctuaries of Aphrodite Morpho and the Leukippides Hilareia and Phoibe and the ‘House of Phormion’.38 The woven chiton was probably brought from Sparta to the hill at Amyklai in the course of a religious procession that covered a distance of around 5km along the Hyakinthian Way.39 No remains of actual textiles have survived at the Amyklaion.40 However, the extensive corpus of miniature spindle whorls and a few loom-weights dating from as early as the mid/late 10th century bc may act as indicators for the dedication of clothes and textiles (‘rather than as isolated offerings by female donors to the early sanctuary’) at the site: ‘a form of ritual performance that survived in a popular level at Amykles and developed into an important part of the religious ritual at the site’.41 Given that some Mycenaean textile tools also occur in the Amykleian assemblages, this ritual practice may be traced back to the Mycenaean period, similarly to other sites.42 Potentially relevant may be the terracotta loom-weights, some inscribed with the characters A, E and Δ, from a dump deposit in the area of the so-called ‘Mycenaean megaron’ at Pellana.43 The excavator, Spyropoulos, interprets them as individual offerings originally deposited at the so-called ‘Protogeometric Temple’,44 and proposes that a group of inscribed discoid specimens may be signifiers of the cult of a holy triad formed by either Apollo, Eleni (Helen) and the Dioskouroi, or Asklepios, Eileithyia (Eleutho) and Demeter.45 Although it is not unreasonable to argue that this assemblage of textile tools may be associated with some sort of cult activity and ritual deposition, the proposed Protogeometric date should not be accepted unreservedly, particularly since it derives solely from unstratified pottery sherds and no votive deposit is conclusively associated with them. It is possible that this assemblage may be associated with ritual weaving practised within the boundaries of the so-called ‘Temple’ at some point during its function. By analogy with inscribed loom-weights from elsewhere in Greece, including Corinth
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ (from where Spyropoulos cites comparative material), and on the basis of the letter-forms on the Pellana loom-weights,46 the inscribed specimens from Pellana should be attributed to no earlier than the end of the sixth century (as opposed to Spyropoulos’ Protogeometric date). In addition, the inscribed signs on the loom-weights cannot be accepted at face value as letter characters. If these symbols were intended to represent the initial letters of the worshipped deities at Pellana, then their manufacturers would have taken care to position the suspension holes in such a way as to avoid shifting the proper direction of the ‘letters’ – currently, the sign E features variously as E, E or reversed horizontally. It is probable that these symbols may signify signs and sign connections of different sets of loom-weights47 that were used as guides either for apprentice weavers or for achieving particular patterns. Irene Romano (1988) has argued that the ritual of dressing cult images was introduced to Greece from abroad in the 8th century, but it is difficult to ignore the Mycenaean Linear B tablets that record textile offerings of the wehanos-type to male and female divinities48 and also the aforementioned mid/late 10th-century evidence from the Amyklaion. The communal weaving of garments for dressing the image of the deity (Athena, Leto, Hera, Aphrodite, Hermes, Apollo, Asklepios and Dionysos) is a well-documented phenomenon of archaic and classical devotional and ceremonial rituals.49 The best-studied example is the Athenian peplophoric ritual in honour of Athena;50 one peplos was made for the statue of Athena Polias annually, and another one manufactured by professional weavers was dedicated to the goddess at the Great Panathenaia.51 At Olympia, a peplos was woven for Hera quadrennially by the sixteen women representing the cities of Elis (Pausanias V.16.2), with a special house located in the agora of Elis assigned for the task (Pausanias VI.24.10).52 A similar tradition existed at the Argive Heraion where, according to Callimachus (fr. 66), a patos robe was woven by the young virgins of Argos for Hera, ‘though there is no additional reference to the connection between this particular ritual and the festive occasion of the Heraia in Argos’.53 Besides Callimachus’ testimony, an extensive corpus of textile tools comes from the Heraion: eight spindle whorls, 54 loom-weights and 227 spools.54 The occurrence of textile tools in a sacred context is valuable in confirming the significant role played by textiles in ancient Greek religious rituals. Unfortunately, however – as Gleba, Meyers and Gartziou-Tatti point out – the contexts of votive material are not always clear; therefore, it is not always easy to differentiate between textile implements that may have served as ex-votos,55 as at the Amyklaion (if we accept that
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Chrysanthi Gallou Apollo’s chiton was woven in Sparta and ceremonially transported to the Amyklaion), and others used in textile production within the boundaries of the sanctuary, as at the Argive Heraion and possibly at Pellana. Private dedications at Spartan sanctuaries associated with clothing and textile manufacture Several temple inventories around Greece record the private donation of clothing and textiles, providing details on different inner and outer garment types, items such as veils, girdles and loincloths. The information given may include the dedicator’s gender and age, the garment’s state of completion and preservation (e.g. ‘new’, ‘ragged’, ‘finished’, ‘half-finished’, half-made’), variations in fibre and colours (purple, sea-purple, scarlet, blue, grey, blue-grey, white, black/dark, frog-green, saffron-colour, yellow, broom-yellow, apple/quince-colour) with a predominance of purple-dyed items. Important inventories come from Brauron, the Parthenon Hekatompedon, the Athenian Asklepieion, the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Tanagra, the sanctuaries at Delos, the Heraion on Samos, the Athena sanctuary at Lindos, the sanctuary of Artemis Chito¯ne (?) at Miletos, and an inventory of a temple for an unknown deity at Thebes.56 Visual testimonies of the sacred offering of textiles are rare, albeit enlightening: e.g. the Parthenon frieze and the votive relief from Echinos in central Greece.57 Unlike garments dedicated by the community for dressing the image of the deity, the privately donated clothing or textiles (sometimes more than one) and textile tools would have belonged to and been personally valued (even personally woven) by the Spartan adolescent girls and adult women who offered them. Judging from literary, epigraphic and iconographical testimonies, such intimate dedications displayed the dedicator’s and her family’s piety. Sumptuary legislation attested for some poleis and cults indicates that dedicated dresses could be elaborate and obviously expensive.58 This led von Reden to suggest that ‘it was above all women who displayed wealth and status with purple robes and dedicated them in temples’, with purple retaining the same character and meanings in its cultic usage as for its everyday usage.59 There are occasions, though, where temple inventories contain no records of dedicated textiles: for example, at Didyma, Aphaia on Aegina and the Kabeireion at Thebes. This could be explained in various ways: textiles may not have been considered appropriate offerings for certain deities, they may have been connected only with certain rites,60 or it was perhaps not deemed necessary by certain sanctuaries to record such dedications. Although no temple inventories associated with private dedications
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ of garments survive from Spartan and Lakedaimonian sanctuaries, one sixth-century inscription (now lost and known only through Abbé Fourmont’s copy in the eighteenth century), allegedly from the area of Amyklai, refers to a restriction on what could be woven into garments to be dedicated to the temple of a still unidentified goddess (perhaps Demeter?).61 As Robin Osborne suggests in his chapter in this volume, if Beattie’s reconstruction that textile dedications had to be approved by an official known as the polianomos is correct, ‘we have here a sensitivity to what garments it is appropriate to display, to show off, in this sanctuary’.62 Dillon’s argument that this was ‘an appropriate measure in a society opposed to public displays of luxury’,63 leads into the trap of the ‘Spartan mirage’, because the date of the inscription is far from certain (deductions about letter forms from Fourmont’s copy are hazardous). Even if one accepts a sixth-century date for it, it cannot be said with certainty whether public displays of luxury had begun to be restrained at this relatively early date. Next, an anonymous epigram provides a list of a Spartan maiden’s offerings, including the dresses of her dolls (‘her girls’), at the temple of Artemis Limnatis during the proaulia, in preparation for her wedding: Timareta, the daughter of Timaretos, before her wedding, has dedicated her bronze tambourine, her pretty ball, the net that shields her hair, her dolls, and the dresses of her dolls to Artemis of the Lake, a virgin to a virgin, as is fit. You, daughter of Leto, hold your hand over the daughter of Timaretos, and protect the pure girl in a pure way.64
Miniature lead figurines with a wide range of motifs occur frequently in sanctuaries and shrines in and near Sparta (e.g. the sanctuaries of Artemis Orthia, Athena Chalkioikos, the Menelaion, the Achilleion, Zeus Messapeus, the Amyklaion, the Eleusinion at Kalyvia Sochas) and elsewhere in Lakedaimon (e.g. the sanctuaries of Athena Alea at Aigies and Athena on the Palaiokastro hill at Kythera), including votive depositions dating from as early as the seventh century at some sites. Overall, the numbers of these lead votives range from a handful at the Achilleion and the Amyklaion, through a few hundred at Athena Chalkioikos, to almost 6,000 from the Menelaion and a staggering 100,773 from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia.65 A quantified approach to lead votives associated with clothing and textiles cannot be established with much confidence due to the current poor state of the evidence (i.e. incomplete or selective publication, incomplete and differential preservation of the original dedications, possibly unreliable stratigraphic units, and context contamination).66 Nevertheless, it seems that the majority of items of lead imitating textile
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Chrysanthi Gallou models (the so-called ‘pendant plaques’, the indeterminate term for these artefacts coined by the original excavators),67 dress accessories (pins and fibulae), loom combs and neatly knotted sets of loom warp threads, were deposited at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in the period 650–500. The lead dressing pins (single or in pairs) from the site form the majority of votives associated with textiles or clothing (Table I). Only a couple of lead dressing pins from Artemis Orthia may be attributed to before 650 bc (Lead 0). Table I. Numbers of selectively published lead votives associated with textiles and clothing at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia Phase
Revised chronology
‘Combs’
‘Pendant plaques’
Dressing pins (single or in pairs)
Lead 0 Lead I Lead II Lead III–IV Lead V Lead VI
?–650 650–620 620–580 580–500 500–425 425–250
– – 2 – – –
– 2+ 4+ – – –
2? 3+ 4+ 5 – –
Brooches/ Fibulae
– 1 1+ – – –
Total numbers of lead votives of various types
23 5719 9548 68822 10617 4773
After Wace 1929, 251–84 and Boss 2000, 119–21, with revised chronology according to Hodkinson 2000, 278: Table 7.
At the Menelaion, two pairs of pins were reported from trench J 9 (levels J 9/5, J 9/6) and six from trench K 10 (including one in level K 10/7 and three in K10/9); one orientalising pin came from J 9/5. The Menelaion specimens are synchronous to Artemis Orthia Leads III and III–IV.68 In the classical period lead votives of the aforementioned types seem to vanish at both sanctuaries. The other Spartan and Lakedaimonian sanctuaries have produced no evidence for lead votives associated with clothing, with the exception of lead figurines of dressed female figures. The Doric chiton worn by the lead female figurines and by female figures on archaic ivories and terracottas from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia is consistent with the heavily patterned woollen Doric gown that fully covered and concealed the bodies of Spartan women in the late archaic period.69 The pharos-veil that was popular during the archaic and classical periods may be represented by the so-called ‘pendant plaques’. Excellent pictorial examples of how the pharos-veil was worn include Helen’s elaborately woven, fringed, tasselled and transparent (perhaps linen) pharos-veil from metope 7 on the relief pithos from Mykonos
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ (c. 675 bc) and an early sixth century ivory plaque depicting a female figure from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (National Museum of Athens 15847).70 The remarkable similarities between the ‘pendant plaques’ and the patterns on the attire of the lead female figurines led Foxhall and Stears to interpret them as models of textiles; and some of them even either as unfinished textiles (perhaps ‘dedications made by the relatives of women who had died while working on them’, as in the Brauronian temple records) or as textiles tied off at the bottom.71 It is difficult, however, to see these lead pieces as models of ‘unfinished textiles’. The items recorded in the Brauronian temple inventories were the actual ‘half-finished’ or ‘half-made’ textiles72 and it is unclear why a Spartan family would choose to offer a cheap lead substitute to the goddess rather than the actual unfinished garment. Wace wondered whether the patterns depicted on the lead votives were intended to imitate the designs of actual textiles or whether they were the result of mere artistic license.73 In fact, despite their small size (some do not exceed 2.5 centimetres in length), these lead figurines and textile models were crafted in much detail, showcasing the intention of the artist to depict various types of female attire (e.g. the Doric chiton and the pharos-veil) and probably other types of textiles that were luxurious and ornate.74 The prevailing geometric patterns may suggest that, at least in the archaic period, emphasis may not have been placed so much on extravagant decorations or embroidering (as perhaps elsewhere in Greece), but instead on weaving and dedicating textiles dyed in precious murex purple (whose outstanding quality was unparalleled in Greece), especially if the restrictions on what could be woven into garments in the sixth-century inscription mentioned above applied to more than one particular sanctuary.75 This may also explain the rarity among sanctuary assemblages of stamps that might have been used to decorate textiles.76 Certainly, by the Classical period female dress had become much simpler as women in Lakedaimon were not allowed to wear ornaments, according to the late fourth-century Aristotelian Polity of the Lakedaimonians (ap. Herakleides Lembos 373.13, Dilts); this is firmly supported by the declining numbers of bronze jewellery deposited in Spartan sanctuaries during this period.77 Indirect evidence for the importance of textile dedications in Spartan and perioikic sanctuaries is provided by dress fasteners, which would have been attached to dedicated clothing: in particular, buttons, dressing pins (single or in pairs) and fibulae of silver, bronze, ivory or bone. Some are exquisitely embellished, others imported, and some stress close relationships between Sparta and the Near East during the archaic period,
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Chrysanthi Gallou especially during the first half of the sixth century.78 Although it may not always be possible to determine which of these objects were associated with the dedication of a sacred garment to the deity by the community and which were personal votives, they may still speak volumes about the luxury and wealth deposited in sanctuaries in archaic times. The marked decline in the deposition of pins and fibulae in the classical period does not necessarily suggest the decline of the dedication of textiles in Spartan and Lakedaimonian religious sites; instead, it coincides with contemporary changes in female fashion that imposed simplicity and a ban on the use of dress fasteners and ornaments, as mentioned above. Spinning and weaving tools are also included among the votive assemblages. Thus, in addition to the aforementioned miniature lead models of weaving combs and of neatly knotted sets of loom warp threads from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, full-size textile-working equipment has been reported from several other sanctuaries, in particular bone bobbins79 and multiple thread holders (the latter perhaps associated with ‘finger’ weaving),80 weaving combs,81 bone needles,82 loom-weights and whorls of terracotta and steatite.83 Ex-votos of inscribed loom-weights have been identified at the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos and the so-called ‘Temple’ at Pellana.84 Conclusions As with Stephen Hodkinson’s work on patterns of bronze dedications at Spartan sanctuaries,85 this chapter has set out to demonstrate the value of examining the votives associated with the dedication of textiles, dress fasteners and textile-production tools from Spartan and Lakedaimonian sanctuaries as evidence of material and religious investment. Lin Foxhall and Karen Stears have justly pointed to the fact that early scholarship omitted the connection between women and clothing in the cult of Artemis Orthia.86 When undertaking such a task, one should also acknowledge the serious limitations presented by the differential survival of artefacts at the sanctuaries of Artemis Orthia and the Menelaion, owing to the sand layer that covered the site in the early sixth century at the former sanctuary and the burial of bronzes in the ‘Great Pit’ at the latter, also sometime in the sixth century.87 Further obstacles are imposed by the selective, in some cases even regrettable, state of publication of the votive material from major sanctuaries, including those of Athena Chalkioikos, Artemis Orthia, the Menelaion and Apollo Hyperteleatas at Phoiniki. Nevertheless, what may clothing reveal about material and religious investment in archaic and classical Sparta and Lakedaimon? What kind of stories may the dedication of a purple pharos, an inscribed loom-weight or a fibula tell?
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ ‘Clothing is in itself particularly expressive of nuances of age, gender and life stage, as well as wealth and status’, and for this reason, ‘clothing, particularly women’s clothing (and women’s behaviour), are frequently the subject of sumptuary legislation in classical antiquity’.88 With reference to the Archaic period, Robin Osborne points to the fact that festivals often created opportunities for women and girls to dress up and show off.89 Alkman’s reference to overtly luxurious garments dyed in purple and to exotic elaborate accessories displayed during archaic Spartan festivals coincides with the adoption of a new ‘luxurious’ elite lifestyle (Anacreon’s so called ‘Lydian experience’) across Greece around 600 bc that comprised, inter alia, the adoption of elaborate and exotic attire.90 That lifestyle was in fact no stranger to Spartan women. As at other Greek sanctuaries, cloth(ing) and dress accessories of exquisite craftsmanship, sophistication and luxuriousness became important female dedications in Sparta and neighbouring Kythera during the archaic period, and a clear statement of wealth display and material investment in the local archaic cultic context. The manufacture of the dedicated textiles would have been labour- and time-intensive, even if Spartan women undertook only the spinning, weaving and finishing, leaving harder tasks such as wool cleaning and scouring, grading and sorting, flax processing and purple dyeing to the helots and the perioikoi. As the privately donated garments and associated dress fasteners were gifts by individual women, these also conveyed their donor’s and her family’s wealth and status, particularly as a strong statement of Spartan women’s rights to property and wealth.91 In the context of dedicatory practices, it is also worth mentioning that at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, lead votives were found mixed with bone-and-ash debris from sacrifices in the archaic layers but showed no signs of contact with heat. Some scholars have suggested that the leads were intended as substitutes for real, more expensive, dedications on the altars or were tossed into the ground nearby when sacrifices were not occurring.92 A comparative study of the scenes depicted on Lakonian black-figure pottery93 and the artistic repertoire of the lead votives may suggest that some votives (in particular human figures, beasts and flora) may have been attachments on dedicated textiles (e.g. clothing, headgear or girdles) or on tapestry, to create short narrative scenes, probably associated with local cults and myths. This suggestion finds support in the use of lead as a medium for magical incantation in antiquity.94 It could explain the large numbers of lead figurines from Artemis Orthia, the Menelaion and Athena Chalkioikos and the lack of signs of contact with heat. The suggestion that textiles may not have been ritually consumed by fire in Spartan sanctuaries is also supported by the Brauronian temple
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Chrysanthi Gallou inventories, in which different types of chests, boxes and basket are specified, and by iconographical references in literary texts in which clothing is dedicated neatly folded in containers.95 Spartan examples of such containers may date as early as around 675 bc, if one interprets some ivory relief plaques bearing holes from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia as decorative attachments to wooden chests or containers in which precious clothing and textiles may have been dedicated to or stored within the sanctuary.96 The lead textile motifs (often associated with dedications of jewellery) cease at Artemis Orthia around 580, and after c. 550 jewellery votives in Sparta fall away too.97 Although this marked decline in the dedication of jewellery is not a purely Spartan phenomenon, Kennell attributes it to a shift towards male-associated rites with emphasis on male upbringing at both Artemis Orthia and Athena Chalkioikos after 550.98 However, lead figurines depicting human women with elaborate clothing remain high in number throughout the sixth century, exceeding soldier figurines in number.99 The question remains whether the decline of the lead votives in the classical period may signify a change in dedicatory practice regarding one type of artefact or whether it signalled wider changes in the dedication of clothing and textiles themselves. Temple inventories from elsewhere in Greece attest the continuation of clothing dedications, in the absence of jewellery dedications.100 Certainly, as noted above, the passage of the Aristotelian Lak. Pol. refers to some genuine restrictions according to which women were not allowed to wear their hair long or adorn themselves in gold. The archaeological record suggests that, although at Sparta female religious expenditure and dedication switched to other votive types such as mirrors and bells, sometimes inscribed,101 elsewhere in the region (e.g. Kythera) cloth-related dedications continued during and after the classical period, although at a lesser level.102 Subsequently, the imposed simplicity of female attire and ornamentation would have brought a drop in the use of dressing accessories (fasteners included) and, consequently, changes in dedicatory practice. This was certainly not a new phenomenon. The decline of bronze pins with heavy disc heads at Artemis Orthia towards the end of the seventh century was also probably the result of changes to female dress.103 Despite the myth of Sparta’s eschewal of luxury and changing fashions in metal dedications, there is currently no reason to believe that Spartan or Lakedaimonian women started to act differently from their counterparts elsewhere in the Greek world by ceasing to dedicate clothing and textiles in their sanctuaries.
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ Acknowledgments I am immensely indebted to Professor Stephen Hodkinson and to the anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments and valuable feedback. Abbreviations BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby (https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/), Leiden, 2007–. FGrHist = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin, 1923–. IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–. LSS = F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, supplément, Paris, 1962. Notes 1 Morris 1986, 13. 2 Brøns 2015; 2016. 3 Gleba 2014, 88. 4 A textile fabric pseudomorph is ‘a mineralized structure formed through a petrifaction process in which the organic compounds of fibers have been replaced by inorganic compounds while assuming the physical shapes of fibers, yarns, and fabrics.’ ( Jakes and Sibley 1984). 5 Moulhérat and Spantidaki 2009a; 2009b; Brøns 2015, 43. 6 Brøns 2016; Gartziou-Tatti 2019, 204–7; Boloti 2017, 14. 7 Papathanassopoulos 2011, 45; Sarpaki 2019, 11 with n. 6. 8 Crouwel et al. 2007, 6–9, fig. 4, pl. II; Siennicka 2012, 71–2. 9 Weingarten et al. 1999, 363–4, 370, 371–4, figs. 20a & b, 21, 22. Note, though, that according to Gleba (2017, 1215), the raw material of the weft-faced tabbies of the textile culture of Greece (1000–400 bc), where identified, is wool. I shall not discuss the evidence for pot bases with impressions of mat or textiles from various sites in Lakonia (including, among many other sites, Agios Stephanos, Anthochori and the Menelaion), because they are more closely associated with the study of basketry. The term ‘sealing’ refers to a shaped piece of clay bearing a seal impression. 10 The evidence from Pavlopetri and for Bronze Age textile production in Lakonia will be treated in the forthcoming publication of the results of the Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project (PUAP), which ran from 2009 to 2011. 11 Banks and Janko 2008, 411–12. 12 Banks and Janko 2008, 420. 13 HV Lg 3 (Archaeological Museum of Sparti 16339); Aravantinos and Vasilogamvrou 2012, 50–2. 14 Catling 2009, 288; Banks and Janko 2008, 420–8. 15 Hdt. 1.82, 105; Thuc. 4.53; Xen. Hell. 4.8.7; Paus. 1.14.7. Cf. Rutter and Zerner 1984, 75–6; Cartledge 1979, 182 = 2002, 156–7; Thommen 2013, 52, 115–16. See, though, some objections by Broodbank and Kiriatzi 2007, 266. 16 Gallou 2020. 17 Chrimes 1949, 78; Thommen 2013, 333. See also Pollux 7.88: red shoes (cf. Bryant 1899, 82). 18 Zavvou 1996, 129.
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Chrysanthi Gallou Although it is likely that spindle whorls of the Geometric period were also made of wood (Vlachou 2017, 33). 20 Sparti: Zavvou and Themos 2009, 11; Cavanagh 2018, 63. Individual pins of Geometric date come from a few other unstratified or disturbed contexts in Sparti, e.g. the Manolopoulos (Themos 1996, 108) and Pistouris plots (Tsiaggouris 2007–10, 463). Peristeri: Demakopoulou 2009. Longanikos, Agios Konstantinos: Maltezou 2007–10, 527. Amyklai: Zavvou 1996, 129–31. 21 Hodkinson 2000, 281. 22 cf. Hodkinson 2000, 224. Plut. Lyk. 27.1; Plut. Mor. 238d = Inst. Lac. 18; Aelian, Var. Hist. 6.6. Hodkinson (2000, 222) is right in his statement that ‘during the archaic and early classical periods the dress and equipment of Spartan hoplites, although uniform in its basic character, exhibited considerable diversity of decoration by which citizens proclaimed their personal identities and differentiated themselves from their peers’. 23 e.g. Plut. Mor. 228b = Apophth. Lak., Lykourgos 18; Moralia 997d, Lycurgus 13.3–4. Cf. Xen. Lac. Pol. 7.3; Athenaios, Deipnosophistai XV, 68a-d. 24 See Paul Christesen’s chapter in this volume (Chapter 7). 25 Blum 1998, 174. 26 David 1989, 6. The phoinikis was used in burials too. 27 Xen. Lak. Pol. 1.3–4; cf. Xen. Mem. 2.7; Oik. 7.5–6. 28 Plut. Mor. 241d = Lac. Apophth., Anon. 9. 29 Hodkinson 2000, 227; cf. Pomeroy 2002, 30. 30 Foxhall and Stears 2000. Peplophoric ritual specifically ‘involved the new production and presentation of a garment to the deity, usually as part of an annual or quadrennial rite’ (Meyers 2013, 249–50 at p. 249). 31 Meyers 2013, 250. 32 Brulé 1987, 22930; Greco 1997; Neils 2009, 143; Vlachou 2017, 31. 33 It should be acknowledged that Ὀρθίαι is an emendation of Bergk (supported by the scholia) for ὀρθρίαι of the papyrus. Pausanias 3.16.7–11 mentions the dedicatory ritual too. The early Greek pharos-veil is ‘a large rectangle of cloth that is skilfully woven with a series of geometric shapes or animal motifs and often bordered with a fringed and tasselled hem’ (Llewellyn-Jones 2003, 76). 34 West 1993, 31–2. See Patrick Finglass’ chapter in this volume (Chapter 2). 35 For the use of the chiton by men in ancient Greece, Lee 2015, 108. 36 Brøns 2015, 58. 37 Mansfield 1985, 443. Also, Pausanias III.16.2 and VI.24.10. 38 Kourinou 2000, 147–8; cf. Nestorides 1982, 73–4; Stibbe 1989, 80; Delivorrias 1969, 138. 39 The procession, though not the bearing of the chiton, is mentioned by Polykrates, FGrH/BNJ 588F1 (cited by Athenaios, Deipnosophistai IV, 139e); Ferrari 2008, 16. 40 Vlachou 2017, 12, 40. 41 Vlachou 2017, 13, 32. 42 Vlachou 2017, 34. 43 Spyropoulos 2013, I. 272, II. 164–7, figs. 270–591. The unstratified terracotta loom-weights are of truncated pyramidal and discoidal forms (12 and 29 in number, respectively). Most of the pyramidal ones are inscribed: one specimen with the symbol Α, one with Δ, the majority with E. 19
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ Spyropoulos 2013, I. 272–3. Spyropoulos 2013, II. 167. 46 According to Jeffery (1990, 183), the A form (α1) is standard; the standard E form (ε5) comes in gradually during the second half of the fifth century; and Δ (δ3) is not normal before the fourth century. 47 cf. Davidson 1952, 152. 48 The wehanos-type of cloth is denoted by the ideogram *146 on Linear B tablets, and is mainly known as one of the commodities to be delivered as a tax contribution to the palaces at Pylos and Knossos; it also played a specific role in the cult (Nosch and Perna 2001). 49 E.g., the sanctuary inventories at Brauron, Delos and Samos record the adorning of the cult statues with new garments (Cleland 2005; Brøns 2015 with further bibliography). For a commentary on clothing consecration in the sanctuaries, Stavrianopoulou 2006, 75–7. For votive clothing in transition rites, Foxhall and Stears 2000. 50 Brøns 2015, 70. 51 Mansfield 1985, 5–7, 16–17, 51, 55; Sourvinou-Inwood 2011, 267; Brøns 2015, 71. 52 Gartziou-Tatti 2019. 53 Gartziou-Tatti 2019, 205. 54 Waldstein 1905, 15, 43–4, nos. 283–92. 55 In general terms, ex-votos signify offerings given to fulfil a vow. Cf. Osborne (2004, 5) on the absence of a single term by which to refer to objects intentionally deposited to mark or establish an exchange with transcendent powers, and for definitions of the terms ‘dedication’, ‘offering’, ‘votive’ (cf. ‘ex-voto’), ‘hoard’ and ‘deposit’. 56 Linders 1972; Brøns 2015; Foxhall and Stears 2000. 57 Brøns 2015. 58 Plut. Mor. 606f; Dillon 2002, 21–2. 59 von Reden 2011, 427. 60 Brøns 2016, 62. 61 IG V 1, 722 = LSS 28; Beattie 1951. 62 Chapter 1 above, p. 8. 63 Dillon 2002, 263. 64 Anthologia Palatina 6.280; Oakley and Sinos 1993, 14; Calame 2001, 145; Dillon 2002, 229, 351, 531 n. 20; Neils 2003, 153. For prenuptial dedications from other poleis, Liveri 2014, 195–7; Lee 2015, 45. 65 Wace 1929; Cavanagh and Laxton 1984; Boss 2000. On the numbers of lead votives deposited annually at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Hodkinson 1998, Table 5.5; Kennell and Luraghi 2009, 241–2. 66 cf. Boardman 1963, 1–7; Cavanagh and Laxton 1984, 33; Hodkinson 2000, 273–6. 67 cf. Wace 1929, 255, 265. 68 Cavanagh and Laxton 1984, 26, 28, 35–6. 69 Wace 1929, 279–80; Hodkinson 2000, 228–30; Llewellyn-Jones 2012, 20. 70 cf. Llewellyn-Jones 2003, 50–1, n. 65, fig. 27; 2012, 24, fig. 3.8. 71 Foxhall and Stears 2000, 5–7. 44 45
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Chrysanthi Gallou IG II2 , 1514. 30–2; Linders 1972, 13. Wace 1929, 289. 74 Bonias (1998, 104) for the lead female figurines from Aigies in south-east Laconia. Foxhall and Stears 2000, 7 for those from Artemis Orthia. 75 This may answer Moustaka’s question (2009, 48–9) as to whether the decoration of the depicted Spartan garments with purely geometric patterns (as compared to the extravagant Athenian ones) is the result of a different approach or a less decorative tradition on the part of the Lakedaimonians. 76 e.g. the seventh century bone prismatic bead carved with a meander motif from the sanctuary of Athena on Palaiokastro on Kythera (Petrocheilos 2004, 457, fig. 11) and contemporary ones from Artemis Orthia (Dawkins 1929, 227–8). A bone stamp also of the seventh century comes from the sanctuary of Apollo Tyritas in Kynouria (Faklaris 1990, 177). 77 Hodkinson 2000, 281–4, with Tables 8b, 9a-d. Hodkinson notes, however, that this decline in bronze jewellery dedications was by no means limited to Spartan sanctuaries and may be linked to a widespread increasing simplicity in the ornamentation of female dress across classical Greece. 78 e.g. Athena Chalkioikos (from the Geometric stratum onwards): bronze fibulae and pins, Orientalising pins (Dickins 1906–7, 150; Woodward and Hobling 1923–5, 245, 247, 274; Woodward et al. 1927–8, 45. Artemis Orthia: pair of silver-gilt pins, silver leech fibula, bronze pins (according to Kilian 1978, 219, the number of bronze pins would be ca. 1400), elaborate ivory/bone and bronze fibulae (Dawkins 1929, 224–5, 226–7; Droop 1929, 198–200; Boardman 1963, 4, 5, 7; Kilian 1978, 220, pl. Vi, 1; Stibbe 1996, 364–6, pl. 17, 2–6, fig. 3). Menelaion: Wace et al. 1908–9, 144, pl. IX, 21, 22. Amyklaion: Buschor and von Massow 1927, 36, Beilage VIII, 6; Stibbe 2009, 152, Table 15.2. Athena Alea, Aigies: ivory button and pins, bronze pins (Bonias 1998, 95, 207–8, 213, nos. 523–6, 553–6, pls. 61–2). Apollo Hyperteleatas, Phoiniki: bronze pin (Stibbe 2008, 28, fig. 33). Sanctuary of Athena on Palaiokastro, Kythera (Late Geometric and early archaic): bronze and ivory fibulae, bronze pins including of Orientalising type (Petrocheilos 2004, 458–9, figs. 12–14; 2007, 296–7, figs. 9, 10; 2009, 545). See also Stibbe 2009, Tables 15.1 and 15.2. 79 For the identification, Foxhall and Stears 2000, 9. For the study, Dawkins 1929, 237, pl. CLXII, 9, 10, 12. 80 For the identification, Foxhall and Stears 2000, 9, fig. 1.5. For the study, Dawkins 1929, 238, 242, pls. CCLXV, CLXXIII, 5 ,6. 81 For the identification, Foxhall and Stears 2000, 8, fig. 1.5. For a study of the ivory and bone combs from Artemis Orthia, Dawkins 1929, 222–4, esp. 224 (‘double combs’) and Marangou 1969, 93–111. 82 e.g. Athena Chalkioikos: Dickins 1907–8, 145. Artemis Orthia: Dawkins 1929, 242, pl. CLXXII,5. 83 e.g. Athena Chalkioikos: Dickins 1907–8, 145; Kythera, sanctuary of Athena: Petrocheilos 2007, 296, figs. 6, 7. 84 Athena Chalkioikos: Hondius and Woodward 1919–21, 117, no. 97; Pellana: Spyropoulos 2013, figs. 570–591, 841–844. 85 Hodkinson 1998; 2000, 271–94. 86 Foxhall and Stears 2000, 9. 72 73
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ Boardman 1963; Catling 1976–7, 42; 1977, 414; Cavanagh and Laxton 1984, 33; Hodkinson 2000, 274. 88 Foxhall and Stears 2000, 12, and further on pp. 12–13. 89 This volume (Chapter 1) with further examples and bibliography. 90 Anacreon F 481 Page: lydopatheis; cf. Hall 2009, 612–14. 91 cf. Foxhall and Stears 2000, 12; Hodkinson 2000, esp. 94–103; 2004, 109-11. 92 Kennell and Luraghi 2009, 241. The idea of lead votives being substitutes for expensive offerings is, however, not shared by Hodkinson (2000, 278) nor by the author of this chapter. 93 For Lakonian black-figure pottery, Pipili 1987 and 2018. 94 cf. Kennell and Luraghi 2009, 242. 95 Euripides, Alkestis 160, cf. 365; Xenophon, Oikonomikos 8.19, 9.2–10; Foxhall and Stears 2000, 5–6. 96 Some of these artefacts from the Geometric stratum have previously been identified as fibulae (Carter 1984) or as furniture decorations (Kopanias 2009). 97 Hodkinson 1998, 58; 2000, 273–93; 2004, 110. 98 Kennell 1995, 126–9, 135–8, 142. 99 Hodkinson 2000, 291; 2004, 110. 100 Hodkinson 2004, 110; Brøns 2016. 101 Hodkinson 2000, 293; Villing 2002. A small clay bell has also been reported from the sanctuary of Athena on Kythera (Petrocheilos 2007, 296, fig. 5). 102 Cf. Petrocheilos 2007, 296 for terracotta spindle whorls that may span the use of the sanctuary, from the eighth century to Hellenistic times. 103 cf. Droop 1929, 200. 87
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Chrysanthi Gallou 2007 ‘Αναθήματα του ιερού στο Παλιόκαστρο Κυθήρων’, in E. KonsolakiYannopoulou (ed.) Έπαθλον: Αρχαιολογικό Συνέδριο προς τιμήν του Αδώνιδος Κ. Κύρου, Athens, 295–306. 2009 ‘Παλιόκαστρο Κυθήρων: Νέες αρχαιολογικές μαρτυρίες’, in V. Vasilopoulou and S. Katsarou-Tzeveleki (eds) Από τα Μεσόγεια στον Αργοσαρωνικό: Β’ Εφορεία Προïστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων. Το έργο μιας δεκαετίας, 1994–2004, Markopoulo Mesogaias, 537–47. Pipili, M. 1987 Laconian Iconography of the Sixth Century bc, London. 2018 ‘Laconian pottery’, in Powell (ed.) 2018, vol. I, 126–42. Pomeroy, S.B. 2002 Spartan Women, Oxford. Powell, A. (ed.) 2018 A Companion to Sparta, vol. I, Hoboken, NJ. Raaflaub, K.A. and van Wees, H. (eds) 2009 A Companion to Archaic Greece, Chichester. Romano, I.B. 1988 ‘Early Greek cult images and cult practices’, in R. Hägg, N. Marinatos and G.C. Nordquist (eds) Early Greek Cult Practice, Stockholm, 12734. Rutter, J.B. and Zerner, C.W. 1984 ‘Early Hellado-Minoan contacts’, in R. Hägg and N. Marinatos (eds) The Minoan Thalassocracy: Myth and reality, Göteborg, 75–83. Sarpaki, A. 2019 ‘An archaeobotanical study of Alepotrypa cave’, Aura 2, 9–17. Siennicka, M. 2012 ‘Textile production in Early Helladic Tiryns’, in M.-L. Nosch and R. Laffineur (eds) Kosmos: Jewellery adornment and textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age, Leuven and Liège, 65–75. Sourvinou-Inwood, C. 2011 Athenian Myths and Festivals: Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia, Oxford. Spyropoulos, T.G. 2013 Λακεδαίμων, 3 vols., Athens. Stavrianopoulou, E. 2006 Ritual and Communication in the Graeco-Roman World, Kernos suppl. 16, Liège. Stibbe, C.M. 1989 ‘Beobachtungen zur Topographie des antiken Sparta’, BABesch 64, 61–99. 1996 ‘Frauen und Löwen’, Jahrbuch des römisch-germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 43, 355–81. 2008 ‘Laconian bronzes from the sanctuary of Apollo Hyperteleatas near Phoiniki (Laconia) and from the Acropolis of Athens’, BABesch 83, 17–45. 2009 ‘A silenus and a maenad: some bronze statuettes from the British excavations at Sparta reconsidered’, in Cavanagh, Gallou and Georgiadis (eds) 2009, 143–58.
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‘as we carry a robe to the dawn goddess’ Themos, A. 1996 ‘Σπάρτη: Οδός Λεωνίδου 105 (O.T. 17, οικόπεδο Π. Μανωλόπουλου)’, AD 51 B1, 107–8. Thommen, L. 2013 ‘Der Purpur Spartas’, in H. Meller, C.H. Wunderlich and F. Knoll (eds) Rot: Die Archäologie bekennt Farbe, Halle, 333–40. Tsiaggouris, G. 2007–10‘Σπάρτη. Οδοί Θερμοπυλών και Σακέτα (O.T. 123B, οικόπεδο Π. Πριστούρη)’ AD 65 B1, 462–3. Villing, A. 2002 ‘For whom did the bell toll in ancient Greece? Archaic and classical Greek bells at Sparta and beyond’, BSA 97, 223–95. Vlachou, V. 2017 ‘From Mycenaean cult practice to the Hyakinthia festival of the Spartan polis. Cult images, textiles and ritual activities at Amykles: an archaeological perspective’, in A. Tsingarida and I.S. Lemos (eds) Constructing Social Identities in Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece, Brussels, 11–42. von Reden, S. 2011 Review of H. Blum, Purpur als Statussymbol in der griechischen Welt, Classical Review 51.2, 426–7. Wace, A.J.B. 1929 ‘Lead figurines’, in Dawkins (ed.) 1929, 249–84. Wace, A.J.B., Thompson, M.S. and Droop, J.P. 1908–9 ‘Excavations at Sparta, 1909: the Menelaion’, BSA 15, 108–57. Waldstein, C. 1905 The Argive Heraeum, Vol. II, Boston and New York. Weingarten, J., Crouwel, J.H., Prent, M. and Vogelsang-Eastwood, G. 1999 ‘EH Sealings from Geraki in Lakonia, Greece’, OJA 18.4, 357–76. West, M.L. 1993 Greek Lyric Poetry: The poems and fragments of the Greek iambic, elegiac, and melic poets (excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) down to 450 bc, Oxford. Woodward, A.M. and Hobling, M.B. 1923–5 ‘Excavations at Sparta 1924-25’, BSA 26, 116–310. Woodward, A.M., Robert, L. and Woodward, J.M. 1927–8 ‘Excavations at Sparta 1924-28’, BSA 29, 1–107. Zavvou, E. 1996 ‘Αμύκλες Λακεδαίμονος. Σκλαβοχώρι (οικόπεδο Δημ. Κονιδάρη)’, AD 51 B1, 129–31. Zavvou, E. and Themos, A. 2009 ‘Sparta from prehistoric to early Christian times: observations from the excavations of 1994–2005’, in Cavanagh, Gallou and Georgiadis (eds) 2009, 105–22.
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4 KYNISKA: PRODUCTION AND USE OF WEALTH Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy This article considers how Kyniska, the sister of King Agesilaos II of Sparta, deployed and displayed her wealth in training and racing chariot-horses, and the economic structures implied by such use of wealth. The article is divided into two sections, the first by Annalisa Paradiso, the second by James Roy. While the two authors are in general agreement about the views expressed in the article as a whole, each has full and complete responsibility for her or his own section. 1. The economic implications of Kyniska’s use of wealth (Annalisa Paradiso) We do not have much information about Kyniska. We know only that she was the sister of Agesilaos II and the first woman to win the four-horse chariot-race at the Olympic Games. She even won twice and the dates proposed by Luigi Moretti (396 and 392 bc) are widely accepted, though not certain.1 She may have been born around 440, when Agesilaos was born.2 She was probably either not married or a widow at the time of her victories. Her father King Archidamos II, from the Eurypontid royal house, was a very rich man. His grandfather Leotychidas II married twice. From his first wife he had a son, Zeuxidamos, nicknamed Kyniskos. The latter died, so Leotychidas married again with Eurydame, by whom he had a daughter Lampito. Eurydame belonged to an important and well-known family. Leotychidas had his grandchild Archidamos (the son of Zeuxidamos) marry his own daughter Lampito (Herodotus 6.71). His marriage policy aimed both to provide a spare heir for the dynasty and not to disperse the family patrimony. Archidamos and Lampito, his wife and half-aunt, were heirs to the properties both of Leotychidas and of his two wives.3 Kyniska was the daughter of Archidamos, though her mother was probably not Lampito, but Archidamos’ second wife Eupolia, who was also the mother of Agesilaos. In the light of such genealogical data, and if we suppose, with Stephen Hodkinson, that women did inherit in Sparta, we must deduce
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy that Kyniska was one of the richest women in town. This is confirmed indirectly by the way that Xenophon (Agesilaos 9.6) introduces her, when he says that Agesilaos, himself a breeder of war-horses, persuaded her to rear horses for chariot-racing (ἁρματοτροφεῖν: see Paradiso 2015 and Part II by J. Roy) and compete in the four-horse chariot-race at the Olympic Games. Xenophon presents the enterprise as expensive and Kyniska as a woman who was, in the eyes of her brother, perfectly able to act by herself. Plutarch modifies Xenophon’s account, relating that Agesilaos persuaded Kyniska to compete in the Olympics, without mentioning breeding racehorses, since he evidently thought that Kyniska would already be a horsebreeder with a stable.4 According to both authors, Agesilaos encouraged his sister to devote herself to racehorses, since he aimed to show that such enterprises were due to wealth rather than to ἀνδραγαθία (‘manly virtue’, Xenophon) or ἀρετή (‘excellence’, Plutarch). Such an intended humiliation is not believable, since Kyniska took part in two Olympiads, whereas a single participation would have been sufficient to demonstrate Agesilaos’ proposition. Probably, Xenophon related an off-the-record commentary by Agesilaos rather than his real advice (Paradiso 2015). Kyniska may have been the ‘political agent’ of Agesilaos in achieving a victory that granted her an international reputation, as Ellen Millender supposes.5 Nevertheless, Kyniska could have taken the decision herself, moved by her own interests and thanks to her wealth. That wealth gave her the possibility of choosing how to use it, and even to showcase it.6 Pausanias saw the epigram that she commissioned to be inscribed on her thank-offering for her victory at Olympia, but he did not record it. However, the epigram was fully recorded in the Anthologia Palatina and the inscription itself also survives on the extant part of the monument’s round base, though with two important gaps and some differences in wording. In it, Kyniska proudly introduced herself as the only one, among all women, to win the four-horse chariot-race.7 Accordingly, Pausanias commented on that and her other dedications, by making allusion to her φιλοτιμία (‘ambition’) and to both her priorities, as the first woman in Greece to breed horses and win at the Olympic Games.8 She also offered other dedications, for instance one at the Menelaion.9 Such data match the image of a self-confident woman. Of course, that woman may have acted both on her own and in full accord with her brother’s politics. Kyniska’s fondness for chariot-racing and her wealth can serve as the starting point for some interesting reflections. She was certainly the first woman to break such records, but she was not the first Spartan royal to take an interest in horse-breeding and chariot-racing, not even within the Eurypontid royal house. According to Herodotus, King Damaratos was
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth the only Spartan king to win the four-horse chariot-race, possibly at the 69th Olympiad (504 bc).10 Within the Eurypontid house, Damaratos was the political and private enemy of Kyniska’s direct ancestor, Leotychidas. He had married the latter’s fiancée after seizing her by capture, but was subsequently deposed, with Leotychidas taking his throne.11 If Damaratos was indeed a horse-breeder, all that would have been lost when he and his family fled Sparta and went into exile in Persia. In the 390s his descendants were living in Asia Minor.12 On the other hand, Pausanias notes that during the fifth century other Spartans devoted themselves to horse breeding, especially after the Persian Wars. In the eight Olympic games in the years 448–420, seven Spartans are known to have won the four-horse chariot-race.13 From an economic and sociological point of view, horse-breeding for races (and not for war) is a matter of luxury, as being ‘unuseful’ and done for show. It is very expensive, and many ancient sources on Sparta introduce it this way. For Xenophon, Agesilaos thought that chariot-horse races were a matter of wealth, πλοῦτος; for Plutarch, the king thought it was, more specifically, a matter of expenditure, πλοῦτος καὶ δαπάνη. For Isocrates, Archidamos III (the son of Agesilaos) criticised citizens who bred teams of horses that devoured much money, ἀδηφαγούντων.14 It would be interesting to have an inside look at the nature and origin of the wealth such enterprises involved. Kyniska was ‘rich’, and that certainly means that she had landed properties. However, her properties, and the helot labour that farmed them, do not entirely account for the management of two Olympic victories. In other words, a more articulated economic model must have underpinned them, in a city where only iron money allegedly circulated, but silver currency was also admitted and deposits of precious metals were possibly preserved.15 Let us review what was needed for hippotrophia, starting with the traditional structures of the Spartan economy. First, feeding horses was exacting. To win twice, Kyniska must have bred and engaged more than two teams in competitions, a fairly high number of horses, to assure replacements in case of serious accidents. To feed them, rich land was needed for pasture, and also for cultivation, since a huge amount of barley would be devoted to horses, besides what was reserved for human food. The best lands were possibly located in the Pamisos valley in Messenia. In the same places, near the pasturelands, might also be located both the stables and, possibly, a private hippodrome (see Part II). Second, helot labour. Many tasks must have been accomplished by helotic labour. One may think of the duties performed by the personnel who took care of the organization, maintenance, and cleaning of both the
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy stables and the horses.16 Plato (Alc. 1.122d–e) reviews the wealth of the Spartiates: their landed properties, slaves (andrapoda) and helots, horses and cattle. His statement suggests that slaves and helots specifically cared for horses and cattle (Blaineau 2015, 123). According to Pausanias, the statues of two paidia were located at Olympia as part of the chariot-race victory monument of the Spartan Polykles, who was depicted holding the ribbon: one of the boys was holding a wheel, the other was asking for the ribbon.17 If the two paidia were stable boys rather than Polykles’ children, as Eckstein suggested, here might be a representation of helotic labour in the field of chariot-racing.18 The people who tamed and/or trained the horses and foals could also even have been helots. However, in Athens horse-breakers, as opposed to grooms, were usually hired as free skilled labour (Xenophon, On Horsemanship 2.2). Third, chariots. Chariots were not imported as luxury items. It was well-known that carriages and wagons were produced in Lakonike, by skilled labour of course. Their manufacture was very ancient and already attested at Bronze Age Pylos (Ventris and Chadwick 1956, 373–5). In the Odyssey (4.587 ff.), when Telemachus visits Menelaus, the king offers him a chariot and three horses as a gift. In the classical period, Xenophon mentions the loading of military equipment on carts, and Theophrastus comments on the type of timber used for the construction of Spartan wagons.19 Poseidon Gaieochos was said ‘to rejoice over the chariots’ that competed in the hippodrome near the sanctuary of the god at his festival near Therapne.20 When he visited Sparta, Themistokles was presented with an ochos, a vehicle, just like Telemachus. Borimir Jordan has argued that it was neither a baggage cart (hamaxa) nor a racing chariot (harma), thinking that the former was an unsuitable gift and the latter too light for long-distance transport. So, he supposed that the vehicle was a wicker kannathron, a beautifully crafted carriage, since Herodotos, who relates the story, says that it was the most beautiful in Sparta and Plutarch states that kannathra were lavishly decorated with wooden shapes of griffins and goat-stags.21 Being so lavishly decorated, kannathra could be expensive and the proof is that the daughter of frugal Agesilaos personally used a politikon kannathron, a simple one, befitting an ordinary citizen.22 Whatever Themistocles’ ochos may have been, we can deduce from this story and the other testimonies that skilled labour was available to manufacture vehicles at Sparta and elsewhere in Lakonia and Messenia. The circuit of hippodromes in perioikic territory (at Thouria, Thyreatis, and on the hill of Prophitis Ilias)23 allows us to guess that urgent repair of chariots could be assured in the various places where competitions were held. However, Kyniska surely counted on personnel who worked for her, probably also helots.
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth Fourth, horse training and racing could be traumatic for horses. Some skill in caring for the horses’ health would be required. The earliest occurrence of the term hippiatros (‘farrier’) is late, in the second century bc, and perhaps Simon of Athens, who wrote about horses in the fifth century, never wrote the medical manual entitled Hippoiatrikos that the Suda lexicon attributes to him.24 Xenophon (On Horsemanship 4.2) reviewed the most useful criteria for examining horses, such as the criteria for finding out their age, but he mentioned in passing only three problems of health: surfeit of blood, exhaustion, and laminitis (inflammation of the lamina of the hoof). Before him, Simon dealt with the main anatomic features and behaviour of swift horses (i.e. racehorses), which were hence the object of specific technical reflection.25 Aristotle knows in fact of ‘experts’ (ἔμπειροι) in horse matters, who evidently cared for the animals’ health as specialized personnel, even if they were not professional horse-doctors.26 Once again, this is a form of skilled labour that could have been of helot origin. Of course, the social origin of all the forms of skilled labour I have reviewed could be challenged and attributed instead to non-helotic labour (perioikic? foreign?), but this would have been expensive. Thus far, one can ascribe the management of Kyniska’s hippotrophia to an economic nexus founded on land tenure and largely helotic skilled labour. However, other aspects seem to involve, and even demand, other forms of payment and access to a cash economy. First, the horses. Damonon, a rich Spartan who won at several regional races but never at the Olympic Games, nonetheless boasted of his horses, born from his own mares and stallions. Thus, even if it was customary in Sparta to lend and borrow horses,27 Kyniska possibly did not borrow a stallion for her mares but owned them both. The Spartans knew different ‘races’ of horses: Alcman, for instance, knows of Enetic, Colaxaean, and Ibenian racehorses.28 In the later fifth century, either in 424 or in 440, a Spartan victor in the Olympic four-horse chariot-race, Leon, proudly claims in the inscription engraved on his victory monument at Olympia that he won thanks to his Enetic horses (Λέων Λακεδαιμόνιος ἵπποισι νικῶν Ἐνέταις Ἀντικλείδα πατήρ: ‘Leon Lakedaimonian winning with Enetic horses...’).29 Polemon of Ilion, who relates the inscription, adds that Leon was the first to gain a success through an Enetic team; but such information, not preserved in the inscription, may simply have been deduced from the possibly unique mention, in dedications, of such horses.30 Unless we suppose that a foreign ‘breed’ had been maintained in Sparta since the time of Alcman, never being crossed in time with local ones, Leon’s singular claim could have been justified by an innovation, a recent purchase of
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy foreign Enetic horses (Hodkinson 2000, 313). Polemon too noticed that the mention of such horses needed an explanation. If it happened, such a purchase would have brought Sparta into an important commercial circuit involving other Greek, and non-Greek, areas, such as the Adriatic region or even Paphlagonia, the alleged original home-country of the Enetic race (Blaineau 2015, 100 n. 264). That circuit required of course access to a cash economy. Second, after her exploits, Kyniska dedicated at Olympia two offerings that Pausanias describes as two groups of statues. The first comprised a chariot and its team of four horses, the charioteer, and Kyniska herself (the first member of a royal family to be so portrayed): part of its round base has been found.31 The second offering comprised a chariot and bronze horses on a smaller scale.32 Both statue groups were made by Apelleas, the son of Kallikles, who signed them. Apelleas was not a Spartan, but from Megara, so Kyniska must have paid him, and twice. Possibly, she paid the author of the epigram too, if he was a foreigner like Simonides, who had composed the epigram for Pausanias the regent.33 One cannot realistically suppose any form of payment other than silver (in coin or bullion) or even useful bronze. Note the nickname of Polykles mentioned above, who gained victories in all four of the ‘Crown games’: ‘Polychalkos’, ‘rich in bronze’, with possible, and polysemic, allusion to the number of his bronze victory statues, but also to his wealth, either abstract (‘polychalkos’ is associated by Homer to ‘polychrysos’, ‘rich in gold’) or concrete, in some form of bronze.34 Third, Kyniska would also have had cash at her disposal for other necessities, linked to travel and the problems of transport, but above all for the stay of the horses, chariots, and personnel from the stables, at the places of competition. She must have sent the horses (and all they needed) to Olympia some time (around a month?) before, to have them accustomed to the hippodrome and to allow inspection by the Elean officials who registered teams for the races. The horses were possibly conveyed on carts, so as to avoid pre-competition inflammations of the hooves or serious bone, joint, tendon or muscle injuries from walking on the ancient roads of the Peloponnese.35 Both personnel and horses also had to be fed. Theoretically, one could imagine the movement of carts of barley and fodder from the owner’s estates. However, the most practical scenario is that food and fodder were purchased at Olympia, where a market certainly existed and flourished, since it provided goods for every need. The same probably happened at the local Lakonian, and especially perioikic, festivals where chariot-races or competitions involving horses ridden by jockeys were held. If one considers the number of rich Spartans
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth involved in horse competitions, an enormous amount of cash must have circulated. This confirms definitively that racing was founded on a double economic nexus involving a cash economy alongside the more static economy of the kleroi and helotic labour. A last word may be added about Kyniska. If she did decide to begin such an enterprise, clearly she did so out of interest and even a passion for horsebreeding and competitions, and for fame and display. One can suppose that she managed her stables through some intermediary (a bailiff?) but was personally involved as well. ‘Intermediaries’ are listed among the people who surrounded Agesistrata, the mother of Agis IV.36 It is conceivable that Kyniska paid regular visits to her horses and controlled her property. That women managed their estate and its economy may be true, all the more if they did inherit. Men were reportedly involved in other activities: war, politics, common meals, hunting etc. Women probably assured the necessary link between the oikos and the family landholdings, supervising the arrival of the produce and its storage at home. They were surely accustomed to economic management. Only Kyniska did it on a larger scale and also for fun. 2. Kyniska’s racing stable (James Roy) This text seeks to complement the arguments set out by Annalisa Paradiso in the preceding text, and in her publication of 2015 on Kyniska, by considering what was required to breed and train a four-horse chariot-team (or -teams). Stephen Hodkinson’s discussion of the enthusiasm of wealthy Spartans for horse-racing is well-known, and underlies all I have to say here.37 I agree with Paradiso that the ancient texts strongly suggest that Kyniska reared her horses, and in fact bred them, as she has already argued elsewhere.38 Xenophon, for instance, draws a clear parallel (Agesilaos 9.6) between Agesilaos’ rearing, and clearly breeding, many war-horses and hunting-dogs and Kyniska’s ἁρματοτροφεῖν, i.e. rearing horses for chariot-racing. Indeed, her repeated victories at Olympia (Paus. 6.1.6) show that she was committed over several years to maintaining chariot-horses, and had equipped herself to do so. The point is important, since on it depends how long and how obviously she displayed wealth by successful chariot-racing. A fragment of Polycrates, transmitted by Athenaeus,39 tells us that Spartan girls ( parthenoi) travelled to the Hyakinthia in elaborately decorated wicker carts (kannathra), but some paraded on two-horse chariots. The text as transmitted contains, in the phrase about chariots, a reference to competition (ἐφ’ ἁμίλλαις). Does this mean that the girls raced? Details are obscure because that part of the text is clearly corrupt, and Kaibel,
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy in the Teubner edition of Athenaeus, suggested that a gloss referring to competition had been imported into the text.40 In any case the text does not make it clear that the girls drove their chariots, as opposed to riding on them behind a charioteer. Nonetheless, Arrigoni recognises racing cautiously as possibility, while Pomeroy boldly asserts that ‘some raced in chariots drawn by a yoke of horses’. However Richer offers a detailed description of the Hyakinthia, showing that the festival did not include any kind of athletic or sporting contest.41 If the ritual parade described by Polycrates of girls, some in kannathra and some in chariots, existed already in the fifth century, then at Sparta there was at least a curious and very public association of girls and racing-chariots. Then Kyniska’s interest in chariot-racing took much further an interest that, at least in a mild way, was encouraged in Spartan girls. To assess what was needed to prepare a successful chariot-team for Olympia an obvious question is how good the horses had to be. Herodotus tells us (6.103.2-4) that both the Spartan Euagoras and the Athenian Kimon won three times with the same team. Burford says of Kimon: ‘if he had been a serious horse breeder, he should have been able to enter other, younger horses too’,42 implying that younger horses would have been better, and so that the standard of chariot-racing at the Olympics could have been higher. Certainly, both Euagoras and Kimon won in the sixth century,43 and standards might have risen later; but we know of their teams precisely because they did win, and for their last victory must have beaten younger horses. Moreover, studies of modern racehorses show that they can race until about the age of twelve: more on this later. Also the monetary value put on successful ancient teams shows that they were highly prized. Much of the available information is related to Alkibiades’ entry of seven teams in 416, and Gribble uses that evidence to suggest an approximate value of five talents per team.44 We also know that a penalty imposed at Olympia included two horses, presumably a racing pair, valued at two talents (and their gear valued at thirty minai):45 since it would be easier to match a pair than to create a team of four, the pair might well be relatively somewhat cheaper, though still costly. Thus a good team was greatly valued, and Olympic racing standards were probably as high as they could be. There was an element of chance in the outcome of chariot-races, because crashes and other accidents were not uncommon. It is not clear how many teams competed in an Olympic four-horse chariot-race, and estimates have gone as high as sixty.46 These numbers seem incredible, but, since Alkibiades in 416 and Dionysios I of Syracuse in 388 (D.S. 14.109.1–4) were allowed to enter multiple teams, the number admitted
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth to the race was presumably not small, and there is no evidence that heats were run to reduce the number of teams.47 Also, Pindar (Pythian 5.43–53) wrote of Arkesilas of Kyrene defeating forty other competitors at the Pythia, though the figure has been questioned.48 In any case, accidents were certainly frequent,49 and no doubt sometimes prevented a good team from winning. Also, starting positions, which must have affected chances of success, were probably decided by lot.50 On the other hand, the multiple wins by some competitors, including Kyniska, show that the outcome of the chariot-race was not due simply to chance. In any case, anyone rearing a chariot-team, or -teams, had to plan rationally, training the horses to perform at their best. On horse-breeding in ancient Greece we now have the work of Blaineau (2015). His main concern is the war-horse, but he covers hippotrophia generally. In an extended discussion (pp. 143–68) he questions whether it is legitimate to speak of ‘races’ (in a genetic sense) of horses in ancient Greece, but shows that there was a clear belief that it was possible to breed selectively for desired qualities, probably relying especially on the sire. Then, drawing heavily on Xenophon, he shows that selective breeding had to be matched by training.51 Throughout his book Blaineau takes it for granted that the war-horses in which he is primarily interested were distinct from racehorses (including chariot-horses). He examines in detail the evidence for that distinction, drawing on literary texts, artistic representations (which, he acknowledges, may be unreliable), and the different physical characteristics required in war-horses and in racehorses.52 The same distinction is clear in Xenophon Agesilaos 9.6:53 Agesilaos kept many hounds for hunting and war-horses, but persuaded Kyniska to breed chariot-horses. Even if Xenophon’s anecdote is historically imprecise, he clearly distinguished war-horses and racehorses.54 Kyniska’s chariot-horses were not simply a by-product of Agesilaos’ stable of war-horses. There are no statistics on the careers of horses in ancient chariot-racing, but ancient views of how a horse developed over its lifetime are known. They are gathered by Blaineau (2015, 246–7), drawing especially on the views of Simon, whose work on horses, written probably in the fifth century, survives in fragments.55 The horse began to lose its milk-teeth around the age of two and a half years, and had lost them all by roughly four and a half. It then became fully mature physically at about six. At the Olympic Games a chariot-race for teams of four foals was introduced in 384; this is recorded by Pausanias (5.8.10), but also on an Athenian inscription which gives an important list of the dates at which Olympic events were introduced. The inscription specifies (as Pausanias does not)
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy that the chariot-race for foals was for pôloi aboloi, i.e. foals that had not yet lost their milk-teeth. According to Pausanias (6.2.1-2), a Spartan called Lykinos once tried to enter a team for this race but one of his horses was not accepted: he then entered his team for the main chariot-race, and won.56 There are problems with Pausanias’ account of Lykinos, discussed by Stephen Hodkinson, who accepts Pausanias’ report.57 If that is right, Lykinos’ horses will have been less than four-and-a half years old. Nonetheless, even four-year-olds are much less mature than five- or six-year-olds, and if Lykinos did indeed win the four-horse chariot-race with such young horses, they must have been an exceptional team: such a victory is in fact much more surprising than victory by ten- or eleven-year-olds. For comparison there are various studies of modern racehorses, though obviously not of chariot-teams. A study of American thoroughbred racehorses (Gramm and Marksteiner 2010) showed that they race from the age of two to nine or more: one horse raced at the age of 12.4 years. Performance improved rapidly until the age of four and a half, and then declined much more slowly as the horse aged. A study of horses up to the age of eight or nine running in races organised by the Japan Racing Association (Takahashi 2015) also found that speed improved until age four and a half, but noticed no significant decline thereafter; it was speculated that the apparent lack of decline was due to decreases in the weight carried and the retirement of less successful horses. The careers of thoroughbreds racing in Hong Kong showed that some began racing at age two, and their subsequent careers did not suffer from this early start.58 The longest career, calculated from the first race, was 92.58 months; however, in Hong Kong racehorses are required to retire at age eleven. Among thoroughbreds racing in Australia career-lengths from the first race of up to 11.47 years were recorded, although most were much shorter.59 These various studies show that modern racehorses can compete from age two, and in some cases, admittedly a small minority, continue to ages eleven, twelve, or thirteen. The horses examined in these studies were running in flat races. However, in article on an ancient racehorse called Pherenikos, Henderson (2011) included a breakdown of the ages of winners between 1950 and 2011 of the Grand National (a famous English steeplechase): more than half were nine or more years old, and nine horses were twelve. Skill in jumping fences may have compensated for advancing age. Similarly Miller (1978, 152 n. 18) quoted comments made to him by J. K. Anderson: I have benefitted from discussion with J. K. Anderson who assures me that a successful career of even fourteen years, although very long, is
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth not beyond the realm of possibility. He also reminds me that the Greek hippodrome, with its single turning-post at either end, will have placed demands upon skill and experience in negotiating the turns, as well as upon speed. A simple comparison between a modern flat track racehorse and an ancient horse is not valid.
Anderson’s point is very important: in a successful four-horse chariot-team skill and experience could compensate for increasing age. This point can be expanded. Racing in an ancient hippodrome required a combination of speed on the straight and a tight turn round the end-post. Each horse had a different role in the turn, the outside horse travelling much farther than the innermost, and these four different roles had to be coordinated to allow the chariot to lose as little time as possible.60 The longer a well-trained team could continue as a team, the greater would be its experience and skill. To breed racehorses Kyniska must have acquired suitable mares, and possibly also one or more stallions, unless she bred from the stallions of others. Her stable must have been large enough to allow selection among the foals, both for speed and endurance and to match others in a team. If a breeder had enough suitable horses, it would have been advantageous to form a team with horses of roughly the same age, since they could then continue as a team throughout their racing career. It would also be advisable to prepare replacement horses in case any horse suffered injury or illness. To have a reasonable chance of winning at Olympia, the horses would need to be at least about three years old, and, since a mare carries her foal for eleven months, they would need to be conceived at latest around the time of the previous Games. If Kyniska bred her horses, she must have begun at the latest four years before her first victory, and that would assume that her very first foals produced a team of Olympic victors: a longer period before her victory is much more likely. If the first victory did indeed fall in 396, then Kyniska was probably breeding already during the reign of her half-brother, Agis II, Agesilaos’ predecessor (Paradiso 2015, 239). A team would need to be trained to race as a team among competing teams. That would require a hippodrome, or a comparable track. There were several hippodromes in Lakonia and Messenia,61 but it might have been impractical to use them for training. Evidence from elsewhere about work to make hippodromes ready for festivals suggests that they were not always kept permanently fit for racing, and some at least were rented out for pasture between festivals (Mathé 2010): moreover, unless the hippodrome happened to be very near the horse-breeder’s estate, there would have been the problem of moving the horses frequently. Therefore,
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy Kyniska may well have created a race-track on her estate, with costs in construction and maintenance, even if helot labour was used, since land and labour would be diverted from agricultural production. Then to train her horses to compete she would have needed several teams. In any case, it would have been desirable to give the horses the experience of real competition as soon as they were fit to take part, and that would have meant showing them in public. The numerous races in Lakonia and Messenia listed on the Damonon stele show that a Spartan owner could launch a team in real competition in local events, and Kyniska presumably did so. That would make her racing stable very well known among Spartans. Pomeroy points out (2002, 23) that the anecdote, in Xenophon and Plutarch, that Agesilaos encouraged Kyniska to race at Olympia ‘suggests that he thought his sister’s horses had a good chance to win’: the point is well taken, and implies that Kyniska’s horses had shown what they were capable of. Clearly, Kyniska won at Olympia at her first attempt, and we can safely assume that she had not previously competed at any other of the great panhellenic festivals, but her horses could have raced in Lakonia and Messenia. Kyniska could pursue her interest because she possessed and controlled great wealth. When she won at Olympia, the whole Greek world saw some of her wealth on the race-track, and knew that much more had been expended in preparation. Among Spartans, however, her display of wealth would have begun long before, and it continued for at least four more years. And behind her wealth on public display lay the wealth carefully managed and employed over several years to maintain a racing stable. Though Kyniska would be able to employ suitable staff to run both her estates and her racing stable, there is no reason to doubt that she took a strong personal interest in this range of activity. And, even if her wealth was derived from land and helot labour, she acquired, in negotiable form, the resources needed to purchase in Lakonia and beyond not only equipment and supplies but the memorials of her success that were famous throughout the Greek world.
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth Abbreviations BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby (https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/), Leiden, 2007–. FGE = D.L. Page (ed.) Further Greek Epigrams, Cambridge, 1981. FGrH = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin, 1923–. IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–. IvO = W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold (eds) Inschriften von Olympia, Berlin, 1896. PMG = D.L. Page (ed.) Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford, 1962. Notes 1 Pausanias 3.8.1; 3.15.1; 5.12.5; 6.1.6; Moretti 1957, nos. 373 and 381. 2 Moretti 1953, 41, 43. 3 Hodkinson 2000, 65–112, esp. 94–104. 4 Plutarch, Agesilaos 20.1: cf. Apophthegmata Laconica (Agesilaos 49) 212b. 5 Millender 2009, 25; 2018; 2019. Cf. Kyle 2003. 6 On both τιμή (‘honour’) and δύναμις (‘power’) provided for women through wealth, cf. Plutarch, Agis 7.6. In Euripides’ Andromache, Hermione is given freedom of speech and power at home through her possessions (ll.147–53 and 940): see Ellen Millender’s analysis in this volume (Chapter 6) of Euripides’ portrayal of Hermione as evidence (presented in a critical manner) of female wealth in Sparta. 7 Anthologia Palatina 13.16; cf. IvO 160 = IG V 1, 1564a = Moretti 1953, no. 17. 8 Pausanias 3.8.1–2; 6.1.6. 9 IG V 1, 235; cf. IG V 1, 1567. 10 Herodotus 6.70.3, with Moretti 1957, no. 157. 11 Herodotus 6.65; 6.67; 6.70.2. 12 Xenophon, Hell.3.1.6; Anab. 2.1.3; 7.8.17; Pausanias 3.7.8; Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica (Leotychidas 1) 224D; Sextus Empiricus, Adversus Mathematicos 1.258. 13 Pausanias 6.2.1. Cf. Moretti 1957, nos. 305, 311, 315, 324, 327, 332, and 339. 14 Xenophon, Agesilaos 9.6; Plutarch, Agesilaos 20.1; Isocrates, Arch. 55. See also Aristophanes, Clouds 12–74 and Xenophon, Hell. 6.4.11, with Hodkinson 2000, 303–33; Thommen 2014, 129–33. 15 Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 7.5; Plutarch, Lycurgus 9. Cf. Hodkinson 2000, 151–86. For further discussion, see Alain Bresson’s paper in this volume, Chapter 5. 16 This personnel has been listed by Fornis 2014, 313. 17 Pausanias 6.1.7, with Moretti 1957, no. 315: 85th Olympiad = 440 bc. 18 Meyer and Eckstein 1987, 265. 19 Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 11.2; Theophrastus, History of Plants 3.16.3. 20 Hesychius γ 50 Latte, s.v. γαιήοχος. 21 Jordan 1988, 565–9: cf. Herodotus 8.124; Plutarch, Agesilaos 19.8. 22 Xenophon, Agesilaos 8.7; Plutarch, Agesilaos 19.7. On young Spartan women being carried in kannathra or processing in two-horse (racing?) chariots at the Hyakinthia, cf. Polycrates FGrH/BNJ 588 F 1 (= Athenaeus 4.139 f), discussed more fully in Section 2. 23 Victories at four-horse chariot-races or through the κέλης, the horse ridden by a jockey, in Lakonia are listed by Damonon in his stele: cf. IG V.1. 213 = Moretti
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy 1953, no. 16, with the commentary of Nafissi 2013, 130–2 and also Christesen 2019, who identifies references to the kalpe, a contest for mares in which the rider dismounted and ran alongside his cavalry-horse. For an English translation based on Christesen’s interpretation, Cooley 2017, C83 (pp. 85–6). 24 McCabe 2007, 277: Suda τ 987. 25 Simon, fr. 4 Ruehl = Pollux 1.194: εὔδρομος ὁ ἵππος ὁ ὀλίγον αἴρων ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἐν τῷ τρέχειν τὰ σκέλη (‘the horse that, while running, raises its legs moderately from the ground is swift’). 26 History of Animals VII (VIII) 604b26. 27 Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 6.3. 28 Alcman, Parth., PMG 1, 54 ff. On ‘races’, note however the doubts of Blaineau 2015, 143–68. 29 The last two words of the Greek would mean ‘father of Antikleidas’, a very strange phrase in this context, but the reference to Enetic horses seems secure. On the possible emendations of Ἀντικλείδα πατήρ, cf. Whitehead 1979. 30 Polemon, fr. 22 Mueller/19 Preller: scholion to Euripides, Hippolytus 230. Cf. Moretti 1957, no. 332. 31 Pausanias 6.1.6; IvO 160. The second one to be portrayed was Archidamos III, the nephew of Kyniska: Christien 2009. 32 Pausanias 5.12.5; IvO 634. 33 Simonides, FGE 17a. Hodkinson 2000, 322–3. 34 Pausanias 6.1.7; Iliad 10.315. Moretti 1957, no. 315. 35 Greek horses had no horseshoes: on hooves worn down by long marches, cf. Diodorus 17.94.2; Quintus Curtius 8.2.33–4; Appian, Mithridatika 325. On the danger to hooves from damp and slippery surfaces, with the recommendation that the latter be paved with stones to harden the horses’s feet, cf. Xenophon, On Horsemanship 4.3. A horse is represented walking on ground strewn with round stones on a fragmentary Late Geometric Argive krater, ca. 750–730 bc (Moore 2004, 50 and fig. 29). Evidently, ancient roads involved dangerous walking conditions. 36 Plutarch, Agis 6.7, termed pelatai, philoi, and chreostai. 37 Hodkinson 2000, 335–68: cf. Hodkinson 2004, especially 111–12. 38 Paradiso (2015, 237–8) argues that Kyniska will have been breeding horses well before her first success at Olympia. On this point I might seem to differ from Stephen Hodkinson, but in fact do not: he argued (2000, 313, with n. 26 on p. 331) that Kyniska probably acquired a mature team, but later wrote of Kyniska’s breeding horses (2004, 111), and confirmed in discussion at the conference in Nottingham that he accepts that Kyniska may have bred horses. 39 Polycrates FGrH/BNJ 588 fr.1 = Athenaeus Deip. 4.139F. 40 Kaibel 1887 ad loc. Vannini 2020 argues that the words referring to girls on chariots are a gloss interpolated in the text of Athenaeus, and that ἁμίλλαις is a corruption of ἁμίππων (‘two-horsed’), i.e. that the gloss said that girls rode to the festival on two-horse chariots but with no reference to racing. 41 Arrigoni 1985, 94; Pomeroy 2002, 20 n. 69. Raschke (1994) considered the possibility that the female figures shown driving three-horse chariots on an Athenian red-figure kylix of the later fifth century were Spartan girls, but concluded that they were more probably not human but Nikai: Neils (2012, 158–61) nevertheless argued that these figures are further evidence for chariot–racing by Spartan girls.
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth In discussions of the Hyakinthia, Pettersson (1992, 10) supposes without discussion that girls took part in horse-races. Richer (2012, 343–82) analyses the Hyakinthia, with (357–61) details of the programme of the festival. 42 Burford 1993, 74, cf. Hodkinson 2000, 313. 43 Moretti 1957 dates Euagoras’ victories to 548, 544, and 540 (Moretti nos. 110, 113, 117, accepted by Hodkinson 2000, 313), and those of Kimon to 536, 532, and 528 (Moretti nos. 120, 124, 127). 44 Gribble 2012, especially 56. Cf. Davies (1981, 99–101) on the cost of chariot– racing to Athenian owners. 45 Minon 2007 no. 19, c.475–450 bc = IvO 13. 46 As noted by Lee 2001, 38. For overviews of the problem, Crowther 1993, 46–8 = 2004, 177–9 and Jacquemin 2002, 257–8; note the doubts of Canali De Rossi (2011, 26) about the possibility of a high number. While there is archaeological evidence for the starting-system (hysplex) used for foot-races (Valavanis 1999; Rieger 2004; Dimde 2016), there is no such evidence for a hysplex in a hippodrome in Greece: investigation of the only hippodrome identified and investigated archaeologically, on Mt. Lykaion in Arkadia, has so far revealed nothing about how races were started (Romano and Voyatzis 2015, 245–58). 47 On heats in other events, Crowther 1992, 68–74 = 2004, 215–21. Running heats for the chariot-races would have been very demanding for the horses, and damaging for the surface of the hippodrome, besides taking up a considerable time (on the programme of events, Lee 2001). 48 Ebert (1989, 97–8) found the figure of 40 incredible, and suggested that it might be due to textual corruption. 49 Crowther 1994, 121–33 = 2004, 229–40. He notes (1994, 122 = 2004, 230) that [Andocides] Against Alcibiades 26 expresses the view that most equestrian events were decided by chance, but that some editors emend the text and eliminate the reference to chance. 50 On the drawing of lots, attested for other events, Ajootian 2007. 51 Blaineau 2015, 157–66; also 263–9 on ‘dressage’. 52 On the distinction between war-horses and racehorses e.g. Blaineau 2015, 36 ‘les chevaux de course’, and Index général p. 333 ‘course (cheval de)’. Blaineau (29–52) examines the physical characteristics of ancient Greek horses, arguing that racehorses would be bigger. Willekes 2019 adds some points on the breeding of ancient racehorses. 53 So Hodkinson 2000, 312, 331 n. 25. 54 Xenophon in his equestrian treatises (Hipp. 3.7, 8.1; Cav. Comm. 1.5, 1.18, 8.2–3) mentions training needed for war-horses such as jumping ditches, leaping over walls, rushing up banks, jumping down from banks and galloping down slopes: such training was not suitable for racehorses. 55 Simon was known to Xenophon (e.g. Hipp. 1.1.3). Simon fr. 4 Ruehl refers specifically to racehorses. 56 We know from Pausanias (5.24.10) that there were at Olympia judges who assessed the horses that competitors wished to enter for the foals’ race, but oddly they did not disclose their reasons for any decision. No doubt the decision on whether a horse was still a foal depended mainly, or entirely, on the state of its milk-teeth. 57 Hodkinson 2000, 308, with n. 15 on p. 330. 58 Velie, Stewart, Lam, Wade, and Hamilton 2013.
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy Velie, Wade, and Hamilton 2013. On the horses’ different roles, Pierros 2003, 351–6. 61 As the Damonon stele shows: IG V 1.213; see Nafissi 2013. English translation in Cooley 2017, C83 (pp. 85–6). 59
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Bibliography Ajootian, A. 2007 ‘Heroic and athletic sortition at ancient Olympia’, in G.P. Schaus and S.R. Wenn (eds) Onward to the Olympics: Historical perspectives on the Olympic Games, Waterloo, 115–29. Arrigoni, G. 1985 ‘Donne e sport nel mondo greco’, in G. Arrigoni (ed.) Le donne in Grecia, Rome and Bari, 55–201. Blaineau, A. 2015 Le cheval de guerre en Grèce ancienne, Rennes. Burford, A. 1993 Land and Labour in the Greek World, Baltimore and London. Canali De Rossi, F. 2011 Hippiká. Corse di cavalli in Grecia, Etruria e Roma. Vol. 1: La gara delle quadrighe nel mondo greco, Nikephoros Beihefte 18, Hildesheim. Christien, J. 2009 ‘Archidamos III: in memoriam’, in G. Hoffmann and A. Gailliot (eds) Rituels et transgressions de l’Antiquité à nos jours, Amiens, 243–58. Cooley, M.G.L. (ed.) 2017 Sparta, London Association of Classical Teachers – Original Records 21, London. Crowther, N.B. 1992 ‘Rounds and byes in Greek athletics’, Stadion 18, 68–74 [= Crowther 2004, 215–21]. 1993 ‘Numbers of contestants in Greek athletic contests’, Nikephoros 6, 39–52 [= Crowther 2004, 171–82]. 1994 ‘Reflections on Greek equestrian events: violence and spectator attitudes’, Nikephoros 7, 121–33 [= Crowther 2004, 229–40]. 2004 Athletika: Studies on the Olympic Games and Greek athletics, Nikephoros Beiheft 11, Hildesheim. Davies, J.K. 1981 Wealth and the Power of Wealth in Classical Athens, New York. Dimde, B. 2016 ‘The anatomy of a stadium’s racetrack: bilateral starting-lines, unilateral hyspleges and amphitheatrical installations’, in N. Katsonopoulou and E. Partida (eds) ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝ: Essays presented to Stephen G. Miller, Athens, 67–88. Ebert, J. 1989 ‘Neues zum Hippodrom und zu den hippischen Konkurrenzen in Olympia’, Nikephoros 2, 89–107.
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth Fornis, C. 2014 ‘Cynisca l’Eurypontide: genre, autorité et richesse dans la Sparte impériale du début du IVe siècle avant notre ère’, Mètis n.s. 12, 311–24. Gramm, M., and Marksteiner, R. 2010 ‘The effect of age on thoroughbred racing performance’, Journal of Equine Science 21.4, 73–8. Gribble, D. 2012 ‘Alcibiades at the Olympics: performance, politics and civic ideology’, Classical Quarterly 62, 45–71. Kaibel, G. 1887 Athenaei Naucratitae Dipnosophistarum Libri XV, Vol. 1, Libri I–V, Leipzig. Henderson, W.J. 2011 ‘A race–horse called Pherenikos’, Akroterion 56, 21–30. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London. 2004 ‘Female property ownership and empowerment in classical and Hellenistic Sparta’, in T.J. Figueira (ed.) Spartan Society, Swansea, 103–36. Hornblower, S. 2000 ‘Thucydides, Xenophon, and Lichas: were the Spartans excluded from the Olympic Games from 420 to 400 bc?’, Phoenix 54, 212–25. 2008 A Commentary on Thucydides, Vol. III, Books 5.25–8.109, Oxford and New York. Jacquemin, A. 2002 Pausanias, Description de a Grèce, Livre VI, l’Élide (II), Paris. Jordan, B. 1988 ‘The honors for Themistocles after Salamis’, American Journal of Philolog y 109, 547–71. Kyle, D.G. 2003 ‘The only woman in all Greece’, Journal of Sport History 30, 183–203. Lee, H.M. 2001 The Program and Schedule of the Ancient Olympic Games, Nikephoros Beiheft 6, Hildesheim. Mathé, V. 2010 ‘Le coût des stades et des hippodromes’, in B. Le Guen (ed.) L’argent dans les concours du monde grec, Saint-Denis, 189–223. McCabe, A. 2007 A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine: The sources, compilation, and transmission of the Hippiatrica, Oxford. Meyer E. and Eckstein F. 1987 Pausanias. Reisen in Griechenland II, Darmstadt. Millender, E. 2009 ‘The Spartan dyarchy: a comparative perspective’, in S. Hodkinson (ed.) Sparta: Comparative Approaches, Swansea, 1–67. 2018 ‘Spartan women’, in A. Powell (ed.) A Companion to Sparta, vol. II, Malden, MA, 500–24. 2019 ‘A contest in charisma: Cynisca’s heroization, Spartan royal authority, and the threat of non–royal glorification’, in E. Koulakiotis and C. Dunn
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Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy (eds) Political Religions in the Greco-Roman World: Discourses, practices, and images, Newcastle, 34–63. Miller, S.G. 1978 ‘The date of the first Pythiad’, California Studies in Classical Antiquity 11, 127–58. Minon, S. 2007 Les inscriptions éléennes dialectales (VIe–IIe siècle avant J.-C.), 2 vols., Geneva. Moore, M.B. 2004 ‘Horse care as depicted on Greek vases before 400 bc’, Metropolitan Museum Journal 39, 35–67. Moretti, L. 1953 Iscrizioni agonistiche greche, Rome. 1957 ‘I vincitori negli agoni antichi olimpici’, Memorie (Atti della Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche) Ser. VIII Vol. 8.2, Rome, 55–198. 1992 ‘Nuovo supplemento al catalogo degli Olympionikai’, in W. Coulson and H. Kyrieleis (eds) Proceedings of an International Conference on the Olympic Games, 5–9 September 1988, Athens, 119–28. Nafissi, M. 2013 ‘La stele di Damonon (IG V 1, 213 = Moretti, IAG 16), gli Hekatombaia (Strabo 8,4,11) e il sistema festivo della Laconia d’epoca classica’, in F. Berlinzani (ed.) La cultura a Sparta in età classica = Aristonothos 8, 105–74. Neils, J. 2012 ‘Spartan girls and the Athenian gaze’, in S.L. James and S. Dillon (eds) A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, Oxford, 153–66. Paradiso, A. 2015 ‘L’exercice du pouvoir royal: Agésilas, Cynisca et les exploits olympiques’, Ktèma 40, 233–41. Pettersson, M. 1992 Cults of Apollo at Sparta: The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia, Stockholm. Pierros, N.A. 2003 ‘Τὰ ἱππικὰ ἀγωνίσματα στὴν ἀρχαία Ἐλλάδα καὶ εἰδικώτερα στὴν ἀρχαία Ὀλυμπία’, in Πρακτικὰ τοῦ Ἐκτάκτου Ἠλειακοῦ Συμποσίου 2001 (Ἀμαλιάδα 7–9 Δεκεμβρίου 2001), Πελοποννησιακά Παράρτημα 25, Athens, 317–84. Pomeroy, S.B. 2002 Spartan Women, New York. Raschke, W.J. 1994 ‘A red-figure kylix in Malibu: the iconography of female charioteers’, Nikephoros 7, 157–79. Richer, N. 2012 La religion des Spartiates. Croyances et cultes dans l’antiquité, Paris. Rieger, B. 2004 Von der Linie (grammé) zur Hysplex. Startvorrichtungen in der panhellenischen Stadien Griechenlands, Nikephoros Beiheft 9, Hildesheim.
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Kyniska: production and use of wealth Romano, D.G. and Voyatzis, M.E. 2015 ‘Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, Part 2 The Lower Sanctuary’, Hesperia 84, 207–76. Roy, J. 2009 ‘The Spartan–Elean war of c. 400’, Athenaeum 97, 69–86. Takahashi, T. 2015 ‘The effect of age on the racing speed of thoroughbred racehorses’, Journal of Equine Science 26.2, 43–8. Thommen, L. 2014 Die Wirtschaft Spartas, Stuttgart. Valavanis, P. 1999 Hysplex. The starting mechanism in ancient stadia, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London. Vannini, F. 2020 ‘L’ἅρμα nelle Giacinzie: una glossa interpolata in Ateneo. The ἅρμα in the Hyacinthia: an interpolated gloss in Athenaeus.’ Hermes 148.4, 514–8. Velie, B.D., Stewart, B.D., Lam, K., Wade, C.M. and Hamilton, N.A. 2013 ‘Profiling the careers of thoroughbred horses racing in Hong Kong between 2000 and 2010’, Equine Veterinary Journal 45, 182–6. Velie, B.D., Wade, C.M. and Hamilton, N.A. 2013 ‘Profiling the careers of thoroughbred horses racing in Australia between 2000 and 2010’, Equine Veterinary Journal 45, 694–9. Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J. 1956 Documents in Mycenaean Greek. Three hundred selected tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae with commentary and vocabulary, Cambridge. Whitehead, D. 1979 ‘Ant[i]alkidas, or the Case of the Intrusive Iota’, Liverpool Classical Monthly 4, 191–3. Willekes, C. 2019 ‘Breeding success: the creation of the racehorse in antiquity’, Mouseion 16, 453–69.
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5 CLOSED ECONOMY, DEBT AND THE SPARTAN CRISIS Alain Bresson Herodotus (7.234.2) reports that in 480, after Thermopylae, the exiled Spartan king Demaratos told Xerxes that there were in the city 8,000 homoioi able to fight, including those who had died in the battle.1 This number is consistent with the 5,000 Spartiates who, again according to Herodotus (9.28.2), fought at Plataia the following year. Although with a nuance of doubt, Aristotle (Pol. 1270a37) states that according to some traditions there had been in the past 10,000 citizens in Sparta. But of the city of his own time (in the 330s or 320s, when he was writing the Politics), he also says that ‘although the country is capable of supporting fifteen hundred cavalry and 30,000 heavy-armed troopers, they numbered not even 1,000’ (1270a30–32, Loeb translation). He styled this massive decrease in the number of citizens an oliganthro¯pia, a ‘dearth of men’ (1270a34) and saw in this phenomenon a major aspect of the crisis of the city. Finally, at the time of the revolution of Agis IV, in 244, there were according to Plutarch (Agis 5.4–6) no more than 700 Spartans left. In two-and-a-half centuries, a devastating population decline occurred, from the alleged roughly 10,000 of the early fifth century to the 700 of the mid-third century.2 The Spartan crisis was of exceptional scale. From the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, many other cities suffered social and economic crises, provoking political turmoil. Rooted in social inequality, what the Greeks called stasis, ‘political unrest’, was almost universal. What is at stake with Sparta is not the existence of social inequality per se or even of social crisis or political unrest, but rather the extreme character of the phenomenon of inequality and reduction of the citizen body. Some have been tempted to explain this decline in purely demographic terms but their explanations remain unconvincing.3 To sketch a new explanation, one should identify the social and economic factors that were at play and determined the process of ever-increasing inequality among the Spartiates. Three played a crucial role: management of the workforce; market and trade policy; and monetary policy. This
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Alain Bresson paper will examine the main constraints created by the specific social and economic development of Sparta in the Archaic and Classical periods. It will argue that it was the basic nature of the social and economic system that provoked the crisis, with debt playing a crucial role in the process. Management of the workforce The first and well-known characteristic of the management of the workforce in Sparta is the tripartite division between the full citizens (the homoioi, the Spartiates), the perioikoi, and the helots. The legal and political separation of the population into three sections was based on their role in the production process. As we know not only from later sources but also from Classical writers, the Spartiates themselves were prohibited from engaging in craft activity and practising trade for money (χρηματισμός).4 The perioikoi, free men but not citizens of Sparta itself, performed diverse kinds of activities. The largest part of the population, the helots, tilled the lands of the homoioi and were harshly exploited by them. According to Tyrtaeus, the helots had to deliver half of their production to their masters.5 Admittedly, the system of sharecropping (for this is what helotage actually was) was for them an incentive to increase their production as a strategy of survival, which in turn was also beneficial for the masters.6 It remains that, as proved by the revolts each time an opportunity presented, the harsh exploitation of the helots should not be doubted. Overall, given that the producers did not themselves sell on the market the bulk of their productions, they had no direct market incentive to transform their farming processes. This was for Sparta a factor for stagnation rather than for the progress of overall production. Owing to the thinness of our sources, the status of the helots has been long debated. Recent research is still divided over the question whether they were the property of the state or of individual Spartiates.7 One source plays a crucial role in the debate. As referenced by Strabo, Ephorus, the famous fourth-century historian, reports that after King Agis I deprived the non-Spartiate inhabitants of their equal political status, ‘all now obeyed except the Heleians, the occupants of Helos, who, because they revolted, were forcibly reduced in a war, and were condemned to slavery, with the express reservation that no slaveholder (τὸν ἔχοντα) should be permitted either to set them free or to sell them outside the borders (ἔξω τῶν ὅρων)’.8 That there was originally a war that allowed the Spartiates to enslave the defeated inhabitants of Helos and that this was the origin of the helot class is a myth.9 But what Ephorus could know as a fact was the status of the helots in his own time. His τὸν ἔχοντα necessarily refers to a private owner. It is on this basis that his mention of the prohibition
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis of manumission and sale of the helots beyond the frontiers of the polis makes sense. Thus Ephorus’ testimony compels us to admit that the helots were privately owned. In ordinary Greek cities, manumission introduced a major element of flexibility into the management of the slave workforce. Of course, slaves were pleased to be granted freedom and all the more so because their descendants would also normally enjoy it. But manumission also largely benefitted the masters, who, if they wished to, could resort to the system of paramone¯, a form of contract according to which under certain conditions the manumitted slave was to work for the former master whenever required.10 In a world where demand could massively fluctuate, this was a great advantage for a master owning a slave working in an activity directly linked to the market: not burdened by the cost of maintaining a slave during periods of low demand, but able to call on the work of the former slave during the periods of high demand.11 Besides, the prospect or actual promise of manumission was for the slave an incentive to remain obedient, which was also to the advantage of the master. By contrast, a Spartiate in economic difficulty could not cut his costs by manumitting some helots. Nor could he receive from the slave the sum of money for the re-purchase of his or her freedom, which might have helped him meet any debt repayments. The only available means to earn an extra income for the Spartiate in dire straits on his estate was to reduce his expenses, especially any in-kind benefits he may previously have granted his helots. Ultimately, he could also sell them (see below); but in doing so – quite apart from the fact that he could not promise them the freedom that would provide their incentive to work harder and not revolt – he deepened the existing rift between Spartiates and helots. Spartan law prohibited the sale of slaves ἔξω τῶν ὅρων, which must be understood as a prohibition of sales ‘beyond the frontiers (of the polis)’. It has been suggested that this is an incorrect interpretation of Ephorus’ note, but this view cannot be followed. Textual parallels show that the frontiers here are those of the Spartan state, not those of individual Spartiate farms (which in fact would mean a ban on sales) or of some minor district of the Spartan state.12 For slaves of local origin, the question of being sold abroad was of crucial importance, for it would mean their radical transformation into merchandise and a total break with their original communities. In pre-Solonian Athens (Plut. Solon 13.2), indebted peasants who could not pay their debts could be sold abroad (ἐπὶ τὴν ξένην πιπρασκόμενοι). Solon brought back those who had been sold abroad (15.5) and freed those enslaved in Athens itself. By contrast, other Greek states that shared structural similarities with Sparta in the management of their
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Alain Bresson workforce also prohibited slave sales beyond state frontiers. In Thessaly the law prohibited selling the Penestai abroad and the same rule applied to the Mariandynoi in the hinterland of Herakleia on the Pontus.13 The ban on helot export may reflect the desire of the community to keep a precious resource for itself.14 Furthermore, despite its legendary character, the literature on the parallel cases of the Penestai and Mariandynoi suggests that this concession may have been a means to prevent revolts. If the Spartiates could not sell their workforce abroad, they accordingly did not massively import slaves, as in many other cities. In terms of its workforce Sparta relied mainly on its own resources. This contrasted with cities like Athens where it was possible to import or export slaves and thus to (cynically) adjust the level of the workforce to the fluctuations of local demand. But insofar as the Spartiates’ goal was to limit the role of the market and to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, the ban on slave exports and limited import of foreign slaves fitted well with the limitations set on foreign trade. In Plato’s imaginary Magnesia, too, the slaves were of local origin, not imported from foreign markets.15 The prohibition on selling helots abroad also implicitly meant that it was permitted to sell them to other Spartiates. This may well have provided an opportunity for Spartiates in financial difficulties to deal temporarily with the challenges they faced. However, such sales could only be of limited scale, otherwise a Spartiate’s future workforce would be significantly reduced, thereby increasing his difficulties. In practice, most helots must have changed hands only when land transfers took place, although some sales must also have taken place in other circumstances such as the sale of over-numerous younger male or female helots, especially those in household service, who were more easily dispensable.16 In any case, sales of both the land and its helot cultivators were a mechanism through which these assets would be progressively transferred to more affluent Spartiates, thus increasing the gap between poorer and wealthier homoioi. The concentration of the land into the hands of the few was inevitably paralleled by a concentration of the workforce, another argument in favour of the reality of helot sales. Finally, if the parallel offered by Plato’s Laws is accepted, the expulsions of foreigners (xene¯lasiai) practiced at Sparta were also a means to limit the number of free foreign workers, craftsmen and other specialists.17 Characterized by a legal subdivision of the population into three segments, by the fierce exploitation of the helots and by a series of legal restrictions, the management of the workforce was thus a comparatively major factor in the structural rigidity of the Spartan economy.
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis The domestic market and foreign trade If we suppose that the channels of supply and demand in Sparta were similar to those of Crete as presented in Plato’s Laws (847e–850a), they must have been narrowly oriented and drastically limited. For Plato, the product of the land, in the hands of the masters, should serve them by permitting them to make purchases from those craftsmen and foreigners who had received temporary permission to live in the country. At Sparta, the homoioi had considerable surpluses from their farmsteads to sell in the agora, probably through agents operating the sales for them.18 These sales were of crucial importance for the Spartiates. As the main suppliers of agricultural produce sold in the market, they could in turn purchase market goods produced by the perioikoi as independent farmers, craftsmen and traders. The major hub of Sparta’s road network was the large perioikic city of Geronthrai.19 There existed an active agora in Sparta, and evidently many others in various perioikic cities. But the main players in the market system were the rich, but numerically limited, homoioi and the perioikoi. As for the helots, who formed the large majority of the population and had to deliver one-half of their production to their masters, their purchasing power remained drastically reduced. Based on radical social inequality, the structure of Spartan supply and demand crippled the creation of a fully developed market economy. The Spartiates’ model from the sixth century onwards of an austere life and restricted consumption of luxury goods also meant that local production was severely limited, as was the import of these goods from foreign markets.20 As for the export of luxury goods, Laconian painted pottery reached its acme in the second and third quarters of the sixth century. It was widely exported but, compared with Attic decorated pottery, in limited volumes.21 The connection with Samian traders and the Samian aristocracy helps make sense of its export geography, although the latter also reveals links with other trade partners from Eastern Greece.22 The last quarter of the sixth century, however, saw a marked decline in the pottery’s quality and the revival of Spartan painted pottery at the end of the fifth century was limited in duration and volume.23 As for imports of luxury goods, by contrast with so many sites in the Mediterranean world, Sparta did not import Attic ceramics.24 More broadly, Sparta did not import luxury products in any significant quantities. As for non-luxury goods, the city must have exported some (like iron or textiles) in order to be able to import some essential commodities like tin, required for the production of bronze. Our literary or epigraphic sources do not mention any import of mass consumption goods like
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Alain Bresson grain, wine, or oil.25 The archaeological sources must be handled with care, insofar as the coastal sites of Lakonia have not yet been properly excavated. But on the basis of the observations made at inland sites, like Sparta or its sanctuaries, or during the surveys in the hinterland, sherds of imported ceramics or amphoras, so common on other Mediterranean sites in the period, are not present in Sparta. Although we should not question the existence of Spartan foreign trade, it remained at a very small volume. Monetary policy In the Classical period, the Spartans boasted that their national currency was still the iron spits inherited from a distant past and that they needed no other form of currency. It should be underscored that, in any case, the iron spits were not commodity money, since the iron had been intentionally rendered unserviceable for other use.26 Whether the iron spits were actually used in Spartan market exchange has been questioned.27 The story is not necessarily fictional and they may have played the role of tokens. This fiat money, however, was very inconvenient, of limited use in practice, and it bore no value in other cities.28 It was a way to radically separate domestic and foreign exchange. Numismatic testimonies show that Sparta had no native silver coinage before the third century. It was only under King Areus (d. 265) that a coinage was struck by a Spartan official; later Cleomenes III (236–222) also struck his own coins.29 These coinages were struck in military contexts. Although before this time Sparta did not have its own coinage, it did not massively import coins from abroad. Hoards from territories under Spartan control are rare. The Kythera hoard of c. 525–500 had some coins from Seriphos, but we do not know how many. As for the Kyparissia hoard (IGCH 23) dated to c. 450–425 and entirely composed of Elean coins, the authors of IGCH suggested that a hoard of similar composition and date from Pyrgos (IGCH 24), in the environs of Elis, was part of the Kyparissia hoard. But Stephen Hodkinson rightfully casts doubt on the existence of a provenance from Spartan territory and suggests rather an Elean provenance for the two batches of one and the same hoard.30 On the basis of the exclusively local character of several Elean hoards from the period, this is an excellent hypothesis.31 A hoard of 17 drachms from Aegina was reputedly found in Sparta itself around 2004, although no further information is currently available.32 It is only in the third century that hoards become more numerous. The four hoards known to date show the presence of Alexanders and other royal coins that are characteristic of the period all over the Hellenistic world.
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis The presence of coins of Aegina and Sicyon must also be underscored as feature of early Hellenistic Spartan hoards.33 Coins from excavations or individual finds are also rare within Spartan territory. Four coins of Aegina, two drachms and two hemidrachms with a sea turtle (hence before 456 according to Kraay’s chronology of Aeginetan coins) have been found during excavations at Messene.34 Of the 322 coins from the early-twentieth-century British excavations at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, none seems to date to the early Classical period, four are from the late Classical or Hellenistic periods (one Aegina, three Sicyon, one Messene). The mass of the coins are local from the late Hellenistic and, above all, Roman imperial periods, along with Byzantine, Venetian or Frankish coins.35 A similar picture appears in the Ephoreia of Sparta’s 1982 census of coins found during excavations: of 200 coins, there were two silver coins (Tegea and Phlious) from the fifth century and two silver and two bronze coins from Sicyon from the fourth and third centuries.36 The large mass of coins was later than 48 bc. The number of finds of foreign coins within Spartan territory is therefore very low for the Classical period and increases only modestly in the early Hellenistic period. As well-evidenced by Hodkinson, we should not conclude from the quasi-absence of finds of foreign coins that no foreign coinage entered Spartan territory during the Archaic and Classical periods.37 The literary and even epigraphic evidence shows the opposite. It remains clear, however, that the polis was poorly monetized compared with others. The helots were kept in a world with limited access to coinage and what was expected from them was deliveries in kind.38 For the perioikoi, those who had contact with the outer world must inevitably have been able to obtain cash. But for both the homoioi and perioikoi the fact that foreign trade was kept at a minimum means that their access to coinage was also reduced. Following the victory over Athens gold and silver entered the city in large quantities. This benefitted the Spartan state. But precisely at that time not only did the city refuse to give legal-tender status to precious metal coinage (which may mean also that it refused to mint its own coinage) but private ownership of precious metal was, at least for a while, officially banned.39 Those who possessed reserves of gold and silver kept them for themselves as security, quite possibly in the form of bullion or jewelry. At some point the ban on possession of gold and silver was lifted.40 But nothing indicates that payments, for instance in the agora, had to be made in coins, or in coins of a certain type only (for instance, in coins from Aegina), or even in weighed bullion.41 The overall picture remains that of a society with limited monetization, not only in terms of quantity but
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Alain Bresson more crucially in terms of the velocity of money (the frequency at which a unit of currency changes hands within a given time period). Another side of this limited monetization was that, at least until the Hellenistic period, possession of precious metal was mainly restricted to a limited number of its elite members, the Spartiates, whose short-term interest was to keep their gold and silver in reserve rather than in circulation. This was exactly the opposite of cities where coins circulated widely and where payments had to be made in coinage, as indicated in a fourth-century decree of Olbia.42 The introduction of an official coinage in which payments had to be made, whether locally produced or a foreign coinage given the status of legal tender, was a way to force individual owners of gold and silver to circulate them, thus increasing the velocity of money. By contrast, Sparta had no proper monetary policy, except in a negative sense. Debt, inequality and the Spartan crisis The instrument of the crisis, which crystallized the above factors of Spartan economic rigidity, was debt. Just like in any other Greek city, credit was ubiquitous in Sparta. According to Plutarch’s account in his Lives of Lykourgos, Agis IV and Cleomenes III – Spartan society was plagued by debt and inequality even in the early phase of its history. The reformer Lykourgos redistributed the land equally, cancelled debts and, for the future, prohibited both credit and coined money. This fiction was a creation of the revolutionary kings of the second half of the third century, who needed a precedent to justify their programs.43 No source before the third century makes any mention of land redistribution or cancellation of debts. As for the ban on coined money, ‘Lykourgos’ could hardly have promulgated this law, given that he supposedly lived in an early period when coinage did not exist in any Greek city. His alleged ban on credit is of the same token: a utopian construct in which, to counteract a current situation, a perfect, friction-less world is retrojected into the past. Despite its fictional character, Plutarch’s account is nonetheless highly revealing, for it shows that debt existed and was the major problem of Classical and Hellenistic Sparta. Moreover, as noticed by Hans van Wees, Plutarch contradicts himself when he states that Lykourgos prohibited credit.44 In another passage in the Life of Lykourgos, when discussing the question of laws that should not be written but imbued into every Spartan through education, he adds, ‘As for minor issues, such as financial liabilities (χρηματικὰ συμβόλαια) and matters that change with the moment’s needs, it was better not to keep them under the compulsion of writing or immutability of conventions, but
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis to let well-informed persons adjust them by supplements and removals, according to circumstances.’45 This passage merits detailed analysis. As Edward Harris has shown, συμβόλαια were liabilities.46 The ‘matters that change with the moment’s needs’ (μεταπίπτοντα ταῖς χρείαις ἄλλοτε ἄλλως) is a rather abstruse formula, but the modifications referred to are certainly also of economic relevance. In his Elegies quoted by Plutarch in his Life of Solon (3.2), Solon opposes the permanence of virtue to ‘wealth (which) belongs now to one man, now to another’ (χρήματα δ᾿ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει).47 Theognis also states, ‘Be assured that Zeus inclines the scales now on this side, now on that; now to be wealthy, now to have nothing’ (Ζεὺς γάρ τοι τὸ τάλαντον ἐπιρρέπει ἄλλοτε ἄλλως, / ἄλλοτε μὲν πλουτεῖν, ἄλλοτε μηδὲν ἔχειν).48 Hence the reference to the ‘matters that change’ in the Life of Lykourgos are to do with business and with the changes in the scales of assets that are the consequence of business operations. In any case, even if we were to take Plutarch’s account literally, ‘Lykourgos’ supposedly banned the writing of acknowledgments of debt, and more generally of any form of business contract, but certainly not credit or business in general. The existence of credit in Sparta is mentioned explicitly by Herodotus (6.59), who states that in Sparta ‘when a king dies and another takes power, the successor releases from what they owed those among the Spartiates who were in debt to the king or the public treasury’. The references to debts owed to the public treasury certainly correspond to unpaid fines or taxes due to the state. As for the debts due to the kings, they may in part correspond to payments due within the framework of the customary honors paid to him. However, fully private debts not only cannot be excluded, but probably formed the bulk of what was due to the kings. There is no reason to believe that the kings behaved differently from other Spartiates. Besides, borrowing was fully part of Sparta’s political life. It was common to borrow to pay heavy fines.49 In 362, King Agesilaos contracted loans from his friends to finance the city’s military campaigns.50 Dioskourides, author of a treatise on the Lacedaemonian constitution, mentions that in Sparta those lending money (τοὺς δανείζοντας) split a skytale¯ into two parts, writing the liability (συμβόλαιον) on each part; one went to one of the two witnesses, while they kept the other.51 The skytale¯ here seems to have been a wooden tablet (πίναξ), as Hesychius (s.v. σκυτάλαι) explains.52 Plutarch’s Life of Agis provides the richest information on debt in Sparta. Leonidas, the colleague and opponent of King Agis IV, accused him of aspiring to tyranny by demanding a new distribution of land and cancellation of debts (χρεῶν ἄφεσις: Agis 7.5). In doing so, he was pressurised by women, who by this time were in control of the majority
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Alain Bresson of properties (7.3). A perfect example is provided by Agesistrata, Agis’ mother, and Archidamia, his grand-mother, ‘who possessed the largest fortunes (πλεῖστα χρήματα) among the Lacedaemonians’ (4.1). Of Agesistrata, Plutarch also mentions (6.4) that ‘because of the large number of her clients, friends and debtors (πλήθει δὲ πελατῶν καὶ φίλων καὶ χρεωστῶν), she held a great power in the city and a strong influence in political life’. The connexion between fortune and credit is thus clearly established. In the case of Agesilaos, Agis’ uncle, his land was used as collateral for loans. While (covertly) opposing a new distribution of land, Agesilaos actively promoted cancellation of debts, and for excellent reasons: ‘But the true reason that motivated Agesilaos to participate in the king’s enterprise was the large number of his debts (ὀφλημάτων πλῆθος), which he hoped to get rid of through the revolution’ (6.4). Agesilaos’ plan was based on the fact that ‘he possessed especially large and fertile domains (πολλὴν καὶ ἀγαθὴν χώραν), but was heavily in debt, neither being able to repay them nor wanting to give up these domains’ (μήτε διαλῦσαι δυνάμενος τὰ χρέα, μήτε τὴν χώραν προέσθαι βουλόμενος: 13.2). Agesilaos thus faced a situation like that of many Spartiates before him: the pressure of debt would soon force him to abandon his mortgaged land to repay his debt. The way Agis implemented cancellation of debts was through a spectacular show which aimed at striking the imagination: ‘They brought together into the agora the records of the debtors (γραμματεῖα), which they define as klaria (κλάρια), formed them into a heap, and set them on fire. As the flame rose, the rich and the money lenders left the scene in outrage’. The klaria are certainly to be connected to the klaroi.53 It is likely, however, that the term could also apply indifferently to any mortgaged land, including privately-owned lands. The klaria were not wooden boundary markers or merely privately kept mortgage deeds. They were public written records, otherwise the public authority would have been unable to access them.54 By the early Hellenistic period, at least, there existed public records of credit operations, as in other contemporary Greek cities. The burning of these archives directly parallels that in Dyme in northern Peloponnese in 144/3.55 This is not the first time that a link has been suggested between debt and Spartan oliganthro¯ pia, but what has yet to be articulated is why debt had such a devastating effect. Indebtedness was not a phenomenon specific to Sparta. If all cities where indebtedness is recorded had suffered from oliganthro¯ pia the way Sparta did, the whole citizen population of the Greek world would have been quickly depleted. Besides, why did Sparta not experience a prolonged stagnation rather than the brutal crisis provoked
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis by the concentration of land in a few hands and the dramatically reduced size of the citizen body observable in the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods? The question is one of revealing the implacable logic that may explain why the consequences of indebtedness in Sparta took on such proportions. In the famous speech that Thucydides (1.71.2–3) attributes to the Corinthian envoys at the congress at Sparta in 432, the Corinthians underscore the Athenians’ capacity for innovation, which they contrast with the risk-averse attitude and staunch conservatism of the Lacedaemonians. The speech had mainly a political agenda but it could apply as well to the fundamentally rigid structures of Spartan society and economy. As we saw, the management of the workforce stratified Spartan society into three different strata which, from an economic viewpoint, communicated with one another only through the exploitation of the helots and through rigid, pre-defined channels of circulation of goods. The Spartiates aimed to maximize their revenues to compete with their peers, but for the helots, who also lacked the capital to improve their farming, there was limited incentive to innovate or to take risks, since they knew that the profits would be creamed off by their masters. Even for the elite among the homoioi, the policy of austerity provided no incentive to develop a large production of luxury goods. Foreign trade was of very low volume. Finally, the lack of a national coinage, the brandmark of the type of state-building observable in the open cities of the Aegean, both fitted perfectly with this constrained economy and hampered its potential transformation. The state and certain rich individuals could get access to some gold and silver; but overall, until the Hellenistic period, the transformative power of precious metal coinage was largely ignored. Spartan laws and customs erected barriers that created a skewed market system, not only for basic or luxury commodities but above all for land and for credit, which proved deadly for the system as a whole. In a closed economy in which agriculture is the main source of wealth, when the harvest is bad, prices massively increase. Those for whom the crop is below average have to borrow at a high rate. But when the crop is exceptionally good, prices fall. This is what Paul Samuelson and William Nordhaus have defined as the ‘paradox of the bumper harvest’.56 What ought to be a favourable factor (a good crop) causes producers’ revenues to fall. For a peasant in a closed economy with no opportunities for exporting surplus produce, a very good crop is not much better news than a very bad one and the debtors can only slightly compensate for their debts, or not at all.
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Alain Bresson The result is that one’s aggregate debt slope increases over time, as presented in Table 1. Table 1. A schematic graph of indebtedness at Sparta (Line 1 = Grain Prices; 2 = Debt Incrementation; 3 = Aggregate Debt Level)
This is the logic that allows us to make sense of the Spartan crisis. In Sparta, if the crop was bad, prices remained high because it was impossible to import to compensate for the missing grain supply. But if the crop was good, prices were depressed, as it was also impossible to export to avoid a flattening of prices. When the crop was bad and the prices high, Spartiates in difficulty had to borrow large sums of money to compensate for their losses. When the crop was good and prices depressed, these debtors could at best only marginally compensate for their previous losses and reduce their debt. Given that there was no serious alternative for investment (in craftmanship, money-making or foreign trade) and that aggregate demand was low, the Spartiates were trapped into a vicious cycle from which there was no way out. In the next time of difficulty, they had to borrow again and thus progressively increased their level of indebtedness. At some point, the debtors had to sell land, could no longer meet their compulsory mess contributions and were ejected from the citizen body. The contrast with Athens could not be clearer. This was the Greek city where economic growth is best attested by both written and archaeological sources. This was the city that saw the inclusive reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes, and it was also the city that experienced a massive output of silver coinage after the discovery of new and very rich silver ore seams. Starting probably in or around 514, the new Attic owls were minted in very large quantities. Athens was indeed a warring state, but it was also a city largely open to foreign trade and it quickly became the hub of the Mediterranean economy. From Solon onwards, there was a ban on the export of grain and also certainly of other basic staples. But this did not negatively affect the Attic peasantry, for the reason that there was such an imbalance between the population and the city’s productive
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis capacity that, under any circumstance, the peasants were sure to sell their products, whose prices were set by the international market, not by domestic production.57 Athens was also the city of flourishing trade and craftsmanship. As a hub of international trade, it allowed people to sell non-staple goods abroad and opened up all kinds of opportunities. In open cities like Athens, if prices were low for one commodity, it was always possible to invest in the production of other goods that could be sold either on the dynamic local market or exported overseas. This flexibility in changing business described by Xenophon (Vect. 4.6) was unknown in Sparta. The result for Athens was a robust process of growth and the absence of the violent crises prevalent in cities where cash was rarer, money velocity lower, interest rates higher, and business opportunities more limited. The long-term price increase in fifth-century Athens (until the second phase of the Peloponnesian War) is not a symptom of crisis but reflects the increase in the money supply, which itself brought a significant contribution to economic growth.58 Because of the abundant money supply, interest rates in the fourth century were comparatively low, at 10% or 12% for the ‘land rate’ (tokos engeios), that is the domestic rate, compared with average rates of 20% in Babylon at the end of the sixth century, and 40% in the fourth century. In fourth-century Athens, even the ‘maritime rate’ (tokos nautikos), where the risk was higher, was only 22.5%.59 We do not know the level of interest rates in Sparta, but on the basis of its very low money supply there is every reason to think that they must have been dramatically higher than in Athens, just like in any society with poor money supply.60 This must have badly affected the debtors, increased their difficulties, and contributed to the enrichment of a few at the expense of the ‘mass’ of homoioi. Given that many male Spartiates also had to borrow money to meet costs associated with political or military life, we have here all the ingredients of the explosive process of indebtedness that finally ruined Sparta. Conclusion On the basis of the above analysis, it is possible to provide a new hypothesis that allows us to make sense of the extraordinary decrease in the size of the Spartiate citizen body and its growing internal inequalities. The norms of Spartan life were supposed to promote skill and courage, to make sure that citizen life would be focused on military training and war, although we have good reason to think that actual practice could deviate a lot from this ideal, that Spartiates paid much attention to their estates and that they were in fierce competition with their peers for the acquisition
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Alain Bresson of wealth. The whole body of laws discouraged citizens from seeking personal enrichment, restricted foreign trade, maintained the mass of the population in slavery and strictly limited the role of money. This was supposed to create the conditions of a static social and economic order, which in some way it did, for Sparta did not experience the economic growth and social transformation observable in the Greek cities of the Aegean, of which Athens is the prototype. However, the rigid and closed economy created the conditions of an ever-growing inequality between citizens, the lynchpin in the process being the role of debt. Insofar as loans were secured on land and insofar as citizenship was linked to the ownership of land, debtors who could not pay their debts also lost their citizenship. The Spartan ‘legislators’ should have meditated on what Hesiod, although reluctantly, had taught the Greeks: ‘Whenever you want to turn your foolish mind to trade to escape your debts and the hunger that plagues you, I will teach you the rules that govern the sea’.61 Abbreviations BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby (https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/), Leiden, 2007–. CH = Coin Hoards, The Royal Numismatic Society, London. FGrH = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin, 1923–. IGCH = M. Thompson, O. Mørkholm, and C.M. Kraay (eds) An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards, New York, 1973. IOSPE = V. Latyshev, Inscriptiones antiquae Orae Septentrionalis Ponti Euxini Graecae et Latinae, 4 vols., St. Petersburg, 1890–1916. I.Kalchedon = R. Merkelbach, F.K. Dörner, and S. S¸ahin, Die Inschriften von Kalchedon, Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 20, Bonn, 1980. RGDE = R.K. Sherk, Roman Documents from the Greek East, Baltimore, 1964. Syll.3 = W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols., 3rd edn., Leipzig, 1915–24. Notes 1 All dates are bc. 2 On the development of the Spartan crisis, Hodkinson 2000, 399–445. In this essay, bibliography is kept at a strict minimum. 3 Recently, Doran 2018, to which I will return elsewhere. 4 Xen. Lac. Pol. 7.1–2. 5 Tyrtaeus, Eleg y fr. 6 Gerber. See in general Figueira 2004a, 2018. 6 Hodkinson 2000, 130–1. 7 Among recent literature, Hunt 2018, 78–80 and Figueira 2004b and 2018, esp. 566, who do not accept private ownership. In contrast, Ducat 1990, 22–9; Hodkinson 2000, 113–17; Luraghi 2002; and Lewis 2018, 125–46 take the opposite view. I here
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis build on the argument of the latter and address only recent objections to their conclusions. 8 FGrH/BNJ 70 F117 ap. Str. 8.5.4; tr. Loeb. 9 Luraghi 2002 and 2003, especially pp. 117–22. 10 Pl. Leg. 915a, for the duties of freed persons. 11 For Rome, Hawkins 2016, 23–65. 130–91, but the same logic applied in Greece. For manumissions in fourth-century Athens, McArthur 2019. 12 MacDowell 1986, 24, 35, for whom the boundaries were those of individual farms, but see Ducat 1990, 22, n. 13. MacDowell’s argument is quoted by Hunt (2018, 78–9) who, on the basis of the reference to Helos, thinks of boundaries between Spartan geographical districts (but the whole story of the revolt of the people of Helos is obviously a late aetiological reconstruction). If ἔξω τῶν ὅρων may have a general meaning of ‘beyond the limits’, whatever these limits are, in an appropriate context it also has the sense of ‘beyond the limits of the country’: see Eur. Phoen. 1630; Pl., Leg. 873e, as well as Str. 3.3.7. 13 Penestai: Archemachus FGrH/BNJ 424 F1 (ap. Ath. 264ab); Mariandynoi: Posidonius FGrH/BNJ 87 F8 (ap. Ath. 263cd). In both cases the absence of sales abroad is supposed to be the condition for the acknowledgement of servitude. 14 Lewis 2018, 137–8. 15 Bresson 2019. 16 Legally, Russian serfs could not be sold individually. In practice, sales of peasant serfs commonly took place, along with those of household serfs (Kolchin 1987, 41–6; Gershenzon 1986, 244). For the question of household helots, see also Hodkinson 2008, 297. 17 On xene¯lasiai, Figueira 2003 who, however, envisages them only as in a cultural perspective or as emergency responses to famine. Plato (Leg. 950a-b, 953e) condemned xene¯lasiai but limited the sojourn of foreigners (he was thinking of craftsmen) to 20 years (850ac). 18 Compare Pl. Leg. 849b. 19 Pikoulas 2012, folding map. 20 On this model, Ma 2016; van Wees 2018. 21 Coudin 2009, esp. 175–9. 22 Pipili 2018, 132–4; Schaus 2018. In particular, the recent publication of an equal, if not superior, quantity of Laconian pottery from nearby Miletos (Schaus 2020) now needs to be taken into account. 23 Stroszeck 2014. 24 The survey of Laconian rural sites by Cavanagh et al. (2005) mentions no Attic ceramic. 25 In the grain inscription of Cyrene from the early 320s, which presents a long list of states of southern and central Greece receiving deliveries of grain from this city, Sparta is conspicuously absent (Bresson 2011, 73–4). There may be political reasons for Sparta’s exclusion, given that only a few years earlier, between 333 and 331, it had waged a war against the Macedonians. (Messene is also absent from the list, but probably for other reasons.) 26 [Pl.] Eryxias 399e–400c. On Spartan iron currency, Figueira 2002; Christien 2002; Tosti 2013. 27 Hodkinson 2000, 160–5.
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Alain Bresson The point is well made in the Eryxias passage (n. 26). Grunauer-von Hoerschelmann 1978, 1–6, 7–19. 30 Hodkinson 2000, 185, n. 41 31 Figueira 1998, 36, n. 48, quoting the Elean only hoards ‘Elis 1933’ (CH 3, 11, 430 BC), ‘Olympia 1948’ (CH 7, 19, 460 bc) and probably ‘Peloponnesus 1936’ (IGCH 20, c. 460–450 bc), also entirely Elean. 32 Christien 2014, loc. cit. 33 The hoards are Talanta: IGCH 132 with CH 3, 31, c. 280 bc, ‘31 AR’ (total of 30 coins); Gytheion: IGCH 170, 250–240 bc; Sparta: IGCH 181, 222 bc, 86 AR; Geraki (Geronthrai): CH 9, 201, c. 220 bc. Christien 2014 would like to downdate the Talanta hoard to the period of the Geraki hoard. The similarity of composition (with among others coins from Boeotia, Athens, and above all Aegina and Sicyon) is indeed striking. But the composition of the Gytheion hoard, with again the presence of the coins from Aegina and Sicyon, rather invites us to see there a form of continuity in the accumulation of the same coins dating back to the Classical period. 34 Information from P. Themelis in Christien 2014, 24, n. 6, with Kraay 1976, 43, for the chronology of Aeginetan coins. 35 Woodward 1929, 393–8. 36 Christien 2014, 27, n. 11. 37 Hodkinson 2000, 170–9. 38 On the means by which helots could have access to some coinage, Hodkinson 2008, 316. At the time of Cleomenes III, between 235 and 222 bc, 6,000 helots were able to accumulate the sum of five Attic minas (500 drachmas) to purchase their freedom (Plut. Cleom. 23.1). This fits well with the new penetration of coinage in Sparta in the early Hellenistic period. 39 Plut. Lys. 17.2–4, with Bommelaer 1981, 154–6; Christien 2002, 178–9. 40 On these various developments, Hodkinson 2000, 154–82. 41 Plut. Lyc. 12.2 states that the compulsory mess contributions included a small amount of coinage to buy extra fish or meat (πρὸς δὲ τούτοις εἰς ὀψωνίαν μικρόν τι κομιδῇ νομίσματος), which would fit well with a situation of the early Hellenistic period, when coinage began to become more common in Sparta. But this cannot be compared with the regulations of the decree of Olbia defining the terms of market exchange in this city (see below and n. 42). 42 IOSPE I2 24; I.Kalchedon 16; Dubois 1996, 28–39, no. 14. 43 Hodkinson 2000, 68–75. Cancellation of debts: Plut. Agis 10.2–3; Cleom. 18.2; in detail Hodkinson 2000, 43–5. 44 van Wees 2018, 212. 45 Plut. Lyc. 13.2: τὰ δὲ μικρὰ καὶ χρηματικὰ συμβόλαια καὶ μεταπίπτοντα ταῖς χρείαις 28 29
ἄλλοτε ἄλλως, βέλτιον ἦν μὴ καταλαμβάνειν ἐγγράφοις ἀνάγκαις μηδὲ ἀκινήτοις ἔθεσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐᾶν ἐπὶ τῶν καιρῶν, προσθέσεις λαμβάνοντα καὶ ἀφαιρέσεις, ἃς ἂν οἱ πεπαιδευμένοι δοκιμάσωσι.
Harris 2015. Solon fr. 15, tr. Loeb 48 Thgn. 157–8, tr. Loeb. 49 Plut. Mor. (Lac.) 221f (Cic. Tusc. Disp. 1.42 [100]), analyzed by Hodkinson 2000, 364. 50 Hodkinson 2000, 182, with n. 52 on p. 186. 51 FGrH/BNJ 594 F5 (ap. Phot., Lexicon, s.v. σκυτάλη and Suda s.v. σκυτάλη), with 46 47
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis the note of B. Gray on the identity of Dioskourides, a pupil of Isocrates or a late Hellenistic homonymous grammarian. 52 Henkelman and Folmer 2016, 203–8. 53 Cartledge 2002, 41 (in Cartledge and Spawforth 2002). 54 Pace Kralli 2012 on this point. For Cartledge (ibid.), they were ‘deeds of mortgage’; similarly Faraguna 2015, 4: ‘written mortgage deeds’. It is tempting to think that the debt records consisted of wooden tablets analogous to the previously mentioned skytalai rather than in papyrus rolls, but for now no certitude can be achieved on this point. 55 Syll.3 684 (RGDE 43; Rizakis 2008, 54–60, no. 5), with Kallet-Marx 1995; Zoumbaki 2008. 56 Samuelson and Nordhaus 2005, 71–2; cf. Persson 2014 for the negative impact on investments of very bad and very good harvests. 57 Bresson 2016, 405–14. 58 Loomis 1998, 40–50 for the price increase. 59 Athens: Cohen 1989; Bresson 2016, 279–84. Babylon: Jursa 2010, 752; Monerie 2018, 67. 60 Buckler 1977 wants to explain the Spartan crisis by the arrival of significant quantities of gold and silver following victory in the Peloponnesian war. But this temporary increase in the resources of the Spartan treasury and of some private individuals will have had no lasting impact on the money supply. 61 Hes. Op. 646–8, tr. Athanassakis (Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield, Baltimore and London, 2004). Bibliography Bommelaer, J.-F. 1981 Lysandre de Sparte: histoire et traditions, Athens and Paris. Bresson A. 2011 ‘Grain from Cyrene’, in Z. Archibald, J.K. Davies, and V. Gabrielsen (eds) The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries bc, Oxford, 66–95. 2016 The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy, Princeton. 2019 ‘Der Status der Sklaven in Platons “Gesetzen”’, in S. Föllinger and E. Korn (eds) Von besten und zweitbesten Regeln: Platonische und aktuelle Perspektiven auf individuelles und staatliches Wohlergehen, Wiesbaden, 199–209. Buckler, J. 1977 ‘Land and money in the Spartan economy: a hypothesis’, Research in Economic History 2, 249–79. Cartledge, P. and Spawforth, A. 2002 Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A tale of two cities, 2nd edn., London. Cavanagh, W.G., Mee C. and James, P. (eds) 2005 The Laconia Rural Sites Project. London. Christien, J. 2002 ‘Iron money in Sparta: myth and history’, in Powell and Hodkinson (eds) 2002, 171–90. 2014 ‘La monnaie à Sparte’, DHA Suppl. 11, 23–43.
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Alain Bresson Cohen, E.E. 1989 ‘Athenian finance: maritime and landed yields’, ClAnt 8, 207–23. Coudin, F. 2009 Les Laconiens et la Méditerranée à l’époque archaïque, Naples. Doran, T. 2018 Spartan Oliganthropia, Leiden. Dubois, L. 1996 Inscriptions grecques dialectales d’Olbia du Pont, Geneva. Ducat, J. 1990 Les hilotes, Athens. Faraguna, M. 2015 ‘Archives, documents, and legal practices in the Greek polis’, in E. Harris and M. Canevaro (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law, Oxford (no pagination: online at https://www.oxfordhandbooks. com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199599257.001.0001/oxfordhb9780199599257-e-14). Figueira, T.J. 1998 The Power of Money: Coinage and politics in the Athenian Empire, Philadelphia. 2002 ‘Iron money and the ideology of consumption in Laconia’, in Powell and Hodkinson (eds) 2002, 137–70. 2003 ‘Xene¯lasia and social control at Sparta’, CQ n.s. 53, 44–74. 2004b ‘The nature of the Spartan kle¯ ros’, in Figueira (ed.) 2004a, 47–76. 2018 ‘Helotage and the Spartan economy’, in Powell (ed.) 2018, vol. II, 565–95. Figueira, T.J. (ed.) 2004a Spartan Society, Swansea. Gershenzon, M. 1986 A History of Young Russia, trans. from the 1908 Russian edn. by J.P. Scanlan, Irvine. Grunauer-von Hoerschelmann, S. 1978 Die Münz prägung der Lakedaimonier, Berlin. Harris, E.M. 2015 ‘The meaning of the legal term symbolaion, the law about dikai emporikai and the role of the paragraphe procedure’, Dike 18, 7–36. Hawkins, C. 2016 Roman Artisans and the Urban Economy. Cambridge. Henkelman, F.M. and Folmer, M.L. 2016 ‘Your Tally is full! On wooden credit records in and after the Achaemenid empire’, in K. Kleber and R. Pirngruber (eds) Silver, Money and Credit: A tribute to Robartus J. van der Spek on the occasion of his 65th Birthday on 18th September 2014, Leiden, 133–239. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London. 2008 ‘Spartiates, helots and the direction of the agrarian economy: toward an understanding of helotage in comparative perspective’, in E. Dal Lago and C. Katsari (eds) Slave Systems: Ancient and Modern, Cambridge, 285–320.
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Closed economy, debt and the Spartan crisis Hunt, P. 2018 ‘Ancient Greece as a “slave society”’, in N. Lenski and C. Cameron (eds) What Is a Slave Society? The practice of slavery in global perspective, Cambridge, 61–85. Jursa, M. 2010 Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC: Economic geography, economic mentalities, agriculture, the use of money and the problem of economic growth, Münster. Kallet-Marx, R. 1995 ‘Quintus Fabius Maximus and the Dyme affair (Syll.3 684)’, CQ n.s. 45, 129–53. Kolchin, P. 1987 Unfree Labor: American slavery and Russian serfdom, Cambridge, MA. Kraay, C.M. 1976 Archaic and Classical Greek Coins, London. Kralli, I. 2012 ‘Agis IV of Sparta’, in R.S. Bagnall et al. (eds) The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Malden, MA, 187. Lewis, D.M. 2018 Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context, c.800–146 bc, Oxford. Loomis, W.T. 1998 Wages, Welfare Costs and Inflation in Classical Athens, Ann Arbor. Luraghi, N. 2002 ‘Helotic slavery reconsidered’, in Powell and Hodkinson (eds) 2002, 229–50. 2003 ‘The imaginary conquest of the Helots’, in N. Luraghi and S.E. Alcock (eds) Helots and Their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: Histories, ideologies, structures, Cambridge, MA, 109–41. Ma, J. 2016 ‘Élites, élitisme et communauté dans la polis archaïque’, Annales HSS 71, 631–58. MacDowell, D.M. 1986 Spartan Law, Edinburgh. McArthur, M. 2019 ‘Kittos and the phialai exeleutherikai’, BSA 114, 263–91. Monerie, J. 2018 L’économie de la Babylonie à l’époque hellénistique, Berlin. Persson, K.G. 2014 ‘Market performance and welfare: why price instability hurts’, in R.J. Van der Spek, J. Luiten, J.L. van Zanden, and B. van Leeuwen (eds) A History of Market Performance: From ancient Babylonia to the modern world. London and New York, 2014, 68–80. Pikoulas, G.A. 2012 Τ ὸ ὁδικὸ δίκτυο τῆς Λακωνικῆς / The Road-Network of Lakonike, Athens. Pipili, M. 2018 ‘Laconian pottery’, in Powell (ed.) 2018, vol. I, 124–53.
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Alain Bresson Powell, A. (ed.) 2018 A Companion to Sparta, 2 vols., Hoboken, NJ. Powell, A. and Hodkinson, S. (eds) 2002 Sparta: Beyond the Mirage, Swansea. Rizakis, A. 2008 Achaie III : Les inscriptions des cités achéennes. Épigraphie et histoire, Athens. Samuelson, P.A. and Nordhaus, W.D. 2005 Economics, 18th edn., Boston. Schaus, G.P. 2018 ‘Laconia and East Greece: cultural exchange in the archaic period’, in R.G. Gürtekin Demir, H. Cevizog˘lu, Y. Polat and G. Polat (eds) Archaic and Classical Western Anatolia: New perspectives in ceramic studies, Leuven, Paris and Bristol, CT, 285–302. 2020 Funde Aus Milet, vol. 4: Laconian and Chian Fine Ware Pottery at Miletus, Wiesbaden. Stroszeck, J. 2014 ‘Laconian red-figure pottery: local production and use’, in S. Schierup and V. Sabetai (eds) Regional Production of Red-Figure Pottery: Greece, Magna Graecia and Etruria, Aarhus, 138–55. Tosti, V. 2013 ‘Riflessioni sulla moneta di ferro spartana’, AIIN 59, 27–67. van Wees, H. 2018 ‘Luxury, austerity and equality in Sparta’, in Powell (ed.) 2018, vol. I, 202–35. Woodward, A.M. 1929 ‘The iron spits and other coins’, in R.M. Dawkins (ed.) The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, London, 391–8. Zoumbaki, S. 2008 ‘The composition of the Peloponnesian elites in the Roman period and the evolution of their resistance and approach to the Roman rulers’, Tekmeria 9, 25–51.
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6 SPARTAN FEMALE LUXURY? WEALTH, ΤΡΥΦH, AND SPARTA’S ‘LOOSE’ WOMEN Ellen Millender At first glance, the concept of Spartan female luxury seems oxymoronic, especially when one considers ancient Sparta’s famed austerity. Numerous ancient and modern authors have characterised Sparta as a veritable armed camp that culturally declined after the so-called ‘Lycurgan’ reforms.1 The ancient sources, of course, reveal that Spartan women owned property; and Aristotle attested in the mid-fourth century that women possessed approximately two-fifths of the land (Pol. 1270a23–5).2 While Aristotle may not have fully understood the mechanisms by which these women acquired their property, Hodkinson has persuasively argued that Spartiate daughters enjoyed the right to inherit half the portion given to a son under the system of ‘universal female inheritance’.3 If we believe Plutarch’s biographies of Agis IV and Cleomenes III (esp. Agis 6.7, 7.1–7, 9.6; Cleom. 6.2), Spartan female wealth increased to such a degree by the late third century that affluent women became major players in both the promotion and the quashing of these dyarchs’ reforms.4 When we add earlier evidence on female property ownership (cf., e.g., Eur. Andr. 147–53, 211, 873–4, 940, 1282) and the fourth-century Eurypontid Cynisca’s chariot victories, we can reasonably conclude that Spartan women long possessed and managed property in their own right.5 Spartan female luxury is more difficult to pin down, despite modern belief in its existence. Building on statements by Plato (Leg. 806c) and Aristotle (Pol. 1269b22–3), scholars have linked such luxury with Spartan women’s wealth – at least in the late classical and Hellenistic periods.6 As this study will demonstrate, however, the evidence on Spartan women’s enjoyment of luxury is both more limited and less straightforward than modern scholarship suggests. Equally complex and worthy of reconsideration is the Greek term, τρυφή, which Plato and Aristotle employ in their constructions of luxurious Spartan females. Through close analysis of Plato’s and Aristotle’s discussions of Spartan female τρυφή, this study will argue that their conceptualization of τρυφή enjoys a close relationship with wealth. It, however, runs counter to
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Ellen Millender modern expectations based on the common rendering of τρυφή as ‘luxury’ in the form of extravagance. Spartan τρυφή, which was always a female condition, was certainly grounded in the reality of Spartan property arrangements and the private wealth that women enjoyed.7 Τρυφή for Plato and Aristotle, however, was ultimately a condition tied to education and legislation or, rather, the lack thereof. It was τρυφή, in the form of the latitude that Spartan women enjoyed in the oikos and that resulted from the state’s failure to regulate the female – and hence private – sphere, which underlay the mirage of Sparta as a hyper-masculine society governed by austerity, obedience, and egalitarianism. Through their constructions of Spartan female τρυφή, Plato and Aristotle suggest that Sparta was, in reality, an inherently flawed polis that esteemed wealth, suffered from oliganthro¯pia, and was ruled by women. I. Τρυφή As Robert and Vanessa Gorman’s detailed study of luxury in the Greek world (2014) has demonstrated, the term τρυφή is more nuanced than modern commentators assume and is often mistranslated. The term’s complexity is hardly surprising, given the similar multivalency of the modern English word ‘luxury’. Consider luxury’s Latin root, luxuria, which embraces immoderate growth, unruly behavior and licentiousness, extravagance, and sumptuousness; and the related term luxus, which more narrowly connotes extravagance and sumptuousness. The English term ‘luxury’, which currently denotes great comfort, opulence, and extravagance, up to the early nineteenth century paralleled instead the Latin luxuria’s moral connotation of lust and lasciviousness.8 Τρυφή as a term came into fashion in Athens during the last third of the fifth century, when it replaced ἁβροσύνη as the primary marker of ‘luxury’. According to the Gormans (2014, 2), τρυφή ‘designates a kind of relationship in which the possessor expects that his or her wants will be attended to and fulfilled by others... In short, τρυφή is a psychological attitude of material entitlement, which is attended by, but not defined as, the physical paraphernalia of luxury’.9 Their examination further notes (2014, 5, 25) that τρυφή lacks an English equivalent that comprises the nuances of the Greek term, just as the imprecise English term ‘luxury’ lacks an exact equivalent in Greek. Despite its relative breadth, however, the Gormans’ definition reduces τρυφή to a ‘one size fits all’ term and thereby limits the very nuances of the Greek that their study attempts to tease out. As a premise of my investigation, I assume evolution in the meanings and applications of τρυφή over time, in line with Kurke’s study of the
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Spartan female luxury? ancient Greeks’ use of the term ἁβροσύνη (1992). It is also reasonable to assume that τρυφή, like its modern – if inexact – counterpart, ‘luxury’, performed different work in different texts and contexts. This study, accordingly, will first consider Euripides’ use of the term τρυφή in his generally negative characterization of Spartan women (section II). It will then examine the work that τρυφή performs in Plato’s and Aristotle’s statements about Spartan female luxury (sections III–IV). These latter sections of the investigation will examine both the terminology that these authors use in their larger treatments of Spartan women and their other uses of τρυφή in, respectively, the Laws and the Politics. They will also analyse Plato’s and Aristotle’s statements about Spartan female τρυφή in light of their broader discussions of wealth and property. II. Euripides’ Spartan Women: Barbarian Luxury and Leverage in the Oikos The concept of Spartan female luxury is clearly problematic when we consider the Spartans’ overwhelmingly agrarian economy and systemic restrictions on both men’s and women’s deployment of private resources. As Hodkinson argues, Spartan females inherited wealth comprising land rather than moveable goods, underwent a system of public education that mandated simple and egalitarian dress, and experienced restricted use of private wealth in the context of wedding and funeral rituals.10 According to the late-fourth-century Aristotelian Polity of the Lacedaemonians (ap. Heracleides Lembus 373.13 Dilts), personal adornment was also limited, including the wearing of gold.11 Finds from the precinct of Artemis Orthia and other Spartan sanctuaries, however, point to women’s possession in the archaic period of ornate ritual clothing and a range of jewelry items as well as expenditure on costly dedications.12 Although the evidence of bronze votives at the sanctuaries on the acropolis suggests that Spartan women continued to expend significant funds on offerings in the fifth century, these bronzes reveal little about the daily realities of Spartan women’s lives.13 In any event, they hardly point to the luxury that the Spartan queen Helen and her daughter, Hermione, enjoy in Euripidean tragedy. In his Troades of 415, Euripides characterises Helen as a Spartan adulteress who left her husband in her hunger for sex and wealth. Nowhere is his treatment of Helen more biting than in the ago¯n between Helen and Hecuba before Menelaus, Sparta’s cuckolded king (914–1032). In a vain attempt to persuade Menelaus to put Helen to death, Hecuba indulges in a lengthy attack that highlights the erstwhile Spartan queen’s seemingly unquenchable appetites (983–97; cf. 1020–2). As he develops Hecuba’s argument, Euripides increasingly focuses on Helen’s obsessive
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Ellen Millender desire for wealth and luxury. Lust did not drive Helen as much as hunger for her Trojan lover’s barbaric and golden raiment, as well as golden Troy, extravagance, and desire for the luxury (997: τρυφαῖς) denied to her at home. This luxurious and barbarized Helen appears in several Euripidean tragedies, particularly in the Orestes of 408, in which she has returned to Hellas with a retinue of Phrygian eunuchs (1110–14, 1367–1526).14 As Orestes and Pylades plot her destruction, they mock her barbarian attendants (1110–11), mirrors and perfumes (1112; cf. Tro. 1107), and Trojan luxury (1113: τρυφὰς Τρωϊκάς). Later, one of these Phrygian slaves recounts Helen’s attempt to flee her assassins in her golden sandals (1468). In his Cyclops, also likely produced c. 408, Euripides again emphasizes Helen’s attraction to Paris’ barbaric raiment, especially his golden collar (182–4; cf. IA 73–4). In his Andromache of c. 425, Euripides suggests that Helen transmitted this love of finery to her daughter, Hermione, who reveals the same valuation of golden ornaments and fine clothing – luxury more appropriate for barbarians than for a Greek princess (147–8; cf. 1–4). Euripides’ treatment of Helen and Hermione is striking in several respects. Other fifth-century authors portray Spartan women as sexually voracious and in control of their menfolk, and a number of sources provide evidence concerning Spartan female wealth.15 Euripides, however, is the only surviving fifth-century author who links Lacedaemonian women to luxury, for which he uses forms of the Greek term τρυφή in his characterization of Helen. Authors of this period, like Herodotus (3.148, 5.49, 6.72) repeatedly accuse Spartan males of bribery and an attraction to gold and silver.16 The term τρυφή, however, never appears among the charges lodged against Spartan males during this rich period of interest in Sparta. Given its uniqueness, how do we handle Euripides’ evidence and estimate its historical value? As we have seen, Euripides represents Spartan female luxury in terms of fine clothing and other adornments, gold, and Eastern barbarism.17 I have argued elsewhere that this treatment of Spartan women was part and parcel of fifth-century Athenian-based authors’ attempt to associate the Spartans with the barbarian East.18 Despite their tendentiousness, I have likewise argued that Euripides’ references to Spartan female wealth, particularly the repeated notices of Hermione’s possession of great wealth (Andr. 147–53, 211, 873–4, 940, 1282), provide evidence for Spartan females’ inheritance and control of property.19 Equally tendentious and yet key to any modern reconstruction of Spartan female wealth and its ramifications is Euripides’ introduction of Hermione in the Andromache. Here he calls attention to and links the
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Spartan female luxury? Spartan princess’ paternal inheritance, control over her possessions, and freedom of speech (147–53). Regardless of Euripides’ hyperbolic portrayal of Hermione and inexact description of her wealth as the product of a dowry (153; cf. 2, 873, 1282), his suggestion that the Spartan princess’ possession of wealth translated into latitude in her household deserves careful consideration. Even more important for our purposes, perhaps, is the speech that Euripides’ Peleus delivers on the dangers of forging marital alliances on the basis of wealth and influence (619–22): ‘And I told him [Neoptolemus], when he was about to marry, neither/ to form a marital alliance with you nor to take into his house/ the foal of such a base mother. For they reproduce/ their mothers’ faults. Take my advice here,/ suitors, to get the daughter of a good mother!’20 Although Peleus does not explicitly bring the issue of female wealth into this attack on Spartan women, such a reading seems warranted by this passage’s close relationship to several lines in the earlier tragedy, the Prometheus Bound. Here the Chorus praises the sage figure who first advised men to marry within their own class and warned the poor man against marriage among those enervated by wealth (πλούτῳ διαθρυπτομένων) or exalted in their birth (891–2; cf. Xen. Cyr. 7.2.23). Particularly noteworthy is the Chorus’ use of a form of θρύπτω, a term cognate with τρυφή, to describe wealth’s capacity to undermine the marital relations that underpin the health of the household.21 In these passages, rather than in his depictions of Spartan females luxuriating in the barbarian East, Euripides anticipates Plato’s and Aristotle’s critique of Spartan women. These philosophers, as we shall see, offer what seems to be a divergent treatment of Spartan female luxury, perhaps because of their research on Spartan society. Even without such research, Euripides seems to have believed that Spartan women enjoyed a relative degree of license and influence via their oikoi, the unregulated private sphere of Spartan society where inheritance practices and marital alliances undermined Sparta’s vaunted egalitarianism and ethic of cooperative sociability. III. Plato’s Laws: Unregulated Women and the Dangers of the Private Sphere For Plato’s understanding of Spartan female luxury, we should turn to his Laws, composed c. 350 bce. Lacedaemonian women receive much criticism in this work, beginning with the Athenian interlocutor’s comment on their ἄνεσις (637c). This ambiguous term gives rise to two possible translations, as Cartledge (2001, 110) points out: ‘“the license
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Ellen Millender permitted to the women” or “the licentiousness of the women.”’ ‘License’ makes better sense, given the Athenian’s later censure of the Spartans and Cretans for failing to regulate their women – by nature a disorderly sex – through the syssitia (common meals) mandated for men (780d–781b): ‘For among your peoples, Cleinias and Megillus, common meals for men were established in a fine and, as I have said, admirable way by some divine necessity. Women’s affairs, however, were left, quite wrongly, without legislative regulation (οὐδαμῶς ὀρθῶς ἀνομοθέτητον μεθεῖται), and the practice of common meals for them never saw the light. Instead, the race of us humans that is by nature more secretive and cunning because of its weakness – the female – was incorrectly left in disorder through the lawgiver’s compliance (οὐκ ὀρθῶς τοῦτο εἴξαντος τοῦ νομοθέτου δύστακτον ὂν ἀφείθη). On account of this neglect (μεθειμένου), there are many things that have gotten out of hand among you that would have been far better than they are now, if they had happened to be regulated by laws. For it is not merely, as one might suppose, a matter affecting only the half when one overlooks the disorderliness of women’s affairs (τὸ περὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἀκοσμήτως περιορώμενον)’.
Here an accumulation of terms points to the excessive slack given to Spartan women, especially the repeated verb μεθίημι (which connotes, among other things, relaxation, permission, and neglect), the closely associated verb ἀφίημι, εἴκω (to yield), and περιοράω (to permit). Both here and in his description of these women as unwilling to participate in syssitia, Plato portrays Spartan women as private figures incapable of regulation by the lawgiver (781c–d; cf. 806e). Instead of educating the females as he educated the males, Sparta’s lawgiver let ‘the female live in luxury, spend, and live a disorderly way of life, while supervising the male’ (806c: τὸ θῆλυ μὲν ἀφιέντα τρυφᾶν καὶ ἀναλίσκειν διαίταις ἀτάκτως χρώμενον, τοῦ δὲ ἄρρενος ἐπιμεληθέντα). Here again we see a cluster of terms that highlight the laxness of the Spartans’ arrangements for their women: ἀφίημι, ἄτακτος, and τρυφάω. While the adjective ἄτακτος connotes a state of disorder, lack of discipline, or lawlessness, the verb τρυφάω encompasses license, sumptuous living, and extravagance. Plato’s critique of the Spartans’ failure to regulate their women and the danger that these women posed to the health of the state should not be surprising, given his views on the relationship between public and private. Although Plato’s Laws departs from the suppression of private life proposed in his earlier Republic, it still reveals his belief that private family life and property are a source of disorder (807b). His Athenian interlocutor explicitly bases the establishment of a stable code of laws on the correct ordering of the private sphere (790b). The Athenian also claims that the virtuous man is he who is the best and most obedient servant of
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Spartan female luxury? the laws (822e). Through the Athenian, Plato likewise reveals his view that the ideal educational system contains laws best geared to proscribe excessive wealth and to promote temperance (836a). Public education and the laws together create the economic structures that mitigate against those conditions Plato finds most detrimental to the well-being of all communities: poverty and, even more so, wealth (e.g., 679b, 728e–729a, 744d, 919b). Throughout the Laws Plato demonstrates his concern with the problems that arise from wealth and avarice. He spends considerable time on mechanisms that ensure the sustainable division of property, which, in turn, will forestall extreme wealth and poverty.22 But unlike his Republic’s call for the eradication of poverty and wealth, Plato’s Laws envisions a society composed of private oikoi in possession of private property (cf. 807b) subject to certain restrictions. As Fuks (1984, 157) explains, Plato’s laws mandate the equality of landed property and the inequality of moveable property to create a society that ‘combines basic equality with controlled inequality’. In order to achieve this ‘controlled inequality’, Plato allies such economic prescriptions with laws and an educational system that together preclude wealth and foster moderation. At the same time, he repeatedly reveals his desire to restrict the social and, more important, economic role of the household. As with ‘controlled inequality’, Plato aims to marginalize the household not only via legal restrictions on private property but also through collective institutions like the syssitia and an egalitarian public educational system.23 It is, therefore, not surprising that Plato’s interlocutors commend aspects of the Spartan politeia, such as the syssitia and gymnasia, which ostensibly foster courage and temperance (636a). Sparta’s constitutional structure likewise receives praise for its ability to moderate and blend power (691e, 693e).24 His Athenian also claims – albeit incorrectly – that the Spartans give no consideration to wealth or poverty in their honoring or training of future citizens (696a–b). Plato makes it clear, however, that the Spartans failed to restrict the destabilising power of wealth and the private sphere’s influence on the state by allowing their women to remain outside the public educational and legal system. Unlike their menfolk, Spartan women were private beings unregulated by the state via its laws and its inculcating institutions that promoted moderation and limited the pernicious effects of wealth. Without such laws and institutions, Sparta’s women were primed for the licentious existence that Plato (or rather his Athenian interlocutor) repeatedly opposes to the temperate life he esteems (734a–d). By failing to regulate them, the lawgiver imperiled the correct ordering of the private
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Ellen Millender sphere that Plato considers the sine qua non for establishing a stable code of laws and the healthy functioning of the state. Plato, however, remains frustratingly vague in his terminology and lack of detail. What are the sources and objects of Spartan female expense, and what does he mean by ‘luxury’? While Plato never explicitly mentions Spartan female wealth, he seems to allude to it through the verb ἀναλίσκειν (to spend), which he links with female τρυφή at 806c. Plato offers hints at the nature of the luxury and expenditure mentioned at 806c in his attempts elsewhere in the Laws to limit the household’s economic influence. His Athenian expresses strong opposition to inherited wealth (729a–b; cf. 922b–923c), especially in the form of dowries, which he wants to ban from his model community (742c, 774c–d). Plato’s Athenian likewise seeks to regulate marriage to moderate imbalances in wealth: marriage must benefit the state rather than the individual or the family (773b). Echoing the aforementioned Chorus of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound (891–2) and Euripides’ Peleus (Andr. 619–22), he advises young men neither to shun a connection with a poor family nor to pursue ties with a rich one, but to prefer alliances with families of moderate means (773a). Particularly noteworthy are his mandate against intermarriage among wealthy families (773c–d) and reproaches against those who marry for money (773e). Despite their consistent generalisation, these repeated injunctions against dowries and marital alliances that aim to concentrate and increase wealth must point to Sparta, which serves as a positive and negative model throughout the Laws. Although the dowries condemned by Plato’s Athenian do not exactly conform to the system of ‘universal female inheritance’ that operated in Sparta, they better reflect Spartan practice than Athenian custom. Sparta also was more likely than Athens to have informed Plato’s belief in the leverage that wealth gave women over their menfolk (cf., esp., 774c). The Spartan male’s status and privileges as a citizen rested upon his monthly mess dues and thus ultimately on his and his wife’s possession of sufficient land to produce these monthly contributions of foodstuffs.25 As landowners, Spartan females became valuable commodities on the marriage market among families attempting to maintain or to increase their holdings and to ensure their males’ citizen status. Evidence for the economic – and hence socio-political – value of female landholders can be found in numerous close-kin marriages that the two royal houses arranged to concentrate their property (cf. Hdt. 5.39–42, 6.71.2, 7.205.1).26 Plato’s Athenian may have such materially-driven marriages in mind when he admonishes young men to make marriages aimed at the good of the state rather than the financial health of the individuals and families involved
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Spartan female luxury? (773). It is also likely that these marriage arrangements informed the Athenian’s opinion that dowered wealth produces hubristic brides (774c). The Athenian’s theory regarding such wealthy wives cannot help but recall the Euripidean Hermione’s claims regarding the latitude she enjoys in Neoptolemus’ household (Andr.147–53). Wealth for Plato, as for Euripides, thus translated into Spartan female influence in the oikos. Where, however, does τρυφή fit into this picture? This term occurs only four times in the Laws, including in the Athenian’s aforementioned commentary on Spartan women at 806c. Plato first uses it to describe the Persian Cyrus’ sons who, owing to their training by women and eunuchs with an education corrupted by prosperity, took over their father’s kingdom ‘bursting with luxury and license’ (695a–b: τρυφῆς μεστοὶ καὶ ἀνεπιπληξίας). Here Plato does not use the term to denote the sumptuous adornments normally associated with the barbarian East. Rather, Plato’s Athenian critiques Cyrus’ failure to educate his sons properly and the indulgence that filled them with τρυφή and ἀνεπιπληξία, another term connoting a lack of restraint.27 The Athenian continues to link τρυφή with paideusis in his ensuing comments on Darius’ ‘unluxurious education’ (695c: παιδείᾳ τε οὐ διατρυφώσῃ) and Xerxes’ ‘luxurious education’ (695d: τρυφώσῃ...παιδείᾳ). Similar to Sparta’s women, Cyrus’ sons were not the product of sumptuous over-pampering but rather of excessive latitude to do as they pleased. Plato faults Cyrus, like the Spartans, for his obsession with war and his failure to pay attention to household management (694c–695b; cf. 630b–d, 633a–d). As with the Spartans’ management of their women (806c), τρυφή is the license that results from lack of oversight and training. It is thus not surprising that Plato later closely associates τρυφή and ἀμέλεια (negligence) at 900e, where the Athenian poses the rhetorical question whether τρυφή, ἀμέλεια, and ἀργία (idleness) should be reckoned as goodness of soul.28 The license resulting from negligence in education, in turn, gives wealth its power, as Plato suggests in his final usage of τρυφή at 919b. In this passage he again decries the twin evils of poverty and wealth, ‘one of which corrupts the soul of human beings through τρυφή, and the other of which urges it on to shamelessness through pains’. Here τρυφή is neither a form nor a product of wealth, but rather the means by which wealth acquires its ability to corrupt. If we then understand τρυφή as the license which results from the lack of oversight that gives wealth its power, Plato’s critique of Spartan female τρυφή at 806c becomes clearer. Throughout the Laws he reveals both his belief that the proper system of property ownership underpins healthy civic organisations and his concern about the disordering effects
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Ellen Millender of private family life and property. Given his views on wealth and public health, Plato could not fail to see the dangers that Sparta’s ostensibly ‘luxurious’, i.e. unruly, women posed to the welfare of their polis. In his critique of these unregulated women, Plato more specifically faults the Spartans’ failure to reform the system of universal female inheritance and to curb the ensuing accumulation of wealth that provided Sparta’s women with the corrupting influence that wealth enjoys. Granted, Plato never joins these dots as explicitly as Aristotle does in his Politics, as we shall see below. The ultimate goal of his critique is also frustratingly unclear. Was he attempting to refute contemporary Laconisers’ idealized image of a state that had successfully curbed the corrosive influence of money (cf. Hodkinson 1994, 211)? Or was he actively trying to facilitate reform among the Spartans themselves (cf. Powell 1994, 311–12)? Whatever the case, Plato clearly believed that female wealth and τρυφή played a key role in Sparta’s fourth-century decline. This view of Spartan women may help to explain his seemingly odd position on women in general in the Laws. He endorses both the education and the full military and political participation of women in his ideal state. He also restores their traditional domestic role with the reintroduction of the oikos. Plato, nevertheless, deprives females of freedom, rights, and tangible power in the social realm (cf. Samaras 2010, esp., 195–6). IV. Aristotle: Spartan Female License, Luxury, and the Rule of the Domestic Sphere Now we turn to Aristotle’s treatment of Sparta in his roughly contemporaneous Politics. This work follows Plato’s Laws so closely that many modern scholars believe that Aristotle composed his own study under its shadow (cf. Schütrumpf 1994, 324–8). Aristotle, however, goes far beyond Plato in his often vitriolic criticism of Sparta (1269a29–1271b19; cf. 1324b7–9, 1333b12–16, 1334a36–b4). His Politics provides a stronger polemic against contemporary Laconisers who looked to Sparta in their disenchantment with Athens’ democracy. In response to the Spartan mirage, Aristotle claims that the Lacedaemonians’ problems resulted from inherent flaws in a system that was poorly designed by its lawgiver – especially in its arrangements regarding women and property.29 Aristotle repeatedly and explicitly criticizes the Spartans’ property arrangements and attitudes toward wealth.30 Besides his critique of the unequal distribution of property and its fatal consequences (1270a15–34), Aristotle points out the poor legislation of the syssitia – whereby failure to contribute foodstuffs resulted in the exclusion of poor men from the ranks of the homoioi (1271a26–37). He also comments on the poor state
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Spartan female luxury? of public finance, thanks to the lack of money in the treasury and the Spartiates’ lack of interest in paying their property taxes or scrutinizing one another’s contributions (1271b10–15). Aristotle, moreover, critiques the ephors’ and gerontes’ openness to bribery, the former because of poverty (1270b8–13; cf. 1272a40–42), the latter because of corruption and the lack of oversight (1271a3–5).31 Here Aristotle follows those fifth- and fourth-century sources who portray the Spartans as prone to corruption.32 He also notes the gerontes’ ambition for office, which he follows with a generalised attack on ambition (φιλοτιμία) and greed (φιλοχρηματία) as the chief motives behind human wrongdoing (1271a14–18). Particularly strong is his criticism of the ephors’ lifestyle, which he characterizes as excessively unconstrained in contrast to the austerity mandated for Spartan citizens (1270b32–4). The constrained Spartiates likewise receive censure for their inability to endure the excessive austerity in their daily lives, which, according to Aristotle, leads to secret lawlessness and indulgence in bodily pleasures (1270b34–5). Despite their reputation for austerity and vaunted egalitarian communalism, Aristotle’s Spartans appear inherently corrupted by the search for and valuation of wealth. He makes this point explicitly in his descriptions of Sparta as a state where wealth is honored (1269b23–4) and there exists a love of money (1270a14: φιλοχρηματίαν). Even more striking is his claim that the Spartan lawgiver’s arrangements produced the opposite of what is beneficial by making the state poor and turning its individual citizens into lovers of money (1271b15–17: φιλοχρημάτους).33 While Aristotle’s Sparta thus diverges from Plato’s Sparta in the Laws in several respects, its vices recall those of the ‘philochre¯matic’ timarchy of Plato’s Republic (cf., esp., 548a-c, 549b) – which scholars see as closely corresponding to contemporary Sparta (cf. Pl. Rep. 545a; Arist. Pol. 1316a18–22).34 Sparta’s women receive particularly harsh censure in the Politics, even though Aristotle never explicitly accuses them of philochre¯matia.35 His famous critique commences with an attack on their lack of regulation (1269b12–26, 31–4): Again, the license (ἄνεσις) in regard to women is harmful with a view both to the intention of the constitution and the happiness of the city. For just as man and woman are a part of the household, it is clear that the city should be considered as about equally divided in two – into a multitude of men and a multitude of women, so in constitutions in which the condition of women is poorly handled, half of the city must be regarded as unregulated by law (ἀνομοθέτητον). And this is what actually happened there [at Sparta], for the lawgiver wished the whole city to be hardy, and this is manifestly the case with the men; but he has been utterly careless (ἐξημέληκεν) with the
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Ellen Millender women, for they live in luxury (τρυφερῶς) and without restraint in any form of licentiousness (ἀκολάστως πρὸς ἅπασαν ἀκολασίαν). The inevitable result under such a constitution is that wealth is esteemed, especially if the men happen to be dominated by the women, as is the case with most military and warlike races... This was the state of affairs among the Laconians, and many matters were managed by women in the time of their empire. And yet, what difference does it make whether women rule or the rulers are ruled by women? The result is the same.36
The similarities with Plato’s comments on Spartan women are striking, beginning with Aristotle’s claim regarding their ἄνεσις. As with Plato’s statement (Leg. 637c), ἄνεσις here best translates as ‘license’, since Aristotle seems to equate it with the state’s failure to regulate its women (1269b19: ἀνομοθέτητον; cf. Pl. Leg. 781a). Aristotle’s critique, moreover, provides another term connected with τρυφή: τρυφερῶς. This term, as with Plato’s use of τρυφή, likely signals a state of indulgence and lack of restraint, in line with the opposition that Aristotle constructs between living luxuriously (τρυφᾶν) and living temperately (σωφρόνως) in his earlier discussion of the good life (1265a32–4). He thus seems to view τρυφή as a secondary form of license that results from the primary form, ἄνεσις, i.e. the state’s lack of control over its women. Several scholars have argued that Aristotle ascribes the disorder of the women’s arrangements and their resulting intemperate and luxurious lifestyle to the Spartiates’ focus on warfare.37 Aristotle, it is true, treats Sparta as excessively focused on war, domination, and acquisition.38 At one point he also links Spartan women’s ἄνεσις to their menfolk’s extensive time abroad on campaign (1269b39–1270a14). In this passage, however, he never directly attributes female license and luxury to the Spartiates’ obsession with warfare. Rather, as in his earlier critique of their arrangements regarding women (1269b12–34, esp. 22–3), Aristotle here focuses on the Spartans’ failure to educate and to regulate their women in his treatment of female disorder as a foundational weakness of their politeia.39 He claims that the discipline that Spartan males gained through warfare, which conditioned them to follow the lawgiver when at leisure, was totally lacking in the women, who refused to obey Lycurgus’ laws (1270a4–8; cf. Pl. Leg. 781c–d). For Aristotle, who believes, like Plato, that the female half of the polis needs education as much as the male half (1260b15–20), the Spartans’ legislative and educative neglect of their women was necessarily ruinous for their polis as a whole.40 His treatment of Spartan women here parallels his Rhetoric’s discussion of the necessity of both private and public education in the production of bodily and moral virtues. There he remarks that
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Spartan female luxury? ‘it is necessary for both the community and the individual alike to seek to establish each of qualities such as these in both men and women – for all those states in which the condition of women is poor, as in Lacedaemon, are only half-happy’ (Rh. 1361a7–11). Although Aristotle closely follows Plato in many respects, he diverges in his claim that female intemperance and luxury necessarily result in an esteem for wealth (1269b23–4) – an esteem that was inevitable in Sparta, given its gynecocracy (1269b24–34). Aristotle, however, neither mentions the female expenditure that Plato viewed as a consequence of the lawgiver’s neglect (Leg. 806c) nor specifically charges Spartan women with avarice. What, then, is Aristotle saying here, and how should we understand the links that he forges among female license, female power, the esteem for wealth, and the Spartan politeia? We should note, first, the primacy of the concept of female license (ἄνεσις) in Aristotle’s overall critique of Sparta’s arrangements regarding its women. If we then follow his line of argument at Pol. 1269b12–26, we see that he holds female license (ἄνεσις) – and the licentiousness (ἀκολασία) and luxury (τρυφή) that result from it – directly responsible for an attitude toward wealth that is ‘harmful with a view both to the intention of the constitution and the happiness of the city’ (1269b13–14: καὶ πρὸς τὴν προαίρεσιν τῆς πολιτείας βλαβερὰ καὶ πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν πόλεως). Aristotle makes this connection among license, the valuation of wealth, and the detriment to the politeia more explicit in his next discussion of Spartan female ἄνεσις at Pol. 1269b39–1270a14. Here he claims that this ‘license’, which he again identifies as the lack of regulation of Sparta’s women, creates a certain unseemliness in the constitution and contributes to the love of money (1270a11–14: φιλοχρηματίαν). As noted above, this statement closely correlates with Aristotle’s claim that the lawgiver’s arrangements produced a poor city-state and individuals who were lovers of money (1271b15–17: φιλοχρημάτους). Aristotle, however, still does not fully explain how and why female license gave rise to the Spartans’ honoring and even love of wealth, contributed to their gynecocracy, and harmed their constitution. Although he seems to leave the dots unconnected, Aristotle finally introduces the one societal factor that both explains and forges links among female license, female domination, the esteem for wealth, and the impaired politeia: Sparta’s property system.41 It cannot be coincidental that Aristotle follows his claim concerning the contribution of Spartan female license to unseemliness in the constitution and avarice with an extended attack on the inequality of property in Sparta (1270a15–34):
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Ellen Millender For what one might criticize next, after the foregoing, is the inequality of property. For it has come about that some of them possess too much property, and others very little; hence the land has come into the hands of a few. And this, too, was poorly arranged by the laws; for the lawgiver made it dishonorable to sell or to purchase an existing landholding, and did so rightly, but he left it open to those who wished to give or bequeath it; and yet the result must be the same in this case as in that. Indeed, nearly two-fifths of all the land is owned by women, both because many have become heiresses and because of the practice of giving large dowries. It would surely have been better if it had been organized so that there was no dowry or only a small or moderate one. But, as it is, one is allowed to marry an heiress daughter to whomever one wishes, and, if a man should die intestate, the person he leaves as his heir gives her to whom he wishes. Accordingly, although the country is capable of maintaining fifteen hundred cavalry and thirty thousand hoplites, they numbered not even a thousand. The very facts have clearly shown how poor their condition was as a result of this organisation; for the city did not endure a single blow but was ruined through its lack of manpower.42
This ordering of his arguments allows him to highlight perceived weaknesses in Sparta’s socio-economic structures that Plato critiques more obliquely. For Aristotle, as for Plato, the Spartan lawgiver’s key deficit was his inability to subject the private sphere to those laws that made the public realm hardy (1269b20).43 While the lawgiver took charge of the men, he proved unable to regulate women and the domestic realm. Most troubling, in Aristotle’s opinion, was the Spartans’ failure to address the familial property arrangements that enabled women to inherit and to possess land in their own right. Equally problematic, to his mind, was the familial control over marriages that similarly contributed to the concentration of landed wealth in the hands of a few.44 Aristotle, of course, never advocates the abolition of private property, which he views, together with proportional equality, as the sole guarantee of a constitution’s stability (1307a26–7; cf. 1263a–b). Nevertheless, he recognizes the inherent defects in private property and believes that the successful city must take care over the division of property.45 To avoid the problems in both strictly private property and Plato’s communism of property in the Republic, Aristotle ‘designs an intermediate position: some property should be communally owned and some should be privately owned, but the use of even the privately owned property should be communal (Pol. 1329b36–1330a31)’.46 Aristotle’s other property arrangements, including the granting of equal allotments of land to each male head of household (1330a14–18) and his apparent preference for the inalienability of such allotments (cf. 1266b14–31, 1270a15–34), create a
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Spartan female luxury? system in which ‘a major portion of what is called the private property of a citizen of the ideal constitution is not something that he really and truly owns’ (Reeve 1998, lxxviii). As he reveals in his critique of Sparta, Aristotle likewise believes that the regulation of private property necessarily entails public regulation of inheritance and marriage.47 By pairing his discussion of Spartan female license with his critique of Spartan property arrangements, Aristotle suggests that the Spartans’ failure to regulate the private sphere had dire consequences for their state: the extreme concentration of wealth, the drastic decrease in manpower, and, consequently, the state’s inability to recover from its defeat at Leuctra in 371. He also believes that the poorly managed property arrangements which resulted from neglect of the oikos gave women not only landed wealth but also power within and beyond their respective oikoi. Although we should be wary of Aristotle’s claim that Sparta was a gynecocracy (1269b31–4), he clearly thought that women’s inheritance and control over property had important ramifications for their position in Spartan society. Given the centrality of land ownership to the possession and maintenance of citizen status, their inheritance of land – in Aristotle’s eyes (as in Plato’s) – endowed Spartan women with an ever-increasing degree of license in their households. For Aristotle, as for Plato, this τρυφή, this license which resulted from the lack of oversight and training, gave Spartan women power, which (according to Plutarch’s biographies of Agis IV and Cleomenes III) developed into real political clout by the mid-third century at least.48 Aristotle, however, goes beyond Plato in both his more explicit linkage of Spartan female luxury and wealth and his understanding of τρυφή as the means by which wealth acquires its ability to corrupt. As we have seen, he claims that license (ἄνεσις), together with the licentiousness (ἀκολασία) and the luxury (τρυφή) that it produces, inevitably leads to esteem for wealth (1269b22–4). Here, I would argue, Aristotle again signals the danger of neglecting the oikos, which was, as Plato understood, the seat of female influence and activity – the most important of which was the rearing of children (cf. Leg. 806a–c).49 Women, who were the first educators of young Spartiates, were nevertheless left to their own devices, remained uneducated, and enjoyed leverage in their households because of their wealth. At once unregulated and empowered, these women enjoyed the τρυφή (or license) to transmit to their children – and perhaps their husbands as well – the love of money and valuation of private over public that was, according to Plato, a natural occurrence in timarchic and oligarchic systems (Rep. 548a–c, 549b, 550d–551b).50 In his Republic Plato even claims that the timocratic youth becomes timocratic when he heeds
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Ellen Millender his mother, who persuades her son to desire money and honor (549c–d). Uneducated and wealthy Spartan women enjoyed the same maternal influence and thus were, in Aristotle’s eyes, just as deleterious as educators as the Persian eunuchs and women who poorly trained Cyrus’ sons (cf. Pl. Leg. 695a–b).51 In his Politics Aristotle could, therefore, praise both Sparta’s education of its citizens through the syssitia that promoted communal property ownership (1263b36–41) and the public upbringing (1337a31–2) that instilled in Spartiate males self-discipline, obedience, and a cooperative ethic. The Spartans’ public education of their citizens, however, did not meet his criterion that education had to be ‘one and the same for all’ (1337a22–3) and thus geared to create a unified community (1263b36–7, 1337a21–32; cf. Rh. 1361a7–11). The Spartan lawgiver, rather, created the opposite of what he had intended (1271b15–17): a polis lacking in money (ἀχρήματον) and populated by individuals in love with money (ἰδιώτας φιλοχρημάτους). Instead of Sparta’s famed militaristic and austere homoioi, we find private individuals and a city that has become a private, feminine space.52 V. Conclusion As Hodkinson (1994) has shown, the intertwined issues of wealth and property play key roles in ancient authors’ critiques of the Spartan politeia and their understanding of the roots of Sparta’s decline in the fourth century. Several fifth- and fourth-century texts feature Spartans who are particularly prone to bribery and even the temptations of the barbarian East. In the fourth century we increasingly hear about the philochre¯matia (love of money) that afflicted ancient Lacedaemon. Such accounts of corrupt and avaricious Spartiates, though tendentious, may provide evidence on the failure of the Spartan system to promote uniformity and the prioritization of collective over private interests in its creation of the homoioi. The Spartans’ celebrated egalitarianism and ethic of cooperative sociability ultimately proved incapable of quashing the values of wealth and birth and the profound influence that patronage exercised upon all levels of their society (Hodkinson 1983; 2000). Sparta’s famous women, not surprisingly, receive a good deal of attention in fifth- and fourth-century treatments of Spartan economic structures. These critiques, however, do not depict them as corrupt but rather focus on their lack of regulation and education. Plato and Aristotle specifically fault Spartan women’s ἄνεσις and the τρυφή that it produces – both, apparently, uniquely feminine defects that are linked to the issue of female wealth but more largely concern the oversight of women.53 These defects may be closely connected, but Plato and Aristotle demonstrate
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Spartan female luxury? that they are not synonymous (cf., esp., Pol. 1269b12–26). Aristotle and Plato (if more obliquely) use ἄνεσις to refer to the Spartan state’s failure to regulate its women and treat τρυφή as the resulting latitude that these women enjoyed. This interpretation of τρυφή accords with Aristotle’s use of the verb τρυφάω to describe the wives of oligarchs, whom, he claims, cannot be supervised because of their ‘luxurious living’ (Pol. 1300a8). Similar is his use of the verb τρυφάω in his description of the sons of oligarchic rulers as ‘luxurious’ because of their lack of training and education (Pol. 1310a12–25). According to Plato and Aristotle, this license – this free rein within the household – was the mechanism that converted Spartan women’s inherited wealth into reign over the household and power within the state. Although Euripides does not employ the term τρυφή in his characterization of Hermione, his depiction of this mythical Spartan princess reveals his belief in the license and influence that Spartan women could enjoy in their oikoi through their inherited wealth (Andr. 147–53). Plato later obliquely critiques those private marital and property arrangements which, according to his Athenian, the Spartans failed to regulate and were the source of female wealth and the license that gave wealth its power to corrupt. Aristotle is more explicit in his condemnation of the Spartans’ property system and marital arrangements. He believes that the Spartans’ inheritance practices enriched women and gave them undue influence over their menfolk, promoted the valuation of wealth, and proved harmful to the city’s general well-being. On the surface, Euripides seems to put a different spin on Spartan τρυφή in his portraits of Helen luxuriating in the wealth of the barbarian East (Tro. 997; Or. 1113). Plato and Aristotle, instead, locate in Spartan τρυφή a more fundamental rot inherent in Sparta that originated in the private realm of women but later enveloped all sectors of society. In the end, however, the charge of τρυφή, whether understood as a form of sumptuous extravagance or as the license resulting from women’s lack of regulation, performs the same basic ideological work in all these texts. Through their accusations of female ‘luxury’, these authors exploded the myth of an austere, temperate, and manly Sparta (cf., e.g., Plut. Lyc. 8-10). In its place they constructed a wholly different polis where, underneath a public veneer of obedience, communalism, and egalitarianism, lay a private realm of indiscipline, avarice, and inequality.54 It was this private realm that, according to Aristotle, eventually turned the polis of the homoioi into a collection of private households that were managed by women and filled with avaricious individuals.
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Ellen Millender Notes 1 On austerity and luxury in ancient Sparta, see van Wees 2018. I would like to thank the author for generously sharing his work before publication. 2 On female wealth, see Hodkinson 2000, 94–103, 400–16, 438–40; 2004; Millender 2009, 16–18, 23–4, 31, 34; 2018, 511–12. 3 Hodkinson 1986; 1989; 1992; 2000, 94–103, 400–416; 2004; cf. Cartledge 2001, 119–20. See, however, Bresson 2016, who defends Aristotle’s understanding of Spartan inheritance practices and argues (51) that ‘a pattern mixing parallel and diverging devolution’ best explains Spartan women’s uniquely privileged position and economic power. 4 See Mossé 1991; Powell 1999; Millender 2009, 27–35; 2018, 517–18. 5 Cf. Hodkinson 2004; Millender 2018, 511–19; 2019. On Cynisca, see IG V 1.1564a; Anth. Graec. 13.16; Xen. Ages. 9.6; Plut. Ages. 20.1; Mor. 212b; Paus. 3.8.1– 2, 15.1; 5.12.5; 6.1.6. See also Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy in this volume, Chapter 4. 6 E.g., Powell 1994, 297; Hodkinson 1994, 205; 2000, 34; 2004, 204, 206; Rubin 2012, 19. 7 On the gendered connotations of this term, see Robin Osborne, this volume, Chapter 1. On the role that gender plays in defining the meaning of luxury objects, see Grewe and Hofmeester 2016, 306–7. 8 On the current meaning of luxury, see Osborne, this volume, Chapter 1. See also the overview of the modern term offered by Duplouy, this volume, Chapter 8. 9 For the similar view that ‘luxury’ connotes behavior rather than objects, see Osborne, this volume, Chapter 1. See also Duplouy, this volume, Chapter 8, who focuses on luxury via its relationship to the notion of conspicuous consumption. 10 Osborne (this volume, Chapter 1), however, argues that there was more scope for private display than the traditional picture allows. 11 Heracleides Lembus 373.13 Dilts: τῶν ἐν Λακεδαίμονι γυναικῶν κόσμος ἀφῄρηται, οὐδὲ κομᾶν ἔξεστιν, οὐδὲ χρυσοφορεῖν. See Hodkinson 2000, 226–30; 2004, 107–8. See, however, van Wees 2018, 216, 219. 12 See Hodkinson 2004, 130 n. 13; van Wees 2018, 214, 219. On the lead figurines that provide evidence of ornate female dress, at least in ritual contexts, see Foxhall 1998, 304–5; Foxhall and Stears 2000. On jewelry items from Spartan sanctuaries, see Dawkins 1929; Droop 1929. 13 On Spartan female dedications, see Hodkinson 2004, 109–11. 14 On Euripides’ ‘barbarized’ Helen, see Millender 1999, 359. 15 Millender 1999; 2009, 7–9, 15–18; 2018. 16 For accounts of Spartan corruption, see Millender 2002b, 36–9. 17 Contra Gorman and Gorman (2014, 42–3), whose interpretation of τρυφή focuses on Helen’s offensive behavior toward her servants and underlings. 18 Millender 1996; 1999; 2002a; 2002b; 2009, 9. 19 Millender 1999, 370–3; 2018, 511–12. 20 All translations are mine. 21 Cf. Gorman and Gorman 2014, 34, 35 n. 71. 22 E.g., Pl. Leg. 705b, 737a, 741e, 742d–743e, 831c–e, and 870a–c. For his division of property, see, e.g., Leg. 737c–738b, 745b–747e. On Plato’s linkage between the proper system of property ownership and the correct form of civic organisation, see Fuks 1984.
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Spartan female luxury? Restriction of the oikos’ influence: Samaras 2010, 175, 179. Restrictions on private land and movable property: Fuks 1984. 24 For Plato’s treatment of Sparta, see Powell 1994; Hodkinson 1994, 201–5; 2000, 30–2. 25 Millender 1999, 371–2; 2018, 511–12; Hodkinson 2004. 26 See, esp., Hodkinson 2000, 101–3, 407–13; 2004, 114–16. 27 Cf. Gorman and Gorman 2014, 53–4. 28 Cf. Rep. 556b–c, where Plato describes how wealth-obsessed oligarchic leaders neglect (ἠμεληκότας) the upbringing of their consequently spoiled (τρυφῶντας) sons. See Gorman and Gorman 2014, 430. 29 See Hodkinson 1986, 389–91; 1994, 201–7, 211; 2000, 30–5; Schütrumpf 1987; 1994, 340–1. Cf. David 1982–83, 78–80 and Bresson 2016, esp. 14–15, 32–3, who argue that Aristotle (and Plato) also recognised Sparta’s decline over time. 30 Hodkinson 1994, 204–11; 2000, 33–5; Bresson 2016, 31–5. 31 See David 1982–83, 71–8. 32 See above, n. 16. Cf. Xen. Lac. Pol. 14; Isoc. 8.95–6, 102–3; 11.20; 12.55, with David 1982–83, 75 n. 29. 33 Cf. the oracle quoted by Aristotle: ἁ φιλοχρηματία Σπάρταν ὀλεῖ, ἄλλο δὲ οὐδέν (fr. 544 [Rose]). See David 1982–83, 92 n. 94. 34 See David 1982–83, 76, 78; Hodkinson 1989, 100; 1994, 201–3; 2000, 31–2. Plato also notes these vices in oligarchies: Rep. 550d–551b, 551e, 552b–c, 553c–555a. 35 See Hodkinson 1994, 204–7; 2004, 122–3; Cartledge 2001. 36 Arist. Pol. 1269b12-26, 31-4: ἔτι δ’ ἡ περὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἄνεσις καὶ πρὸς τὴν 23
προαίρεσιν τῆς πολιτείας βλαβερὰ καὶ πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν πόλεως. ὥσπερ γὰρ οἰκίας μέρος ἀνὴρ καὶ γυνή, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ πόλιν ἐγγὺς τοῦ δίχα διῃρῆσθαι δεῖ νομίζειν εἴς τε τὸ τῶν ἀνδρῶν πλῆθος καὶ τὸ τῶν γυναικῶν, ὥστ’ ἐν ὅσαις πολιτείαις φαύλως ἔχει τὸ περὶ τὰς γυναῖκας, τὸ ἥμισυ τῆς πόλεως εἶναι δεῖ νομίζειν ἀνομοθέτητον. ὅπερ ἐκεῖ συμβέβηκεν· ὅλην γὰρ τὴν πόλιν ὁ νομοθέτης εἶναι βουλόμενος καρτερικήν, κατὰ μὲν τοὺς ἄνδρας φανερός ἐστι τοιοῦτος ὤν, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν γυναικῶν ἐξημέληκεν· ζῶσι γὰρ ἀκολάστως πρὸς ἅπασαν ἀκολασίαν καὶ τρυφερῶς. ὥστ’ ἀναγκαῖον ἐν τῇ τοιαύτῃ πολιτείᾳ τιμᾶσθαι τὸν πλοῦτον, ἄλλως τε κἂν τύχωσι γυναικοκρατούμενοι, καθάπερ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν στρατιωτικῶν καὶ πολεμικῶν γενῶν, ...διὸ παρὰ τοῖς Λάκωσι τοῦθ’ ὑπῆρχεν, καὶ πολλὰ διῳκεῖτο ὑπὸ τῶν γυναικῶν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς αὐτῶν. καίτοι τί διαφέρει γυναῖκας ἄρχειν ἢ τοὺς ἄρχοντας ὑπὸ τῶν γυναικῶν ἄρχεσθαι; ταὐτὸ γὰρ συμβαίνει.
E.g., Saxonhouse 1985, 85; Powell 1994, esp. 297; Rubin 2012, 15, 28; Balot 2015, 118. 38 Pol.1271a41–b10, 1324b3–9, 1333b5–1334a10, 1334a40–b4; 1338b9–16. See Rubin 2012, esp. 19, 30; Balot 2015, 118; Lockwood 2015, 76–7. 39 Cf. Rubin 2012, 13–14; Lockwood 2015, 76; Bresson 2016, 28, 56–7. 40 Cf. Salkever 1991, 180; Rubin 2012, 13–14; Lockwood 2015, 76. 41 Cf. Bresson 2016, 32–5. 42 Arist. Pol. 1270a15-34: μετὰ γὰρ τὰ νῦν ῥηθέντα τοῖς περὶ τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν τῆς 37
κτήσεως ἐπιτιμήσειεν ἄν τις. τοῖς μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν συμβέβηκε κεκτῆσθαι πολλὴν λίαν οὐσίαν, τοῖς δὲ πάμπαν μικράν· διόπερ εἰς ὀλίγους ἧκεν ἡ χώρα. τοῦτο δὲ καὶ διὰ τῶν νόμων τέτακται φαύλως· ὠνεῖσθαι μὲν γάρ, ἢ πωλεῖν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν, ἐποίησεν οὐ καλόν, ὀρθῶς ποιήσας, διδόναι δὲ καὶ καταλείπειν ἐξουσίαν ἔδωκε τοῖς βουλομένοις· καίτοι ταὐτὸ συμβαίνειν ἀναγκαῖον ἐκείνως τε καὶ οὕτως. ἔστι δὲ καὶ τῶν γυναικῶν σχεδὸν τῆς πάσης
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Ellen Millender χώρας τῶν πέντε μερῶν τὰ δύο, τῶν τ’ ἐπικλήρων πολλῶν γινομένων, καὶ διὰ τὸ προῖκας διδόναι μεγάλας. καίτοι βέλτιον ἦν μηδεμίαν ἢ ὀλίγην ἢ καὶ μετρίαν τετάχθαι. νῦν δ’ ἔξεστι δοῦναί τε τὴν ἐπίκληρον ὅτῳ ἂν βούληται, κἂν ἀποθάνῃ μὴ διαθέμενος, ὃν ἂν καταλίπῃ κληρονόμον, οὗτος ᾧ ἂν θέλῃ δίδωσιν. τοιγαροῦν δυναμένης τῆς χώρας χιλίους ἱππεῖς τρέφειν καὶ πεντακοσίους, καὶ ὁπλίτας τρισμυρίους, οὐδὲ χίλιοι τὸ πλῆθος ἦσαν. γέγονε δὲ διὰ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν δῆλον ὅτι φαύλως αὐτοῖς εἶχε τὰ περὶ τὴν τάξιν ταύτην· μίαν γὰρ πληγὴν οὐχ ὑπήνεγκεν ἡ πόλις, ἀλλ’ ἀπώλετο διὰ τὴν ὀλιγανθρωπίαν.
Cf. Salkever 1991, 180. Cf. Redfield 1977–78, 159–60; Bresson 2016, esp. 31–5. 45 Reeve 1998, lxxvii–lxxviii; Rubin 2012, 11–15. 46 Reeve 1998, lxxvii. Cf. Arist. Pol. 1263a21–41. 47 Cf. David 1982–83, 101–2; Rubin 2012, 15. On inheritance, cf. Pol. 1309a23-6. 48 See above, n. 4. On female wealth’s influence within and beyond the oikos, see Millender 1999, 370-3; 2009; 2018, 511–19; Hodkinson 2004, 118–29; Bresson 2016, 52–9, 61–2. 49 See Ducat 1998, 392; Hodkinson 2004, 118. On Aristotle’s understanding of the household’s broader relevance, see Salkever 1991; Hodkinson 2004, 123. 50 Cf. Lockwood 2015, 76. See also Hodkinson 1994, 206; 2004, 122–3. On women’s crucial role as educators, see Salkever 1991, 186. 51 Cf. Kochin 2002, 91, who argues that ‘when the Athenian Stranger attacks the Persians (Laws 694e1–4), he is really attacking the Dorian regimes of Sparta and Crete’. 52 Cf. Rubin 2012, 28. 53 Cf. Hodkinson 2004, 129, who rather focuses on the problem with female wealth. 54 Cf. Dion. Hal. 20.13.2; Plut. Lyc. 9.4; cf. 10.3; Mor. 226e–f. See Redfield 1977–78, 158–61; van Wees 2018, 224–7. 43
44
Bibliography Balot, R. 2015 ‘The “mixed regime” in Aristotle’s Politics’, in Lockwood and Samaras (eds) 2015, 103–22. Bresson, A. 2016 ‘Women and inheritance in ancient Sparta: the Gortynian connection’, Studi Ellenistici 30, 9–68. Cartledge, P. 2001 ‘Spartan wives: liberation or licence?’ in Spartan Reflections, Berkeley, 106–26, 212–20; revised version of CQ n.s. 31, 84–105. David, E. 1982–83 ‘Aristotle and Sparta’, AncSoc 13/14, 67–103. Dawkins, R.M. 1929 ‘Gold and silver jewellery’, in R.M. Dawkins (ed.) The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, London, 381–4. Droop, J.P. 1929 ‘Bronzes’, in R.M. Dawkins (ed.) The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, London, 196–202.
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Spartan female luxury? Ducat, J. 1998 ‘La femme de Sparte et la cité’, Ktèma 23, 385–406. Foxhall, L. 1998 ‘Cargoes of the heart’s desire: the character of trade in the archaic Mediterranean world’, in N. Fisher and H. van Wees (eds) Archaic Greece: New approaches and new evidence, London, 295–309. Foxhall, L. and Stears, K. 2000 ‘Redressing the balance: dedications of clothing to Artemis and the order of life stages’, in M. McDonald and L. Hurcombe (eds) Gender and Material Culture in Historical Perspective, London, 3–16. Fuks, A. 1984 ‘Plato and the social question: the problem of poverty and riches in the Laws’, in Social Conflict in Ancient Greece, Jerusalem and Leiden, 126–71. Gorman, R.J. and Gorman, V.B. 2014 Corrupting Luxury in Ancient Greek Literature, Ann Arbor. Grewe, B.-S. and Hofmeester, K. 2016 ‘Luxury as a global phenomenon: concluding remarks’, in B.-S. Grewe and K. Hofmeester (eds) Luxury in Global Perspective: Objects and practices 1600–2000, Cambridge, 301–10. Hodkinson, S. 1983 ‘Social order and the conflict of values in classical Sparta’, Chiron 13, 239–81. 1986 ‘Land tenure and inheritance in classical Sparta’, CQ n.s. 36, 378–406. 1989 ‘Inheritance, marriage and demography: perspectives upon the success and decline of classical Sparta’, in A. Powell (ed.) Sparta: Techniques behind her success, London and Norman, Okla., 79–121. 1992 ‘Modelling the Spartan crisis: computer simulation of the impact of inheritance systems upon the distribution of landed property’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 74.3, 27–38. 1994 ‘“Blind ploutos”?: contemporary images of the role of wealth in classical Sparta’, in Powell and Hodkinson (eds) 1994, 183–222. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London and Swansea. 2004 ‘Female property ownership and empowerment in classical and Hellenistic Sparta’, in T. Figueira (ed.) Spartan Society, Swansea, 103–36. Kochin, M.S. 2002 Gender and Rhetoric in Plato’s Political Thought, Cambridge. Kurke, L. 1992 ‘The politics of ἁβροσύνη in archaic Greece’, Classical Antiquity 11, 91–120. Lockwood, T. 2015 ‘Politics II: political critique, political theorizing, political innovation’, in Lockwood and Samaras (eds) 2015, 64–83. Lockwood T. and Samaras T. (eds) 2015 Aristotle’s Politics: A critical guide, Cambridge. Millender, E.G. 1996 ‘“The Teacher of Hellas”: Athenian democratic ideology and the “barbarization” of Sparta in fifth-century Greek thought’, Diss. Pennsylvania. 1999 ‘Athenian ideology and the empowered Spartan woman’, in S. Hodkinson and A. Powell (eds) Sparta: New perspectives, London, 355–91.
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Ellen Millender 2002a ‘Herodotus and Spartan despotism’, in A. Powell and S. Hodkinson (eds) Sparta: Beyond the mirage, Swansea and London, 1–61. 2002b ‘Νόμος Δεσπότης: Spartan obedience and Athenian lawfulness in fifth-century thought’, in V.B. Gorman and E.W. Robinson (eds) Oikistes: Studies in constitutions, colonies, and military power in the ancient world offered in honor of A. J. Graham, Leiden, 33–59. 2009 ‘The Spartan dyarchy: a comparative perspective’, in S. Hodkinson (ed.) Sparta: Comparative approaches, Swansea, 1–67. 2018 ‘Spartan Women’, in A. Powell (ed.) A Companion to Sparta, vol. II, Hoboken, NJ, 500–24. 2019 ‘A contest in charisma: Cynisca’s heroization, Spartan royal authority, and the threat of non-royal glorification’, in E. Koulakiotis and C. Dunn (eds) Political Religions in the Greco-Roman world: Discourses, practices and images, Newcastle, 34-63. Mossé, C. 1991 ‘Women in the Spartan revolutions of the third century bc’, in S.B. Pomeroy (ed.) Women’s History and Ancient History, Chapel Hill, 138–53. Powell, A. 1994 ‘Plato and Sparta: modes of rule and of non-rational persuasion in the Laws’, in Powell and Hodkinson (eds) 1994, 273–321. 1999 ‘Spartan women assertive in politics?: Plutarch’s lives of Agis and Kleomenes’, in S. Hodkinson and A. Powell (eds) Sparta: New perspectives, London, 393–419. Powell A. and Hodkinson S. (eds) 1994 The Shadow of Sparta, London, New York and Swansea. Redfield, J. 1977–78 ‘The Women of Sparta’, CJ 73, 146–61. Reeve, C.D.C. 1998 ‘Introduction’, in Aristotle, Politics, xvii–lxxix, trans. C.D.C. Reeve, Indianapolis and Cambridge. Rubin, L.G. 2012 ‘Aristotle’s politics on the hoof: Sparta, Crete, and Carthage’, Interpretation 39, 3–36. Salkever, S. G. 1991 ‘Women, soldiers, citizens: Plato and Aristotle on the politics of virility’, in C. Lord and D.K. O’Connor (eds) Essays on the Foundations of Aristotelian Political Science, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oxford, 165–90. Samaras, T. 2010 ‘Family and the question of women in the Laws’, in C. Bobonich (ed.) Plato’s Laws: A critical guide, Cambridge, 172–96. Saxonhouse, A.W. Women in the History of Political Thought, New York. 1985 Schütrumpf, E. 1987 ‘The Rhetra of Epitadeus: A Platonist’s fiction’, GRBS 28, 441–57. 1994 ‘Aristotle on Sparta’, in Powell and Hodkinson (eds) 1994, 323–46. van Wees, H. 2018 ‘Luxury, austerity and equality in Sparta’, in A. Powell (ed.) A Companion to Sparta, vol. I, Hoboken, NJ, 202–35.
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7 LUXURY, LOST IN TRANSLATION: ΤΡΥΦH IN PLUTARCH’S SPARTA Paul Christesen Introduction It is probably safe to say that, when thinking about luxury, ancient Sparta is not the first place that springs to mind. Indeed, Spartans have long been understood as having completely abjured luxury of every kind. For example, Plutarch in his biography of Pelopidas (1.3) draws a contrast between the Spartans and Sybarites that, in Bernadotte Perrin’s translation, reads as follows: Συβαρίτης ἀνὴρ εἰπεῖν περὶ τῶν Σπαρτιατῶν, ὡς οὐ μέγα ποιοῦσι θανατῶντες ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ὑπὲρ τοῦ τοσούτους πόνους καὶ τοιαύτην ἀποφυγεῖν δίαιταν. ἀλλὰ Συβαρίταις μέν, ἐκτετηκόσιν ὑπὸ τρυφῆς καὶ μαλακίας τὴν πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ὁρμὴν καὶ φιλοτιμίαν, εἰκότως ἐφαίνοντο μισεῖν τὸν βίον οἱ μὴ φοβούμενοι τὸν θάνατον·
A man of Sybaris said it was no great thing for the Spartans to seek death in the wars in order to escape so many hardships and such a wretched life as theirs. But to the Sybarites, who were dissolved in effeminate luxury, men whom ambition and an eager quest of honour led to have no fear of death naturally seemed to hate life.
The belief that luxury was largely absent from Sparta in its heyday has persisted in no small part due to the continuing influence of the portrait of ancient Sparta painted by Plutarch.1 In his life of Lycurgus and elsewhere Plutarch seems to state categorically that luxury had no place in Sparta. However, Plutarch’s claims about the absence of luxury in Sparta have been questioned on two different bases. First, the literary and archaeological record for much of the Archaic period points to Spartans enjoying a luxurious lifestyle. If luxury was indeed entirely banished from Sparta, it did not go into exile until the mid-sixth century at the earliest. Second, the overall reliability of Plutarch’s treatments of Archaic and Classical Sparta has been questioned (Powell 2018a, 79). It is particularly noteworthy that Plutarch, like other writers before him, seems to have exaggerated the degree of austerity and economic egalitarianism among Spartans.2
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Paul Christesen In this essay I will argue that there is another, heretofore unappreciated problem: the key relevant term, τρυφή, has been consistently mistranslated. There is good reason to believe that τρυφή as used by Plutarch to describe Sparta typically meant, depending on the context, something much closer to the English terms ‘decadence’ or ‘invidious, tasteless ostentation’ than to ‘luxury’.3 Plutarch should thus be read as saying that the Spartan lifestyle limited self-indulgence, in part by banishing goods and services understood as leading to moral corruption and socially disruptive display of wealth, rather than saying that everything that we would normally put under the heading of ‘luxury’ was absent from Sparta. Re-interpreting Plutarch along those lines removes one of the major remaining props of the belief in an austere Sparta in which luxury was entirely absent. The Greek Terminology for ‘Luxury’ Before looking at Plutarch’s use of τρυφή it is necessary to examine the use of τρυφή and related terms in earlier writers. The two Greek words that most closely approximate the English ‘luxury’ are ἁβροσύνη and τρυφή and their respective cognates.4 Ἁβροσύνη and its cognates do not appear in Homer and appear in just one doubtful instance in Hesiod, but occur with some frequency in Archaic poetry. Mario Lombardo (1983, 1086–7) has argued persuasively that ἁβροσύνη was seen as a refined lifestyle rather than the possession of a specific array of what might today be called luxury items. In the same vein, Robert and Vanessa Gorman (2014, 30–3) suggest that ἁβροσύνη can best be understood as a refined, dignified, or affected personal comportment that springs from wealth and status-generating possessions. Ἁβροσύνη and its cognates continued to be used regularly through the fifth century, but they were employed infrequently thereafter as ἁβροσύνη as an elegant lifestyle came into increasingly bad odour as the result of the Persian Wars and ongoing sociopolitical democratization (Kurke 1992, 101–14). The infrequent use of ἁβροσύνη and its cognates after the fifth century was also due in part to the appearance of τρυφή and its cognates. The first attested usage of τρυφή is in Euripides’ Suppliants from c. 423, and it rapidly became the dominant word for describing something that roughly approximates the English term ‘luxury’ (Gorman and Gorman 2014, 34–41). Tρυφή occurs regularly in Greek texts written over the better part of a millennium (there are something like 10,000 known usages), and it rapidly took on a broad array of meanings. A comprehensive treatment of τρυφή is impossible in the present context, but a rapid survey is sufficient to provide the requisite background for an examination of how Plutarch employs this term.
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta The Gormans argue that τρυφή originally referred to a sense of privilege that sprang from the possession of various enviable traits. So, for example, in Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis (1303–7), Iphigeneia describes the attitude of the three goddesses involved in the Judgment of Paris as follows: ἃ μὲν ἐπὶ πόθῳ τρυφῶσα Κύπρις, ἃ δὲ δορὶ Παλλάς, Ἥρα τε Διὸς ἄνακτος εὐναῖσι βασιλίσιν…
Cypris, exulting in sexual desire, and Pallas, exulting in the spear, and Hera, exulting in the kingly bed of lord Zeus…
Wealth was an important source of privilege, and a strong connection between wealth and τρυφή is already evident in sources from the fifth century. Hence, for example, in Aristophanes’ Wasps (1168–9) Bdelykleon advises his father to ‘step out as the wealthy do, with a certain trypheron swagger’ (πλουσίως ὡδὶ προβὰς τρυφερόν τι διασαλακώνισον). There was from an early period an additional cluster of neutral or positive meanings attached to τρυφή, in which it designated luxury items or the quality of being soft. In Euripides’ Phoenician Women (1491) Antigone mentions ‘the saffron-coloured tryphê of my robe’ (στολίδος κροκόεσσαν… τρυφάν; cf. Plato, Symposium 197d). The positive senses of τρυφή could take on a more abstract meaning and designate a lifestyle characterised by ease and enjoyment. In Euripides’ Ion (1375–6), the eponymous character laments his abandonment by his mother shortly after his birth and talks about ‘the time when I ought to have lived a life of ease and enjoyment [τρυφῆσαι καί τι τερφθῆναι βίου] in my mother’s arms’ (cf. Bacchae 967–70). Although the relevant usages of τρυφή are often translated as something like ‘leading a luxurious lifestyle’, it would be more accurate to say that they refer to a situation in which good things come to someone with little effort on their part. This is most evident from passages in which the ease associated with τρυφή is cast in a negative light and likened to indolence. So, for instance, in Plato’s Laws (901e) the Athenian stranger, in discussing the gods, says: ‘is it not impossible to agree that they do anything at all out of softness of spirit or tryphê ?… For among mortals at any rate idleness is an offspring of cowardice, and softness of spirit of idleness and tryphê ’ (ἆρ᾽ οὖν οὐ ῥᾳθυμίᾳ μὲν καὶ τρυφῇ ἀδύνατον αὐτοὺς ὁμολογεῖν πράττειν ὁτιοῦν τὸ παράπαν…δειλίας γὰρ ἔκγονος ἔν γε ἡμῖν ἀργία, ῥᾳθυμία δὲ ἀργίας καὶ τρυφῆς). Overall, especially as time went on, τρυφή tended to take on more
negative meanings. In an obvious extension of what the Gormans see as its original meaning, τρυφή came to have a further meaning that hovered somewhere between ‘sense of entitlement’ and ‘arrogance’. In Aristophanes’ Frogs (21), Dionysus responds to his slave’s complaints
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Paul Christesen about carrying heavy baggage by saying ‘Well, isn’t that hybris and prodigious tryphê?’. The close association between ὕβρις and τρυφή is noteworthy here. Two further clusters of meanings assigned to τρυφή revolved around the general idea of pernicious uses of wealth. One of those clusters gave τρυφή a meaning of something like ‘decadence’ in that it was associated with being soft, pampered, and in constant need of care and attention from others. For instance, in the Nicomachean Ethics (1150a36–b5) Aristotle writes that, the person deficient in resisting what most people resist, and are able to resist, is soft and tryphôn (for tryphê is a kind of softness). [οὗτος μαλακὸς καὶ τρυφῶν (καὶ γὰρ ἡ τρυφὴ μαλακία τίς ἐστίν).] Such a person lets his cloak trail to avoid the pain and burden of lifting it... Tρυφή could also mean something like ‘invidious ostentation’. In the Rhetoric (2.16.1–2) Aristotle writes that the wealthy become trypheroi when they make a display of their affluence, supposing that others care as much about wealth as they do. Thus the range of meanings assigned to τρυφή and its cognates in the Classical sources includes: (1) a sense of privilege, (2) the quality of softness or luxury items, (3) an easy and enjoyable lifestyle, (4) a sense of entitlement bordering on arrogance, (5) decadence, (6) invidious ostentation.
‘Luxury’ Ancient and Modern Before moving on to the relevant sections of Plutarch’s work, we need to consider certain terminological challenges neatly summarized by the Gormans: ‘Luxury’ is a tricky term. It has no exact equivalent in Greek, nor does it have precise implications in English. Because of this vagueness, slippery arguments have developed, equating words that are not synonyms, or resting too much weight on something whose precise meaning is assumed rather than established from the surviving texts. (Gorman and Gorman 2014, 25)
‘Luxury’ as currently used in English (Oxford English Dictionary s.v.) can refer to a lifestyle (‘habitual use of, or indulgence in what is choice or costly, whether food, dress, furniture, or appliances of any kind’), objects (‘means of luxurious enjoyment, sumptuous and exquisite food or surroundings’; ‘something which conduces to enjoyment or comfort in addition to what are accounted the necessaries of life’), or ‘refined and intense enjoyment’. In many instances, ‘luxury’ takes on an abstract sense that potentially embraces both lifestyle and objects without specifying
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta whether lifestyle or objects or both are meant (‘His taste for luxury outran his means’.) ‘Luxury’ is at best an inexact translation of ἁβροσύνη and its cognates, which are better rendered as ‘elegance’, ‘an elegant lifestyle’, ‘elegant’, or ‘elegantly’ in most of their occurrences. While hard and fast conclusions about the meaning of τρυφή are rendered difficult by the sheer number of its occurrences and the variety of ways in which it is employed, the preceding discussion suggests that there is an even lower degree of correspondence between ‘luxury’ and τρυφή. Two problems in equating τρυφή and ‘luxury’ merit specific discussion. First, a certain degree of confusion is created by how the meaning of ‘luxury’ has changed over time. In its early usages the English term ‘luxury’ had the same sort of overtones of moral disapproval as those associated with the Latin luxuria; but, starting in the seventeenth century ce, the term ‘luxury’ was gradually ‘de-moralised’ and became increasingly morally neutral or even positive (Berry 1994, 101–98; Scott 2015, 1–24). Although τρυφή can have a neutral or even positive valence, it was regularly used in a pejorative sense that had strong overtones of moral disapproval. In that respect ‘luxury’ was at one time a better match for τρυφή than it is in the present day. To some extent, mistranslation of τρυφή is a product of the fact that the lexicographical resources for translating ancient Greek into modern languages have roots that reach back into the eighteenth century, when the ‘moralised’ sense of ‘luxury’ was current and rendering τρυφή as ‘luxury’ was less problematic. Second, there was not in Greek a single word that organized under a single conceptual heading the full range of meanings embedded in ‘luxury’. That may initially produce a certain degree of consternation, but it is, upon further reflection, not particularly surprising. Consider, in the way of comparanda, the English term ‘economy’. As Finley (1999, 21) observed, the Greeks farmed, traded, manufactured, mined, taxed, coined, deposited and loaned money, made profits or failed in their enterprises. And they discussed these activities in their talk and their writing. What they did not do, however, was to combine these particular activities conceptually into a unit...
In a similar fashion, Greeks clearly had much to say about what we could call ‘luxury’, but their conceptual framework for discussing that subject matter does not correspond to our own. The absence of anything resembling an exact equivalent for ‘luxury’ in Greek produces potential pitfalls in translation. As soon as either ἁβροσύνη or τρυφή is translated as ‘luxury’, there is an almost inevitable tendency
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Paul Christesen to transfer the full range of meanings associated with ‘luxury’ into the passage in question, and that in turn easily slips into misinterpretations. and τρυφή in Plutarch’s work on Sparta Plutarch sees four stages in the history of τρυφή in Sparta: (1) before Lycurgus’ time τρυφή ran rampant, (2) after the Lycurgan reforms τρυφή was extirpated, (3) at the end of the Peloponnesian War the influx of wealth that came with Sparta’s victory over Athens led to the re-appearance of τρυφή, and (4) during the reigns of Agis IV and Cleomenes III (ultimately futile) attempts were made to pursue reforms that would have once again eliminated τρυφή from Sparta. This pattern reflects explanations offered by Greek writers before Plutarch’s time to account for the decline in Spartan power after Leuktra. Although the fragmentary nature of many of the relevant sources makes it difficult to be certain, it seems likely that Ephorus was responsible for articulating a long-lived argument, summarized by Strabo as follows: ‘Homonoia appears when dissension, which is the result of greed ( pleonexia) and tryphê, is removed. All those who live in a self-restrained and simple manner encounter neither envy nor arrogance nor hatred towards those who are like them [homoioi]’ (Geography 10.4.16 = FGrH/BNJ 70 F 149).5 This statement appears in a description of Ephorus’ views on the Cretan politeia, but the basic principles seem to have been applied broadly in Ephorus’ work, including the sections on Sparta. That and other fragments (FF 42, 148) of Ephorus’ Histories suggest that he offered a narrative in which Lycurgus constructed a politeia characterised by a simple lifestyle that instilled andreia (manliness). Ephorus attributed the collapse of Spartan power after Leuktra to an influx of gold and silver coinage (which he claimed did not circulate among Spartans before the end of the Peloponnesian War: F 205) and the appearance of greed (πλεονεξία) and τρυφή in what had been an austere community (FGrH/ BNJ 70 FF 118, 149, 173). Plutarch thus trod a well-worn path in his account of τρυφή in Sparta. That does not, however, provide any immediate insight into precisely what Plutarch understood τρυφή to be, because τρυφή had a wide range of meanings that evolved markedly over time. One cannot simply presume that τρυφή meant the same thing, for example, to Ephorus and to Plutarch. Given that much of his extensive corpus of writings survives, by far the best approach to exploring what the absence of τρυφή in Sparta meant to Plutarch is to look carefully at passages in which Plutarch uses τρυφή, especially with respect to Sparta. In doing so, it is important to bear in mind that for Plutarch biography and history overlapped, in part because Ἁβροσύνη
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta he believed that leaders imbued communities with their own traits. In the Lycurgus, for example, he writes that ‘a good leader makes good followers’ (30.4; cf. Liebert 2016, 77–96). Hence the traits of leaders such as Lycurgus can be read as characteristic of Sparta as a whole. In the extant corpus of Plutarch’s work, ἁβροσύνη and its cognates appear nine times, τρυφή and its cognates 160 times. One of the nine appearances of ἁβροσύνη comes in a quotation of Solon’s poetry, and in four instances ἁβροσύνη is paired with τρυφή, so it is the latter that is clearly Plutarch’s term of choice for something approximating the English ‘luxury’. Of the nine appearances of ἁβροσύνη, one applies to Sparta; of the 160 instances of τρυφή, 25 apply to Sparta or Spartans. Certain passages merit close attention because their content offers insight into what the term τρυφή meant to Plutarch. As will become apparent, the primary meanings of τρυφή when applied by Plutarch to Sparta are ‘decadence’ and ‘invidious, tasteless ostentation’. This is evident, for example, in a passage from the Comparison of Aristides and Cato (3.1), in which Plutarch states that by introducing an iron coinage Lycurgus ‘stripped away ta tryphônta and festering sores (ὕπουλα) and inflammations of wealth (φλεγμαίνοντα)’. A proper translation of ta tryphônta is not easily arrived at, but whatever phrasing one chooses, the close connection between τρυφῶντα, ὕπουλα, and φλεγμαίνοντα leave no doubt that τρυφή is for Plutarch very far from being a morally neutral term. The most informative relevant passage is Lycurgus 9.3–5, in which Plutarch discusses the consequences of the introduction of a coinage made from iron rather than precious metal. After this he [Lycurgus] banished useless and superfluous technai from outside Sparta... [M]ost would probably have been eliminated by the common currency... The iron money, after all, could not be exported elsewhere in Greece, and...did not have value elsewhere. As a result, it was not possible to buy any shoddy foreign goods, and commercial cargo did not enter the harbours; no sophist teaching rhetoric trod Lakonian soil; no begging seer; no pimp; no maker of gold or silver ornaments [χρυσῶν...ἀργυρῶν καλλωπισμάτων], since there was no coined money. Thus gradually isolated from the things that inflame and feed it, tryphê was extinguished. And those who had great possessions were not better off, because there was no public outlet for their wealth [ὁδὸν οὐκ ἐχούσης εἰς μέσον τῆς εὐπορίας]; rather it was immured in their homes, idle. As a result craftsmanship of everyday, essential items of furniture such as beds and chairs and tables was first-rate... The lawgiver was responsible for this too, since craftsmen, having been freed from making useless things, displayed the beauty of their workmanship in essential ones.
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Paul Christesen In this passage Plutarch lists those things that ‘inflame’ τρυφή: shoddy goods, sophists teaching rhetoric, begging seers, pimps, and makers of gold and silver ornaments. That list virtually certainly indicates that Plutarch has in mind here something much closer to ‘decadence’ than morally neutral ‘luxury’.6 A similar usage can be found in the Against Colotes 33 (= Moralia 1127b–c), where Plutarch, after praising Athens for its freedom and Sparta for its obedience, contrasts procreating with prostitutes, wealth, τρυφή, and wanton violence on one hand with law and justice on the other. The sense of decadence embedded in τρυφή is reinforced by another passage from the Lycurgus (10.1–2), in which Plutarch describes the creation of the syssitia. He begins by saying that Lycurgus wished ‘to attack tryphê still more’ and so instituted syssitia in which Spartans ate specified foods in each other’s company and did not pass their time at home, reclining on couches with extravagant coverings and extravagant tables [nearby], in the hands of craftsmen and cooks, being fattened in the dark, like gluttonous animals, and destroying their bodies together with their character, surrendered to every appetite and surfeit that demands lengthy slumbers, hot baths, much rest, and, as it were, daily nursing.
Insofar as Plutarch explicitly states that the syssitia were intended to attack τρυφή and given that the syssitia prevent the surfeited lassitude described in the latter part of the passage, here too τρυφή seems to refer to something much closer to ‘decadence’ than ‘luxury’. The expectation of daily nursing recalls the original meaning of τρυφή, a sense of privilege. The preceding discussion does not exhaust the interpretive value of Lycurgus 9.3–5, which gives τρυφή a second valence perhaps best summarized as ‘invidious ostentation’. This is apparent from Plutarch’s mention of χρυσῶν...ἀργυρῶν καλλωπισμάτων and the phrase ὁδὸν οὐκ ἐχούσης εἰς μέσον τῆς εὐπορίας. καλλωπισμός – which means something like ‘adorning oneself for the purpose of display’ – and its cognates appear 37 times in Plutarch’s works. The fact that Plutarch puts gold and silver items made specifically for the purpose of display on the list of things that nourish τρυφή, and his statement that wealth was, literally, given ‘no road into the middle’, leaves little doubt that he saw ostentatious display of wealth as a component of τρυφή. For Plutarch τρυφή thus seems to have had a strong element of ostentation, which was problematic because it created a considerable degree of resentment. This is evident from his description of the lifestyle of the Spartan king Cleomenes,
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta His [Cleomenes’] lifestyle was simple and plain [εὐτελῆ καὶ ἀφελῆ] and in no way more pretentious than that of the common man, and it served as a public example of self-restraint. This gave him a certain weight in his dealings with the rest of the Greeks. For when men encountered the other kings, they were not so much astounded by their wealth and extravagance [πολυτελεία] as they were filled with loathing for their haughtiness and pretension, as the other kings presented themselves in an offensive and harsh fashion to those they encountered; but when men approached Cleomenes, who was an actual king as well as bearing that title, and then saw no purple clothing wrapped around him, and no array of couches and litters... (Cleomenes 13.1–2)
Here Cleomenes avoids giving offense to other people because of his lifestyle, which is simple and contrasts sharply with the extravagance ( polyteleia) of other kings. For Plutarch, the consequences of the resentment generated by τρυφή could be quite severe. In Advice about Keeping Well 7 (= Moralia 125f) he describes the philosopher Krates as ‘thinking that tryphê and polyteleia were as much to blame as anything for the growth of stasis and tyrannies in poleis...’ The constellation of words with which τρυφή is associated offers reason to believe that the preceding discussion does not cover the full range of meanings of τρυφή in Plutarch’s treatments of Sparta. In the relevant passages, Plutarch repeatedly links τρυφή to: (a) π ολυτέλεια (extravagance, which occurs 11 times in the 25 passages that include τρυφή); (b) μαλακία (softness); (c) words indicating ostentation, including ἀλαζονεία (boastfulness) and καλλωπισμός; (d) various words indicating sickness, such as νοσήματα; (e) π λεονεξία and related words and phrases such as πλούτου ζῆλος (zeal for wealth) and φιλοπλουτία (passion for wealth). (a), (b), (c) are all related to either decadence or ostentation and (d) reflects Plutarch’s disapproval of τρυφή. While the repeated association that Plutarch makes between τρυφή and πλεονεξία may be a simple matter of processual logic – τρυφή presumes wealth, which is acquired by those afflicted by πλεονεξία – it is possible that τρυφή for Plutarch had connotations of unrestrained desire for acquisition (and display) of wealth. Reading τρυφή in Plutarch’s treatments of Sparta With a more nuanced understanding of what τρυφή meant to Plutarch, we are in a position to reconsider his descriptions of the presence and absence of τρυφή in Sparta. In approaching that undertaking, it is important to keep
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Paul Christesen Plutarch’s philosophical commitments in mind.7 Although Plutarch had at his disposal an ample supply of pre-existing, philosophically tinted portrayals of Sparta on which he could draw, he was neither a simple copyist nor an uninspired compiler, but rather articulated his own unique vision of Sparta (Beck 1999). In doing so, Plutarch’s passionate attachments to specific philosophical views had a powerful effect on what material he drew from pre-existing work on Sparta and how he creatively combined and reshaped that material. Plutarch’s philosophical views were themselves complex, in no small part because he was free to draw inspiration from a number of different traditions. The general consensus among scholars in the present day is that Plutarch subscribed to a Platonism that incorporated, among other things, elements of Aristotelianism, Cynicism, and Stoicism insofar as those elements harmonized with his overall Platonic framework (de Blois and Bons 1995, 99). A key issue in understanding Plutarch’s presentation of τρυφή in Sparta is that he subscribed to an Aristotelian-inspired ideal of virtue as a mean between excess and deficit (Becchi 2014, 73; though cf. Babut 1996, 16–28). Aristotle explores virtues and vices in depth in the Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics. In doing so he connects the concept of virtue as a mean between excess and deficit to the maintenance of health in the body on both a practical and analogical level (Gericke 1999). Among the virtues and vices that Aristotle considers, one group has to do with pleasure and pain. The virtues and vices pertaining to resistance to pleasure (ἡδονή) are σωφροσύνη (‘self-control’ à mean), ἀκολασία (‘intemperance’ à excess), and ἀναισθησία (‘lack of sensation’ à deficit).8 Those pertaining to resistance to pain (λύπη) are καρτερία (‘endurance’ à mean), κακοπάθεια (‘misery’ à excess), τρυφερότης (deficit). In Book 7 of the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle outlines a related pair of binaries that are similar to but not strictly speaking virtues and vices (because they do not involve choice): ἀκρασία/ἐγκράτεια (‘lack of self-control’/’self-control’) and μαλακία/καρτερία (‘softness’/‘endurance’). Aristotle classifies τρυφή as a kind of μαλακία (Nicomachean Ethics 1150b3). The Aristotelian system of categorizing virtues and vices plays an important role in shaping Plutarch’s portrayal of τρυφή in Sparta. Ἀκολασία, τρυφή, ἀκρασία, and μαλακία all appear repeatedly in Plutarch’s description of Sparta before the reforms instituted by Lycurgus, on the one hand, and Agis and Cleomenes, on the other (for example, Lycurgus 4.4, 14.4; Agis 3.1, 6.5, 10.5; Cleomenes 12.4). It is particularly interesting that, like Aristotle, Plutarch in his discussions of Sparta links τρυφή and μαλακία on four separate occasions (Agis 3.1, 10.5; Pelopidas 1.6–7; Sayings of the Spartans 19 [= Moralia 210a]; cf. Alcibiades 16.1).
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta Plutarch’s primary complaint against τρυφή was that it represented a form of excess unhealthy for the body and soul of individuals and for polities as a whole. This is evident in a passage in the Agis (10.7–8) in which Agis criticises Leonidas for attempting to thwart reforms to the Spartan state, on the grounds that Leonidas had praised ephors from earlier periods who had tried to remove tryphê, extravagance, and ostentation (τρυφὴν καὶ πολυτέλειαν καὶ ἀλαζονείαν) from Sparta, precisely what Agis is attempting to do by attacking ‘excess and error’ (ἀμετρία καὶ πλημμέλεια) in Sparta. The same of view of τρυφή as unhealthy excess is reflected in Plutarch’s claim in the Comparison of Aristides and Cato (3.1) that Lycurgus ‘stripped away ta tryphônta and festering sores and inflammations of wealth’ (cf. On Moral Virtue 12 [= Moralia 452a]).9 Plutarch in fact habitually characterises Lycurgus as a physician who cured Sparta’s ills (for example, Lycurgus 4.3; Lucchesi 2014, 10–52, 63–100). Within the bounds of Aristotelian ethics, the proper response to either excess or deficit was not the wholesale removal of the impulse in question but rather its moderation. Plutarch himself advocated an Aristotelian inspired ideal of μετριοπάθεια, alternatively known as μετριότης (Dillon 2014, 62–3; Opsomer 2014, 96). Mετριοπάθεια involved finding a mean between absence and excess in both emotions and actions in which reason keeps passions in check and within acceptable boundaries (e.g. On the Control of Anger 10 [= Moralia 458c]).10 Plutarch praises Lycurgan Sparta in large part because Lycurgus created a lifestyle that produced μετριοπάθεια in its citizens. In the Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa 2.4, Plutarch specifically states that both lawgivers were laudable for ‘removing the excesses and supplying the deficiencies of their citizens’ (τὰς οὖν ὑπερβολὰς ἀφαιροῦντες...καὶ τὰς ἐνδείας ἀναπληροῦντες; cf. Lycurgus 7.3). Moreover, Plutarch does not claim that Lycurgus, Agis, and Cleomenes pushed Sparta from one extreme to the other (e.g. from ἀκολασία to ἀναισθησία), but rather that they brought Sparta to a healthy mean. With respect to pleasure and pain, finding the mean meant adopting a lifestyle that fostered σωφροσύνη, ἐγκράτεια, and καρτερία. Those three words occur with almost monotonous regularity in Plutarch’s treatment of Sparta,11 and Plutarch explicitly sets τρυφή against σωφροσύνη. For instance, he describes Agesilaus on campaign in Asia Minor as winning good repute because of his σωφροσύνη, which stood out because of the contrast with the τρυφή of Persian officials (Agesilaus 14.1–2; see below for further comments on this passage). The passages thus far considered all present τρυφή in Sparta as an excess explicitly or implicitly measured against σωφροσύνη, such that τρυφή
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Paul Christesen is characterised as a form of μαλακία and hence what could comfortably be labeled as ‘decadence’. Plutarch elsewhere presents τρυφή in Sparta as excess in the form of invidious ostentation. Here again Plutarch drew upon Aristotelian ethics, in which one of the mean/excess/deficit triads pertains to giving and getting greater things, with the mean being μεγαλοπρέπεια (‘magnificence’), the excess ἀπειροκαλία (‘vulgar extravagance’), and the deficit μικροπρέπεια (‘stinginess’) (Nicomachean Ethics 1107b17–19). Although τρυφή and ἀπειροκαλία are both excesses in the Aristotelian system of virtues and vices, Aristotle does not connect the two; Plutarch, however, does.12 In the Agis (7.6), Plutarch states that women in Sparta owned much of the wealth and opposed Agis’ reforms in part because ‘they would be stripped of tryphê, which on account of apeirokalia, made them reckon themselves happy’.13 The same connection is made in Plutarch’s life of Dion14 and in the Lycurgus. In the Lycurgus (13.3–4), Plutarch claims that one of Lycurgus’ rhetras required that houses be built using only axes for the roof and saws for the doors (thus preventing elaborate woodwork such as coffered ceilings). He adds, ‘Lycurgus was the first to perceive that a house of that sort does not have room for tryphê and polyteleia. Nor is anyone so apeirokalos and senseless as to introduce into a simple and common house silver-footed couches and purple coverlets and gold drinking-cups...’ The conclusion that Plutarch objected to τρυφή in part because it involved a tasteless display of wealth is reinforced by the fact on that on one occasion (Agis 10.8) he connects τρυφή to both πολυτέλεια and ἀλαζονεία. This last is yet another Aristotelian excess (for example, Nicomachean Ethics 1108a20–3), which might be defined as ‘boastfulness, pretence as exaggeration’. In characterising Sparta after the reforms of Lycurgus and Agis and Cleomenes, Plutarch relies not on Aristotelian vocabulary for the virtue contrasted with ἀπειροκαλία (μεγαλοπρέπεια), but rather on the Cynic term εὐτέλεια (‘simplicity’) and its cognates. The Cynic tradition placed emphasis on a pair of binaries, τρυφή/σωφροσύνη and πολυτέλεια/εὐτέλεια, that resonates with, while differing from, those articulated in Book 7 of the Nicomachean Ethics. For instance, Teles, in On Self-Sufficiency (pg. 6 Hense), criticises polyteleia and praises euteleia and sôphrosynê. The binary pairs τρυφή/σωφροσύνη and πολυτέλεια/εὐτέλεια were also present in the Stoic tradition (Brunt 2013, 111 n.11, 117). For example, they appear in the work of Musonius Rufus, who is frequently characterised as a Stoic, but whose thinking was strongly influenced by Platonism and Cynicism (Inwood 2017).15 Like Plutarch, Musonius saw much to admire in Sparta (Keith 2011, 170–3). In Lecture 20 he writes,
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta Now we should find that the best lawgiver – and I think first all of Lycurgus, who drove polyteleia out of Sparta and substituted euteleia, who preferred a life of deprivation as a means of producing courage to a life of excess, and who did away with tryphê as a corrupting influence.
The influence of Cynic and Stoic ideas about τρυφή and εὐτέλεια on Plutarch is clear at numerous points in his work. We have already seen that Plutarch quotes Krates as saying that ‘tryphê and polyteleia were as much to blame as anything for the growth of stasis and tyrannies in poleis…’ (Advice about Keeping Well 7 [= Moralia 125f]). The Cynic influence on Plutarch’s thinking about Sparta in particular is evident from the fact that at Lycurgus 31.2 Plutarch claims that Plato, Diogenes, and Zeno all based their ideal polities on Sparta and that Lycurgus made the Spartans ‘free and self-sufficient...and self-controlled’ (ἐλευθέριοι καὶ αὐτάρκεις…καὶ σωφρονοῦντες), thus conferring on the Spartans three traits highly prized by the Cynics. Moreover, εὐτέλεια appears on 13 separate occasions in Plutarch’s description of the lifestyle of Spartans and their leaders.16 One might also note that πολυτέλεια appears in 8 of the 25 passages in which Plutarch uses τρυφή to describe Sparta; in one such passage from the Lycurgus (13.3–5), Plutarch uses πολυτέλεια no less than four times. While εὐτέλεια was regularly connected with σωφροσύνη and resistance to pleasures and pains, Plutarch seems to understand εὐτέλεια as also encompassing resistance to an impulse to put one’s wealth display in pursuit of status – an impulse that Aristotle closely associates with people suffering from ἀπειροκαλία. In the Agesilaus (14.1–2), Plutarch draws a contrast between the τρυφή of Persian officials and the εὐτέλεια of Agesilaus, who during his campaign in Asia Minor impresses everyone with his unaffected lifestyle, which is described using the phrase σωφροσύνης αὐτοῦ καὶ εὐτελείας καὶ μετριότητος.17 Conclusion The revised understanding of the significance of τρυφή for Plutarch proposed here has important ramifications for how we read his description of Sparta. Plutarch remains the fullest ancient literary source for Sparta, and his work has exerted immense influence on modern views. Plutarch has been understood as saying that Lycurgus and, subsequently, Agis and Cleomenes found Sparta suffused in τρυφή, translated as ‘luxury’, and took steps to eliminate it. Insofar as Lycurgus’ reforms were successfully implemented and maintained for centuries, Plutarch has been one of the primary supports for the idea that Spartans abjured luxury of all kinds. We have seen that Plutarch describes Lycurgus as having extinguished τρυφή, with the result that εὐτέλεια (‘simplicity’) became one of Sparta’s
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Paul Christesen defining traits, and one might be inclined to think that εὐτέλεια implicitly precludes anything that would fall under the heading of luxury. That was certainly the case when that term was used with reference to Diogenes, whose commitment to εὐτέλεια precluded owning something as simple as a cup (Plutarch, Progress in Virtue 8 [= Moralia 79f]), and on occasion Plutarch comes close to portraying specific Spartan leaders as figures whose asceticism was comparable with that of Diogenes. However, for Plutarch εὐτέλεια was not under normal circumstances about living in extreme poverty modelled on Diogenes.18 The audience for which Plutarch wrote consisted primarily of affluent elites and, as Lieve van Hoof (2010, 10) has noted, throughout Plutarch’s extensive corpus of writing wealth is taken for granted. In his work on Cynic political philosophy, Christopher Turner (2015) translates εὐτέλεια as ‘elegant simplicity’, an understanding of the term that fits well with how it is used by Plutarch. Plutarch suggests that after the Lycurgan reforms Spartans took pleasure in tasteful, beautifully made objects. To return to Lycurgus 9.3–5, Plutarch states that after Lycurgus extirpated τρυφή, everyday items such as couches, chairs, and tables were crafted with great skill. He goes on to say that ‘craftsmen, having been freed from making useless things, displayed the beauty of their workmanship (τὴν καλλιτεχνίαν) in necessary ones’.19 καλλιτεχνία is a relatively rare word, and occurs only one further time in Plutarch’s corpus, in his Life of Pericles (13.1), in which it appears in a description of the magnificent structures that resulted from the Periclean building program. Later in the Lycurgus (22.1) Plutarch states that during war time young men were permitted to adorn (καλλωπίζεσθαι) their hair, weapons, and clothes. That statement resonates with a passage (Philopoemen 9.3–7) in which Plutarch describes Philopoemen persuading the Achaeans to give up a lifestyle characterised by a devotion to tryphê and polyteleia, after which the Achaeans melt down their gold and silver table ware to decorate their arms and armour, while also dyeing their helmet plumes purple and embroidering their cloaks. Plutarch states that, ‘polyteleia in other objects of display induces tryphê and implants malakia in those who use them ...but when polyteleia is seen in these sort of things [elaborate arms and armour] it strengthens and exalts the spirit...’ This suggests that in Plutarch’s view young men in Sparta during wartime were permitted not just to adorn themselves but do so with polyteleia. More broadly speaking, Plutarch portrays Sparta as a community steeped in the right kind of philosophy. For Plutarch the Spartan emphasis on education and training of character (e.g. Lycurgus 4.1,
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta 13.1, 21.1) meant that the Spartans, although limited in their formal study of reading and writing (Lycurgus 16.6), formed a community of philosophers. Plutarch endorses the sentiment that ‘to philosophize more than to exercise was the special characteristic of being a Spartan’ (μᾶλλόν ἐστι τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν ἢ τὸ φιλογυμναστεῖν λακωνίζειν: Lycurgus 20.6). He also claims (Lycurgus 31.2) that Lycurgus ‘gave...a display of an entire polis philosophizing’ (Keith 2011, 106–45, 160–1). It would, therefore, be erroneous to say that for Plutarch the absence of τρυφή is tantamount to the absence of what we would call ‘luxury’. Rather the absence of τρυφή is the absence of decadence and invidious, tasteless ostentation. One might say that, with respect to attitudes toward wealth, Plutarch’s Sparta is a place in which an entire community resembled well-mannered elites of his own time, who make proper use of their affluence while living a life of elegant simplicity. One could, of course, object that Plutarch’s characterisation of Sparta has little to do with the realia of life in Sparta, in which case his claim that τρυφή was absent from Sparta can tell us nothing about the presence or absence of luxury (Schneeweiss 1979, 378). Scepticism is certainly a reasonable response to Plutarch’s intimations that the asceticism of certain Spartans rivalled that of Diogenes (for example, Agesilaus 14.1–2), and it is no doubt true that descriptions of Sparta in some other ancient sources diverge widely from that provided by Plutarch. Aristotle, for instance, flatly states that in Sparta women ‘live in a dissolute fashion, with respect to every form of dissipation, and suffused in tryphê ’ (ζῶσι γὰρ ἀκολάστως πρὸς ἅπασαν ἀκολασίαν καὶ τρυφερῶς; Politics 1269b23–4). However, even a complete dismissal of what Plutarch says about Sparta is significant with respect to our understanding of luxury in Sparta, because the idea that the Spartans entirely abjured luxury has long been based in no small part on Plutarch’s portrayal of Sparta. On the other hand, if one wishes to assign any degree of credibility to Plutarch’s treatment of τρυφή in Sparta, then the arguments articulated here suggest that Plutarch’s account leaves ample room for ‘luxury’ in Sparta. There are, moreover, traces in the literary and archaeological record that fit nicely with Plutarch’s work. A fragment of an elegiac poem by Ion of Chios (F27 West) describes a symposium during which attendants dispense wine using silver pitchers (προχύταισιν ἐν ἀργυρέοις). Edmund Stewart (2019) has persuasively argued that this poem commemorates a symposium, held by King Archidamus II, that Ion attended during a visit to Sparta; moreover, Stewart suggests that a corrupted line in the poem characterises Archidamus as drinking from a gold cup. Aristotle’s description of μεγαλοπρέπεια includes magnificence
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Paul Christesen in the treatment of foreign guests, which recalls the stories, going back to Xenophon (Memorabilia 1.2.61) and repeated by Plutarch (Cimon 10.5), that the wealthy Spartan Lichas entertained all foreign visitors who came to Sparta for the Gymnopaidiai festival. One cannot help but wonder if Sparta was in reality not nearly as Spartan as we have, due in part to mis-reading Plutarch, imagined it to be. Abbreviations BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby (https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/), Leiden, 2007–. FGrH = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin, 1923–. Notes 1 On Plutarch’s influence on modern understandings of Sparta, see Powell 2018b, 6. 2 See, for example, Cook 1962; Hodkinson 2000, 19–64. 3 See Osborne’s and Millender’s essays in this volume (Chapters 1 and 6) for further discussion of luxury as a form of something approximating decadence or ostentation. Millender argues that for Euripides, Plato, and Aristotle tryphê is a form of sumptuous extravagance or license resulting from lack of regulation. Osborne connects luxury to ‘self-indulgent behaviour’. 4 This discussion of the meaning of ἁβροσύνη and τρυφή is much indebted to the Gormans’ stimulating work (especially pp. 25–75), though I remain unconvinced by their argument that the concept of luxury as a corrupting force that led to the downfall of states was unknown before the Roman period. 5 On Ephorus in general, see Parmeggiani 2011. On Ephorus’ portrayal of Sparta and its impact on later writers, see Christesen 2010. 6 The opposition between ἀχρήστων and περισσῶν on one hand and ἀναγκαίοις and ἀναγκαῖα in this passage might conceivably speak to an opposition between what economists in the modern day call luxury and necessity goods (Hubbard, Garnett and Lewis 2013, 92–100), which would in turn suggest that τρυφή could be translated as ‘luxury’. However, given that ἀχρήστων and περισσῶν are linked to τρυφή, it seems more likely that the intended opposition is between goods that ‘inflame’ decadence and ostentation and those that do not. 7 Identification of the philosophical traditions that influenced Plutarch’s characterization of Sparta is challenging for a variety of reasons. As Thomas Keith has noted, several different facets of Spartan society were regularly cited as an example, both positive and negative, by Hellenistic and Imperial philosophers from a variety of schools (Keith 2011, 4 and passim). In addition, adherents of the various schools engaged in a long-running dialogue over all things philosophical, with the result that different traditions overlapped and influenced each other, as did their treatments of Sparta. Moreover, it can be challenging to identify specific ways in which philosophical traditions in particular influenced Plutarch’s portrayal of Sparta because ‘for thinkers in the Socratic tradition – Stoics, Cynics, and Platonists above all – ...key terms that were used to characterize Sparta in popular discourse frequently overlapped with the ethical vocabulary particular to their own
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta philosophical traditions – without, however, necessarily being synonymous with it’ (Keith 2011, 4). The scholarly literature on Plutarch’s philosophical commitments is substantial and growing rapidly. A good starting place can be found in the articles in Beck 2014, especially Becchi 2014, Dillon 2014, and Opsomer 2014. 8 See, for example, Nicomachean Ethics 1117b23–1119b18; Eudemian Ethics 1221a29–33; Rhetoric 1384a1–3. 9 On the Platonic resonances here, see de Blois 2005, 95. 10 In valorising μετριοπάθεια, Plutarch acknowledges ἀπάθεια, a complete immunity to emotions, as a possible ideal, but one unattainable by humans under normal circumstances. 11 For σωφροσύνη, see e.g. Lycurgus 5.6, 12.4, 15.5, 26.1; Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa 1.1, 2.1; Agesilaus 14.1; Agis 7.3; Cleomenes 2.1; Comparison of Agis and Cleomenes and the Gracchi 1.4; Comparison of Lysander and Sulla 5.5; Sayings of Spartan Women 24 (= Moralia 242c). 12 The connection Plutarch draws between τρυφή and ἀπειροκαλία is atypical and may well have its roots in Stoicism. Epictetus F13 Schenkl reads, in part, as follows: ‘But, says someone, I see the good and excellent perishing from hunger and cold. – And do you not see those who are not good and excellent perishing from tryphê and alazoneia and apeirokalia?’ Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus 2.3.35, a chapter with the title ‘ Ὅτι οὐ χρὴ περὶ τὴν πολυτέλειαν τῶν σκευῶν ἐσπουδακέναι’, which characterises elaborate drinking vessels as ‘proofs of apeirokalos tryphê ’. 13 For an astute analysis of the portrayal of the tryphê of Spartan women in the work of Euripides, Plato, and Aristotle, see Millender’s essay in this volume, Chapter 6. 14 Plutarch notes (4.6) that Dion responded readily to Plato’s ‘call to virtue’ even though Dion ‘was fully accustomed...to ostentatious service at court and apeirokalos tryphê and a regimen that counts pleasures and excesses as the highest good’. 15 The attitudes of Stoics toward Sparta were not uniform: Keith 2011, 256–7 and passim. Context is also important in that, as Keith points out (91), ‘Plutarch shows a respect for Stoicism in his Spartan Lives generally that is noticeably greater than elsewhere in his corpus’. 16 The relevant passages are: Lycurgus 4.3, 10.3, 12.1, 19.3, 24.4; Agesilaus 14.1; Agis 14.4; Cleomenes 11.4, 13.1, 32.5; Comparison of Agis and Cleomenes and the Gracchi 1.4; Sayings of the Spartans 22 (= Moralia 228d), Ancient Customs of the Spartans 13 (= Moralia 237e). 17 On this passage, see Shipley 1997, 196–200. 18 Brunt points out that for the Stoics, despite their invectives against τρυφή and praise of the simple life, ‘moderation is the real lesson, not any fundamental departure from the lifestyle of the upper classes whom they addressed’ (Brunt 2013, 140). 19 Note also Plutarch’s reference at Agesilaos 19.5–6 (drawing on Xenophon, Agesilaos 8.7) to the decorated kannathra that carried Spartiate girls in sacred processions. Cf. Annalisa Paradiso and James Roy’s discussion (this volume, Chapter 4) of the skilled labour available in Sparta for the manufacture of such elegant carriages.
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Paul Christesen Bibliography Babut, D. 1996 ‘Plutarque, Aristote, et l’aristotélisme’, in L. van der Stockt (ed.) Plutarchea Lovaniensia: A miscellany of essays on Plutarch, Leuven, 1–28. Becchi, F. 2014 ‘Plutarch, Aristotle, and the Peripatetics’, in Beck (ed.) 2014, 73–87. Beck, M. 1999 ‘Plato, Plutarch, and the use and manipulation of anecdotes in the Lives of Lycurgus and Agesilaus: history of the Laconic Apophthegm’, in A.P. Jiménez, J.G. López and R. Aguilar (eds) Plutarco, Platón y Aristóteles, Madrid, 173–88. Beck, M. (ed.) 2014 A Companion to Plutarch, Malden, MA. Berry, C. 1994 The Idea of Luxury: A conceptual and historical investigation, Cambridge. Brunt, P.A. 2013 Studies in Stoicism, Oxford. Christesen, P. 2010 ‘Spartans and Scythians, a meeting of mirages: the portrayal of the Lycurgan Politeia in Ephorus’ Histories’, in A. Powell and S. Hodkinson (eds) Sparta: The Body Politic, Swansea, 211–63. Cook, R.M. 1962 ‘Spartan History and Archaeology’, Classical Quarterly 12, 156–8. de Blois, L. 2005 ‘Plutarch’s Lycurgus: a platonic biography’, in K. Vössing (ed.) Biographie und Prosopographie: Internationales Kolloquium zum 65. Geburtstag von Anthony R. Birley, Stuttgart, 91–102. de Blois, L. and Bons, J.A.E. 1995 ‘Platonic and Isocratean political concepts in Plutarch’s Lycurgus’, in I. Gallo and B. Scardigli (eds) Teoria e prassi politica nelle opere di Plutarco, Naples, 99–106. Dillon, J. 2014 ‘Plutarch and Platonism’, in Beck (ed.) 2014, 61–72. Finley, M.I. 1999 The Ancient Economy, 3rd edn., Berkeley. Gericke, J.D. 1999 ‘Medicine and the soundness of the soul in Aristotle’, Acta Patristica et Byzantina 10, 89–103. Gorman, R., and Gorman, V. 2014 Corrupting Luxury in Ancient Greek Literature, Ann Arbor. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London. Hubbard, G., Garnett, A. and Lewis, P. 2013 Essentials of Economics, French’s Forest. Inwood, B. 2017 ‘The legacy of Musonius Rufus’, in T. Engberg-Pedersen (ed.) From
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Luxury, lost in translation: τρυφή in Plutarch’s Sparta Stoicism to Platonism: The development of philosophy, 100 bce–100 ce, Cambridge, 254–76. Keith, T.R. 2011 ‘Blood, toil, tearless sweat: Sparta in philosophical thought of the late Republic and early Empire’, PhD thesis, University of Chicago. Kurke, L. 1992 ‘The politics of Habrosunê in Archaic Greece’, Classical Antiquity 11, 91–120. Liebert, H. 2016 Plutarch’s Politics: Between city and empire, New York. Lombardo, M. 1983 ‘Habrosyne e habrá nel mondo greco arcaico’, in Modes de contacts et processus de transformation dans les sociétés anciennes, Rome, 1077–103. Lucchesi, M.A. 2014 ‘Plutarch on Sparta: cultural identities and political models in the Plutarchean macrotext’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford. Opsomer, J. 2014 ‘Plutarch and the Stoics’, in Beck (ed.) 2014, 88–103. Parmeggiani, G. 2011 Eforo di Cuma: Studi di storiografia greca, Bologna. Powell, A. 2018a ‘Athens as new Sparta? Lakonism and the Athenian revolution of 404–3 bc’, in P. Cartledge and A. Powell (eds) The Greek Superpower: Sparta in the self-definitions of Athenians, Swansea, 61–85. 2018b ‘Reconstructing history from secrecy, lies and myth’, in A. Powell (ed.) A Companion to Sparta, 2 vols., Hoboken, NJ, vol. 1, 3–28. Schneeweiss, G. 1979 ‘History and philosophy in Plutarch: observations on Plutarch’s Lycurgus’, in G.W. Bowersock, W. Burkert and M. Putnam (eds) Arktouros: Hellenic studies presented to Bernard M.W. Knox on the occasion of his 65th birthday, Berlin, 376–82. Scott, A. 2015 Literature and the Idea of Luxury in Early Modern England, London. Shipley, D.R. 1997 A Commentary on Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaos, Oxford. Stewart, E. 2019 ‘Ion of Chios: the case of a foreign poet in Classical Sparta’, Classical Quarterly 68, 394–407. Turner, C. 2015 ‘Cosmopolis: towards a positive conception of Cynic political philosophy’, Yearbook of the Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies 1, 1–52. van Hoof, L. 2010 Plutarch’s Practical Ethics: The social dynamics of philosophy, Oxford.
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PART III THE WIDER PELOPONNESE AND BEYOND
8 FUNERARY LUXURY AND AUSTERITY IN PRE-CLASSICAL ARGOS AND CORINTH: THE MAKING OF CITIZEN COMMUNITIES Alain Duplouy Despite being a ‘tricky term’ with ‘no exact equivalent in Greek’,1 the notion of luxury may receive, broadly speaking, two different meanings, an ancient or indigenous one and a modern or foreign one, corresponding to different approaches of the ancient sources, both textual and material. In the ancient world, luxury was not highly valued. A great majority of the ancient sources portray it as a symptom of moral decadence, while a series of sumptuary laws were apparently designed to curb the display of wealth, notably at funerals. The debate on the use and abuse of wealth finds resonance in the Roman world with authors such as the Elder Cato, Sallust or Seneca. The controversy among these authors records the necessity for the Romans to delineate and regulate the private display of wealth and its compatibility with collective interests, as synthesized by Cicero in a well-known sentence: odit populus Romanus privatam luxuriam, publicam magnificentiam diligit ( pro Murena 36), ‘The Roman people disapproves of private luxury, but admires public splendour’.2 A similar situation is well-attested for the Greek world, as has been emphasized by Rainer Bernhardt’s work on the critics of luxury in Greek literature and law.3 The concept of truphe¯, which arose during the fifth century as a characteristic feature of oriental people and women, was used to convey the idea that it had debilitating effects on both individuals and cities. It was a symbol of hubris and decadence. It initially offered a behavioural explanation for Persia’s defeat in the Persian wars, but the perspective was soon extended to
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Alain Duplouy all barbarians and to various Greek cities. It was supposed that prosperity (eudaimonia) and unrestrained ostentation (truphe¯ ) could lead to arrogance (hubris) and destruction. This principle is well represented in Hellenistic historiography, if not already in Classical times (cf. Herodotus 1.155 and Thucydides 1.6).4 From that time on, starting with Euripides, Plato and Aristotle, eastern luxury and excessive license were also associated with Spartan women, offering a criticism of the Lycurgan constitution and, then, an alleged explanation for its decline.5 Eventually, a clearly moral perspective appears in Athenaeus’ Deipnosophists (c. ad 200), which stamps truphe¯ as a strongly negative and reprehensible behaviour.6 This perspective is explicit in book 12, which is entirely devoted to luxury. Athenaeus makes a list of nations and cities famous in history for their sumptuous lifestyle and for the dissolute behaviours of their inhabitants. In this hall of fame of corrupted nations, the first places belong to barbarians from the East (Persians, Medes, Lydians) and West (Etruscans). As neighbours of these peoples, the Ionians and the Western Greeks soon copied their lifestyle. Significantly, however, there are no Peloponnesian cities in this list of corrupted nations, although various individual Spartans have the honour of being introduced as fully depraved (especially Archidamos III, Lysandros, and the Regent Pausanias). Does it mean that, these individual exceptions granted, the Peloponnese was doomed to austerity, as standard versions have advocated? The first point to make clear is that the moral assessment of luxury was completely different in Archaic Greece. Throughout the Archaic world, luxury (then termed habrosune¯ ) was a behaviour that was highly prized by various poets. Sappho pragmatically and unashamedly stated ‘I love luxury (abrosunan)’ ( fr. 58, l. 25 Lobel-Page) and Solon assimilated habra pathein to riches and comforts in food and dress ( fr. 24, l. 4 West). In a well-known paper, Leslie Kurke established that throughout the sixth century habros and its derivatives functioned as ‘positively charged markers of a particular aristocratic lifestyle’, so nothing for Sappho to be ashamed of, while in the fifth century habrosune¯ had become a ‘dirty word’.7 Her statement echoed a long series of studies, especially in Italian scholarship. As demonstrated by Santo Mazzarino, habrote¯s included behaviours that were learned by the Eastern Greeks from their Oriental neighbours and were then embraced by Greek elites as a distinguishing lifestyle. As a legacy of the East to the West, luxury had become a mark of social and political distinction.8 The second point to make clear is that this Archaic notion of habrosune¯ does not find much echo in the Peloponnese, even if the Lydian-born Alcman portrayed young girls in purple cloaks and with Lydian mitrai
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth (fr. 1 Diehl). To illustrate that fact, Thucydides opposed two very different lifestyles (1.6.3–5): an old one, to habrodiaiton, enshrined in luxury (such as linen undergarments and golden hair clips), which used to be common among Ionian people, and a more modest style of dressing, more in conformity with the ideas of his time, which was first adopted by the Lacedaemonians and then, after the Persian wars, by the Athenians. Of course, all this is a matter of representation, and more specifically of Athenian Classical representation. In various recently published papers, I suggest that habrosune¯ was a model of citizen performance that applied to various Archaic cities.9 In his discussion in this volume (Chapter 1), Robin Osborne advocates distinguishing between luxury and wealth, as well as between ‘luxury as behaviour’ and ‘luxury as things’.10 If Archaic habrosune¯ can be equated to a specific lifestyle mostly associated with Eastern and Western Greece, luxury objects were not at all lacking or prohibited in the Peloponnese. As Stephen Hodkinson has convincingly demonstrated for Sparta, over and above the false image of austerity, wealth also operated in the shaping of Spartan society; there were severe inequalities among the Spartiate population.11 To deal with luxury in the pre-Classical Peloponnese, and especially funerary luxury, we therefore need to choose our definition of luxury. We do not have to equate it with the very idiosyncratic concept of Archaic habrosune¯, but could adopt another – maybe more common – conception of luxury, simply related to the use of material wealth. In modern languages, the word luxury denotes a state of great comfort and extravagant living; it also applies to inessential but desirable objects that are expensive or difficult to obtain. As such, luxury can be related to the notion of conspicuous consumption, as formally defined by Thorstein Veblen.12 Strongly believing that the economy was significantly embedded in social institutions, the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist defined conspicuous consumption as spending more money on goods than they are worth, and he equated its correlate, conspicuous leisure, with the non-productive use of time for the sake of displaying social status. In the late nineteenth century, members of the leisured class, a nouveau riche social class which had emerged during the Second Industrial Revolution through the accumulation of capital wealth, engaged in luxurious behaviours in order to impress the rest of society through the manifestation of their social power and prestige. According to Veblen, social status is thus earned and displayed by patterns of consumption; simultaneously, people in other social classes are usually influenced by these behaviours and strive to emulate the leisured class. The idea that consumption is used as a way to gain and signal status
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Alain Duplouy could also be applied to Greek antiquity. Kenneth Lapatin simply assimilates luxury to Greek and Roman works of art that were made out of expensive materials (gold and silver, hard stones, and organic material such as ivory, fine woods, amber, pearl, coral and textiles);13 but other discussions inspired by archaeological enquiries make more sense of Veblen’s concept. For example, Carmine Ampolo applied the notion of luxury to the Orientalising material culture of seventh-century Italy, focusing on the marvellous riches deposited in the so-called tombe principesche: he discussed the lavish display of wealth by Italic elites, distinguishing between qualitative and quantitative luxury in burial goods and funeral practices.14 In order to investigate the societies of the pre-Classical Peloponnese, I will adopt here the modern (and foreign) perspective of conspicuous consumption, without taking into consideration the native Greek though (mostly) Eastern- and Western-Greek notion of Archaic habrosune¯. In this (materialistic or archaeological) sense, luxury and its antithesis, austerity, could be sensitive tools for approaching Peloponnesian material cultures, leading to interesting discussions about the making of citizen communities. Argive and Corinthian burials: The archaeological record As already noted half a century ago by Donna Kurtz and John Boardman, the Peloponnese is distinctive as a whole by its great uniformity of burial practice: ‘inhumation in cists or pots for both adults and children is the normal practice, with minor variations of grave construction dictated by local conditions or wealth’.15 In particular, the Corinthians and Argives normally remained unreceptive to the idea of cremation during the whole pre-Classical period, with very few exceptions.16 They generally practised the placing of the corpse in a contracted position; whereas the Athenians, for example, usually preferred to place the inhumed dead in a fully extended position. Contrary to Athenian customs too, there was no substantial variation in Argos and Corinth between immature and adult burials. For half a century, archaeological discoveries, especially on behalf of the Greek Archaeological Service as well as foreign schools, have increased to such an extent that it has often become difficult to embrace the whole documentation. Various studies, however, have successfully presented a clear view of the funerary archaeological record of pre-Classical Argos and Corinth.
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth Argos17 As everywhere in the Greek world after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation, the Late Helladic IIIC represents a transition between the remnants of the previous system and the new social and economic conditions characteristic of the early Greek polis. Throughout the Argolid, the Submycenaean period is characterised by a noticeable reduction in the number of settlements. In Argos itself, there is no topographical continuity of settlement with previous stages. Although a few burials are still associated with Mycenaean chamber tombs (e.g. Deiras T. XXIV), the known burials are now single inhumations in stone cists. Towards the end of the eleventh century, however, the whole area covered by the modern city of Argos seems to have been settled, not as a densely nucleated settlement of course, but rather through scattered nuclei, indicating a noticeable growth of the population during the Protogeometric period. These discrete settlement clusters were surrounded by groups of tombs, apparently associated with them, in the form of single inhumations in stone cists, more rarely in pit graves or pithoi. The development of Argos is vigorous during the Geometric period. Although there are few occurrences of continuity of settlement with the Protogeometric period, probably due to the abundance of available space and resources, there is often, in contrast, continuity in the use of burial plots between the Protogeometric and Geometric periods. Moreover, as everywhere in Greece, the number of tombs increases, especially in the second half of the eighth century.18 Their setting now seems to indicate the existence of proper burial grounds located to the North, South and East of the settled area, even if it is probably inappropriate to speak of formal cemeteries, considering the difficulty of defining a formal settled area in the sense of an urbanized town.19 Numerous tombs, indeed, have also been found within the broader limits of the settlement, next to housing nuclei or in empty spaces probably crossed by roads.20 Geometric grave-goods include pottery and metal objects. The content of the tombs differs greatly from one case to another, probably evidencing a large array of socio-economic conditions among the dead and/or the burying groups. Overall, throughout the Geometric period, cists tend to be richer in grave goods than the other types of burials, especially pithos burials. Several peculiarities for the Geometric period must be singled out. First, various graves are re-used for later burials within a generation or two of the first inhumation, the earlier offerings usually being removed and reburied in the fill above the grave. There are also several examples of multiple burials in a single grave, containing the remains of three or four, but sometimes up to six or seven individuals, within cists that are
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Alain Duplouy significantly bigger than the standard size, suggesting that they were intended right from the start to serve as communal tombs. And finally, various very unusual inhumation burials of the late eighth century have been characterized as ‘warrior’ or ‘hero’ burials. The famous cuirass tomb T. 45, discovered in 1953, contains only one individual in a huge cist tomb, the longest of all; it is furnished with pottery, jewellery, bronze armour (cuirass and helmet), iron axes, obeloi and firedogs.21 At least three other large-size cist tombs, distributed all over the settled area, include armour and weapons interred with a single individual. These remarkable burials reveal, of course, some kind of funerary luxury during the later part of the eighth century. In contrast with these lavish burials, pithos and pot burials become more and more common towards the end of the Geometric period, initiating a complete break in the funerary archaeological record. Cist graves had been preferred for hundreds of years, but the type was then abandoned and suddenly disappeared throughout the whole Argolid around 700, giving way to pithos and pot burials, which were usually poorly furnished. Between 700 and 630 almost all graves are indeed devoid of any offerings; it is only in the late seventh century that grave goods gradually reappear. Very few tombs are known–identified and/or published–for the Archaic period, much less than for the Geometric period. Considering it from the number of tombs alone, there may have been a thinning out of the Argive population in the seventh century, which Anne Foley has related to possible drought, disease or political problems.22 It should be noted, however, that the small number of seventh- and sixth-century burials may also be related to a mere issue of archaeological retrieval, tombs with no burial goods at all being much more difficult to allocate chronologically. Corinth23 Following the disintegration of the Mycenaean civilisation, the Early Iron Age marks a new start in the Corinthia, even if very little burial or settlement evidence is attested for the transitional period. The number of tombs increases from the Late Protogeometric on, with a climax during the Middle Geometric. Almost all pre-Classical Corinthian tombs contain single inhumations. There is no communal tomb intended to receive the dead of a ‘family’ or any functional group, whether simultaneously or consecutively over successive generations. The corpse was invariably placed in a contracted position, at least until the end of the seventh century, when a gradual shift towards a fully extended position began. Apart from the area of Corinth, which has been excavated extensively for decades, burial and settlement evidence in the Corinthia is mostly
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth represented by chance discoveries or rescue excavations, so that it is difficult to assess thoroughly the spatial relationship between burial grounds and settlements. Until the sixth century, at least, the area of the later urbanized town of Corinth was settled through small clusters of houses scattered throughout the area of the city (and sometimes indicated only by the presence of wells). In this loosely settled area, graves have been excavated in the Lechaion Road valley (later the area of the Roman forum), the Potters’ Quarter, the North Cemetery and, more recently, the Panayia Field and along the construction works of the high-speed railway line north of Acrocorinth, not to mention a few other isolated graves and small clusters. During the Early Iron Age, the dead were buried close to housing nuclei, rather than in common grave fields isolated from the area of habitation. From the first half of the eighth century on, the North cemetery, which had gone out of use after the Middle Helladic, gradually became a more formal burial ground, well removed from the settled areas of Corinth. This funerary zone lasted for centuries, but it never stopped the practice of burying within the larger perimeter of the settled area until the end of the Archaic period at least. As in the Argolid, there was initially a great diversity in the forms of tombs, gradually leading to a single burial type. Cist, pit and sarcophagus burials coexisted from the tenth century to the late eighth century, when sarcophagus burials replaced the other forms of burial. Simple pit graves were common until mid-eighth century, but were then quickly and completely abandoned. Stone-built cist graves were never as popular in the Corinthia as they were in the Argolid. Like pit graves, Corinthian cist graves are attested only for the Early Iron Age, the type being completely abandoned by ca. 700. Although sporadically used from ca. 900, stone sarcophagi gradually replaced pit and cist graves, with the shift apparently complete by the end of the eighth century. Small stone sarcophagi were thereafter consistently used for inhumation of both adults and children, even if pot burials (i.e. inhumations within ceramic vessels) are also occasionally attested from the mid-eighth century on, perhaps mainly for infants and small children, whereas burial in a bronze vessel was very uncommon. The inside of the sarcophagi was usually left rough, although the interiors of very large sixth-century sarcophagi were smoothly finished, many of them being stuccoed inside and a few were even painted. Towards the end of the seventh century, stone sarcophagi increased in length simply because the dead were now increasingly buried in a fully extended rather than contracted position. The practice of depositing non-perishable grave goods with the dead can be summarised in two successive trends. First, there was an increase in
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Alain Duplouy the number of objects–mainly local fine ware drinking vessels, as well as small oil or unguent containers–deposited during the Middle Geometric period (825–750), a proliferation correlated with the high quality of offerings, with a higher percentage of precious metal finds, bronze objects, and large vases compared with other periods. In subsequent periods, there was, in contrast, a sharp decrease in grave goods, in terms of both quantity and quality. Whereas furnishings were increasingly more luxurious during the Middle Geometric period, there were virtually no grave goods in Corinth during the Late Geometric and Protocorinthian periods, that is from ca. 750 to ca. 600 – resulting of course in severe difficulties in precisely dating such graves. For the Corinthians, the cost and efforts made in the procurement or construction of stone sarcophagi obviously outweighed their interest in burial goods, even if the soft limestone used to manufacture sarcophagi was abundantly available and easily cut. Eventually, towards the end of the seventh century, in the Early Corinthian period, grave goods began again to be deposited with the dead. To quote Keith Dickey, ‘By the MC period virtually every grave received at least one object, almost at least a drinking vessel, and by LC I the number of objects in the wealthiest burials was greater even than in the MG II graves, although only rarely do the 6th century graves contain precious metal objects, bronze pins, or large vases’.24 In contrast to Attica, there are very few recorded grave markers in the Corinthia (as throughout much of the Peloponnese), including a limited number of inscribed gravestones and funerary statues. In particular, there is no archaeological evidence that any monumental vase was ever set up over Geometric or Archaic graves, with the exception of MG to LG-coarse hydriai placed outside the grave and linked to the use of water as a purification agent for the living.25 Simple stone markers were found over a few graves in the form of upright unworked poros blocks (cippi) and (possibly) horizontal slabs (trapeza). Since the lack of good local marble prevented the development of a major school of sculpture, statues only exceptionally marked the graves, including the famous kouros from Tenea and a few funerary sphinxes and lions.26 Although the erection of grave markers seems to have been infrequent in the Corinthia, the recovery in 2010 of two looted marble kouroi in the Corinthian countryside and their association with an Archaic cemetery27 show that the Corinthian funerary landscape, like the Athenian one, may have been marked by impressive semata during the sixth century, precisely at a time when grave goods had reappeared in the tombs and sarcophagi had become longer due to the new fully extended burial position of the dead.
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth Luxury and austerity: Socio-economic and ethnical interpretations Overall, the sequences of Corinthian and Argive burials are very similar, although the Corinthians often preceded the Argives by half a century, at least for the initial stages.28 Both sequences, alternating luxury and austerity, can be summarised as follows: 1) A growth in the number of tombs and an increase in the quantity and quality of burial goods, in the first half of the eighth century for Corinth, in the second half of the eighth century for Argos. 2) Then, a complete break in the funerary record, with the use of a new form of tomb sarcophagus burial in Corinth and pithos burial in Argos, and the nearly complete disappearance of burial goods, these changes happening towards 750 in Corinth and towards the end of the eighth century in Argos. 3) The reappearance of grave goods, although to a less lavish extent than in the Geometric period, towards 630 in Argos and a little bit later, towards 600, in Corinth. What happened in Argos and Corinth has been a matter of debate for more than forty years. Various hypotheses have been proposed. Although none is exempt from criticism or fully convincing, they are all interesting for what they teach us about the way that Greek society has been interpreted over the past decades. Robin Hägg took cultural discontinuity in Argive burial customs to be indicative of class distinctions based on wealth, power and nobility of birth. He regarded the reuse of graves and the tendency to have bigger cist tomb and richer grave goods in the Late Geometric phase as testifying probably to ‘the strengthening of family and kinship ties’ typical of ‘upper class families, the royalty or the aristocracy’. In contrast to a fairly homogeneous Protogeometric society, he described Late Geometric society as a ‘differentiated or stratified society’, in which social status was displayed in its mortuary customs. In the Late Geometric period, the cist graves – and especially the large and well-furnished cist graves – would have been those of the leading aristocratic families (also named ‘clans’ or ‘nobility’), whereas pithos burials, often completely without objects, were supposedly for the poorer people. Eventually, the complete takeover of pithoi in the seventh century would reflect a general decrease in wealth.29 Similarly, for Corinth, the increased elaboration of burials in the first half of the eighth century should be equated, according to Keith Dickey, with a ‘burgeoning aristocracy, with the process culminating in the establishment of the Bacchiad oligarchy, which is traditionally dated to 747’, considering that the Corinthian ‘landowning elite [would]
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Alain Duplouy increasingly have felt the need to emphasize their right to the land and their privileged status through increasingly extravagant funerals for their family members’.30 In sum, burial differences would have been relevant to class distinctions. Such a sharp distinction between socio-economic groups does not do justice, however, to the complexity of the archaeological record. Although it is certainly true that, in general, cist burials are better furnished with grave goods than pithoi, a good many Argive cist graves contained no gifts at all, and certain pithoi could be richly furnished. As Jonathan Hall concludes for Argos, ‘this differential is hardly significant enough to posit any extreme social divisions between those who employed cist burial and those who adopted pithos burial’.31 Moreover, such a distinction, formulated more than three decades ago, no longer fits with current knowledge about early Greek societies and their material culture. Kinship ties were probably not at the core of social organisation in Archaic Greece. Moreover, concepts such as ‘clan’, ‘nobility’ or even ‘aristocracy’ are reminiscent of a social model that has been harshly criticised in recent literature.32 It should be added that a stratified social order, in contrast to a ranked one, is actually split into several strictly-separated classes with no possibility of social mobility. In this sense, ‘a stratified social order does not have the same need for display as a ranked one. It has nothing to prove, only something to maintain’, to quote James Whitley, referring to the more austere material practices of Crete at the end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth century: ‘Indeed, display[s] can be a threat to the social order, as they provide opportunities for those outside the group to compete and so undermine established hierarchies’.33 Accordingly, the luxury displayed in Middle Geometric Corinthian and Late Geometric Argive burial practices would reveal an increase in social competition among the elite and its instability, rather than the strengthening of an already established aristocracy against a class of poorer people, while the fading of all material distinctions in death during the seventh century would indicate a stratified social order, much more so than for the previous period. Instead of a general decrease in wealth, as argued by Hägg for Argos, Keith Dickey proposed to attribute the later disappearance of grave goods in Corinthian tombs to restrictive funerary legislation: ‘for the period from ca. 750 to ca. 600 bc the Corinthians appear to have adopted funerary customs that intentionally sought to mute or eliminate distinctions of status in burial’. He postulated that the Bacchiads might ‘have imposed funerary restrictions like those for the Spartan citizens on the Corinthian populace’, alluding to the Lycurgan law code in Sparta.
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth Not democratising in its aims, the supposed Bacchiad regulation was intended ‘to enhance the prestige of the ruling group and deny rank or status to all other individuals’: ‘by prohibiting lavish funerals the Bacchiads would have effectively denied any rival families an opportunity to express their own wealth and would-be status’.34 Similarly, the reappearance of grave goods in Corinthia towards the end of the seventh century would reveal that ‘this prohibition either was repealed or was no longer enforced by the end of the seventh century when the tyrant Periander reigned’ and that, although the differences between individuals could have been masked for a time in death, they ‘still existed in life and were bound to manifest themselves again in the funerary ritual with time’.35 No sumptuary laws, however, are known at any time for Corinth. Moreover, historians are more and more reluctant to view early funerary legislation in the Greek world as being intended to curb the public display of extravagant burials. For example, as demonstrated by Josine Blok, Solon’s funerary laws were not at all directed against the Athenian elite and, indeed, there was no restraint on ostentatious behaviour in sixth-century Attica.36 Overall, the Corinthian and Argive societies do not appear to have prohibited individual expressions of wealth, as we can judge from local sanctuaries. In search of a global explanation for all regions in which the placing of grave goods was temporarily abandoned, one might better refer to the well-known relocation of luxury goods from tombs to sanctuaries. Since the work of Nicolas Coldstream and Anthony Snodgrass,37 it has been commonplace to stress the transfer that gradually occurred in material culture from tombs to sanctuaries during the eighth century. Although the increase in votive offerings is often slightly earlier than the impoverishment of tombs, the types of artefacts once deposited in burials eventually came to be offered at sanctuaries. For example, towards the end of the eighth century obeloi ceased to be deposited in Argive tombs (T. 45 is probably the last one) and began to be regularly offered in sanctuaries. Similarly, the diminution of grave goods in Corinthian burials paralleled the sharp increase of dedications in Corinthian sanctuaries, particularly at Isthmia and Perachora, as early as the eighth century. Accordingly, the disappearance of such items from graves reflects not a decline in general prosperity or any sumptuary legislation, but new attitudes towards divinities, granting to sanctuaries a function in the mediation of power and prestige that was previously attributed to burials, as famously expressed by François de Polignac more than twenty years ago.38 Therefore, what happened in seventh-century Argos and Corinth has probably nothing to do with the so-called Dorian or Lycurgan austerity,
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Alain Duplouy which is most probably a much later, sixth- or even late sixth-century, and mainly Spartan phenomenon.39 Not only did the ‘funerary cut’ go with a contemporary ‘dedication boom’, it was also followed by the general reappearance of burial goods in both sixth-century Argos and Corinth, along with the occurrence of magnificent semata. Whereas Robin Hägg took cultural discontinuity in burial customs to be indicative of class distinctions, Anne Foley proposed to relate the Argive burial evidence in the Geometric period to ethnic groups: ‘Variations in burial customs (...) may equally be interpreted as resulting from racial divisions within the population’. She assumed that there were both Dorians and non-Dorians living at Argos during the Geometric and early Archaic periods, and that ‘the non-Dorians formed a subject population to the dominant Dorian warrior class’. Accordingly, the large and richly furnished cist burials would have been used ‘with some degree of exclusivity’ by the Dorian segment of the Argive society.40 Jonathan Hall, however, has argued strongly against an archaeology of the Dorian invasion, which has been widely advocated since the nineteenth century, and expressed doubts about the likelihood of a direct correlation between a particular grave type and an ethnic group.41 The ethnic approach has been revived recently, however, by Jean-Marc Luce.42 Although Foley did not apply her ethnic model beyond the Geometric period, what happened in the early seventh century, when cist tombs were abandoned in favour of pithos burials, is worth considering. Is it likely that the Dorians suddenly adopted a mode of disposal that was previously associated with another, lower-status ethnic group? Does it mean that the two groups merged through a general assimilation in burial customs, or that the Dorian component of the Argive identity vanished, not to speak of an evaporation of the Dorians themselves? This subsequent theoretical development, of course, disposes of any ethnic interpretation of Argive mortuary practices. What then was the reason? How are we to make sense of the alternation between luxury and austerity in Argive and Corinthian burial sequences? What happened in Argos and Corinth over the whole pre-Classical period could be related to what Aubrey Cannon once modelled in terms of funerary cycles. In a largely anthropological study, Cannon argued that change in funerary ostentation is often a cyclical phenomenon and that, as contradictory as it might appear, restriction can itself be an expression of competitive mortuary display.43 Mortuary practices simply change because they derive meaning through contrast with contemporary and past expressions. The notion of a funerary cycle allows us to evade too radical a social or ideological interpretation of mortuary variation in terms of crisis, whether socio-economic or ethnic.
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth But what, then, lay behind these changes? In the following pages, I will argue that discontinuities in pre-Classical Argive and Corinthian burial customs and in material wealth invested in tombs was actually related to the changing images and structures of ever-evolving political communities. The making of the Argive and Corinthian poleis In dealing with mortuary practices and their variation in Early Iron Age Greece, Ian Morris related them to a transformation of the social structure leading to the formation of the Greek polis.44 Although his ideas on the rise of the Greek polis were extensively discussed and (with good reasons) criticised three decades ago, they still represent a major stimulus to reflection on the making of the Greek city. According to Morris, although ‘formal burial’ (i.e. an archaeologically visible or retrievable tomb) long remained restricted to a higher stratum (wrongly) labelled the agathoi, a lower stratum (also mistakenly) termed the kakoi was suddenly allowed to be buried formally. Well beyond any possible growth of the population, as postulated by Snodgrass, Morris associated the well-known increasing number of tombs in the eighth century with a broadening of the burial group, marking the invention of the idea of the polis and the appearance of citizenship. Although Morris’ analysis is mainly based on the archaeological record of Athens and Attica, he also briefly alluded to Argos and Corinth.45 In Argos, the appearance of a large substratum of poor, undifferentiated pithos burials alongside the richer cist graves is interpreted as the manifestation of a subordinate social group which was not very visible before 750. Morris concluded that the admission of the (so-called) kakoi to the formal cemeteries, but in graves very different from those of the (alleged) agathoi, and the subsequent disappearance of all distinctions in death would be consistent with a general model of denial of differences between the citizens of the polis. Similarly, he argued that Corinth provides another good example of the early polis, with virtually no differentiation between the citizens. For Corinth, Morris’ ideas have been endorsed and further elaborated by Dickey. While he fittingly refused to link the growing number of datable pit graves in the Middle Geometric period to demographic trends, Dickey assimilated the increased elaboration of Corinthian burials in the first half of the eighth century, followed by the dramatic changes in burial custom in the middle of the century, with the birth of the polis. According to Dickey, ‘the adoption of a single uniform grave form for all members of the community fits well with the notion that a funerary ideology which denied differences in status was operating’. While reflecting a
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Alain Duplouy shift in emphasis away from the individual towards the community, the use of stone sarcophagi also offered the Corinthians the opportunity to differentiate themselves from other Greek communities.46 This is not the place to discuss Morris’ (and Dickey’s) egalitarian conception of the citizen community. Like other scholars, I am strongly reluctant about the idea of equating the birth of the Greek polis with the rise of a so-called ‘middling ideology’, which is a mere retro-projection of Classical Athenian or Spartan ideals.47 However, although Morris’ conception of the polis must be debated again and again, the chronological variations in Argive and Corinthian burial customs can nevertheless be associated with some kind of community development through a behavioural conception of Archaic citizenship. Usually considered as a granted status enshrined in legal criteria and institutional affiliations, citizenship is normally assimilated to membership of a previously defined political entity.48 Instead of membership, which introduces a view from the top, I have argued in recent studies in favour of describing Archaic citizenship as a performance, thereby focusing attention on citizen behaviours.49 Beside attending the Assembly and the Council, which imply formal institutions, the exercise of citizenship actually extended to all the areas of collective activities and individual performances: cults and burials, sacrifices and symposia, trade and economy, war and peace, all spheres or behaviours that contributed to sketching the outline of the citizen community. This was, in fact, the double meaning of the word politeia in ancient Greek: applied, on the one hand, to forms of government (usually the only one explored by modern scholarship)50 and, on the other hand, to citizen lifestyles, also referred to as nomoi, tropoi or epite¯deumata.51 These are the citizen behaviours I am interested in. In the absence of a register in most Archaic cities certifying one’s legal status, the rights of a citizen had to be permanently demonstrated in order to be acknowledged and accepted by others. Even the citizen community was delineated thanks to specific behaviours, especially those performed in sanctuaries and cemeteries. Adopting the normative behaviours of citizens in all aspects of one’s lifestyle therefore provided, from birth to death, the best means of being acknowledged as a fellow citizen. To put it briefly, in order to be accepted as a citizen, one had to behave like a citizen. From this perspective, the notion of habitus, popularised by the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, can be meaningful. Habitus refers to the lifestyle, values, dispositions and expectations of social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life. In Bourdieu’s own words, they are ‘structured structures predisposed to
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth function as structuring structures’.52 They are socially acquired schemata, sensibilities, dispositions and tastes that are repeatedly reproduced through individual behaviours, thereby reinforcing the strength of the habitus itself. In sum, by adopting a particular lifestyle, in both life and death, which was valued by the whole citizen community, individuals behave in order to be accepted as fellow citizens. Of course, in Archaic Greece, each city had its own citizen habitus, defining a variety of idiosyncratic patterns of behaviours that allowed individuals to be identified as citizens in their own community. What I propose here is that we should apply this conception of Archaic citizenship to the burial customs of Argos and Corinth. Accordingly, pre-Classical Argive and Corinthian burial customs, coherent as they were in their forms and sequences, functioned as citizen habitus, as behavioural ways of including or excluding people from the community, with the approval of all its members. Their chronological variations simply reflect the evolving habitus of these communities, if not their changing composition, with new groups of insiders trying to re-define burial customs to their own advantage. In this sense, the seventh-century break in the funerary record of both Corinth and Argos does not reflect any particular ethnic, social or economic crisis, nor any sumptuary legislation. After the lavish burials of the previous period and the probable social instability that they reflect, the funerary restrictions and austerity imply a more strictly stratified and closed society – similar in principle to what happened in sixth-century Crete or Sparta – which materially isolated citizen insiders in death from non-citizen outsiders.53 Conversely, the reappearance of some sort of funerary luxury in sixth-century Argive and Corinthian tombs reveals the changing behaviours of these citizen communities, and probably a more competitive and open conception of them, as in other areas of the Greek world. Notes 1 Gorman and Gorman 2014, 25. See also the papers by Robin Osborne, Ellen Millender and Paul Christesen in this volume (Chapters 1, 6 and 7) for a general discussion of the various meanings of ‘luxury’ and the Greek words habrosune¯ and truphe¯. 2 Most recently, Dubois-Pelerin 2016 (with bibliography). 3 Bernhardt 2003. 4 Passerini 1934; Schepens 2007, esp. 258–61. 5 On the truphe¯ of Spartan women, see Ellen Millender’s chapter in this volume (Chapter 6). 6 Most recently, Gorman and Gorman (2007; 2014), although they apply this moral disapprobation solely to Roman ethics.
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Alain Duplouy Kurke 1992. Mazzarino 1947. Cf. Cozzoli 1980; Nenci 1983; Lombardo 1983. 9 Duplouy 2013, 2018 and 2019. 10 I am not so confident, however, that luxury behaviours were as heavily gendered in pre-Classical cities as they became from Classical times onwards. 11 Hodkinson 2000. 12 Veblen 1899. 13 Lapatin 2015. 14 Ampolo 1984a; 1984b. 15 Kurtz and Boardman 1971, 180. See also Vlachou 2012, 368–9; Luce 2011. For Classical and Hellenistic burials in the Northern Peloponnese, Dimakis 2016. 16 See the recent discovery in Argos of an early seventh-century cremation in a bronze urn covered by limestone slabs: Archaeolog y in Greece Online (https://chronique.efa.gr/) no. 293. 17 Besides the work of the Ephorate, recorded annually in Archaiologikon Deltion, the main references are: Courbin 1974; Hägg 1974; Foley 1988, 34–52; Barakari-Gleni 1998; Touchais and Divari-Valakou 1998; Barakari-Gleni and Pariente 1998; Pappi 2014; Farnham 2016, 365–71. To these well-published records should be added the short notices of Archaeolog y in Greece Online (https://chronique.efa.gr/) nos. 293, 1434, 1435, 1437, 1439, 1441, 2411, 3825, 3827, 3832, 3841, 3842, 3845, 3853, 3859, 3872, and 3880. For a comparison with newly available archaeological evidence from Sparta, Christesen 2018. 18 For a full picture and figures, see conveniently Tandy 1997, 46–50 (according to Snodgrass’s burial counts). 19 On the definition of the settled area, period by period, Marchetti 2013. 20 As noted recently by Christesen 2018, 340, ‘burials continued to take place in the heart of Argos’ urban fabric throughout the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods’. 21 Initially published by Courbin 1957. 22 Foley 1988, 50–1. 23 The main references are: Blegen, Palmer and Young 1964; Dickey 1992; Morgan 1999, 395–7, 406–9, with a gazetteer of sites in Appendix 4; Pfaff 2007, to be supplemented by AR 53 (2006–7), 13–14 and now by Sanders et al. 2014; Giannopoulou et al. 2013. To these well-published records should be added the short notices of Archaeolog y in Greece Online (https://chronique.efa.gr/) nos. 101, 2492, 2493, 3803, and 4437. Slane 2017 deals with burials ranging in date from the fifth century bc to the sixth century ad. For a comparison with newly available archaeological evidence from Sparta, Christesen 2018. 24 Dickey 1992, 139. 25 Farnham 2016, 374–6. 26 Most recently, Kokkorou-Alevras 2011. 27 Archaeolog y in Greece Online no. 1424. 28 The comparison can now be extended to Spartan burials: Christesen 2018, 352. While grave goods were largely the same in all three communities in the Protogeometric and Geometric periods and similarly absent during much of the seventh century, there was no reappearance of burial goods in Sparta in the sixth century. 7 8
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth Hägg 1980, 1983, 1998, broadly followed by Pappi 2014, 172–81 (with an unnecessary emphasis on kinship as a structuring principle of society). 30 Dickey 1992, 136–7. 31 Hall 1997, 126. 32 Duplouy 2006, 2017; Fisher and van Wees (eds) 2015. There is, most unfortunately, a recent revival of old kinship theories for Athenian society: Alexandridou 2016, esp. 354–5; Dmitriev 2018; see however Humphreys 2018, 319–60. 33 Whitley 2010, 182. 34 Dickey 1992, 3, 105–8. The idea is still accepted by Christesen (2018, 352) and tentatively applied to Sparta, referring to ‘an unusually high level of state control’. 35 Dickey 1992, 139–40. 36 Blok 2006. 37 Coldstream 1977; Snodgrass 1980, 52–8. 38 Polignac 1996. 39 According to van Wees (2018a; 2018b) the Spartan shift towards austerity is not to be dated earlier than 515–510. 40 Foley 1988, 34–52; 1998. 41 Hall 1997, 122–8. 42 Luce 2011. 43 Cannon 1989. 44 Morris 1987. 45 Morris 1987, 183–7. 46 Dickey 1992, 137–8. 47 Among others, Hammer 2004 and Kistler 2004 have been very critical of Morris’ de-contextualised reading of Archaic texts and material culture. 48 On the main trends in definitions of Archaic Greek citizenship, Duplouy and Brock (eds) 2018. 49 For a full description of the behavioural approach, Duplouy 2018. On performative citizenship beyond ancient Greece, Isin 2017. 50 From the monumental Staatsrecht of nineteenth-century German historians to the research and publications of the Copenhagen Polis Centre. 51 On the various meanings of the word politeia, Bordes 1982. 52 Bourdieu 1977, 72; 1990, 53. See also Duplouy 2014, 657. 53 I follow here the distinction between ‘ranked’ and ‘stratified’ societies, applied to the Cretan cities by Whitley 2010. 29
Bibliography Alexandridou A. 2016 ‘Funerary variability in late eighth-century bce Attica (Late Geometric II)’, AJA 120, 333–60. Ampolo, C. 1984a ‘Il lusso funerario e la città arcaica’, AION 6, 71–102. 1984b ‘Il lusso nelle società archaiche. Note preliminari sulla posizione del problema’, Opus 3, 469–75. Barakari-Gleni K. 1998 ‘Οι νεκροπόλεις των αρχαϊκών και κλασικών χρόνων στην αρχαία πόλη του
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Alain Duplouy Άργους’, in Ε’ Διεθνές Συνέδριο Πελοποννησιακών Σπουδών, Τόμος B’. Πρακτικά, Athens, 509–33.
Barakari-Gleni, K. and Pariente, A. 1998 ‘Argos du VIIe au IIe s. av. J.-C.: synthèse des données archéologiques’, in Pariente and Touchais (eds) 1998, 165–78. Bernhardt, R. 2003 Luxuskritik und Aufwandsbeschränkungen in der griechischen Welt, Stuttgart. Blegen, C.W., Palmer, H. and Young, R.S. 1964 Corinth XIII. The North Cemetery, Princeton. Blok, J.H. 2006 ‘Solon’s funerary laws: questions of authenticity and function’, in J.H. Blok and A.P.M.H. Lardinois (eds) Solon of Athens. New historical and philological approaches, Leiden, 197–247. Bordes, J. 1982 Politeia dans la pensée grecque jusqu’à Aristote, Paris. Bourdieu, P. 1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge; translation of Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique, précédé de trois études d’ethnologie kabyle, Paris 1972. 1990 The Logic of Practice, Stanford; translation of Le sens pratique, Paris 1980. Cannon, A. 1989 ‘The historical dimension in mortuary expressions of status and sentiment’, Current Anthropolog y 30, 437–58. Christesen, P. 2018 ‘The typology and topography of Spartan burials from the Protogeometric to the Hellenistic period: rethinking Spartan exceptionalism and the ostensible cessation of adult intramural burials in the Greek world’, ABSA 113, 307–63. Coldstream, J.N. 1977 Geometric Greece, 900–700 bc, London. Courbin, P. 1957 ‘Une tombe géométrique d’Argos’, BCH 81, 322–86. 1974 Tombes géométriques d’Argos I (1952–1958), Paris. Cozzoli, U. 1980 ‘La τρυφή nella interpretazione delle crisi politiche”, in Tra Atene e Roma. Temi antichi e metodologie moderne, Rome, 133–46. Dickey, K. 1992 ‘Corinthian Burial Customs, ca. 1100 to 550 bc’, Diss. Bryn Mawr. Dimakis, N. 2016 Social Identity and Status in the Classical and Hellenistic Northern Peloponnese: The evidence from burials, Oxford. Dmitriev, S. 2018 The Birth of the Athenian Community: From Solon to Cleisthenes, New York. Dubois-Pelerin, E. 2016 ‘Luxe privé/faste public: le thème de l’aedificatio du IIe siècle av. J.-C. au début de l’Empire’, MEFRA 128, 77–95.
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth Duplouy, A. 2006 Le prestige des élites. Recherches sur les modes de reconnaissance sociale en Grèce entre le X e et le V e siècle avant J.-C., Paris. 2013 ‘Les Mille de Colophon. “Totalité symbolique” d’une cité d’Ionie (vie –iie s. av. J.–C.)’, Historia 62, 146–66. 2014 ‘Les prétendues classes censitaires soloniennes. À propos de la citoyenneté athénienne archaïque’, Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales 69, 629–58. Translated as ‘The so-called Solonian property classes: on citizenship in archaic Athens’ for the online English edition of the journal, vol. 69, 409-39. 2017 ‘L’invention de la famille grecque’, Pallas (hors série), 29–47. 2018 ‘Citizenship as performance’, in Duplouy and Brock (eds) 2018, 249–74. 2019 Construire la cité. Essai de sociologie historique sur les communautés de l’archaïsme grec, Paris. Duplouy, A. and Brock, R. (eds) 2018 Defining Citizenship in Archaic Greece, Oxford. Farnham, S. 2016 ‘Pollution and purity in the Argolid and Corinthia during the Early Iron Age: the burials’, in A. Dakouri-Hild and M.J. Boyd (eds) Staging Death: Funerary Performance, Architecture and Landscape in the Aegean, Berlin and Boston, 361–88. Fisher, N. and van Wees, H. (eds) 2015 ‘Aristocracy’ in Antiquity: Redefining Greek and Roman elites, Swansea. Foley, A. 1988 The Argolid 800–600 bc: An archaeological survey, Goteborg. 1998 ‘Ethnicity and the topography of burial practices in the Geometric period’, in Pariente and Touchais (eds) 1998, 137–44. Giannopoulou, A., Evangeloglou, V., Marangoudaki, E. and Pipilou, C. 2013 ‘Αρχαϊκό νεκροταφείο στην Αρχαία Κόρινθο’, in K. Kissas and W.-D. Niemeier (eds) The Corinthia and the Northeast Peloponnese, Munich, 91–7. Gorman, R.J. and Gorman, V. 2007 ‘The tryphê of the Sybarites: a historiographical problem in Athenaeus’, JHS 127, 38–60. 2014 Corrupting Luxury in Ancient Greek Literature, Ann Arbor. Hägg, R. 1974 Die Gräber der Argolis in submykenischer, protogeometrischer und geometrischer Zeit. 1. Lage und Form der Gräber, Uppsala. 1980 ‘Some aspects of the burial customs of the Argolid in the Dark Ages’, Athens Annals of Archaeolog y 13, 119–26. 1983 ‘Burial customs and social differentiation in 8th-c. Argos’, in R. Hägg (ed.) The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century, Stockholm, 27–31. 1998 ‘Argos and its neighbours: regional variations in the burial practices in the Protogeometric and Geometric periods’, in Pariente and Touchais (eds) 1998, 131–5. Hall, J. 1997 Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge.
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Alain Duplouy Hammer, D. 2004 ‘Ideology, the symposium and Archaic politics’, American Journal of Philolog y 125, 479–512. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London. Humphreys, S.C. 2018 Kinship in Ancient Athens: An anthropological analysis, Oxford. Isin, E.F. 2017 ‘Performative citizenship’, in A. Shachar, R. Bauböck, I. Bloemraad and M. Vink (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship, Oxford, 500–23. Kistler, E. 2004 ‘Kampf der Mentalitäten: Ian Morris’ “elitist” versus “middling– ideology”?’, in R. Rollinger and C. Ulf (eds) Griechische Archaik: interne Entwicklungen, externe Impulse, Berlin, 145–75. Kokkorou-Alevras, G. 2011 ‘Funerary statuary of the Archaic period in the Peloponnese’, in H. Cavanagh, W. Cavanagh and J. Roy (eds) Honouring the Dead in the Peloponnese, CSPS Online Publication 2, 269–88. Kurke, L. 1992 ‘The politics of ἁβροσύνη in Archaic Greece’, Classical Antiquity 11, 91–120. Kurtz, D. and Boardman, J. 1971 Greek Burial Customs, London. Lapatin, K. 2015 Luxus: The sumptuous arts of Greece and Rome, Los Angeles. Lombardo, M. 1983 ‘Habrosyne e habra nel mondo greco arcaico’, in Modes de contacts et processus de transformation dans les sociétés anciennes / Forme di contatto e processi di trasformazione nelle società antiche, Pisa and Rome, 1077–103. Luce, J.–M. 2011 ‘Iron Age burial customs in the Peloponnese and their place in the funerary geography of the Greek world’, in H. Cavanagh, W. Cavanagh and J. Roy (eds) Honouring the Dead in the Peloponnese, CSPS Online Publication 2, 415–26. Marchetti, P. 2013 ‘Argos: la ville en ses remparts’, in D. Mulliez (ed.) Sur les pas de Wilhelm Vollgraff. Cent ans d’activités archéologiques à Argos, Athens, 315–34. Mazzarino, S. 1947 Fra Oriente e Occidente: ricerche di storia greca arcaica, Florence. Morgan, C. 1999 Isthmia VIII. The Late Bronze Age Settlement and Early Iron Age Sanctuary, Princeton. Morris, I. 1987 Burial and Ancient Society. The Rise of the Greek City-State, Cambridge. Nenci, G. 1983 ‘Truphè e colonizzazione’, in Modes de contacts et processus de transformation
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Funerary luxury and austerity in pre-classical Argos and Corinth dans les sociétés anciennes / Forme di contatto e processi di trasformazione nelle società antiche, Pisa and Rome, 1019–31. Pappi, E. 2014 Ταφικές Πρακτικές της Γεωμετρικής Εποχής στο Ἀργος, Diss. Athens. Pariente, A. and Touchais, G. (eds) 1998 Argos et l’Argolide. Topographie et urbanisme, Athens. Passerini, A. 1934 ‘La tryphè nella storiografia ellenistica’, SIFC 11, 35–56. Pfaff, C. 2007 ‘Geometric graves in the Panagia field at Corinth’, Hesperia 76, 443–537. Polignac, F. de 1996 ‘Entre les dieux et les morts. Statut individuel et rites collectifs dans la cité archaïque’, in R. Hägg (ed.) The Role of Religion in the Early Greek Polis, Stockholm, 31–40. Sanders, G.D.R., James, S.A., Tzonou–Herbst, I. and Herbst, J. 2014 ‘The Panayia field excavations at Corinth: The Neolithic to Hellenistic phases’, Hesperia 83, 1–79. Schepens, G. 2007 ‘Les fragments de Phylarque chez Athénée’, in D. Lenfant (ed.) Athénée et les fragments d’historiens, Paris, 239–61. Slane, K.W. 2017 Corinth XXI. Tombs, Burials, and Commemoration in Corinth’s Northern Cemetery, Princeton. Snodgrass, A. 1980 Archaic Greece: The age of experiment, London. Tandy, D.W. 1997 Warriors into Traders. The power of the market in early Greece, Berkeley. Touchais, G. and Divari-Valakou, N. 1998 ‘Argos du néolithique à l’époque géométrique: synthèse des données archéologiques’, in Pariente and Touchais (eds) 1998, 9–21. van Wees, H. 2018a ‘Luxury, austerity and equality in Sparta’, in A. Powell (ed.) A Companion to Sparta, vol. I, Hoboken, NJ, 202–35. 2018b ‘Luxury, austerity and equality in Archaic Greece’, in W. Riess (ed.) Colloquia Attica. Neuere Forschungen zur Archaik, zum athenischen Recht und zur Magie, Stuttgart, 97–121. Veblen, T. 1899 The Theory of the Leisure Class: An economic study of institutions, New York. Vlachou, V. 2012 ‘Death and burial’, ThesCRA VIII, Los Angeles, 363–84. Whitley, J. 2010 ‘Crete in the seventh century’, in R. Etienne (ed.) La Méditerranée au VII e s. av. J–C.: Essais d’analyses archéologiques, Paris, 170–82.
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9 WOMEN IN GOLD: LUXURIOUS OBJECTS, EXCELLENCE AND PRESTIGE IN THE PELOPONNESE Elena Franchi Argive women: no longer wearing gold According to Herodotus (1.82), when the Persians besieged the Lydians in the mid-sixth century bc, Croesus asked the Spartans for help; the latter were at war with the Argives over an area called Thyrea, in Cynuria, in the south-eastern Peloponnese. Herodotus begins an excursus on this local war. Thyrea was part of Argolis and had been occupied by the Spartans. The enemies agreed to arrange a fight between 300 champions from each army and to allocate the disputed land to the winning side. It was also agreed that both armies would return home before the contest, to ensure that they were not tempted to help their respective champions if they saw them in trouble. Only three soldiers survived the battle: the Argives Alcenor and Chromius, and the Spartan Othryades. The two Argives ran home to announce their victory, while the Spartan champion stayed on the battlefield to collect spoils from the dead enemies, convinced that victory belonged not to the side with more survivors, but to the one that had not abandoned its post. And so both Sparta and Argos claimed victory, and the contest escalated into a fight between the two armies. After heavy losses on both sides, Sparta prevailed. The only survivor of the 300 Spartan champions, ashamed that he had not died in combat, took his own life. Herodotus also describes the aftermath of this battle, my main focus here. He refers to a change in the social practices of both Sparta and Argos. The Argives, whose custom had always been to grow their hair long, shaved their heads and passed a law, which included a curse on any Argive who allowed his hair to grow before the recovery of Thyrea. The Spartans, for their part, passed a law that required hair not to be cut. Women, too, had to change their customs, at least in Argos: from then on, they were not allowed to wear gold jewellery (μηδὲ τὰς γυναῖκάς σφι χρυσοφορήσειν).
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Elena Franchi This paper investigates the prohibition on wearing gold in the tale of the Battle of the Champions. According to the traditional interpretation, this prohibition was a mourning ritual or, more generally, a restriction on luxury goods. My paper shifts the focus to what this interpretation implies. Indeed, the restrictions on luxury involve a limitation on displaying the prestige generated by prowess in war and a particular lifestyle combining wealth and excellence. Prohibition on wearing gold and growing one’s hair Unlike the hairstyles of Argive men, the prohibition on Argive women wearing gold after the Battle of the Champions has received scant attention. Stressing the symmetrical opposition in Herodotus’ passage between cutting hair and wearing gold, scholars have emphasized these customs as mourning rituals and/or restrictions on luxury:1 by cutting their hair and no longer wearing gold, the Argives intended to honour their fallen soldiers and/or to instil virtues of self-restraint. As such, the (alleged) restrictions on luxury after the Battle of the Champions were connected to the restriction of a (perhaps elitist) cultivation of luxury-displaying excellence in the context of funerals.2 I argue that this is certainly the case, but that it could also have wider implications. It is important to stress that I do not intend to challenge the more general link between funerals and restrictions on luxury. If anything, it is precisely because funerals ‘provided a perfect showcase for the display of family wealth, power and prestige’3 that I find it useful to explore these implications. The existence of laws restricting luxury during funerals is welldocumented. Such restrictions are usually connected with a more general trend, the enactment of sumptuary laws restricting the display of luxury and wealth.4 In this framework, wearing gold was a common practice for wealthy women who wished to display luxury,5 and was therefore restricted,6 from the seventh century onwards, especially in sanctuaries, during ritual.7 Plutarch (Sol. 12.4–5) reports that when the Athenians were in trouble they summoned the wise man Epimenides of Phaestus to their aid. Epimenides befriended Solon and paved the way for his legislation, by making the Athenians milder in their rites of mourning and by taking away the harsh and barbaric practices in which their women had usually indulged up to that time. Cicero (de leg. 2.64) also mentions Athenian funeral reforms during this period (his source is Demetrius of Phalerum [fr. 135 Wehrli = FGrHist / BNJ 228 F 9]): according to him, Solon abolished extravagant expenditure in mourning; women were not allowed to tear their cheeks, or have a lessus (‘funeral lamentation’?).8 The behaviour of women and/or restrictions on clothing
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Women in gold and ornaments is also addressed in funerary laws from Iulis on Keos (425–400 bc)9 and in the regulation of the Labyadai at Delphi (400–350 bc):10 in both regulations the clothing of the deceased is mentioned.11 In the Gortyn code, restrictions concerning gifts are established;12 while the laws of Gambreion,13 in Asia Minor, usually dated to the third century, also regulated what women [and girls?] in mourning should wear, specifying that their garments be clean and grey.14 One may object that none of these laws explicitly mentions a prohibition on wearing gold for the women attending the ritual, since the only gold objects mentioned are those buried with the deceased, not those worn by people (let alone women) attending the funeral.15 However, this objection fails in four ways. Firstly, it seems misleading to adopt a purely nominalistic stance on this issue: one cannot exclude the possibility that expressions such as Demetrius’ ‘sumptuosa funera’ refer to women wearing gold. Secondly, the luxurious objects worn by the deceased were themselves to some extent a form of luxury display. Thirdly, even if the literary evidence seems unspecific, both the iconographical and archaeological records testify more generally to various periods of restraint in luxurious displays, in the Peloponnese and throughout Greece, which also involved gold objects.16 Finally, and consequently, one cannot exclude a priori that the prohibition on Argive women wearing gold may refer not to sumptuary laws in the specific context of funerary rituals, but to more general sumptuary laws restricting the display of gold objects; and that the question of Argive women is, in any case, related to the theme of restrictions on luxury, regardless of any relation to a funerary context.17 Either way, however, its meanings seem to have wider implications which can be further investigated. Let us start by examining the narrative context of our ‘wearing gold’ more closely. In the tale of the Battle of the Champions, the prohibition on wearing gold is related to the prohibition on growing hair. There are other cases, not exactly parallel but somehow related to ours: in these cases, a connection is drawn between the prohibition on wearing gold and the prohibition on letting long hair loose. A law dating back to the third century bc, which regulated entrance to the temple of Demeter at Lycosura, forbade entrance to anyone wearing a gold object, unless that object was intended as an offering, and forbade women to braid or cover their hair.18 Similarly, the famous inscription from Andania in Messenia, regulating the mysteries held there (91 bc), forbade women to wear gold jewellery or hair ribbons, or braid their hair.19 The literary evidence also shows this link between gold objects and long hair or ornaments to tie hair up, and it allows us to trace this connection back to the Archaic period. Asius (T 3 GP =
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Elena Franchi Athen. 12.525F) shows us a celebration of Samian nobles, whose (long) hair is held up by golden brooches, at Hera’s festival.20 Phylarchus (FGrH / BNJ 81 F66, perhaps relying on Xenophanes, fr. 3 D–K),21 states that the Colophonians, after they had established an alliance with the Lydians, used to adorn their hair with gold jewellery.22 Regardless of the specific meaning in each source of the Greek terms κομᾶν and χρυσοφορεῖν – used, respectively, to signify wearing long hair and wearing gold – or the historical context in which they were used (although the meaning they bore in a specific context will prove very fruitful), it seems clear that, in these passages, hairstyles and wearing gold are related and carry the same implication (whatever it might have been). I wonder whether this function was not sometimes used to express an opposition between wearing long (loose) hair and gold, on the one hand, and short hair (or prohibitions against allowing long hair to flow loose) and a prohibition on wearing gold, on the other: a pair-opposition system that could take on different meanings. What meaning did it bear in the Herodotean narrative of the Battle of the Champions? As mentioned above, the cutting of hair after the battle has been interpreted as a mourning ritual, and it is true that the later sources on this phenomenon clearly state that it occurred ἐπὶ πένθει (‘as a sign of mourning’).23 Herodotus himself states that everyone except the Egyptians used to cut their hair as a sign of mourning (2.36.3). However, the case of the Argives after the Battle of the Champions seems to be more complex and have specific implications. Herodotus clearly states that the Argives could not let their hair grow ‘before the recovery of Thyrea’ (πρὶν Θυρέας ἀνασώσωνται) – as if reconquest would mean they could grow their hair again. Moreover, one of the oldest sources on the Battle of the Champions (Plato, Phaed. 89b–c) refers to the Argive haircutting not so much as a mourning ritual, but as a sign of sorrow following defeat and a commitment to revenge this defeat (and regain the lost land). Indeed, in Socrates’ reasoning, the Argives’ defeat and haircutting is referred to in a figure of speech describing defeat in an argument: If I were you and the argument escaped me, I would take an oath, like the Argives, not to let my hair grow until I had renewed the fight and won a victory (πρὶν ἂν νικήσω ἀναμαχόμενος) over the argument (λόγον) of Simmias and Cebes [Phaed. 89c].24
Here the military defeat and the sorrow that follows in the defeated community function as symbol of the failure of an argument.25 As I have argued elsewhere, Herodotus’ account of this battle merges different oral traditions.26 Since hairstyle plays a specific role in Spartan
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Women in gold society, we can assume that it is part of a Spartan oral tale. A number of sources attest the Spartan custom of adults wearing their hair long, while adolescents wore it short:27 in late-sixth-century Sparta and afterwards, growing your hair long was simply a mark of adulthood for the elite status shared by all Spartiates.28 The cutting of the Argives’ hair after the Battle of the Champions is actually part of a social practice, attested in the sixth century, aimed at distinguishing between social – and, in certain cases, age – groups: in the Spartan imaginary long hair distinguishes the adult male from the adolescent, women, and slaves.29 Imagining their own ancestors with long hair, from the time of their victory in the battle, the Spartans represented them as male, adult, victorious, in contrast with the defeated, short-haired Argives who are depicted as non-adults, and equated with adolescents, or women. Hair length works here as a strategic discourse representing the victors and the vanquished.30 While there is ample independent evidence of Spartan hairstyles, there is almost nothing regarding Argos:31 In the tale the haircutting of the Argives seems therefore to be a symmetrical counterpart, a discursive device. This opposition and its meaning would also have been familiar to a non-Spartan audience,32 and to Herodotus, who creatively reworks it in his account, in turn transmitting and slightly reshaping the memory of the role of hairstyles in the (oral or semi-oral) Spartan account of the battle. The growing of the Spartiates’ hair hence becomes a symbol of prestige to non-Spartan audiences (and the prohibition on growing it a restriction on the display of a prestige related to victory in war), and works as such in Herodotus’ narrative. One wonders whether the prohibition on the Argive women’s wearing of gold similarly functioned as a discursive counterpart. Was the prohibition on χρυσοφορεῖν intended to signify the Argives’ defeat and their commitment to revenge it and regain their lost land, and, as such, a restriction on the display of a special kind of prestige, a prestige connected with both wealth and excellence, one connected with prowess in war? We must now explore in greater depth the other contexts in which wearing gold and, more generally, phrases such as ‘to bear’ or ‘to wear’ gold/luxurious objects are used. Wearing gold in Greek (and Roman) imaginary If we limit ourselves to exploring the contexts in which wearing gold appears, we find a contradictory, highly problematic framework. In the literary evidence, the contrast between wearing gold and its prohibition often seems to mirror the contrast between a frugal, pious life versus a hybristic, impious life, or, sometimes, between Greeks and non-Greeks.33 It therefore seems to be useless with regard to our tale of the Battle of
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Elena Franchi the Champions. In contrast, the epigraphic evidence, which adds to the picture and sets wearing gold in a more complex framework, is late and, what is more, refers to completely different contexts. We will start by briefly analysing the late, epigraphic evidence to highlight discontinuities and thus bring into focus the archaic meanings of chrysophorein beyond (the limit of) its archaic occurrences. Like the aforementioned law regulating entrance to the temple of Demeter at Lycosura and the famous Messenian inscription regulating the mysteries in Andania, a law regulating the cult of Demeter near Dyme also restricts the wearing of gold in ritual contexts,34 stating that ‘women may not have gold weighing more than one obol, nor wear a brightly coloured or purple garment.’35 Here wearing gold seems to relate to women. There is, however, further epigraphic evidence pointing to the right to wear gold. In his examination of the well-known inscription from Messene on land tax, which mentions the award of χρυσοφορία to a local citizen (IG V 1.1432), Adolf Wilhelm compiled further attestations from the Hellenistic and Roman periods and concluded that χρυσοφορία indicated the wearing of gold ornaments in honour of a god and was an exclusive right of cult officials.36 The epigraphic evidence also yields examples of the χρυσοφορία in a more secular form, referring to the expression of honour and dignity bestowed on outstanding citizens (cf. Artem. 2.9). The so-called χρυσοφορία appears as a civic honour in inscriptions from several cities in Greece (e.g. Athens, Argos) and Asia Minor (e.g. Tralles) from both the Hellenistic and Roman periods.37 As Annika Kuhn observes, the most widespread meanings seem to be: 1) connected with women, who were prohibited from wearing gold in ritual (but not funeral) contexts; 2) wearing gold ornaments in honour of a god as an exclusive right of cult officials; 3) an expression of honour and dignity bestowed on outstanding citizens who often served also as ago¯nothete¯s.38 In other words, the epigraphic evidence takes us far from the use of chrysophorein in the tale of the Battle of the Champions. Here women, honour and prestige seem to play a role, but with a different set of values. The key to shed light on the relevant set of values lies with Herodotus himself, in another passage where he deals with the Agathyrsi. Wealth, excellence and merit in war According to Herodotus (4.104), the Agathyrsi, a neighbouring people to the Scythians, were ἁβρότατοι ἀνδρῶν and χρυσοφόροι τὰ μάλιστα (‘especially given to wearing gold’). The wearing of gold by the Agathyrsi is somehow connected to their habrosyne¯, a special kind of ‘luxurious’ lifestyle which is very difficult to translate.39 In this passage, ἁβρότατοι ἀνδρῶν
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Women in gold is often translated as ‘the most refined of men’, but this underplays the not completely positive undertone implied by the words immediately following in the Herodotean account: Their intercourse with women is promiscuous, so that they may be consanguine with one another and, all being relations, not harbour jealousy or animosity toward one another. In the rest of their customs they are like the Thracians. (trans. by A.D. Godley, Loeb edition, 1920)
The close connection between χρυσοφόροι and ἁβρότατοι in Herodotus’ passage on the Agathyrisi is also found in the other two occurrences of the root habr* in Herodotus, although more indirectly: the connection between habrosye¯ and gold becomes a medium to express sovereignty).40 An explicit connection is also found in Thucydides (1.6.3–4).41 All this leads us to investigate further the use of wearing gold in the tale of the Battle of the Champions. If the chrysophorein of Argive women is related to habrosyne¯ – which seems likely, as we shall see – we need to further investigate the latter. Scholars have shown how the words ἁβρός, ἁβρότης and ἁβροσύνη, which never occur in Homer and only once in Hesiod (fr. 339 M–W, but Meineke doubted that this was genuinely Hesiodic) are prominent in Greek lyric poetry of the archaic period.42 In brief, ἁβροσύνη identifies a style of life consciously embraced first by the East Greeks, who adopted it from their Oriental neighbours (especially the Lydians), and then also in mainland Greece, as ‘a form of differentiation and self-definition’.43 It entails wearing long flowing garments of expensive material (Xenoph. fr. 3 D–K; Thuc. 1.6.3–5), perfumes and scented oils (Sem. fr. 7 W, l. 57ff; and Xenoph.), engaging in wine and song (Anacr. fr. 28/373 PMG, ll. 2-3), practising a certain sensuality (Sapph. fr. 58 L-P. ll. 25–26), and, most importantly, wearing gold ornaments (Thuc.) and long hair, elaborately coiffured (Xenoph., Sem., Thuc.).44 This special kind of luxury is also represented on the so-called ‘Anacreontic vases’ (530–470 bc).45 There is often a strong connection between ἁβροσύνη and women.46 Moreover, it is important to stress that, aside from Xenophanes and Semonides, ἁβροσύνη has a positive meaning in the sources of the seventh and sixth centuries. Only afterwards, from the end of the sixth century, did it progressively become ‘a dirty word’,47 referring to wealth no longer combined with excellence and, therefore, useless, since it did not benefit the whole community (cf. Thucydides): a wealth that marked those displaying it as effeminate and as weak as the Persians (cf. Aeschyl. Pers.135, 541, 543, 1073). It is important to recall Mario Lombardo’s observation that the transition from positive to negative meaning not only had a chronological, but also a regional dimension.48
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Elena Franchi A notable exception to this trend is Pindar, who in the fifth century still uses ἁβρός with a positive meaning. Aside from Pythian 11.34 and Nemean 5.26,49 Pindar designates as ἁβρός a special kind of prestige expenditure. In Pythian 3.110-111 luxurious wealth (πλοῦτον…ἁβρὸν) is represented as a highly desired gift by the gods and provides the possibility of finding lofty ‘fame’ (κλέος ὑψηλὸν). εἰ δέ μοι πλοῦτον θεὸς ἁβρὸν ὀρέξαι, ἐλπίδ᾽ ἔχω κλέος εὑρέσθαι κεν ὑψηλὸν πρόσω.
And if a god should grant me luxurious wealth, I hope that I may win lofty fame hereafter. (trans. by W.H. Race, Loeb edition, 1997, here and in the following, unless otherwise indicated)
Wealth is given by the gods and has to be used to find kleos. Similarly, in Pythian 8.88–92 habrosyne¯ is a special kind of luxury which goes beyond mere wealth (κρέσσονα πλούτου μέριμναν) and supports the athlete in performing new deeds. ὁ δὲ καλόν τι νέον λαχὼν ἁβρότατος ἔπι μεγάλας ἐξ ἐλπίδος πέταται ὑποπτέροις ἀνορέαις, ἔχων κρέσσονα πλούτου μέριμναν.
But he who has been allotted a new success is inspired by hope at his great splendor and takes flight on the wings of manly deeds, having aspirations superior to wealth
This wealth combined with excellence gives honour (τιμὰ) to those whose deeds are exalted by a post-mortem legacy defined as ἁβρόν;50 in the seventh Nemean ode for the Peloponnesian Sogenes of Aegina, winner of the Nemean games, we read: τιμὰ δὲ γίνεται ὧν θεὸς ἁβρὸν αὔξει λόγον τεθνακότων (N.7.31–32)
yet honor belongs to those whose fair story a god exalts after they die
This kind of habrosyne¯ is positive because it supports an excellent result which benefits ‘the whole civic community by contributing to its prestige and power’.51 In Olympian 5.7–8, the victor dedicates (ἀνέθηκε) not only the victory but also the luxurious ‘fame’52 (κῦδος ἁβρόν) of his victory to his city
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Women in gold τὶν δὲ κῦδος ἁβρόν νικάσαις ἀνέθηκε, καὶ ὃν πατέρ᾽ Ἄκρων᾽ ἐκάρυξε καὶ τὰν νέοικον ἕδραν.
By winning, he has dedicated luxurious glory to you and proclaimed his father Acron and your newly founded home.
Athletic victory is not the only way to share individual κῦδος ἁβρόν with the victor’s city. War is put on a par with contests in Isthmian 1.50–51,53 where the κῦδος ἁβρόν is cited again.54 ὃς δ᾽ ἀμφ᾽ ἀέθλοις ἢ πολεμίζων ἄρηται κῦδος ἁβρόν, εὐαγορηθεὶς κέρδος ὕψιστον δέκεται, πολιατᾶν καὶ ξένων γλώσσας ἄωτον.
But he who wins luxurious glory in games or as a soldier by being praised gains the highest profit, the finest words from tongues of citizens and foreigners.
It is not only that outstanding behaviour in war and victory in games are both the result of habrosyne¯ , i.e. of a lifestyle combining wealth and excellence;55 they also facilitate habrosyne¯ . Indeed, they bestow τιμὰ (N. 7.31), κλέος ὑψηλὸν (P. 3.110–111) and κῦδος (Isthm. 1.50; Ol. 5.7–8) which are defined as habron. Moreover, these are not only individual attributes; they benefit the whole community from which the victor comes (Ol. 5.7–8). Given that Pindar’s audience is both the elite and the broader civic community,56 we may conclude that both share the athletes’/warriors’ habrosyne¯ . Moreover, the cultivation of habrosyne¯ is connected with gold (thus often entailing chrysophorein), since the specific moral discourse on habrosyne¯ was shaped using imagery from metallurgy.57 As Leslie Kurke showed, the language of metals provides the medium through which the noble self and its proper relations are articulated.58 We are not in a position to say (and we leave it to others to determine) whether we can also eschew an elitist perspective and describe this connection in relation not to the nobleman but to the citizen: habrosyne¯ as a ‘mode de vie civique’, to take up Alain Duplouy’s stimulating reflections.59 πρὶν Θυρέας ἀνασώσωνται:
‘until they recovered Thyrea’ In Herodotus’ tale of the Battle of the Champions, the consequence of the Argives’ defeat is a change of a social custom involving gold objects; one of the focuses of the tale is thus what Jane Bennett has called ‘attentiveness to things’.60 Objects are entangled with the human world and can even become ‘metapoietic objects’, when set within a narrative, acting as elements over which an author displays his creative power by making and unmaking objects at will,61 by giving them a specific meaning and function,62 or by giving a specific meaning to the permission for or prohibition against their use.
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Elena Franchi In ancient Greek tales, the display of the narrative power of objects, and thus permission/prohibition to wear them, is sometimes entrusted to women. This is evidenced in a well-known passage of Herodotus, which similarly involves a post-war change in the social use of objects. Herodotus (5.84–8) reports that when the Athenians were about to make war on the Aeginetans, the Argives came to the latter’s aid and together they defeated the aggressors. When the sole survivor of this disastrous military expedition returned to Athens with the bad news, the wives of the other – now dead – soldiers, filled with grief and anger that he alone had escaped, killed him with their dress pins. The horrified Athenians reacted by making their women adopt Ionian dress, which did not require pins. Conversely, the Argives and Aeginetans passed a law that pins should be made longer than before, because of the feud with the Athenians (88.1).63 The women of the losers were forbidden to use dress pins, the women of the winners were allowed to use longer ones than before. It is the women who perform a manipulation of objects as result of the victory/defeat of the community as a whole; in turn, the objects they use are symbolically significant for the community in its entirety. In light of this, it seems likely that, in the archaic tradition on the Battle of the Champions collected by Herodotus, the prohibition on Argive women wearing gold pertains to the community as a whole.64 And what does it mean? It seems to me that two facts need to be considered. The first is that, in the case of the Battle of the Champions, Herodotus preserves one or more archaic traditions that date back to before the Persian war. The second is that the tale has strong agonistic features: the battle is represented as a contest (ἀγὼν: he uses the verb ἀγωνίζομαι and the adjective ἰσοπάλης).65 I would therefore like to suggest that, in the archaic traditions on the Battle of the Champions reused by Herodotus, chrysophorein – applied not to the Scythians, Ionians or Asians in general, but to a population believed to be non-Ionian and living in mainland Greece – is related to habrosyne¯ and, more precisely, to its archaic positive meaning.66 This archaic meaning is more appropriate because the context is agonistic: the Battle of the Champions is represented as an agon in which one competes for excellence – as Pindar’s athletes do: for the kudos habron, which benefits the whole community.67 For this reason, I suggest that the prohibition on wearing gold for Argive women was not only an actual mourning ritual for the fallen, but also a mourning ritual for the calamity that had befallen the whole community. The calamity was a consequence of military defeat and was displayed as a prohibition on practising habrosyne¯ : on wearing gold and long hair.68 Defeat is related to mourning but also to a lack of wealth-cum-excellence
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Women in gold (hhabrosyne¯ ) since the vanquished could not display the luxury implied by habrosyne¯ : Argive women cannot wear gold. For the same reason, Argive men were not allowed to grow their hair. Any display of luxurious excellence was prohibited until they had recovered Thyrea, πρὶν Θυρέας ἀνασώσωνται. Acknowledgements I express my deepest gratitude to Chrysanthi Gallou, William Cavanagh, Stephen Hodkinson and the anonymous referee for their precious remarks. Special acknowledgement is due to Stephen Hodkinson for carefully guiding me through the final stages of revision. Needless to say, I am responsible for any remaining errors. Abbreviations BNJ = Brill’s New Jacoby, https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/bnjo/ CEG = P.A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculorum VIII–V a. Chr. n., Berlin-New York, 1983. CID = Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes, Paris, 1977–. CIG = Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, I–IV, Berlin, 1828-1877. CGRN = Collection of Greek Ritual Norms, http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be FGrHist = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin, 1923–. I.Arykanda = S. Sahin, Die Inschriften von Arykanda (IGSK 48), Bonn, 1994. I.Tralles = F. B. Poljakov, Die Inschriften von Tralleis und Nysa. Band 1: Die Inschriften von Tralleis, Bonn, 1989. IC = M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Creticae, Rome, 1935–1950. IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–. LSAM = F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées de l’Asie Mineure, Paris, 1955 LSCG = F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, Paris, 1969. OCD 2 = N.G.L. Hammond and H.H. Scullard (eds) The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd edn., 1970. Martina = A. Martina, Solon: Testimonia veterum, Rome, 1968. Ruschenbusch = E. Ruschenbusch, Σόλωνος νόμοι, Stuttgart, 1966. SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923–. Notes 1 Stein (1856–61) and Legrand (1946–56) ad loc.; with reference to the specific prohibition on wearing gold: Tomlinson 1972, 88; Dillery 1996, 230 n. 40; Bernhardt 2003, 38. 2 Status quaestionis and bibliography in Bernhardt 2003, 21–2; 26–8; 69; 321ff; Fisher and van Wees 2015; more generally on problems with the term ‘aristocracy’, Giangiulio 2016. 3 Garland 1989, 2. See Hodkinson 2000, ch. 8 (esp. 289) with reference to Sparta and the Peloponnese. 4 See e.g. Mills 1984.
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Elena Franchi Aristot. Oec.2.1349a; Eur. Hec.130; Diod.13.82; Strab. 4.4.5; 11.5; 15.1.59; Herod. 4.2.3; Athen. 13, 609e–f (= Nikias BNJ 318 F 1: αἱ ἀγωνιζόμεναι γυναῖκες χρυσοφόροι ὀνομάζονται); 610a. 6 For example, Phyl. FGrHist II / BNJ 81 F 45; Diod. 12.21; Strab. 4.1.5 c181; Heracleid. Lemb. Exc. Pol. 373.13 Dilts (probably deriving from Aristotle). 7 LSCG 33; 68; SEG 36, 1221. 8 See also Cic. de leg. 2.59; 65–6, with the comment of Ampolo 1984, 90ff; Plut. Sol. 21.4; [Dem.] 43 c. Mac. 62. Sources in Ruschenbusch F 72 a–c, 109 = Martina 469, 468, 470?, 466. Cf. Blok 2006; Leão and Rhodes 2016, 120 with previous literature. 9 IG XII.5.593. See Parker 1983, 34–41, 228–9; Garland 1989, 11; Engels 1998, 11; Frisone 2000, 57–102 with apparatus and bibliography (89–90 on women). 10 CID 1.9 = CGRN 82. See Frisone 2000, 103–26 (face C); Camp et al. 1997; Rousset et al. 2015 (on the copy at Panopeus). 11 Regulations of the Labyadai: CGRN 82, side C, 19–23. 12 IC 4.72 col. III l. 37 with comment of Bruck 1926, 95; Willetts 1967, 62; Ampolo 1984, 94; Maffi 1997, 63–4; Gagarin 2012, 84. 13 CIG 3562 = LSAM 16 = CGRN 108. On women’s clothing: ll. 5–6. See Frisone 2000, 139–54 (on women: 142–4); Parker 2004; Delli Pizzi 2011; and more generally, Peels 2016. 14 Funerary restrictions are also attributed to Lycurgus at Sparta (Plut. Lyc. 27.1, cf. Inst. Lac.18); to Charondas of Catana (Stob. 44.40); to Pittacus of Mytilene (Cic. de leg. 2.66); and to an unknown lawgiver in Syracuse, where there was already a law in place prohibiting elaborate funerals at the time of Gelon’s death in 478 (Diod. 11.38.1–5). See Ampolo 1984 and Frisone 2000, esp. 21, with sources and discussion of previous bibliography. 15 E.g. in the Laws of the Twelve Tables in early Rome, where no gold is to be buried or burned, except for gold joined to teeth (10.8). 16 Kilian-Dirlmeier 1985; Strøm 1992, with comments by Polignac 1996; Duplouy 2006, 180; 253. Regarding Sparta and Laconia (where we have a different periodisation): Nafissi 1991, 338 ff.; Hodkinson 2000, 237–64; Christesen 2018; regarding Argos and the Argolid: Hägg 1983; Foley 1988, 34–52 with comment by Duplouy 2006, 253. Argive Geometric graves contain various types of jewellery, such as gold offerings, found in seven graves in the Argolid, mostly in Argos (Kelly 1977, 31; Foley 1988, 48; Louka 2011, 402–3, fig. 1; 406–7, fig. 7; gold fistulae are found only in women’s graves: Foley 1988, 36). See also Alain Duplouy, this volume. More generally, the problem with the archaeological record is that it is difficult to interpret because of the ‘archaeological invisibility’ of some behaviours (e.g. the dress of the attendees), and the necessity to interpret in a single framework all the different contexts in which luxury was displayed. 17 Against this background, it is tempting to connect the Argive women’s χρυσοφορεῖν with Hera’s punishment of the daughter of Proetus. Such a connection, however, is highly problematic. No source explicitly mentions the Proetids’ exhibition of gold and χρυσαλάκατος is a common epithet for Artemis, and, indeed, for goddesses in general. Rather, it seems likely that, at a specific point, the tale of the Battle of the Champions triggered a particular shaping of the tradition about the Proetids. 18 LSCG 68 (= IG V.2 514), esp. ll. 1–5; 9–11: Δεσποίνας/[[.........17........]]μὴ ἐξέστω/ παρέρπην ἔχοντας ἐν τὸ ἱερὸν τᾶς/Δεσποίνας μὴ χρ[υ]σία ὅσα μὴ ἰν ἀνά-/Θεμα (...) μηδὲ 5
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Women in gold See CGRN 126 with updated bibliography. 19 LSCG 65 (= IG V.1 1390 = SEG 59, 403), esp. 22: μὴ ἐχέτω δὲ μηδεμία χρυσία μηδὲ φῦκος μηδὲ ψιμίθιον μηδὲ ἀνάδεμα μηδὲ τὰς τρίχας ἀνπεπλεγμένας. See CGRN 222 with updated bibliography. 20 Cf. also Thuc. 1.6.3: at one time men wore gold pins in their hair. 21 Bernhardt (2003, 27) with status quaestionis and previous bibliography. 22 Cf. Heracl. Lemb. Exc. Pol. 373.13, probably deriving from Aristotle’s lost Constitution of the Lacedaemonians: Spartan women were not permitted to wear their hair long (κομᾶν) or to wear gold (χρυσοφορεῖν); Plut. Mor. 261F: Aristodemus, tyrant of Cumae, required boys to grow their hair and wear gold ornaments (similarly, Athen. 12.37); Athen. 12.518E: the connection between long hair and gold objects is typical for ephebes. 23 Plut. Lys. 1.2; Eusth. Comm. Hom. Il. 2.11 I 255,1 ff. van der Valk. See Franchi 2009, esp. 63 ff. 24 Translated by H.N. Fowler (Loeb 1966). 25 One might object that, in a similar case, Herodotus links haircutting to mourning: the Milesians were told to cut their hair because their allies, the Sybarites, had been defeated by the Crotoniates (6.21.5): as allies, the Milesians ‘πένθος μέγα προσεθήκαντοs’. However, one can question whether Herodotus uses πένθος to refer only to mourning (in some cases, he clearly does not: see Hdt. 3.14, where Psammenitus’ grief [πένθος] is caused by seeing the unhappiness of his companion, who has fallen from a state of abundance and prosperity into beggary). Moreover, the word πένθος had a different meaning in the local tradition Herodotus was reporting on (and further shaping), even if he more generally uses it to refer to mourning. Sorrow for a calamity (in this case, a calamity which concerns the community as a whole) is expressed also through the cutting of one’s hair in Thgn. 825–7. 26 Franchi 2009. 27 Xen. Resp. Lac. 11.3; Plut. Lyc. 16.11–12; Lys. 1; Mor. 230B. On the importance of hairstyles in Sparta, including expressing opposition, Hdt. 7.208; Arist. Rh. 1367A27–31; Plut. Lyc. 15. Cf. Franchi 2009, with other sources and bibliography. 28 van Wees (2018, 216), including commentary on Xen. Resp. Lac. 11.3 (adult Spartiates were allowed to wear long hair, in order to look taller, more free and more terrifying: see Hodkinson 2000, 42). 29 David 1992; Hodkinson 2000. 227, commenting esp. on Aristot. fr. 539 Rose; Plut. Ages. 30.3; Lyc. 16.6. 30 Cf. Franchi 2009. See also Aeschines 3.211, where the haircutting is a metaphor for the decline of the city. 31 Just Eur. Hipp. 1425 ff. and Stat.Theb.2.254 ff. cum schol.; but both refer only to women’s hairstyles. 32 As.fr.13; Thuc.1.6.3; Aristoph. Eq. 1321–34. Further sources in Franchi 2009, 75–7, and, more recently, Bershadsky 2012. 33 Hdt. 4.104; Plut. Lyc. 1.109; Diod.5.45.6; 46; Strab. 4.4.5; 15.1.54; Dio Chrys. 2.51; Athen. 12.37; Lucian. dial.mort. 14.2. 34 LSCG 33 [where the location is erroneously given as Patras] = IG 5.11390 = CGRN 127. 35 See also LSAM 16 (although the wearing of gold is not explicitly cited). On the τὰς τ[ρί]-/χας10 ἀμπεπλεγμένας, μηδὲ κεκαλυμ-/μένος.
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Elena Franchi right of χρυσοφορία see, more generally, Szanto 1899. 36 Wilhelm 1914, 36–42: CID 4.117, ll. 25–7 (= FD 3. 2.69) with comment and bibliographical notes by Kuhn 2014, 5; cf. CID 4.120, ll. 25–8 (= SEG 52.121); IG XII 4.1.328, ll. 15–18; IG XII 4.1, 320, ll. 22–4; IG II2 4193A. 37 IG IV 586; IG V 1.1432; I.Tralles 90; 134; 145; I.Arykanda 162 [=SEG 44, 1153]). 38 See esp. Cic. Verr. 2.3.185: below, n. 71. 39 See the discussions elsewhere in this volume by Paul Christesen and Alain Duplouy. 40 Hdt. 1.55, 1.71, to compare with 1.69.3-4; 6.125. See Kurke 1999, 57ff. 41 See Duplouy 2019, 238; cfr. also Lombardo 1983, 1091–1092. 42 Meineke 1843, 242. See esp. Snell 1928; Mazzarino 1947, 191–246; Verdenius 1962; Treu 1968; Lombardo 1983; Nenci 1983; Fowler 1984; Kurke 1992; Crielaard 2009; Paradiso 2012. 43 Kurke 1992, 93. 44 Kurke 1992, 96; cf. Gentili 1984, 113. 45 Beazley 1954, 56–61; Price 1990 with previous bibliography. 46 Cf. Sapph.fr.58 L–P, ll. 25–6; Sem.fr.7 W, 57–70; Lombardo 1983. 47 Kurke 1992, 98. 48 Lombardo 1983, 1080. 49 Rose 1992, 160–2; Pfeijffer 1999, 146 with further literature; Hornblower 2004, 75. 50 Farnell 1932, ad loc; Köhnken 1971, 46; Hornblower 2004, 93. 51 Kurke 1992, 112; Thomas 2007, 159. Cf. Bernardini 1983, 35–7. 52 Smith 2007, 135. Actually, κῦδος is not simply ‘fame’, but a kind of talismanic power bestowed by the gods and giving advantage in a competitive activity: Benveniste 1973, 348; Fraenkel 1950, 80. 53 On the poetic celebration of athletic victory using language similar to that used to describe war, Bowra 1964, 183–4; Bernardini 1983, 35, 98. On the relevance of arete¯ in war see Hdt. 8.26.3. 54 See Privitera 1982, ad loc. 55 Note also that an excellent winner (performing arete¯ ) avoids hybris: Pind. Ol.7. 89–94 with comments by Fisher 1992: 218; cf. Boeke 2007, 165. 56 Bernardini 1983, 85–6. 57 Athen. 13, 609e–f (= Nikias BNJ 318 F 1: αἱ ἀγωνιζόμεναι γυναῖκες χρυσοφόροι ὀνομάζονται). 58 Kurke 1999, 49. 59 Duplouy 2019, 238 ff. 60 Bennett 2010, xiv. 61 Porter 2011, 33; cf. Grethlein 2008, 35. 62 See, among others, Canevaro 2019. 63 Women killing men with pins is a topos also found in Greek tragedy. In Euripides’ Hecuba the Trojan women blind King Polymestor of Thrace with pins (1169: πόρπας; περόνη and πόρπη both mean ‘pin’, OCD 2 1132–82, s.v. fibula). Again, the context is a war (the Trojan): Polymestor is guilty of violating the laws of hospitality by killing his guest Polydorus (Hecuba’s son), who was sent (bearing gifts of gold and jewellery) to him for refuge when the war threatened Troy, and was then murdered upon Troy’s defeat. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus Oedipus blinds himself with
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Women in gold Jocasta’s dress pins (1268–70). This image of the use of pins to kill resonates in the Homeric poems, where we find that περονάω meant to pierce (περόνησε, ‘pinned him’: Il. 7.145; 13.397). 64 It has been authoritatively suggested (Bravo 2008, esp. 114–18) that a part of this Herodotean passage was not actually authored by Herodotus but added by a later interpolator in the first century ad. This interpolator would have collected one or more archaic traditions and inserted them in the text. The same hypothesis has been put forward with reference to a part of the narrative about the Battle of the Champions (1, 82, 7–8), more precisely, the part that stages the system of oppositions at the centre of our investigation. It is not necessary to go into the issue here. What is interesting for us is that ancient traditions, perceived by the ancients themselves (in the Roman period at the latest) to be akin to the Herodotean text, brought into play a precise network of meanings, and that this network of meanings seems to be consistent with the constructions of meaning dating back to the archaic and classical ages recalled in the present investigation. 65 Franchi 2016: reference is made to wrestling (πάλη) and contest (ἀγών). Even though it is true that Herodotus often used words related to ἀγών to talk about different conflicts (1.76.4; 77.5; 5.103.1; 6.45.2; 9.33.2–4, see Dayton 2006, 35; Barker 2009, 185 with n. 134, 223), the use of πάλη and ἔρις add clearer agonistic connotations to the verb ἀγωνίζω; see Soph. Ai. 1163; Thuc. 3.82.7–8, with Chantraine 1983 I–II, 17–18, 372; III–IV, 851; Barker 2009, 223–5; 303. 66 This would be fully in line with what Hans van Wees (2018, esp. 515) argues: namely that in Sparta the turn to austerity took place at the end of the sixth century; thus, I would say, when the oral tale of the Battle of the Champions had already begun to circulate). Cf. also Ma 2016, 396. 67 If the central argument of this article is correct, in the future it might be worthwhile re-examining the Battle of the Champions in the light of the dynamics generated by competition, as has been analysed in a recent volume (Meister and Seelentag 2020). 68 Cf. Thgn. 825–27: see above, n. 26.
Bibliography Ampolo, C. 1984 ‘Il lusso funerario e la città arcaica’, AION 6, 71–102. Barker, E.T.E. 2009 Entering the Agon: Dissent and authority in Homer, historiography and tragedy, Oxford. Beazley, J.D. 1954 Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Oxford. Bennett, J. 2010 Vibrant Matter: A political ecolog y of things, Durham, NC. Benveniste, E. 1973 Indo–European Language and Society, London. Bernardini, P.A. 1983 Mito e attualità nelle odi di Pindaro, Urbino.
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Elena Franchi Bernhardt, R. 2003 Luxuskritik und Aufwandbeschränkungen in der griechischen Welt, Stuttgart. Bershadsky, N. 2012 ‘The border of war and peace: myth and ritual in Argive–Spartan dispute over Thyreatis’, in J. Wilker (ed.) Maintaining Peace and Interstate Stability in Archaic and Classical Greece, Mainz, 49–77. Blok, J. 2006 ‘Solon’s funerary laws: questions of authenticity and function’, in J. Blok and A. Lardinois (eds) Solon of Athens: New historical and philological approaches, Leiden and Boston, 197–247. Boeke, H. 2007 The Value of Victory in Pindar’s Odes, Leiden and Boston. Bowra, C.M. 1964 Pindar, Oxford. Bravo, B. 2008 ‘Passi strani in Erodoto e Tucidide su cose della Grecia del VI secolo o più antiche. Autentico e non-autentico’, Palamedes 3, 93–133. Bruck, E.F. 1926 Totenteil und Seelgerät im griechischen Recht, Munich. Camp, J., Ierardi M., McInerney J., Morgan K. and Umholtz, G. 1997 ‘An Athenian dedication to Herakles at Panopeus’, Hesperia 66, 261–9. Canevaro, L.G. 2019 ‘Commemoration through objects? Homer on the limitations of material memory’, in M. Giangiulio, E. Franchi and G. Proietti (eds) Commemorating War and War Dead: Ancient and modern, Stuttgart, 95–110. Chantraine, P. 1983 Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: Histoire des mots, I–II, Paris. Christesen, P. 2018 ‘The typology and topography of Spartan burials from the Protogeometric to the Hellenistic Period: rethinking Spartan exceptionalism and the ostensible cessation of adult intramural burials in the Greek world’, ABSA 113, 307–63. Crielaard, J.P. 2009 ‘The Ionians in the archaic period: shifting identities in a changing world’, in A.M.J. Derks and N.G.A.M. Roymans (eds) Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The role of power and tradition, Amsterdam, 37–84. David, E. 1992 ‘Sparta’s social hair’, Eranos 90, 11–21. Dayton, J.C. 2006 The Athletes of War: An evaluation of the agonistic elements in Greek warfare, Toronto. Delli Pizzi, A. 2011 ‘Impiety in epigraphic evidence’, Kernos 24, 59–76. Dillery, J. 1996 ‘Reconfiguring the past: Thyrea, Thermopylae and narrative patterns in Herodotus’, AJA 117, 217–54.
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Women in gold Duplouy, A. 2006 Le prestige des élites. Recherches sur le modes de reconnaissance sociale en Grèce entre le Xe et Ve siècles avant J.–C., Paris. 2019 Construire la cité. Essai de sociologie historique sur les communautés de l’archaïsme grec, Paris. Engels, J. 1998 Funerorum sepulcrorumque magnificentia, Stuttgart. Farnell, L.R. 1932 The Works of Pindar, vol. 2, London. Fisher, N. 1992 Hybris: A study in the values of honour and shame in ancient Greece, Warminster. Fisher, N. and van Wees, H. 2015 ‘The trouble with ‘Aristocracy’, in N. Fisher and H. Van Wees (eds) ‘Aristocracy’ in Antiquity: Redefining Greek and Roman elites, Swansea, 1–57. Foley, A. 1988 The Argolid 800– 600 bc: An archaeological survey, Göteborg. Fowler, M. 1984 ‘The archaic aesthetic’, AJP 105, 119–49. Fraenkel, E. 1950 Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Oxford. Franchi, E. 2009 ‘Spartani dalle lunghe chiome e Argivi rasati. Interpretazioni iniziatiche moderne e costruzioni di senso antiche’, IncidAnt 7, 61–88. 2016 ‘Sport and war in Hellenistic Sparta’, in C. Mann, S. Remijsen and S. Scharff (eds) Athletics in the Hellenistic World, Stuttgart, 113–30. Frisone, F. 2000 Leggi e regolamenti funerari nel mondo greco, vol I: Le fonti epigrafiche, Lecce. Gagarin, M. 2012 ‘Women’s property at Gortyn’, Dike 15, 73–92. Garland, R. 1989 ‘The well-ordered corpse: an investigation into the motives behind Greek funerary legislation’, BICS 36, 1–15. Gentili, B. 1984 Poesia e pubblico nella Grecia antica, Roma and Bari. Giangiulio, M. 2016 ‘Aristocrazie in discussione: verso un nuovo modello per la società greca arcaica?’, IncidAnt 14, 305–16. Grethlein, J. 2008 ‘Memory and material goods in the Iliad and the Odyssey’, JHS 128, 27–51. Hägg, R. 1983 ‘Burial customs and social differentiation in 8th-c. Argos’, in R. Hägg (ed.) The Greek Renaissance of the 8th Century, Stockholm, 2–31. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London.
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Elena Franchi Hornblower, S. 2004 Thucydides and Pindar: Historical narrative and the world of epinikian poetry, Oxford. Hornblower, S. and Morgan, C. 2007 Pindar’s Poetry, Patrons, and Festivals: From Archaic Greece to the Roman Empire, Oxford. Kelly, T. 1977 A History of Argos to 500 bc, Minneapolis. Kilian-Dirlmeier, I. 1985 ‘Fremde Weihungen in griechischen Heiligtümern vom 8. bis zum Beginn des 7. Jh.s v. Chr.’, JRGZM 32, 215–54. Köhnken, A. 1971 Die Funktion des Mythos bei Pindar, Berlin. Kuhn, A.B. 2014 ‘The chrysophoria in the cities of Greece and Asia Minor in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods’, Tyche 29, 51–87. Kurke, L. 1992 ‘The politics of ἁβϱοσύνη in archaic Greece’, Classical Antiquity 11, 91–120. 1999 Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece, Princeton. Leão, D.F. and Rhodes, P.J. 2016 The Laws of Solon: A new edition with introduction, translation and commentary, London and New York. Legrand, Ph.-E. 1946–56 Hérodote: Histoires, Paris. Lombardo, M. 1983 ‘Habrosyne e habra nel mondo Greco arcaico’, in Forme di contatto e processi di trasformazione nelle società antiche, Pisa, 1077–103. Louka, M. 2011 ‘Votive jewellery in the archaic Peloponnese’, in H. Cavanagh, W. Cavanagh and J. Roy (eds) Honouring the Dead in the Peloponnese, CSPS Online Publication (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/csps/resources/ open-access/hounouring-the-dead.aspx), 401–14. Ma, J. 2016 ‘Elites, elitism, and community in the Archaic Polis’, Annales HSS 71, 3, 395–418. Maffi, A. 1997 Il diritto di famiglia nel Codice di Gortina, Milano. Mazzarino, S. 1947 Fra oriente e occidente: Ricerche di storia greca arcaica, Firenze. Meineke, A. 1843 Analecta Alexandrina: sive, commentationes de Euphorione Chalcidensi, Rhiano Cretensi, Alexandro Aetolo, Parthenio Nicaeno, Berlin. Meister, J. and Seelentag, G. 2020 Konkurrenz und Institutionalisierung in der griechischen Archaik, Stuttgart. Mills, H. 1984 ‘Greek clothing regulations: sacred and profane?’, ZPE 55, 255–65.
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Women in gold Nafissi, M. 1991 La nascità del kosmos: Studi sulla storia e la società di Sparta, Perugia. Nenci, G. 1983 ‘Tryphe e colonizzazione’, in Forme di contatto e processi di trasformazione nelle società antiche, Pisa, 1019–29. Paradiso, A. 2012 ‘Les catalogues des inventions lydiennes’, in V. Azoulay, F. Gherchanoc and S. Lalanne (eds) Le banquet de Pauline Schmitt Pantel: Genre, moeurs et politique dans l’antiquité grecque et romaine, Paris, 131–48. Parker, R.C.T 1983 Miasma: Pollution and purification in early Greek religion, Oxford. 2004 ‘What are Greek sacred laws?’, in E.M. Harris and L. Rubinstein (eds) The Law and the Courts in Ancient Greece, London, 57–70. Peels, S. 2016 Hosios: A semantic study of Greek piety, Leiden. Pfeijffer, I.L. 1999 Three Aeginetan Odes of Pindar. A commentary on Nemean V, Nemean III, & Pythian VIII, Leiden, Boston and Köln. Polignac, F. de 1996 ‘Entre les dieux et les morts: statut individuel et rites collectifs dans la cité archaïque’, in R. Hägg (ed.) The Role of Religion in the Early Greek Polis, Stockholm, 31–40. Porter, J.I. 2011 ‘Making and unmaking: the Achaean wall and the limits of fictionality in Homeric criticism’, TAPhA 141, 1–36. Price, S. 1990 ‘Anacreontic vases reconsidered’, GRBS 31, 133–75. Privitera, G.A. 1982 Pindaro. Le Istmiche, Milan. Rose, P.W. 1992 Sons of the Gods, Children of Earth: Ideolog y and literary form in ancient Greece, Ithaca, NY, and London. Rousset, D., Camp, J. and Minon, S. 2015 ‘The Phokian city of Panopeus/Phanoteus: three new rupestral inscriptions, and the cippus of the Labyadai of Delphi’, AJA 119, 441–63. Smith, R.R.R. 2007 ‘Pindar, athletes, and the early Greek statue habit’, in Hornblower and Morgan (eds) 2007, 83–140. Snell, B. 1928 Aischylos und das Handeln im Drama, Leipzig. Stein, H. 1856–61 Herodotus, Berlin. Strøm, I. 1992 ‘Evidence from the sanctuaries’, in G. Kopcke and I. Tokumaru (eds) Greece between East and West: 10th–8th centuries bc, Mainz, 46–60. Szanto, E. 1899 ‘χρυσοφορία’, RE 3.2, col. 2517.
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Elena Franchi Thomas, R. 2007 ‘Fame, memorial, and choral poetry: the origins of epinikian poetry – an historical study’, in Hornblower and Morgan (eds) 2007, 141–66. Tomlinson, R.A. 1972 Argos and the Argolid from the End of the Bronze Age to the Roman Occupation, London. Treu, M. 1968 Von Homer zur Lyrik: Wandlungen des griechischen Weltbildes im Spiegel der Sprache, Munich. van Wees, H. 2018 ‘Luxury, austerity and equality in Sparta’, in A. Powell (ed.) A Companion to Sparta, vol. 1, Hoboken, NJ, 202–35. Verdenius, W. 1962 ‘Abros’, Mnemosyne 15, 392–3. Wilhelm, A. 1914 ‘Urkunden aus Messene‘, ÖJh 17, 36–42. Willetts, R.F. 1967 The Law Code of Gortyn, Berlin.
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10 MARBLE: A LUXURY MATERIAL IN EARLY GREEK ARCHITECTURE Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras Introduction Architecture, above all sacred architecture, as a communal manifestation expresses by its nature more than any other human creation the material potential and prevailing values of the era. The cost of constructing such buildings is inextricably related to the projection of values and ideology through their scale and material as well as their decoration, elaborate or austere. These factors, namely the size of the temples, the quality of the building materials and consequently the expenditure, constitute safe markers of the prosperity of the society which erected them and embodied in them its collective representations. In other words, they reflect in the most straightforward and reliable way the predominant ideology and they verify the political power and strength of the cities which created them. Geometric period In the Geometric period, the size of the buildings, even the most impressive ones, rarely reaches or exceeds 100 feet (roughly 30m) in length and around 8m in breadth (Table 1).1 The Heraion I of Samos, from the first half or the last quarter of the eighth century bc, the temple of Apollo Daphnephoros at Eretria around 730 bc (Building D),2 the temple of Artemis at Ano Mazaraki (Rakita) in Achaia,3 and the Geometric building, possibly a temple, at Trapeza near Aigion are all hekatompedoi.4 On the other hand, the older temple of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, around 700 bc, is no longer than c. 12m and only 4.5m wide.5 In general terms, the majority of early Geometric temples, like the temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, Athena Alea in Τegea, the early cult buildings at Aigina and the temple (?) of Apollo at Delos (Building Γ) are similarly small in size.6
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras Table 1. Buildings of the Geometric period A) Hekatompedoi / Ionic sanctuaries (in chronological order) Building
Size
Date (bc)
Material
1. Heraion of Samos I
32.86 x 6.75m
First half or end of 8th century
Stone socle / ___ Mud brick
Rectangular cella, central colonnade, three columns in antis at the entrance
2. Apollo Daphnephoros temple at Eretria (building D)
c. 35 x 8m
730
Stone socle / ___ Mud brick
Oval, central colonnade
Local limestone (socle) Mud brick (walls) / Poros and sandstone (columns)
Apsidalperipteral temple
Order
Type
Peloponnesian Sanctuaries 3. Temple of Artemis at Ano Mazaraki (Rakita) in Achaia
34.40 x 11m
End of 8th century
4. Temple(?) of Trapeza, Aigion
34 x 16 m
Geometric Rough stones / Mud brick
___
Pteron
B) Small temples: Aigina, Peloponnese (in chronological order) 1.
Aigina rectangular 5.5 x 6m house (Cult building)
End of 11th Stone socle / century Mud brick
2.
Aigina, apsidal house
c. 15m long
Stone socle / Middle of 10th century Mud brick
3.
Temple at Aigina (Cult building? 3)
____
8th century
Stone socle / Mud brick
4.
Temple of Athena Alea (Building II)
4x 11.50 m
Middle Geometric
Wattle and daub or pise
Apsidal building
5.
Temple of Athena Alea (Building I)
2 x 6m
Second half of 8th century
Wattle and ___ daub or pise without stone socle
Apsidal building
6.
Temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora
7.50/8 x 3.50m
8th century
Stone socle/ Walls of mud bricks
___
Apsidal building
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 7.
Poseidon Helikonios temple, Nikoleika/Helike
c. 14 x 7m
Late Geometric
Sandstone/ Schist/ Limestone / Mud brick / Wood
Apsidal/ open prostoon / 3 wooden inner columns / 4 wooden piers along the south wall
8.
Temple of Artemis Orthia I, at Sparta
12 x 4.5 m
700
Stone socle / ___ Mud brick
Rectangular cella, central colonnade
Early Geometric
Stone socle / Wattle and daub walls
Orthogonal with ‘prodomos’ and ‘opisthodomos’
Mainland Greece: Thermos 9.
Thermos in Aetolia, Megaron B
20.80 x 7.40m
Cyclades: Delos, Naxos (in chronological order) 10.
Temple of Apollo, Delos no.7 (Building Γ)
2.1 x 6.6m
Geometric
Granite
Long oikos
11.
Temple of Dionysos I, Yria, Naxos
5 x 10m
Beginning of 8th century
Mud brick
Simple oikos
12.
Temple of 10 x Dionysos II, Yria, 16 m Naxos
Second half of 8th century
Wood (columns) / marble (bases of columns)
Cella: colonnades (3 x 5), square eschara, benches
These buildings, whether hekatompedoi or not, are made of unworked stone or of stones roughly dressed to obtain an even surface (Μazaraki, Rakita) for the crepidoma and the lower part of the walls. Wattle and daub/pies or mud brick were used for the upper parts, ubiquitous materials easily worked and thus cheap. Vertically and horizontally placed wooden beams strengthened the walls. The hekatompedoi belong to the most monumental buildings of this period and they represent both the ‘Doric’ and the ‘Ionic’ traditions as they are found in both Doric and Ionic areas. Moreover, they reflect developing economies, as population growth, the expansion of overseas trade and the simultaneous development of political institutions suggest.7 Furthermore, the growth in the production of industrial and art objects – vases, terracottas, bronze statuettes, tripods and armour –
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras testifies that the foundations for the development of the Greek city-states had been laid. Hence sacred buildings that were even more monumental in character reflect the economic growth which followed during the seventh century bc, in the so-called Orientalizing period. Archaic period – Architectural Materials Characteristic of this period is the substitution of earlier building materials by more resilient, monumental and impressive ones such as stone, at first used hesitantly and experimentally, then later to a full extent towards the end of the seventh century bc (Table 2).8 Strikingly, in Heraion II on Samos (after 670 bc) it is possible that the walls were built entirely of carefully worked slabs. Very important indications of monumentality are the prostyle entrance and the peristyle consisting of wooden quadrangular columns (6 x 17), which surround the building, standing on stone circular bases, as well as the roof of clay tiles. Remarkably, in this temple the first Ionic frieze in stone also occurs, with incised heads of warriors.9 Equally distinctive is temple C at Thermos in Aetolia with a peristyle (5 x 15) and painted metopes.10 Finally, the best known and representative specimen of a proper peripteral temple is the temple of Hera at Olympia, dated from the end of the seventh century, where the wooden columns were gradually replaced by stone ones even into the Roman period (Table 2).11 Table 2. Buildings of the seventh century bc A) Ionia Building
Size
Date (bc)
Material
Order Type
1. Dionysos 10 x Temple III, 16m? Yria Naxou
Beginning Wood (columns) Ionic of 7th / Marble century (column-bases/ water spouts) / Terracotta (frieze)
Prostyle tetrastyle / Flat roof
2. Heraion II, Samos
c. 670
Ionic
Prostyle and peristyle ( 6x 17) / Relief frieze
___
Apsidal with prostoon
11.70 x 37.70m
Stone (toichobate / Walls) / Wood (columns)
B) Mainland Greece 1. Poseidon Helikonios temple, Nikoleika/ Helike
c. 14 x 7m
Beginning Local stone/ Sandstone / Mud of 7th century brick / Wood
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 2. Temple of 14.03 x Poseidon at 39.25m Isthmia
690–650
Oolitic limestone/ Wood (columns)
Doric
Peripteral (7 x 18) / Central colonnade of 7 wooden columns
3. Temple of Apollo at Corinth
___
680
Poros (and mud brick?)
___
Plain oikos
4. Old temple(I) of Hera at Argos
36.62 x 17.10m
Second half of 7th century
___
Doric
Peripteral (6 x 12) in antis
5. Temple of Hera at Olympia
18.76 x 50.01m
End of 7th Stone toichobate/ Doric century Walls of mud brick
Peripteral (15 x 5, wooden columns) in antis / Inner colonnades
6. Older temple of Athena Alea
c. 10.53 End of 7th x 38.30m century (toichobate)
Local conglomerate (foundation) / Doliana grey marble (stylobate and toichobate) / Mud brick / Wood
Peripteral (6 x 18) in antis / wooden columns
7. Apollo temple at Thermos
38.23 x 12.15m
Limestone / Wood
Peripteral (5 x 15) / inner colonnade of 10 columns) / painted metopes
Last quarter of 7th century bc
Admittedly, every geographical region originally used the locally available material – limestone (poros) in the Peloponnese and continental Greece, and even in Attica, on Samos and in Ionia12 – and various types of schist, granite and marble in the Cyclades. Although the tendency towards monumentality and ‘luxury’ fitting for the ‘divine’ is common to all Greek cities regardless of their ethnicity, building materials were sought in the immediate environment, making use of the local rocks. The most grandiose material by its very nature is marble, which, in addition to its durability, can be carved with even the most delicate decorative details, is translucent and sparkles. Its brightness is due to its crystalline texture, which reflects the light.13 This material was immediately accessible mainly in the Cyclades, since on these islands, especially on Naxos and Paros, marble is to be found on the surface. Thus, it is the local rock par excellence,
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras readily accessible and exploitable. For this reason, it is not surprising that marble is for the first time quarried and used, although to a small extent, for the bases of the wooden columns of temple II of Dionysos at Yria on Naxos as early as the last quarter of the eighth century. This preference for all-marble, all-stone, ‘petrified’ temples continued even more intensely in the second half of the seventh century and particularly in the sixth century (Tables 1–3). Table 3. Buildings of the sixth century bc A) Peloponnese Building
Size
Date (bc) Material
Order
Type
1.
Argive Heraion: North stoa II
___
Early 6 century
Poros (rear wall) / Limestone (columns)
Doric
___
2.
Argive Heraion: Northeast building / stoa III
20.6 x 6m
Early 6th century
Limestone (columns) / poros for other parts
Doric
___
3.
Argive Heraion: Northwest building (VIII)
___
6th century
Limestone
Doric
___
4.
Hestiatorion 30.4 x at Argive 33.3m Heraion: West building VII
6th century
Limestone / Poros
Doric
5.
Temple of Artemis Orthia II at Sparta
___
6th century
Local stone
Doric
6.
Temple of Athena Chalkioikos at Sparta
___
6th century
Local stone
7.
Throne of Apollo at Amyklai
___
3rd quarter of 6th century
Local grey marble and limestone
Doric ___ / Ionic
8.
Temple at Trapeza in Aigio
Hekatompedon
End of 6th century
Local limestone
Doric
th
Rectangular cella, possibly prostyle in antis Plain oikos
Peripteral (6 x 12 columns) / Pedimental sculpture
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 9.
Temple at Mamousia (ancient Keryneia) in Aigialeia
15.391 x End of 36.258m 6th – (euthynteria) Beginning of 5th century (500– 490)
Local Doric sandstone (building) and Parian marble (architectural members / sculpture)
Peripteral (6 x 13 or 6 x 14 columns) / Pedimental sculpture
10. Temple of Athena Makistos at Skillous
Hekatompedon (14.18 x 32.94m stylobate)
500–490
Shelly Doric limestone and marble (architectural sculpture)
Peripteral in antis, (6 x 13 columns)
11. Temple of Apollo at Corinth
21.49 x 53.82m
540
Poros
Peripteral (6 x 15 columns) in antis / Cella with columns (2 x 4?), adyton
Marble Ionic (architectural members / vothros)
Doric
B) Cyclades-Samos 1.
Temple of Dionysos at Yria IV, Naxos
28.5 x 13.5m
580–550
2.
Altar of the Dionysos sanctuary at Yria, Naxos
12m long
First half Marble of 6th century
3.
Samian Heraion III (of Rhoikos and Theodoros)
52.5 x 105m Second quarter of 6th century
4.
Samian Heraion IV (of Polykrates)
52.45 x 108.63m
5.
Temple of Demeter and Apollo at Sangri, Naxos
6.
Temple of Apollo Delios, Naxos
24.32 x 55.17m
Prostyle tetrastyle / Gable roof
____
____
Limestone, Wooden capitals, stone bases
Ionic
Dipteral 21 x 8, cella with 19 x 6 columns / Relief friezes
Third quarter of 6th century
Marble
Ionic
Tripteral in pronaos and opisthodomos
540–530
All marble
Ionic
Prostyle pentastyle (5 columns)
530
All marble
Ionic
Pteron 6 x 12, Dipteral in prodomos and opisthodomos
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras 7.
Temple of Athena Polias, Paroikia, Paros
____
530
All marble
Ionic
Amphiprostylos, without pteron
8.
Altar of the Athena Polias temple, Paroikia, Paros
____
End of 6th century
Marble
____-
____
9.
Temple of Artemis in Delion, Paros
5.82 x 29.5m
Beginning Marble of 5th century
Doric
In antis / Without pteron
During this last period trade and navigation developed even more and Corinth, Athens and other cities became major commercial centres. Obviously, there is a close correlation between surplus wealth and the establishment of monumental and, in this sense, ‘luxurious’ architecture, and also the development of the relevant know-how. A pivotal role in the advancement of monumental architecture must have been played by the increased interaction of the Greek trading cities with the great civilizations of the East and Egypt and their conspicuously monumental architecture. This is suggested not least by the close similarity between the Aeolic-Ionic capitals of Greek architecture and the capitals found in these civilizations.14 Furthermore, the monumental size of some Archaic temples (Tables 2–3) such as, within the Peloponnese, the Doric temple of Hera at Olympia, the temple of Apollo at Corinth, and even those situated in isolated regions of Achaia and recently excavated – as at Trapeza in Aigialeia, Mamousia (ancient Keryneia), from the end of the sixth or beginning of the fifth century15 – suggests an influence from the huge Pharaonic buildings and attests the wealth and affluence of the cities in question. This development parallels that in sculpture, which during the seventh and sixth centuries becomes monumental: colossal statues of kouroi testify to an unmistakable influence from Egyptian sculpture both in their typology and through specific formal details, as is widely known and accepted. It should be noted that stone is introduced into sculpture in a manner similar to that in architecture. In Crete, Boeotia and the Peloponnesian centres in general, where marble is rare or of poor quality but limestone and its varieties known as poros are abundant, the earlier
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture sculptures were carved from this local stone (e.g. the ‘Lady of Auxerre’ from Crete, the upper torso from Boeotia, the goddess from Gortyn and from Hagiorgitika in the Peloponnese, as well as the metopes from Mycenae; contrast the Nikandre Statue in marble).16 Gradually, and almost exclusively in the sixth century bc, sculptures were made of local stone (in Laconian sculpture, the perirrhanteria),17 but also of imported Cycladic marble (such as the statues of Kleobis and Biton at Delphi).18 Marble had already been well-established in the monumental sculpture of the marble-rich Cyclades since at least the mid-seventh century and shortly after this medium became highly sought-after by all centres, for the reasons discussed above. The same applies, therefore, for architecture. However, it never becomes the only architectural material in buildings, especially in temples, the most lavish and consequently the most costly structures. Painting of the metopes, triglyphs and other elements,19 but predominantly the decoration of temples in mainland Greece during the sixth century with sculptured friezes and pedimental sculpture, increased their sumptuousness, especially from the last quarter of the century when the use of marble was widespread. Materials used in the Peloponnese The Peloponnese lacks marble of good quality, except for the white marbles from Doliana in Arcadia and Tainaron in the Mani peninsula. It appears that the quarries of the latter were not exploited before the Classical period.20 In contrast, the grey marble from Taygetos can best be described as hard, good quality limestone. The extraction and use of all varieties of Peloponnesian marble appears, from the current state of research, to be very limited during the Archaic period. Nonetheless, as far as the sixth-century throne of Apollo at Amyklai (sculpted by Bathykles of Magnesia; Table 3) is concerned, grey marble from Taygetos was used along with imported white marble from Doliana for carving the most prominent architectural features: columns, capitals, epistyles.21 The embellishment of this idiosyncratic and, in terms of contemporary typology, unique monument with the most extravagant material of the era (which, besides the difficulties in its extraction, also required technological advances for its carving) clearly exhibits a desire for display, flaunting wealth and luxury.22 The adornment of other archaic temples in the Peloponnese with stone and marble architectural sculptures exemplifies the same propensity, as mentioned above.23 Broadly speaking, in Peloponnesian architecture of the Archaic period the use of marble is extremely limited and even absent, in contrast to other areas particularly the Cyclades, for the reasons outlined above.
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras Materials used in the Cyclades In the temple and sanctuary at Yria on Naxos one can trace step by step developments in the use of marble in sacred architecture (Tables 1–2). Marble was used for the column bases of Temples II and III, from the second half of the eighth and beginning of the seventh century, respectively; then, in addition, for the columns, entablature, roof tiles, doors and even the square vothros in the cella of Temple IV, from around 580–550. The 12-metre-long altar in front of this temple was also made of marble.24 The roof and inner colonnades of the Oikos of the Naxians at Delos (Table 4B) – a building with multiple functions and construction phases – were already made of marble from its first phase (end of the seventh – first quarter of the sixth century. Nonetheless, the stone slabs of the walls of the building remained granite until its end. In all likelihood, the Stoa of the Naxians at Delos, from the middle of the sixth century, was also entirely, or in major part, made of marble.25 At all events, both structures had marble roofbeams and roof tiles, a pioneering Naxian invention which was readily adopted by other centres, as on the Acropolis at Athens. Table 4. Delos: Geometric to Archaic periods Numbers and information from Bruneau and Ducat 1983 (Delos) and Gruben 1997
A) Buildings of local stone (in chronological order) Building
Size
Date (bc)
1. Temple of Apollo (Building Γ) 1st Apollo temple? Delos no. 7
2.1 x 6.6m
2. Temple of Hera I Delos no. 101
Material
Order
Type
Geometric Granite
____
Long oikos
c. 3.40 x 2.87m
Geometric Gneiss or early 7th century
____
Plain, almost rectangular oikos
3. Temple of Artemis E, Delos no. 46
cella: 8.60 x 9.60m
Early 7th century
____ Gneiss, limited use of marble (sima, 6th century)
Prostyle oikos
4. Temple G, Neokorion or sanctuary of Eileithyeia? Delos no. 40
____
Early Archaic
Gneiss
Small cella
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 5. Oikos V (Treasury of Karystos) Delos no. 16
____
c. middle Granite and gneiss or third quarter of 6th century
Doric
Prostyle tetrastyle in antis/ colonnade of 5 columns inside
6. Temple of Leto Delos no. 53
c. 11 x 9m
c. 540
Granite, ____ gneiss, limited use of marble
Rectangular cella and prodomos
7. Temple of Apollo I (porinos naos) Delos no. 11
10.11 x 15.70m
530-510
Poros/ Pronaos roof in marble
Ionic
In antis or prostyle
Ionic
Prostyle (east side), in antis (west side) / Inner colonnade (8 columns)
B) Buildings with ample use of marble, Archaic granite (walls)/ marble (columns and roof)
1. Naxian oikos 24 x Delos no. 6 10m
End of the 7th – first quarter of 6th century
2. Propylon I & II Delos no. 5
Marble c. 570 bc / end of 6th century
Ionic
____
3. Small temple 2.54 x (former 3.675m temple of Anios) Delos no. 68
Archaic
Marble
____
Rectangular cella / Prodomos in antis
4. Building D, ____ Bouleuterion? Delos no. 21
First half of 6th century
Local marble
____
Very long oikos / Inner colonnade of 5 square piers
5. Naxian stoa Delos no. 36
West wing: 45 x 5.47m south wing: 26.85 x 5.10m
Granite, Third quarter of gneiss, 6th century marble
Ionic
Stoa in Γ shape / 10 columns (south wing), 17 columns (west wing)
6. Temple of Hera II Delos no. 101
13.08 x 6.97m
Marble End of 6th century
Doric
Distyle in antis
7. Monument with hexagons Delos no.44
11.72 x 11.18m
c. 500
___
Simple oikos
Granite, gneiss, marble
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras 8. Ex-Oikos of Andros Delos no.43
____
Archaic
9. Archegesion Delos no.74
____
6th century Stone and wood (columns)
Marble
____
Simple oikos
____
Oikoi and peristyle
However, the earliest all-marble Naxian structure (Table 3B) was the temple of Demeter at Sangri on the island of Naxos, dated around 540–530, where even the stone blocks of the walls were made of marble, in contrast to older Naxian buildings. The same is true of the Temple of Apollo in the polis of Naxos,26 an Ionic peripteral temple with a double colonnade on the short sides, following the tradition of the massive temples in Ionia. On Naxos and Paros, where all-marble or at least mostly marble buildings are also to be found – like the temple of Athena on the acropolis of Paroikia, the temple of Artemis at the Delion on Paros,27 and the Heraion on Delos28 (Tables 3–4) – the practice of using marble in buildings cannot be interpreted exclusively as an indication of prosperity or an aspiration after grandeur. The material was plentiful as the natural rock of these islands, and high cost for long-distance transport was not a factor. However, the same does not apply to other sanctuaries and cities. The order, at the end of the seventh or beginning of the sixth century, made to the Naxian Byzes, father of Euergus (as Pausanias informs us 5.10.3), for marble tiles for a building on the Athenian Acropolis, along with their shipment to Athens, must have been expensive and indicative of magnificence and extravagance.29 At this time Cycladic marble was introduced to Athens for the first monumental kouroi of what G.M.A. Richter calls the ‘Sounion Group’ (610–590 bc), as the extraction of Hymettan and Pentelic marble in Attica had not been widely established as yet.30 Marble at Delphi For the adoption of marble, and more specifically Parian marble, as a luxury material there is also the famous and significant literary account in Herodotos (5.62). He records the substitution of marble for poros in the facade and sculptural decoration of the pediments in the archaic temple of Apollo at Delphi (Table 5), though only on the temple’s front, its eastern side. The Athenian Alkmeonidai underwrote the costs. The restriction of the valuable and popular, but at the same time costly, material just to the east front (that of the entrance) is a clear indication of its use as a statement of grandeur.
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture Table 5. Buildings at Delphi, 6th century bc Dimensions and data derived mainly from Bommelaer and Laroche (GdD) 1991; Gruben 2000
A) Archaic/Doric buildings in Limestone/Poros (in chronological order) Type of Building
Size
Date (bc)
Material
Order
Type
1.
Older Athenian Treasury GdD pl. V, no. 223
____
Archaic
Poros
Doric? ____
2.
Corinthian treasury (XXIV) GdD pl. V, no. 308
6.50 x 13m
Early Archaic
Poros
____
Plain rectangular oikos
3.– Two oikoi 4. Anonymes (XXVII, XXII) GdD pl. V, 337–338
____
First half Tuff of 6th century
____
____
5.
Treasury of unknown polis GdD pl. V, no. 224
____
First half Tuff of 6th century
____
____
6.
Temple of Ga? (XXIX) GdD pl. V, no. 336
5.25 x 4.10m
First half Tuff of 6th century
7.
Oikos / treasury (XX) GdD pl. V, no. 427
____
First half Limestone of 6th century
____
____
8.
Oikos / treasury (XX) GdD pl. V, no. 428
c. 6.50 x 8m
First half Tuff/ Limestone of 6th century
Doric
____
9.
Oikos/treasury (XXI) GdD pl. V, no. 345
8.15 x 6m
First half Tuff of 6th century
10. Tholos of Sikyon GdD pl. V, no. 121
6.32m (stylobate)
c. 580
Oolitic tuff
Doric
Pteron (13 columns, 20 relief metopes and triglyphs)
11. Monopteros of Sikyon GdD pl. V, no. 121
4.29 x 5.57m
c. 560
Oolitic tuff
Doric
Pteron 4 x 5 / No cella or prostyle with a prostoon 4 x 2 / Relief metopes
Apsidal
Orthogonal cella / prostyle pronaos
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras 12. Treasury of unknown polis (VIII) GdD pl. V, no. 227
5.90 x 7.75m
530–520
Local limestone
____
In antis
13. Treasury of unknown polis (IX) GdD pl. V, no. 228
5.90 x 4.95m
Second half of 6th century
Tuff
____
____
14. Archaic temple of Apollo GdD pl. V, no. 422
21.64 x Last 58.18m quarter of 6th century
Poros/ Doric marble (some architectural members – mostly upper parts of the front and sculptures of the east pediment)
Peripteral 6 x 15 / Distyle in antis
15. Sicyonian treasury (III) GdD pl. V, no. 121
8.27 x 6.24m
Late 6th century
Oolitic tuff
Doric
Rectangular cella, prodomos in antis
End of 6th–start of 5th century
Tuff
16. Treasury of Megarians ? (V) GdD pl. V, no. 216 17. Oikos/treasury of Akanthos? (XVII) GdD pl. V, no. 506
5.70 x 5.80m
End of 6th–start of 5th century
Tuff
____
Oikos with prodomos in antis
18. Treasury of Boeotians (VII) GdD pl. V, no. 226
8 x 5(?) m
Late Archaic
Tuff
Doric
Oikos with prodomos in antis
B) Ionic/Doric buildings in Marble (in chronological order) 1.
Treasury of 5.13 x Knidos ? (XXV), 6.60m GdD pl. V, no. 219
c. 550 bc Parian marble
2.
Treasury Anonyme, Clazomenian ? XV), GdD pl. V, no. 306
Second half of 6th century
Marble
3.
Siphnian treasury (IV), GdD, pl. V, no. 122
c. 525
Parian marble
5.95 x 8.37m
Ionic
Statues of korai in antis / Relief frieze Distyle in antis
Ionic
Statues of korai in antis / Relief frieze / Pedimental sculpture
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 4.
Athenian 6.62 x treasury at the 9.69m Apollo sanctuary (XI), GdD pl. V, no. 223
Late Archaic
Parian marble
Doric
Distyle in antis / Relief metopes/ Pedimental sculpture
5.
Treasury of Massaliots, sanctuary of Pronaia, GdD Fig. 4, no. 33
6.14 x 8.50m
Late Archaic (540– 500)
Parian marble
Ionic
Distyle in antis/ Relief frieze/ Pedimental sculpture
6.
Archaic temple of Apollo, east facade GdD pl. V, no. 422
21.64 x Last 58.18 m quarter of 6th century
Marble (some Doric architectural members – mostly upper parts of the front and sculptures of the east pediment)
Peripteral 6 x 15, distyle in antis / Pedimental sculpture
In broad terms, one could argue that at Delphi the use of Parian marble in architecture and architectural decoration assumed a competitive character in relation to the humbler limestone (compare Tables 5A and 5B) mainly from the second half of the sixth century. In particular, the Knidian treasury at Delphi is the earliest monument of mainland Greece completely built of marble, and specifically of Parian marble, around the mid-sixth century, earlier even than the temple of Demeter at Sangri on Naxos. Furthermore, the Clazomenaean treasury in the sanctuary of Apollo (second half of the sixth century), the late Archaic Treasury of the Massaliots with its peculiar Aeolic/leaf-shaped capitals and the sculptured frieze,31 as well as the Doric Treasury in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia from the early Classical period, were made entirely of marble.32 Furthermore, the Doric Athenian Treasury in the sanctuary of Apollo, with the sculptured metopes depicting the labours of Heracles and Theseus, the Amazonomachy and Gigantomachy, was also entirely marble. Of major importance for our subject is the finding from archaeological research that the marble building replaced an older treasury built by the same city, constructed in poros.33 Nonetheless, no treasury surpasses in prestige the entirely marble and richly decorated Siphnian Treasury at Delphi: note here Caryatids instead of columns, the sculptured astragali (17cm high) on the lowest part of the marble walls, Ionic and Lesbian cymatia at the ends of the walls and the epistyle, and delicate cymatia and friezes with floral patterns on the marble frame of the door. The apex is the sculptural frieze measuring c. 101m.,
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras a true masterpiece. Finally, note the sculptural decoration of the pediments with mythological scenes, of which only the western pediment is largely preserved (albeit artistically inferior to the frieze). This magnificent communal votive by the Siphnians was funded, as Herodotus (3.57) and Pausanias (10.11.2) explicitly mention, from a tithe of their revenues – the Siphnians are characterised in Herodotus’ text as the most prosperous among the islanders (νησιωτέων μάλιστα ἐπλούτεον) – from the gold and silver mines on the island before its destruction by Samian refugees.34 Limestone/Poros in Delphi and the Peloponnese In contrast, the treasuries of the Peloponnesian cities and in general of the Doric centres at Delphi (Table 5A) were erected in traditional local building materials, such as soft limestone (poros). This is the material used not only for the earliest treasury (around the end of the seventh or beginning of the sixth century), the Corinthian Treasury, which has a more conservative and plainer architectural form, then for the Sicyonian Tholos (c. 580) and the Sicyonian Monopteros (c. 560), but also for the same city’s treasury at the end of the fifth century.35 Even in the classical period treasuries were made of limestone, like the Theban Treasury built after the battle of Leuktra in 371, and many more.36 Table 6. Buildings at Olympia, 7th–6th centuries bc Dimensions and data for the buildings at Olympia are derived mainly from Mallwitz 1972
Buildings
Size
Date (bc)
Material
1.
Temple of Hera, Olympia
Hekatompedon 18.76 x 50.01m
End of 7th century
Limestone Doric, Pteron 15 x 5 and wood in (wooden antis columns), inner colonnades
2.
Treasury IV, Epidamnos [Byzantium]
6.48 x 10.75m
Second quarter of 6th century
Poros
3.
Treasury X 9.47 x Second (of 13.95m quarter Metapontum) (Fundament) of 6th century
4.
Treasury XII (of Gela)
10.98 x 13.18m
Order Type
Doric
Limestone
560 bc Poros and end of the 6th century
Prodomos distyle in antis
Oikos with simple prodomos
Doric
Doric porch with 6 columns (end of the 6th–start of the 5th century)
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 5.
Treasury V (of Sybaris)
9.60 x ?
Third quarter of 6th century
Conglomerate
Doric
Prodomos without columns
6.
Treasury VI (of an unknown polis, Kyrene?)
___
Third quarter of 6th century
Shelly limestone
Doric
Prodomos distyle in antis
7.
Treasury VII (of Kyrene?)
___
Third quarter of 6th century
___
___
8.
Treasury IX ___ (of Selinunte)
Third quarter of 6th century
Shelly limestone
Doric
9.
Treasury III (of Epidamnos)
c. 525
Limestone Doric
___
bc
Prodomos distyle in antis
10. Treasury XI (of Megara)
6.20 x 13.20m
Late ConglomArchaic erate
Doric
Prodomos distyle in antis
11. Treasury II (of Syracuse)
___
First quarter of 5th century
Shelly limestone
Doric
Prodomos distyle in antis
12. Treasury I (of Sikyon)
6.73 x 11.85m
First half of 5th century
Sikyonian sandstone / Roof of marble
Doric
Prodomos distyle in antis
Middle of the 6th century
Stone
13. Altar on the treasuries’ terrace
In the sanctuary of Olympia too, treasuries were built of limestone (poros), even at the end of the sixth century (Table 6). For example, the Sicyonian Treasury (I) was constructed of fine-grained, limestone from Sicyon, the land of the dedicators. The roof, however, was marble, both a restrained display of wealth and an indication of an innovative attitude.37 It should be stressed that even in the high Classical period the temple of Hera at Argos was built of limestone. Nonetheless, the architectural sculptures were made of Parian marble and to an extent of Pentelic marble or marble from Mani, particularly during the Roman phases of restoration.38
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras Conclusions How should this phenomenon be interpreted, taking into consideration that the sacred places of Olympia and Delphi were centres where Greek cities competed?39 Was the Peloponnesian tradition of using local material more compelling than the desire to assert their cities’ claims to international prestige through grandiose buildings? Was the limited wealth of the Peloponnesian cities a reason for their not using marble? But how should one consider this in relation to Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Sikyon, powerful cities during the seventh and sixth centuries bc? Or did the architectural orders, Doric in contrast to Ionic, impose a less luxurious expression? Against this last suggestion, marble, especially imported Parian, was employed for the construction of the Doric Treasury of the Athenians at the sanctuary of Apollo, for the Doric Treasury in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia at Delphi (c. 475), and in the Classical period for Doric temples in the Peloponnese, mainly for their sculptured decoration, partially for the other parts of the buildings.40 Only the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea was entirely made of marble,41 although by this time a common language had developed in mainland Greek architecture and marble was by then so established as the obvious and expected material, that its use alone does not comprise an index of prestige and display of wealth. Rich sculptural decoration and architectural innovation were now additional indicators of luxurious embellishment. To return to our basic question: what was the principal motive for the restricted employment of marble in the sacred buildings of the Peloponnese? Was it perhaps the expression of Peloponnesian religious attitudes, a kind of conservatism,42 which stood in the way of the use of costly, prized marble as a means of projecting the cities that commissioned the temples? Or was it rather the austere political ideal, influenced by the Lycurgan ideology of the predominant Sparta, the factor that mitigated such pretensions and aspirations through prestigious offerings? It is in the same vein that I have previously attempted to interpret a similar conservatism in monumental sculpture in the archaic Peloponnese (which contrasts with the Attic and insular production of kouroi, korai and other sculptural types) and in Peloponnesian marble funerary stelai.43 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professors W.G. Cavanagh and S. Hodkinson and Dr C. Gallou for inviting me to this very interesting conference. I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. A. Meintani for the translation of my Greek text into English and to V. Schiza as well as G. Doulfis for helping me with the Tables.
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture Notes 1 The tables which accompany this paper (Tables 1–6) are indicative only and have no claim to completeness. They nevertheless include the most important buildings of Doric and Ionic sanctuaries in mainland Greece, mainly the Peloponnese and Delphi, as well as in the Cyclades and Samos. The information in the tables is derived from the publications/literature in the respective endnotes. 2 Gruben 2000, 357 (Samian Heraion); Coldstream 1977, 423 (Eretria); 432 (Samian Heraion); Mazarakis-Ainian 2000, 81 (Eretria); 199–201 (Samian Heraion). 3 Petropoulos 1992–93; 1997; 2001; 2002. 4 Vordos 1999–2001; 2001; 2002. Information about the Geometric building from his oral communication at the École française d’Athènes in 2017. 5 Dawkins (ed.) 1929, 9–12; for the Archaic temple, 19–22, 32–4; Mazarakis-Ainian 1997, 166–7, fig. 275. 6 Mazarakis-Ainian 2000, 80–1; 89–94; Hoffelner, 2014, especially 35–42. See also the Protogeometric (?) temple of Pellana dated by the excavator to the twelfth century bc: Spyropoulos 2013, i.262–301, esp. 262–4, 274, pl. 109–10, 125, plan 16 and 18; iii, fig. 540–1, 622–4. 7 Snodgrass 1977; Heilmeier 1982, 10–12, 103–9; Coldstream 1977, passim. More recently Morgan 2009, 56–7; Morris 2009. 8 Cf. Klein 2016a, 107–8. 9 Kyrieleis 1981, 79–80 fig. 57; Gruben 2000, 358–9. 10 Gruben 2002, 44–7. Most recently, Papapostolou 2014, 98–112 (Megaron B); 200–14 (Temple Γ). 11 Mallwitz 1972, 137–49. Wooden columns were preserved even in the seventh-century old Argive Heraion (Mostratos 2013, 16), the older temple of Athena Alea at Tegea (Østby, 1986, 84–5), and the temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, which, however, had stone walls but wooden columns and epistyle (Broneer 1971, 34–40; Gebhard and Hemans 1992, 23–39, esp. 30–1; Gebhard 2001; Hemans 2015). 12 Artemision: Gruben 2000, 388 (poros); Bammer 2008, 75–9 (green schist; limestone). Didymaion: Gruben 2000, 402 (poros foundations of Geometric or seventh century bc). Dirschedl 2017, 69–74 (materials of the Archaic temple, with further recent bibliography). 13 However, we should not overlook the fact that the shiny, white marble surfaces were covered for the most part with bright colours – red and blue – and certain marble structures were coated with stucco or plaster: Gruben 2000, 374 (Sangri). 14 Cf. the floral Palestinian capitals of the Hazor type and that from Sippar: Wesenberg 1971, 63–86, esp. 85–86; Gebhard 2001, 41–61; Hellmann 2002, 130–3, 162– 8; Barletta 2016, 31–45, esp. 41–2. For Egyptian influence on Greek architecture, see also Østby 2001, 17–34; Kienast 2001, 35–9. Contra: Hellmann 2006, 43–9. 15 Kanellopoulos and Kolia 2014, 21. 16 Boardman 1978, figs. 28, 30, 35. Kokkorou-Alevras 2017, 24–6 with further references. 17 Kokkorou-Alevras 2012, 19, 26 (with further literature). 18 Boardman 1978, fig. 70. 19 Painted decoration is manifested in certain instances on the walls of temples:
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras e.g. in the temple of Poseidon at Isthmia dated to the seventh century and South Temple 7 at Kalapodi (Mazarakis Ainian 2017, 179 fig. 17.9; Morgan 2017, 199–200, fig. 19.7 with further literature). 20 Kokkorou-Alevras et al. 2014, nos. 673, 674, 678, 692, 695. 21 Kokkorou-Alevras 2011–12, 139–44. 22 This tendency goes hand-in-hand with the prosperity of Sparta during the high Archaic period as is apparent from the high quality and great typological variety of Laconian metalwork, the flourishing pottery workshops and the commissioning of artists from remote centres (the poet Terpander fromLesbos, the architect Bathykles from Magnesia). Unfortunately, the excavator does not report the building material used for the temple of Athena Chalkioikos on the acropolis at Sparta: a plain structure famous for the bronze panels made by Gitiadas at the end of the sixth century (Pausanias 3.17.2; Dickins 1906–07, 137–46). Most probably, they were of local stone. The same applies to the archaic temple of Artemis Orthia at Sparta (Dawkins 1929, 19–22, 32–34; Tomlinson 1992, 248). 23 Hence in the temple at Trapeza in Aigio (end of the sixth century) local limestone was used for the pedimental sculptures, whereas Parian marble was used in the almost contemporary temple of Mamousia (ancient Keryneia) at the end of the sixth or beginning of the fifth century (e.g. Kanellopoulos and Kolia 2014, 152, 156, 172). 24 Gruben 1997, 308, 411; 2000, 384. 25 Bruneau and Ducat 1983, 146–7, no. 36; Gruben 1997, 308 (after the middle of the sixth century), 412. In Gruben’s view, the Stoa of the Naxians was marble up to the roof. 26 Scholarship has linked the building with the tyrant Lygdamis. Due to the fall of tyranny in 524 it was never finished: Gruben 1997, 376–7. 27 Schuller 1985, 320, 338; Gruben 2000, 376, 380. 28 Schuller, 1985, 340–1. 29 Ohnesorg 1993, 141, no. K. 3.1; Kokkorou-Alevras 1995, 124–5, no. K. 101; Kissas 2008, 5–11, no. K A1. 30 For the latest, though not definitive, research results, Palagia and Maniatis 2015, 593–607. 31 For the treasuries at Delphi, Gruben 2000, 94–104, 109; Bommelaer and Laroche 1991, nos. 216, 226, 124, 224, 227, 228; Partida 2000, 355–63. For the frieze of the Treasury of the Massaliots, Marcadé and Croissant 1991, 49–51. 32 Bommelaer and Laroche 1991, 60–4. 33 De La Coste-Messelière 1969, 741–2; Bommelaer and Laroche 1991, 136, no. 224; Gruben 2000, 101. On the basis of technical details, it is considered that a Cycladic (possibly Parian) workshop was most likely engaged on this treasury, as is the case with all the Ionic examples mentioned above. 34 Gruben 2000, 99; most recently, Angliker 2014, 6–13. 35 Gruben 2000, 100. 36 Bommelaer and Laroche 1991, nos. 216, 226, 124, 227, 228. 37 Gruben 2000, 77; Hermann 1976, 331; Mallwitz 1972, 167; most recently, Klein 2016b. 38 Mostratos 2013, 17.
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture Felten 1982; Neer 2007, 239–42. More generally on prestige in Greek sanctuaries, Scott 2016, 133–46. 40 E.g. the metopes and pediments, but also the tiles and sima of the temple of Zeus at Olympia; likewise, the frieze, the capitals of the sekos, part of the ceiling coffers, and also the roof of the temple of Bassai at Phigaleia (in contrast, its other parts are made of grey, matt limestone). Only the sima is marble in the temple of Zeus at Nemea. At Epidaurus, besides the sculptures of the pediments, the floor tiles were also marble. The tholos at Epidaurus was built of limestone and partly of marble. 41 Gruben 2000, 66, 73, 137, 150–6. 42 Dengate 1988, 29–30, 253. 43 Kokkorou-Alevras 2002, 136–8; cf. Tomlinson 1992, 253–5. 39
Bibliography Angliker, E.M. 2014 ‘The treasuries of the Siphnians: myth, wealth and decline through the exam of archaeological evidence’, Phaos: Revista de Estudos Clássicos 14, 5–35. Bammer, A. 2008 ‘Vom Peripteros zum Dipteros’, in W. Seipel (ed.) Das Artemision von Ephesos. Heiliger Platz einer Göttin, Vienna, 75–89. Barletta, B.A. 2016 ‘Monumentality and foreign influence in early Greek temples’, in Miles (ed.) 2016, 31–45. Boardman, J. 1978 Greek Sculpture: The Archaic period, London. Bommelaer, J.-F. and Laroche, D. 1991 Guide de Delphes: Le Site, Paris. Broneer, O. 1971 Temple of Poseidon in Isthmia I: Results of Excavations by the University of Chicago under the Auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton. Bruneau, P. and Ducat, J. 1983 Guide de Délos, Paris. Coldstream, J.N. 1977 Geometric Greece, London. Dawkins, R.M. (ed.) 1929 The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Suppl. 5, London. De La Coste-Messelière, P. 1969 ‘Topographie delphique’, BCH 93, 741–2. Dengate, C.F. 1988 The Sanctuaries of Apollo in the Peloponnesos, Chicago. Dickins, G. 1906/07 ‘Excavations at Sparta’, BSA 13, 137–54.
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras Dirschedl, U. 2017 ‘Vom Skeparnon zum Zahneisen.Werkspuren an Kalkstein–, Kalkmergel– und Marmorwerkstücken des archaischen Didymaion’, in D. Kurapkat und U. Ulrike Wulf-Rheidt (eds) Werkspuren: Materialverarbeitung und handwerkliches Wissen im antiken Bauwesen. Internationales Kolloquium in Berlin vom 13–16 Mai 2015 veranstaltet vom Architekturreferat des DAI. Diskussionen zur Archäologischen Bauforschung 12, Regensburg, 63–88. Felten, F. 1982 ‘Weihungen in Olympia und Delphi’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 97, 79–97. Gebhard, C.R. 2001 ‘The archaic temple at Isthmia: techniques of construction’, in M. Bietak (ed.) Archaische griechische Tempel und Altäg ypten, Vienna, 41–61. Gebhard, C.R. and Hemans, F.P. 1992 ‘University of Chicago, excavations at Isthmia 1989, I’, Hesperia 61, 1–77. Gruben, G. 1997 ‘Naxos und Delos: Studien zur archaischen Architektur der Kykladen’, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 112, 261–416. 2000 Ιερά και Ναοί των Αρχαίων Ελλήνων, Athens. Heilmeier, W–D. 1982 Frühgriechische Kunst: Kunst und Siedlung im geometrischen Griechenland, Berlin. Hellmann, M.-C. 1989 ‘Encore des hexagones’, BCH 113, 149–60. 2002 L’Architecture grecque, 2 vols., Paris. Hemans, F.P. 2015 ‘The archaic temple of Poseidon: problems of design and invention’, in E.R. Gebhard and T.E. Gregory (eds) Bridge of the Untiring Sea: The Corinthian Isthmus from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, Hesperia Suppl. 48, Princeton, 39–63. Hermann, K., 1976 ‘Beobachtungen zur Schatzhausarchitektur Olympias’, in U. Jantzen (ed.) Neue Forschungen in griechischen Heiligtümern. Internationales Symposion in Olympia vom 10. bis 12.Oktober 1974 anlässlich der Hundertjahrfeier der Abteilung Athen und der deutschen Ausgrabungen in Olympia, Tübingen, 321–50. Hoffelner, K. 2014 ‘Der geometrische Kultplatz im Apollon–Heiligtum von Ägina’, Archaiologiki Ephemeris 153, 23–50. Kanellopoulos, C. and Kolia, E. 2014 Ancient Keryneia of Aigialeia: topography and architecture in the sanctuary of Profitis Elias’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 126, 137–76. Kienast, H.J. 2001 ‘Samische Monumentalarchitektur-Ägyptischer Einfluß?’, in M. Bietak (ed.) Archaische griechische Tempel und Altäg ypten, Vienna, 35–9.
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture Kissas, K. 2008 Archaische Architektur der Athener Akropolis: Dachziegel, Metopen, Geisa, Akroterbasen, Archäologische Forschungen 24, Wiesbaden. Klein, L.N. 2016a ‘How buildings were constructed’, in Miles (ed.) 2016, 105–18. 2016b ‘Internationalism in architecture: Olympia’, in Miles (ed.) 2016, 121–34. Kokkorou-Alevras, G. 1995 ‘Die Archaische Naxische Bildhauerei’, Antike Plastik 24, 37–130. 2002 ‘Αρχαϊκή Λακωνική Γλυπτική. Θέματα και Κοινωνία’, in Πρακτικά Α΄ Τοπικού Συνεδρίου Λακωνικών Σπουδών, Athens, 123–44. 2011–12‘ “Throne” of Apollo Amyklaios. provenance of the stones: preliminary conclusions’, in S. Vlizos and A. Delivorrias (eds) Amycles Research Project: Works 2005–10, Athens, 139–48. 2012 ‘Caryatid head in the Sparta Archaeological Museum and the provenance of the archaic Greek perirrhanteria’, in G. Kokkorou-Alevras and W.-D. Niemeier (eds) Neue Funde archaischer Plastik aus griechischen Heiligtümern und Nekropolen: Internationales Symposion, Athen, 2–3 November 2007, Munich, 19–31. 2014 ‘Άγαλμα κόρης, ανάθημα της Ναξίας Νικάνδρης, από τη Δήλο’, in G. Despinis and N. Kaltsas (eds) Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο: Κατάλογος Γλυπτών I.1, Athens, 3–10. 2017 ‘The birthplace of Greek monumental sculpture revisited’, in X. Charalambidou and C. Morgan (eds) Interpreting the Seventh Century bc: Tradition and innovation, Oxford, 24–30. Kokkorou-Alevras, G., Poupaki, E., Eustathopoulos, A. and Chatzikonstantinou, A. 2014 Corpus Αρχαίων Λατομείων: Λατομεία του Ελλαδικού Χώρου από τους προϊστορικούς έως τους μεσαιωνικούς χρόνους, Athens. Kolia, E. and Gadolou, A. 2011 ‘Ναός Γεωμετρικών Χρόνων στα Νικολέϊκα Αχαΐας, Πρώτη παρουσίαση της ανασκαφής’, in A. Mazarakis-Ainian (ed.) ‘The Dark Ages’ Revisited: Acts of an International Symposium in Memory of William D.E. Coulson, University of Thessaly, Volos, June 14–17, 2007, Volos, 191–209. Kyrieleis, H. 1980 Führer durch das Heraion von Samos, Athens. Mallwitz, A. 1972 Olympia und seine Bauten, München. Marcadé, J. and Croissant, F. 1991 ‘La sculpture en pierre’, in École française d’Athènes (ed.) Guide de Delphes: le musée, Paris, 29–138. Mazarakis-Ainian, A. 1997 From Rulers’ Dwellings to Temples: Architecture, religion and society in Early Iron Age Greece. SIMA 121, Jonsered. 2000 Όμηρος και Αρχαιολογία, Athens. 2017 ‘Conservatism versus innovation’, in X. Charalambidou and C. Morgan (eds) Interpreting the Seventh Century bc: Tradition and innovation, Oxford, 173–85.
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Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras Miles, M.M. (ed.) 2016 A Companion to Greek Architecture, Chichester. Morgan, C. 2009 ‘The Early Iron Age’, in K.A. Raaflaub and H. van Wees (eds) A Companion to Archaic Greece, Oxford, 43–63. 2017 ‘Corinthian sanctuaries and the question of cult buildings’, in X. Charalambidou and C. Morgan (eds) Interpreting the Seventh Century bc: Tradition and innovation, Oxford, 193–211. Morris, I. 2009 ‘The eighth-century revolution’, in K.A. Raaflaub and H. van Wees (eds) A Companion to Archaic Greece, Oxford, 64–80. Mostratos, G. 2013 ‘Οι Αετωματικές Συνθέσεις των Πελοποννησιακών Ναών του 4ου αι. π.Χ’, PhD thesis, University of Athens: http://hdl.handle.net/10442/hedi/29260. Neer, R. 2007 ‘Delphi, Olympia, and the Art of Politics’, in H.A. Shapiro (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece, Cambridge, 225–64. Ohnesorg, A. 1993 Inselionische Marmordächer, Denkmäler antiker Architektur 18.2, Berlin. Østby, E. 1986 ‘The archaic temple of Athena Alea at Tegea’, Opuscula Atheniensia 16, 75–102. 2001 ‘Der Ursprung der griechischen Tempelarchitektur und ihre Beziehungen mit Ägypten’, in M. Bietak (ed.) Archaische griechische Tempel und Altäg ypten, Vienna, 17–33. Palagia, O. and Maniatis, Y. 2015 ‘Naxian or Parian? Preliminary examination of the Sounion and Dipylon kouroi’, in P. Pensabene and E. Gasparini (eds) Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone, ASMOSIA X, Rome, 593–607. Papapostolou, I.A. 2014 Το Ιερό του Θέρμου στην Αιτωλία: Ιστορία–Μνημεία–Περιήγηση του Χώρου, Athens. Partida, E.K. 2000 ‘Αρχιτεκτονικά ΄Eργα σε Παριανό μάρμαρο στους Δελφούς’, in D. Schilardi and D. Katsonopoulou (eds) Paria Lithos: Parian Quarries, Marble and Workshops of Sculpture. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeolog y of Paros and the Cyclades, Paros, 2–5 October 1997, Athens, 355–63. Petropoulos, M. 1992–93 ‘Περίπτερος αψιδωτός γεωμετρικός ναός στο Άνω Μαζαράκι (Ρακίτα Πατρών)’, in Πρακτικά του Δ΄ Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου Πελοποννησιακών Σπουδών (Κόρινθος 1990), Athens, 141–58. 1997 ‘Nεώτερα στοιχεία από την ανασκαφή του γεωμετρικού ναού στο άνω Μαζαράκι (Ρακίτα) Πατρών’ in Πρακτικά Ε΄ Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου Πελοποννησιακών Σπουδών, Nauplion, 162–92. 2001 ‘Γεωμετρικός ναός Ρακίτας– Λατρευόμενη θεότητα,’ in V. Mitsopoulos-Leon (ed.) Forschungen in der Peloponnes: Akten des Symposiums anlässlich der Feier
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Marble: a luxury material in early Greek architecture 100 Jarhe Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut Athen, Athens 1998, Athens, 39–45. 2002 ‘The Geometric Temple at Ano Mazaraki (Rakita) in Achaia during the Period of Colonisation’, in E. Greco (ed.) Gli Achei e l’identità etnica degli Achei d’Occidente, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Paestum, 23–25 febbraio 2001, Paestum and Athens, 143–66. Scott, M. 2016 ‘Prestige in Greek sanctuaries: Delphi’, in Miles (ed.) 2016, 135–46. Schuller, M. 1985 ‘Die dorische Architektur der Kykladen in spätarchaischer Zeit’, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 100, 319–98. Snodgrass, A.M. 1977 Archaeolog y and the Rise of the Greek State, Cambridge. Spyropoulos, Th.G. 2013 Λακεδαίμων, 3 vols., Athens. Tomlinson, R.A. 1992 ‘The Menelaion and Spartan architecture’, in J. M. Sanders (ed.) Φιλολάκων: Laconian Studies in Honour of Hector Catling, London, 247–55. Vordos, A. 1999–2001 ‘Ο ναός στην Τράπεζα Αιγίου’, Archaiologika Analekta Athinon 32–38, 149–59. 2001 ‘Τράπεζα Αιγίου. Επιφανειακή έρευνα του αρχαιολογικού χώρου’, in V. Mitsopoulos-Leon (ed.) Forschungen in der Peloponnes: Akten des symposiums anlässlich der Feier ‘100 Jarhe Österreichisches Archäologisches Intitut Athen’, Athen 5.3–7.3.1998, Athens, 47–54. 2002 ‘Rhypes: à la recherche de la métropole achéenne’, in E. Greco (ed.) Gli Achei e l’identità etnica degli Achei d’Occidente, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, (Paestum, 23–25 Febbraio 2001), Paestum and Athens, 217–34. Wesenberg, B. 1971 Kapitelle und Basen, Düsseldorf.
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11 PATHS TO WEALTH IN CENTRAL GREECE, IONIA AND THE PELOPONNESE Sarah C. Murray The purpose of this paper is to consider whether socioeconomic mobility was a significant feature of life in Archaic and early Classical Greece. Specifically, I examine what kind of information we can extract from our existing sources about how and whether it was possible to become wealthy if you did not already possess wealth, and how paths to wealth varied regionally, a topic that has drawn little attention from scholars of the ancient economy. Preliminaries For this line of thinking to be valid at all it is necessary to show that ancient Greeks actually wanted to become wealthy, and that we are not simply projecting a desire for riches onto them from a profit-obsessed modernity. Second, it is necessary to show that paths to wealth were available, that social and economic mobility was clearly present in Archaic Greece. Did ancient Greeks have an insatiable lust for profit? Although many of our sources criticize those with an unquenchable desire for wealth, and although elites often praise moderation as a virtue in opposition to acquisitiveness, it is clear that overall in ancient Greece ‘the facts of material scarcity and people’s desire to maximize gain were taken for granted.’1 The desire for gain seems to be something that is hard-wired in human minds and certainly played a prominent role in driving the behavior of Greeks.2 Is there evidence for economic mobility in ancient Greece? Many Greek states were patrimonial wealth-based agrarian economies, in which a minority lived off the work of the rest of the population, including a sizable proportion of slave labor and work by lower-status citizens.3 These are the kind of social and economic communities in which we might expect to observe highly concentrated wealth, with an upper class that rarely faced sustained assaults. But this is not an accurate description
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Sarah C. Murray of the stability of wealth in ancient Greece. Instead, the (elite) authors of Greek poetry and history seem often to be obsessed with the inability of anyone to hold onto wealth in the long run.4 In short, there is ample and thoroughgoing evidence that so-called ‘base’ individuals could become wealthy in Archaic and Early Classical Greece. Paths to Wealth: Regional Patterns Since this is not what we might expect from a typical agrarian economy, it is necessary to explain this evidence of what were apparently a multitude of opportunities for wealth acquisition and social climbing in Archaic and early Classical Greece. How could such a scenario have arisen? The most obvious answer is a Marxist one: the working class, realizing that their lot in life was becoming unbearably hopeless, rose up in violence against the wealthy minority.5 The rise of tyrants, champions of the people selected by non-institutional means, who seized wealth and power by force, was a defining sociopolitical reality of the Archaic world.6 Although the sparse landscape of early Greek legal texts demonstrates an interest in maintaining social order within some communities, it seems as though many other communities were not structured in a way that created compelling institutional disincentives to the pursuit of individual or familial self-interest in terms of wealth acquisition. In general, mechanisms for the non-violent arbitration of disputes were not well-developed in most parts of Archaic Greece. In such situations, individuals seeking to acquire wealth might often have chosen to do so through direct interpersonal violence.7 However, when we examine the evidence in greater detail, it becomes clear that acquisitiveness does not take a purely coercive form in Greek history. In addition, volatility of wealth and commonality of violent acquisitiveness did not exist uniformly in all communities. In what follows I focus on the textual evidence for non-coercive paths to wealth. This approach demands some explanation, since ancient literary sources are regarded as a marginal guide to the economy, especially when it comes to the ancient Peloponnese. Few Archaic texts are written by Peloponnesian authors, the sources for Sparta are famously skewed,8 the content and tone of lyric poems were impacted by the context within which and the audience to whom they were performed,9 and many of our sources for the seventh, sixth, and fifth centuries are not contemporary and are subject to anachronistic distortions. However, while it is correct to harbor methodological reservations about approaching the economy from literary sources, it would be imprudent to discount them entirely, since they provide invaluable insights into the ideological constraints
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese within which the ancient economy necessarily operated. In my approach to the textual evidence, I draw primarily on principles of cultural history. Along these lines, I contend that, while we cannot expect literary and historical texts to give us ‘hard facts’ about the economy, they can reveal prevailing attitudes and opinions among authors and intended audiences, and thereby provide a rough guide to the way that these individuals and groups feel the world does or ought to work (generally within a register or two of reality).10 Hence we should expect that the anecdotal relationships between different economic and social classes that appear in the literature of various periods, and different countries, from Herodotus in fifth-century Greece through Jane Austen in Regency England to Honoré de Balzac in France of the July Monarchy, should provide a sense of what kinds of beliefs people held about economic mobility and what sorts of wealth acquisition were within the realm of possibility in these discrete historical, social, and economic moments. In Figure 1, I present a thematic and geographic topography of instances in Herodotus’ Histories in which someone acquired something new of value (leaving aside intra-elite acquisitive strategies like inheritance 1.89
6.83
8.122
Persian soldiers sack Sardis
Themistocles demands money from islanders
2.152
Large reward for Artemisia
coercion/violence 3.58
3.40
Polycrates raiding in east Aegean
5.6
8.138
9.80
2.121 1.69-70
Sons of builder
1.61?
Argive mercenaries
trade
9.81
Pausanias gets 1/10 of Pheidon seizes spoils from Plataea Olympia + Festival
Aeginetans get good price on Plataea spoils from helots
Salmoxis the slave
Argives gained control of district & capture all Macedonia
Samians take 100 talents from Siphnians Best way to wealth is spoils of war
6.127
4.151 Coroibus 1.30? Tellus the Athenian 1.94 Lydian prostitutes 4.95 labor earn dowry
Rhodopis earned freedom + fortune
8.93
1.92
Croesus takes Pantaleonʼs property
Ionian + Carian raiders “out for rich pickings”
4.152
4.152
Samos takes Spartan bowl
thieves tunnel into palace
7.164
3.47
9.116
5.6
5.63
7.144
1.64
6.100
PELOPONNESE
8.4-5 Themistocles
6.121 6.47
8.105 3.53 Panionius the Chian
ATTICA
3.58
“knowledge performance”
4.88
Mandrocles rewarded for bridge
3.130
8.122
9.81
Plataea spoils to Delphi
1.92
7.132
Aeginetans send gold stars
Medizers --> Delphi
1.50–1
Croesus –> Delphi, Amphiareon Croesus –> Delphi
2.180
2.182
3.140
Syloson the Samian + Dariusʼs cloak
ISLANDS THE EAST
3.57
Siphnians–> Delphi
1.54
Croesus –> Delphians Amasis –> Lindos, Samos, Cyrene
patronage, gifts
Siphnians could make money from loan to Samos?
Siphnian wealth distributed among citizen body
CENTRAL+ NORTH
9.38
3.131
Amasis + Greeks in Egypt ---> Delphi
investment/capital
Phocaeans try to buy Chian islands
Leotychidas
taking a bribe
Pisistratusʼs investments P.ʼs land sold locally + Strymon Thasian gold mines to Callias
Lavrion mines distro
6.72
Delphians bribed by Alkm.
Euboeans take bribe
1.64
find Persian gold
Melampus Democedes saves the king demands kingship for healing
Artayctes stole from tomb
sell children
Gold from sky in Scythia
hired with gold from Sardis
9.34
Samos takes Amasis breastplate
Histaeus wants to rob sanctuary to raise army
4.5
9.83 Plataeans
Elean diviner in service at Samos
5.36
9.80
Cadmus trustworthy helots sell spoils (others not?) at Plataea
luck
7.190
Hegesistratus paid by Mardonius Tisamenus becomes a Spartiate Democedes hired as state physician
3.132
4.44
Sataspesʼ eunuch robbed
Sciton gets “sloppy seconds”
Ameinocles finds washed up Persian gold
1.154 Ionian mercenaries
9.33
Samians in Spain Sostratus of Aegina
theft/cunning
2.150
3.130
2.135
Argive slaves take over
6.125
Megacles helps Croesus + his family becomes rich
3.122
Polycrates + Oroetes
Fig. 1. Visualization of instances in Herodotus’ Histories of individuals acquiring wealth, arrayed according to ‘categories’ of the means of acquisition.
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Sarah C. Murray and marriage). The entries are grouped around categories that I have created in order to sort attested methods of wealth acquisition in the Histories. The book and chapter notations are shaded according to the regional location of the acquisitive activity or, in some cases, the regional affiliation of the acquisitive individual. (Some entries, marked with a ‘?’ and a ghosted appearance, are instances in which the nature or certainty of acquisition is unclear.) Figure 1 shows that Herodotus provides testimony for a wide variety of mechanisms through which someone or some group could acquire significant material gain. It indicates that taking possession of goods by force is the most commonly-attested method of gaining wealth and seems to happen everywhere, including in the Peloponnese.11 Episodes of forceful acquisition at scale, such as the Spartan conquest of Messenia and the Elean acquisition of the sanctuary of Olympia, play a prominent role in later historical constructions of Archaic Peloponnesian affairs. It has rightly been pointed out that the historicity of these events is questionable.12 However, the fact that such accounts were taken seriously in an ancient Greek context strongly suggests that acquiring territory through force was not an implausible or uncommon strategy.13 In second place, behind coercive force, is knowledge performance, whereby individuals for material gain employ non-material skills or knowledge that are in some way mysterious or difficult for the wealthy to provide for themselves, no matter how much money they have.14 This category of ‘social mobility’ encompasses the meteoric rise of people like Democedes the Crotonian doctor, who healed the Persian king and was rewarded with untold riches.15 Other categories of gain that we can glimpse in a Herodotean world include trade (though Herodotus was not very interested in this), finds of money, accepting bribes, selling and leasing material goods, land, or humans (presumably but not explicitly for a profit), and work in the form of prostitution and mercenary labor.16 In the context of the current argument, it is important to note that very little of this acquisitive activity takes place in the Peloponnese.17 This might lead us to suspect that there were fewer paths to wealth in the Peloponnese than in central Greece or Ionia. At the same time, we must be cautious in making too much of that apparent regional pattern, since most of Herodotus’ stories take place in the East. We can, however, test the impression we get from Herodotus by checking it against other written sources that discuss attitudes towards entrenched or ephemeral wealth. Figure 2 sets out discussions of value judgments about wealth or its acquisition in the corpus of Pindar’s odes.18 It lays out data regarding six different attitudes to wealth, as expressed in the
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese 7.17-20
9.31-3
8.37-9
Nonmaterial goods superior to wealth 9.45-7
Wealth from the gods is the best wealth
7.58-60
8.88-92
Nonmaterial goods superior to wealth
Material conditions capricious
9.45-7
7.58-60
9.3-4
Wealth from the gods is the best wealth 3.104-10
Affluence praised
1.46-50
Affluence praised
1.8-11
Olympian 7.1-4
Nonmaterial goods superior to wealth
6.71-4
Peace + order = wealth
Wealth from the gods is the best wealth
6.71-4
2.53-6
3.4-6 THE EAST Affluence praised
5.23-4
8.73-8
5.1-14
1.67-8
Affluence praised along with nonmaterial virtues
2.8-11
Material conditions capricious
2.56-61 3.104-10
6.47--9
Acquisitiveness makes people worse Material conditions capricious
4.148-51
3.104-10
Affluence should go along with nonmaterial virtues
11.11-6
13.3-10
Wealth from the gods is the best wealth
8.13-4
Pythian
8.73-8
4.148-51
Acquisitiveness makes people worse
11.52-3
12.28-30
2.56-61
Nonmaterial goods superior to wealth
6.47-9
2.26-30
Affluence should go along with nonmaterial virtues
Affluence praised
4.139-41
3.54-7
11.47-8
Acquisitiveness makes people worse
Nemean
8.17-8
5.18-19
9.31-3
7.17-20
3/4.17a-b
3/4.1-3
Acquisitiveness makes people worse
Isthmian
Material conditions capricious
Affluence should go along with nonmaterial virtues 3/4.1-3 5.11-15
Fig. 2. Visualization of the ‘geography’ of six attitudes towards wealth expressed in Pindar’s epinikia, arranged according to the ‘Crown Games’ with which they were associated.
four groups of epinikia associated with each of the ‘Crown Games’, along with annotations of the ode and line where each attitude is expressed.19 The individual citations enable one to calculate how many passages in each group of odes express each of the six attitudes. What is interesting, especially in light of the tentative conclusions drawn from Herodotus’s Histories (that there were fewer avenues to wealth in the Peloponnese than in central or eastern Greece) is that the odes for Olympic victors are totally devoid of statements casting aspersions upon the nouveaux riches, lamenting the capriciousness of wealth, or asserting that only god-given wealth is good wealth. In contrast, these kinds of statements are common in the odes for Pythian victors.20 Discussions of wealth in odes for the Nemean and Isthmian games are more varied, but in general both corpora contain ample praise of wealth in general along with fewer expressions of annoyance with acquisitiveness and newly-gotten wealth than the Pythian odes. We could interpret this evidence in a variety of ways, but I suggest that it reflects the fact that there was less capricious
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Sarah C. Murray mobility of wealth in the Peloponnese, and these topics were therefore of less interest or concern to participants in the Peloponnesian games or the audiences of their epinikia. If we expand our view to encompass Greek lyric poetry, the pattern is persistent. Vitriol about base men rising up to become wealthy, and vice versa, seems limited to poets working in poleis outside the Peloponnese. The poetry of the notionally Megarian Theognidian corpus is often concerned with the idea that base individuals can and do become wealthy, and such ideas are present in Solon’s writings as well.21 Simonides, from the island of Keos, among other Cycladic and eastern Aegean poets, also treats the fragility of good fortune as a poetic topic: ἄνθρωπος ἐὼν μή ποτε φάσῃς ὅ τι γίνεται αὔριον, μηδ᾿ ἄνδρα ἰδὼν ὄλβιον ὅσσον χρόνον ἔσσεται·ὠκεῖα γὰρ οὐδὲ τανυπτερύγου μυίαςοὕτως ἁ μετάστασις.
Being human, then, never declare what is going to happen tomorrow, nor, seeing a prosperous man, say how long he will be so. For not even the flap of a long-winged fly is so fleeting (Simonides in Stob. Ecl. 4.41.9).
On the other hand, surviving poetry attributed to the Spartans Alcman and Tyrtaeus contains no such ideas. Although based on a fragmentary corpus, the patterns in the extant evidence seem to suggest that lyric poetry in the Peloponnese, just like epinikian odes performed there, might have been less concerned with the problem of an ascendant lower class than was poetry composed elsewhere.22 This evidence points us towards a conclusion that in the Peloponnese the volatile turns of fate gripping the rest of the Greek world were not a feature of the socio-economic landscape.23 In pursuit of this conclusion, I turn to an episode from Herodotus in which this possibility is stated explicitly. In book 6 of the Histories, we learn by way of a Spartan tale told by King Leotychidas that, three generations before his time, a wealthy Milesian was so worried about the fact that wealth was constantly changing hands in Ionia, that he liquidated half of his property and brought it to Sparta where there was more stability, and where wealth was safe:24 ἐπικίνδυνος ἐστὶ αἰεί κοτε ἡ Ἰωνίη, ἡ δὲ Πελοπόννησος ἀσφαλέως ἱδρυμένη, καὶ διότι χρήματα οὐδαμὰ τοὺς αὐτούς ἐστι ὁρᾶν ἔχοντας. ταῦτά τε ὦν ἐπιλεγομένῳ καὶ βουλευομένῳ ἔδοξέ μοι τὰ ἡμίσεα πάσης τῆς οὐσίης ἐξαργυρώσαντα θέσθαι παρὰ σέ, εὖ ἐξεπισταμένῳ ὥς μοι κείμενα ἔσται παρὰ σοὶ σόα.
Ionia is always such a risky place compared with the stability of the Peloponnese, and there, as everyone sees, property never stays in the same hands. With these thoughts and ideas in my head, I decided to convert half
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese my property into silver, and to deposit with you, because I had no doubt that in your hands it would be safe (Hdt. 6.86 α.4–5).
If we accept the cumulative evidence from Herodotean accounts of the reversals of fortune and their regional distribution, from Olympian epinikia and from Peloponnesian lyric, along with the explicit statement by the Milesian about the stability of wealth in Sparta, then we can state with some confidence that to ‘get rich quick’ may not have been a pervasive possibility for ‘base’ men in the Peloponnese. Explaining Regional Variation The first direction we might look in seeking to explain Peloponnesian exceptionalism might be growth. Strong growth tends to undermine the importance of patrimonial wealth, because it creates opportunities for the seeding of new fortunes by sources other than existing capital.25 Although the level of growth achievable by natural means (i.e. demographic growth) or technological advances in the ancient world must have been low,26 growth differentials between the economies of archaic states at the core of Greece and of those at the margins, where colonization was adding new opportunities for landed wealth, may have played some role in forming the apparent distinctions between the Peloponnese and other parts of Greece. But it does not help us to understand volatility in Ionia or central Greece, where Greeks had been settled for a long time and growth probably was not particularly strong compared to the Peloponnese.27 More compelling is the idea that destructive military activity might have played a prominent role as an equalizer and bringer of socioeconomic chaos in the east, and especially in Ionia. Places in which destruction and seizure of capital were most common would be characterized by more volatility in wealth and greater opportunities to acquire it. The massive amount of military action in Ionia and the Persian invasions of Greece during the sixth and fifth centuries must have destroyed many fortunes and set many communities back on an egalitarian footing purely by attrition.28 The notion that social leveling could have occurred by way of attrition due to disruptive violence was not alien to the ancient Greeks, as demonstrated by the (possibly apocryphal) story of Argives who were killed in such large numbers by the Spartans that their slaves took over the city.29 More plausibly, the comments in Aristotle’s Politics about Sparta’s early wars again suggest an explicit connection between military strife and social instability: ἔτι ὅταν οἱ μὲν ἀπορῶσι λίαν οἱ δ᾿ εὐπορῶσιν (καὶ μάλιστα ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις τοῦτο γίνεται, συνέβη δὲ καὶ τοῦτο ἐν Λακεδαίμονι ὑπὸ τὸν Μεσσηνιακὸν
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Sarah C. Murray πόλεμον—δῆλον δὲ [καὶ τοῦτο] ἐκ τῆς Τυρταίου ποιήσεως τῆς καλουμένης Εὐνομίας· θλιβόμενοι γάρ τινες διὰ τὸν πόλεμον ἠξίουν ἀνάδαστον ποιεῖν τὴν χώραν).
Furthermore, factions arise whenever some are extremely poor and others are well off (and this happens especially during wars; it happened too in Sparta during the Messenian War, as is clear from Tyrtaios’ poem called Eunomia. For some, hard-pressed because of the war, demanded a redistribution of the land). (Pol. 1306b36–1307a3).
According to Aristotle, then, it is precisely during times of war that factions arise and cause problems in society, because some people are brought low and want a redistribution of the land. In the context of an agrarian society, and given the emphasis on times of military struggle, this might be taken to mean that land is regularly destroyed, made useless, or taken as a direct result of war and this destruction of capital directly feeds into a sense of frustrated helplessness on the part of those who previously had comfortable or secure lives.30 While it is generally clear that there was probably never a period without regional warfare in the Archaic Peloponnese, it may be that these skirmishes did not result in the kind of subversion or flattening of the socioeconomic order that occurred in the major invasions and conquests in northern and eastern Greece in the same periods.31 It might be plausible to propose, therefore, that it was partly the absence of socially disruptive episodes of violence or warfare in the regions in and around Sparta after the Messenian conquest (if such a conquest can be taken as historical), and the concomitant frequency of such divisive and disruptive conflicts in other regions of Greece, that contributed to the relative absence of socioeconomic volatility in places like Sparta in comparison with places like Miletus. Finally, what is the role of labor in social mobility in the Archaic world? While Hesiod indicates that hard work may bring a certain level of material security,32 most farmers in Greece were probably not capable of making new fortunes simply by working the land. However, Archaic Greece saw an explosion of craft industries in which banausoi could differentiate their products and probably make good money simply by working hard.33 There is ample evidence from Classical Athens that craftsmen could actually be wealthy members of the community.34 So there must have been a fair amount of upward mobility among the best sculptors, bronze workers, and potter/painters in places where these arts were enthusiastically practiced, including Corinth, Athens, and many places in the East.35 Perhaps these kinds of artisans belong in the same category of acquisitive individuals as other ‘knowledge workers’ like singers, oracle-mongers,
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese seers, and doctors.36 In an institutional environment in which direct interpersonal violence was strongly discouraged and community-scale acquisitiveness through conquest was not commonly presented as an opportunity for personal enrichment, these kinds of people posed the biggest threat to the stranglehold of a landed elite on access to riches. The threat that such workers posed to the existing socioeconomic order, and the deeply entrenched nature of that order at Sparta in particular, may help to explain an interesting point made by Herodotus in regard to craftsmen, that although all Greeks carry some disdain for craftspeople, the Spartans were the most antithetic to such workers while the Corinthians were the least (Hdt. 2.167.2). Likewise, Xenophon may be referring to the Spartans when he states that ‘in some poleis, and especially in those with a reputation for being warlike, it is not even lawful for any of the citizens to work at crafts’.37 It is not possible to pursue the question of the relationship between varying levels of socioeconomic mobility through mechanisms of violence or technical competence in the current context, but the variance of attitudes towards professions that offered opportunities for economic mobility in communities with different histories of violence and warfare could be an interesting area for further inquiry. In addition to an apparently unusually negative attitude towards craftspeople among Spartans, there is some evidence that the Spartan state developed official policies that prevented talent from reaching its potential, and encouraged heritable rather than merit-based allocation of particular professional pursuits.38 It is perhaps not surprising, in this case, that while we do know of some Spartan sculptors and artisans and while Laconian art from the Archaic period is of remarkably high quality, compared with everywhere else in the Greek world, the number of well-attested craftsmen and artists from Sparta is relatively small.39 In general, in Laconian as opposed to Attic art, artists did not sign their names to their works, even when they added writing to the piece.40 The presence of excellent art by unnamed artists may suggest that what has sometimes been taken as a blanket austerity policy against the arts and hostility to craftsmen41 was rather a carefully considered set of political policies and social practices aimed at suppressing the potential for artists and technicians to become renowned, famous, or rich. From this point of view, it may not have been the presence of excellent art, but the potential for technically excellent artisans to upset the prevailing sociopolitical order (a potential that the Spartans observed happening in other communities) that drove Spartan attitudes and policies towards craftspeople.42
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Sarah C. Murray Conclusions In this paper I have argued that we can observe divergences in the textual record between bigger opportunities for economic advancement in Central Greece and Ionia and smaller opportunities in the Peloponnese. The lack of much growth in the Peloponnese, combined with a lack of major wars that decimated entire populations and the accumulated capital of wealthy people, thus upsetting the social order, generally allowed those with wealth to maintain control of it, while such control tended to slip from the grasp of Greek socioeconomic elites elsewhere. In addition, at least at Sparta, state institutions were used to diminish stray opportunities for upward mobility, like through trade and the arts, which the Spartans observed creating new rich individuals and groups elsewhere.
Notes 1 Morris 2002, 20. A streak of hostility against explicit profit-seeking, especially among the lower classes, can be observed in Solonian poetry (e.g. Vlastos 1946, 75–6) and throughout Greek literature (Morris 2000, 114–85); but this is unlikely to indicate a world in which profit was genuinely undesirable. 2 e.g. Phocylides fr. 7; Solon fr. 13.7–8; Theognis fr. 4.179–80. 3 For the role of slaves in the Greek economy, see Lewis 2018. For the restrictiveness of Athenian citizenship, Sinclair 1988, 24–7. For the general preference for income from rents over income from labor see, e.g., Aeschin. 1.97; Xen. Apol. 29; cf. Davies 1971, 40–1. 4 Crane 1996; Shapiro 1994; on Croesus in particular, Evans 1978, 34–5. For ill-gotten fortunes in Herodotus, Lateiner 1989, 144; Lateiner 1982. Theognis and Solon express this sentiment with great regularity (the tone and breadth of the trope is fully explored in Figueira 1995). For Solonian views of wealth and the justice of its acquisition (and loss), Vlastos 1946, 75–82. 5 For violent assassinations and populist support of tyrants, Riess 2006. For masses supporting the ascent of tyrants, see Ste. Croix (1981, 278–83), who follows Aristotle’s statements comparing monarchy, which helps the already well-to-do, and tyranny, which helps the multitudes to confront unjust treatment (Pol. 1310b9–16). 6 Mitchell 2013. 7 Episodes include Polycrates’ exploits (Hdt. 3.40; 3.58), the raiding and pillaging of Ionians and Carians in Egypt (1.89), Croesus’ treatment of Pantaleon (1.92), Themistokles’ extortion of the islanders (8.122), and the behavior of the Argive emigrants in Macedonia (8.138). The Thracians explicitly state, in book 5, that ‘the best way to make a living…is off the spoils of war’ (5.6.2). 8 On the Spartan mirage, see recently Christesen 2004; Cartledge 2001, 169–84. 9 For performative contexts, Athanassaki 2014; Boedeker 2012; Bowie 2010; Carey 2010. 10 This approach is espoused by Robert Darnton in The Great Cat Massacre (1984). The general idea is consistent with the tenets of the new historicism that had a major
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese impact on Leslie Kurke’s approach to Archaic Greece (e.g. Kurke 1999) and on the debate about the history of coinage that has developed along the same lines (von Reden 1995, 171–217; Seaford 1994, 199–234). 11 See Gottesman (2010) for a collection of stories that suggest a Greek belief that land or property taken by force was generally a sign that the gods were on the side of the conqueror. A representative example the story of Aletes from a scholion to Pindar (schol. Nem. 7.155a). 12 For doubts about the historicity of the Messenian conquest, Luraghi 2008. The fraught issue of the early history of Pisatis and Elis and their quarrels over Olympia has been much discussed (e.g. Bourke 2018; Giangiulio 2009; Möller 2004; Nafissi 2004). 13 Thommen 2014, 119–20; Figueira and Figueira 2009; the papers in Luraghi and Alcock 2003. For the early history of Elis, Viedebantt 1930. For the relationship between Elis and Pisa in the proto-historic period, Christesen 2007, 53–4; Crowther 1988. For the paradigmatic rather than exceptional nature of Spartan imperialism, van Wees 2003. 14 For independent diviners and other ‘knowledge performers’ in the courts of tyrants and kings, Dillery 2005. 15 Hdt. 3.123. Another well-known example is Arion (Hdt. 1.23–4); on Arion, see Kowalzig 2013; Zimmerman 2000. 16 Trade is mentioned as a source of socioeconomic mobility only twice in Herodotus (both at Hdt. 4.152, the story of Sostratus of Aegina and the Samians’ ‘accidental’ expedition to Spain). Bribery, mentioned at least four times in the Histories (5.63; 6.72; 6.100; 8.4–5; see Wallace 1974 for skepticism about the Euboean bribery of Themistocles at Artemisium) was surely much more common than it appears to have been through the literary lens. The sale of ‘capital’, material, human, or property is more widely attested, as is ‘labor’ in the form of prostitution (1.94; 2.135) or mercenary service (1.154; 1.61). On prostitutes, Keesling 2006. On mercenaries, Trundle 2004. 17 Apart from coercive acquisition, there are only five certain instances of individual social mobility involving Peloponnesians or occurring in the Peloponnese in the Histories. These involve knowledge performance, perhaps lending credence to the reputation of Peloponnesians, especially Eleans, as superlative knowledge performers (for the prominence of Elean seers, especially at Sparta, Taita 2001) and/or the thrall of Spartans to divine messages and oracles of all kinds (Powell 2009; Robinson 1992). Leotychidas’ acceptance of a bribe is supposed to show the infrequency of this kind of wealth-seeking at Sparta (Hdt. 6.72; cf. Scheiber 1982), and the same could be said about the behavior of the helots illicitly stealing and selling spoils after Plataea (Hdt. 9.80; see Hunt 1997). 18 Citations in the visualizations for Pindar’s odes are given after the editions found in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: Canon of Greek Authors and Works 2 (Oxford, 1986). 19 The categories of ‘value judgements’ are not inherent to Pindar’s poetry but have been chosen to organize the information in ways that make the patterns within it immediately apparent. See Figueira (1995, 56–60) for an alternative categorization of these judgments. 20 This overabundance of expressions of the treacherousness of newly-gotten
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Sarah C. Murray gains may be interestingly opposed with the apparent shrewdness of the Apolline oracle in securing for itself massive amounts of private wealth (Figure 1; Blackman and Adam 2000; Jordan 1999; Parke 1984). 21 See Figueira (1995) for a complete list of references to the idea in Archaic lyric poetry that acquisitiveness causes problems. 22 For Tyrtaios and Alkman and their Spartan perspective on society, Thommen 2014, 115–17; Meier 2003. 23 This impression is supported by Thucydides’ statement (1.18.1) that Sparta owed much of its strength as a polis to its ability to achieve a state of internal political (and presumably economic) stability at an early date. See Cartledge 2001, 27–36. 24 Lateiner 1989, 144. An amusing homonymy (not noted by Corsano (1992) in his study of Greek Glaukos characters) exists between Herodotus’s Spartan Glaukos and Homeric Glaukos, both of which are economically unfortunate due, it seems, to a lack of good judgement. Homer’s Glaukos trades his golden armor, worth 100 oxen, for Diomedes’ bronze armor, worth 9 oxen (Hom. Il. 6.234–236; commentary in Donlan 1989), while Herodotus’ Glaukos accepts a great deal of money in a long-term trust, but then nearly betrays the agreement, apparently resulting in the eradication of his entire name and line from Spartan society. 25 Samuelson and Nordhaus 1998, 7. 26 On low demographic growth in the ancient Greek world, Bresson 2015, 203–6; Scheidel 2003; Millett 2001, 35. For the absence of technological advances that would have impacted economic growth, Finley 1965. Though dated, and perhaps excessively negative, Finley’s basic point remains valid insofar as we have no archaeological or textual evidence of such developments (Bresson 2015, 194–8; Morris 2002, 37; pace Thuc. 1.71.2–3). 27 The presence of Greeks in the broader Mediterranean world was increasing in the seventh century bce, as Greek colonists expanded into new regions (the Black Sea, Sicily) and Greek mercenaries participated in conflicts in Egypt (Hdt. 2.152–154) and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. These two prongs of economic growth are materially embodied in the apparently large quantities of new wealth flowing into Greek sanctuaries and cemeteries. 28 For example, the fate of the Xanthians in Lycia (Hdt 1.176.1) or the Persians’ general ravishing of the landscape in Thrace (Hdt 8.33). There are some fleeting indications that Greeks also thought that long periods of peace could be at least partly attributable to the lack of invasions and disruptive military conflicts. For example, a fragment of a paian to Apollo attributed to Bakkhylides states that peace brings wealth to men (fr. 4.61–2), although the relatively banal generality of the truism cautions against reading much historical meaning into it. For a similar sentiment, Ar. Peace 1201–2. 29 Hdt 6.83. For historical discussion of the likeliness of an actual slave uprising, Bourke 2011; Koiv 2003, 300–1. 30 Hodkinson 1986; 1989; 2000, chapter 3; Koiv 2003, 180–2; Link 1991, 69–105. For the purpose of my argument here, the important point is not whether Aristotle knew what he was talking about, but the apparently logical assumption that war creates feuds among people because of the attrition, and therefore complications for the social order, that it creates. 31 It is difficult to reconstruct historical events for the Archaic Peloponnese
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese with any confidence because the evidence for such events is usually so late as to provide a very weak basis upon which to deduce believable details. However, there are several indications that war was not unknown in the Archaic Peloponnese, such as Herodotus’ attestation of wars between Sparta and Tegea (Hdt. 1.66–68), the Arkadian community of Kleitor’s dedication of a statue at Olympia to commemorate their victories over neighboring towns (Paus. 5.23.7), and the narratives of conquest for Olympia and Messenia discussed in nn. 13–14, above. 32 Hes. WD. 312–13. 33 Literary descriptions of artisans or artists making good in the world can be found in many Greek texts (Plat. Prot. 327b–328a; IG II2 11954; cf. Acton 2014; important discussion in Burford 1972, 177–9). 34 Examples of artisans who must have earned enough wealth to make costly gifts to the gods include Nearchos who dedicated of a kore on the sixth acropolis, and dedications by the the fourth century ceramicists Bacchios (IG II2 11954) and Kittos (IG II2 , 4921a). Their success is despite a continuing, seemingly perpetual bias against workers in skilled craft in ancient texts (e.g. Ar. Plut. 510–526; Ar. Knights 129–149; Arist. Pol. 7 1328b37–1329a2; Plut. Per. 1.4–2.2). 35 Burford 1969. 36 Bremmer 1996; Nagy 1989. 37 Xen. Oik. 4.3. 38 Hdt. 6.60. That this prohibition applies to honorific professions (heralds, pipers, and cooks) implies that the desire to limit participation in these fields to sons who inherited the position was not necessarily related to policies designed to limit social mobility (as noted in Hodkinson 2000, 108, n. 48). However, the existence of such a policy implies a conservative and regulatory approach to the allotment of positions of prominence within Spartan society, because if an individual was extraordinarily clear-voiced and therefore stood a chance to distinguish himself as a herald, he would nonetheless be incapable of doing so, even if it were to his social benefit, because of state policies preventing such meritocratic assignment of honorific duties. See also Berthiaume 1976. 39 Lycurgus is said to have eliminated unnecessary crafts. The sources for this are late (Plut. Lyk. 9.1–5; Mor. 227c, etc.) but a few indications come from the fifth century (e.g. Kritias contrasts Milesian couches and stools with plain Spartan furniture at Ath. 483.b; Xen. Oik. 4.3). While there is much cause to doubt the fact that Spartiate homes were free of embellishments (for instance. Hdt. 6.61) or that Spartans refrained from craft production entirely (Cartledge 1976; Jeffery 1990, 200 no. 32; 201 no. 43), we have little testimony of widely-famed or even named Laconian architects or sculptors from Classical and Archaic Greece, aside from a few references in Pausanias, who is a problematic source for this period (e.g., Paus. 5.17.1–2; 5.23.7; 6.4.4; 6.9.4; 6.19.2–4). For the most recent work on Lakonian artistic production, with all of the relevant bibliographical references, Pipili 2018; Prost 2018. 40 Writing on Lakonian art is quite scarce in general compared with Corinthian or Attic art; Powell 1998, 143 n. 21) 41 For a debunking of Spartan austerity, Hodkinson 2000. For the most recent synthesis on the question of austerity and luxury at Sparta and complete bibliography, van Wees 2018.
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Sarah C. Murray I briefly note the Spartan policy to place their traders on Kythera instead of in Sparta itself (Thuc. 4.53.2–3). Compare Solon’s relationship with merchants (Ath. Pol. 11.1; Plut. Sol. 24.4), also suggested by the amphora stamped on contemporary coins (Seltman 1924). The apparent presence of Phoenician traders on Kythera (Hdt. 1.105.3) deserves mention here, but this cannot be confirmed by independent material evidence (Cartledge 1979, 122–3). 42
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Sarah C. Murray Hunt, P. 1997 ‘Helots at the battle of Plataea’, Historia 46, 129–44. Jeffery, L. 1990 The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece, Oxford. Jordan, B. 1999 ‘Archilochus fragment 22 (Campbell): a suggestion’, The Ancient World 30.1, 45–6. Keesling, C. 2006 ‘Heavenly bodies’, in C. Faraone and L. McClure (eds) Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World, Madison, 59–76. Koiv, M. 2003 Ancient Tradition and Early Greek History: The origins of states in Early-Archaic Sparta, Argos, and Corinth, Tallinn. Kowalzig, B. 2013 ‘Dancing dolphins on the wine-dark sea’, in B. Kowalzig and P. Wilson (eds) Dithyramb in Context, Oxford, 31–58. Kurke, L. 1999 Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The politics of meaning in archaic Greece, Princeton. Lateiner, D. 1982 ‘A note on the perils of prosperity in Herodotus’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie (n.s.) 125.2, 97–101. 1989 The Historical Method of Herodotus, Toronto. Lewis, D.M. 2018 Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context, c.800–146 bc, Oxford. Link, S. 1991 Landverteilung und soziale Frieden im archaischen Griechenland, Stuttgart. Luraghi, N. 2008 The Ancient Messenians: Constructions of ethnicity and memory, Cambridge. Luraghi, N. and S. Alcock (eds) 2003 Helots and their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: Histories, ideologies, structures, Cambridge, MA. Meier, M. 2003 ‘Tyrtaios: die Entstehung eines Bildes’, A&A 49, 157–82. Millett, P. 2001 ‘Productive to some purpose? The problem of ancient economic growth’, in D. Mattingly and J. Salmon (eds) Economies Beyond Agriculture in the Classical World, London, 17–48. Mitchell, L. 2013 The Heroic Rulers of Archaic and Classical Greece, London. Möller, A. 2004 ‘Elis, Olympia, und das Jahr 580 v. Chr.: zur Frage der Eroberung der Pisatis’, in R. Rollinger and C. Ulf (eds) Griechische Archaik. Interne Enwicklungen-Externe Impulse, Berlin, 249–70. Morris, I. 2000 Archaeolog y as Cultural History, New York. 2002 ‘Hard surfaces’, in P. Cartledge, E. Cohen, and L. Foxhall (eds) Money, Land, and Labour, London, 8–43.
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Paths to wealth in central Greece, Ionia and the Peloponnese Nafissi, M. 2004 ‘Class, embeddedness, and the modernity of ancient Athens’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 46.2, 378–410. Nagy, G. 1989 ‘The ‘Professional Muse’ and models of prestige in ancient Greece’, Cultural Critique 12, 133–43. Parke, H. 1984 ‘Croesus and Delphi’, GRBS 25, 209–32. Pipili, M. 2018 ‘Laconian Pottery’, in Powell (ed.) 2018, 124–53. Powell, A. 1998 ‘Sixth-century Laconian vase-painting: continuities and discontinuities with the Lykourgan ethos’, in N. Fisher and H. van Wees (eds) Archaic Greece: New approaches and new evidence, London, 119–46. 2009 ‘Divination, royalty and insecurity in classical Sparta’, Kernos 22, 35–82; reprinted with minor changes in A. Powell and S. Hodkinson (eds) Sparta: The body politic, Swansea 2010, 85–135. Powell, A. (ed.) 2018 A Companion to Sparta, vol. I, Hoboken, NJ. Prost, F. 2018 ‘Laconian Art’, in A. Powell (ed.) 2018, 154–76. Riess, W. 2006 ‘How tyrants and dynasts die: The Semantics of political assassination in fourth-century Greece’, in G. Urso (ed.) Terror et pavor: violenza, intimidazione, clandestinità nel mondo antico, Pisa, 65–88. Robinson, E. 1992 ‘Oracles and Spartan religious scruples’, Liverpool Classical Monthly 17, 131–2. Samuelson, P. and Nordhaus, W. 1998 Economics, New York and London. Seaford, R. 1994 Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and tragedy in the developing city state, Oxford. Scheiber, A. 1982 ‘Leotychidas in Thessaly’, L’Antiquité classique 51, 5–14. Scheidel, W. 2003 ‘The Greek demographic expansion: models and comparisons’, JHS 123, 120–40. Seltman, C. 1924 Athens: Its history and coinage before the Persian invasion, Cambridge. Shapiro, S. 1994 ‘Learning through suffering: Human wisdom in Herodotus’, CJ 89, 349–55. Sinclair, R. 1988 Democracy and Participation in Athens, Cambridge. Ste. Croix, G.E.M. de 1981 The Class Struggle in the Ancient World, Ithaca.
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Sarah C. Murray Taita, J. 2001 ‘Indovini stranieri al servizio dello stato spartano: un’ ‘epoikia’ elea a Sparta in una nuova iscrizione da Olimpia’, Dike 4, 39–85. Thommen, L. 2014 Die Wirtschaft Spartas, Stuttgart. Trundle, M. 2004 Greek Mercenaries: From the late archaic period to Alexander, London and New York. van Wees, H. 2003 ‘Conquerors and serfs: wars of conquest and forced labour in archaic Greece’, in N. Luraghi and S. Alcock (eds) Helots and their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: histories, ideologies, structures, Cambridge, MA, 33–80. 2018 ‘Luxury, austerity, and equality in Sparta’, in Powell (ed.) 2018, 202–35. Viedebantt, O. 1930 ‘Forschungen zur altpeloponneischen Geschichte: 2. Elis und Pisatis’, Philologus 85, 23–41. Vlastos, G. 1946 ‘Solonian justice’, Classical Philolog y 41.2, 65–83. von Reden, S. 1995 Exchange in Ancient Greece, London. Wallace, M. 1974 ‘Herodotus and Euboea’, Phoenix 28, 22–44. Zimmerman, B. 2000 ‘Eroi nel ditirambo’, in V. Pirenne-Delforge and E. Suárez de la Torre (eds) Héros et héroïnes, Liège, 15–20.
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12 AUSTERITY FOR THE POOR: IMPOSITION AND RELIEF Lucia Cecchet Speaking of austerity imposed on the poor might seem to be a paradox, yet in recent times we have witnessed many cases of such a paradox in Europe. From 2010 onwards a joint policy of the European Union’s governing bodies, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank tackled the Greek debt crisis with three bailout programmes, subscribed to by Greek national governments. Loans were accompanied by packages of austerity measures entailing severe cuts on public spending in several sectors, including the health and public pension systems. Other austerity policies – different in content and impact, but not in principle – have been applied by national governments in Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland. And, following the first package of tax increases and welfare cuts announced in 2010 by Chancellor George Osborne, austerity has not spared the UK either. Criticism of these austerity policies has in part questioned their efficacy and legitimacy, in view of their impact on the economic and social conditions of the people. But criticism has also been directed against the moralising tones that proponents of austerity policies have adopted in public discourse and against the ambiguous nature of such policies as both punitive and ‘therapeutic’ measures.1 Generalized austerity – i.e. austerity involving broader strata of a population, not specifically the wealthy – was not foreign to the Greek world. However, it was substantially different in content and purpose from its modern counterpart. This paper will discuss some cases of austerity for ordinary and poor citizens, together with certain forms of relief from austerity for the poor in the Peloponnese and in the Dorian world more broadly. In what follows, I use the term ‘austerity’ with a broad meaning, indicating not only, and not always, a condition ‘imposed’, but also a lifestyle directly linked to poverty and adopted, by necessity, by those who could not afford luxury.
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Lucia Cecchet Austerity as a means of preventing criminality: the Corinthian procedure According to the famous definition provided in Aristophanes’ Plutus (550–4), the poor person ( penes) is one who owns just the bare necessaries of life, as distinct from the beggar and the destitute ( ptochos), who lack any resources for living. However disputable the identification of ‘the bare necessaries of life’ might be,2 such a definition of poverty highlights a key point: austerity is a characteristic feature of the life of the poor. So it comes as no surprise that laws regulating austerity generally apply to those who can afford surplus spending and that they are linked by our sources to the question of excessive display of wealth by elites. However, the literary record also includes some evidence for measures of austerity specifically imposed on ordinary citizens rather than on the wealthy. In these cases, it seems, the purpose was to control the economically weak strata of the population, ensuring that they avoided making their living by dishonest means. This purpose suited the widespread belief that the poor were prone to evil and criminal deeds, attested as early as the Homeric epics and frequent in Athenian sources.3 One piece of evidence for austerity imposed on the poor is provided by a fragment of Diphilus’ comedy, Emporos, dated to the second half of the fourth century bc: A. ‘There is an excellent custom in Corinth that, if we see someone buying very expensive fish, we ask him where he makes his living from, and if he has money and his earnings cover his expenses, then we let him live in this way. But if he lives above his means, it is necessary to forbid him to continue in that way. If he does not obey, he must be punished. In the event that he lives with great expenses while owning nothing, we hand him in to the magistrate-in-charge.’ B. ‘By Heracles!’ A. ‘Clearly such a person makes his living from some dirty business. Do you understand? He certainly steals clothes at night or he breaks into other people’s houses, or he has contacts with people doing similar stuff. Or he is a sycophant (i.e. a common informer) in the Agora or a false witness. So we get rid of this kind of person.’4 (my translation)
This fragment is cryptic, as it is unclear whether Diphilus is describing a formal legal procedure in use in Corinth in his day; or whether he is attributing to Corinth a procedure used in contemporary Athens, where he lived and worked as a playwright; or whether he is referring generically to practices common in several Greek poleis. Furthermore, we cannot determine from the fragment who is conducting the investigation and in what context. However, this fragment delivers a good deal of information
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief concerning methods of public control over the private lives of the poor. In fact, it seems that the questions (posed by the magistrates?) did not address manifestly rich citizens who displayed their wealth, but rather were targeted at those suspected of living like the wealthy, although they were not rich. This procedure reminded people that they could be asked at any time to provide evidence of their sources of income, and that they could not spend more than they actually owned. The reason that the speaker provides for this procedure is that those who live above their means are likely to be criminals: such people either steal from others or have contacts with criminals. It is clear that this was a procedure not for verifying wealth for levying taxes or liturgies, but rather for verifying whether middle- and lower-class citizens were honestly earning the money they spent. Austerity in this context means living according to one’s real economic capability. It has been suggested that this set of questions was part of the public prosecution of argia – a behaviour that we can translate as ‘inactivity’, ‘idleness’ or ‘unemployment’ – and that it should be viewed in the context of the argias nomoi (laws against idleness) attested in several parts of the Greek world.5 Among Dorian communities, provisions against idleness are attested for Corinth at the time of the tyrant Periander (late seventh–early sixth century).6 Based on a reference to the Athenian nomos argias in Demosthenes’ speech Against Eubulides (57.32), it seems that at Athens a law against argia existed and that it banned unemployment. Two fragments of Lysias mention the introduction of the law and of a public prosecution (graphe¯ ) against argia by Dracon and its later inclusion in the lawcode of Solon.7 Some have argued that the purpose of the law was to curb begging.8 A ban on begging exists in Plato’s ideal city in the Laws (Leg. 936b–c; cf. Resp. 552d) and it also prescribes that beggars should be sent out of the country. A spirit not entirely different animated nineteenth-century-laws against begging and sleeping rough, such as the Vagrancy Act of 1824, still in force in England and Wales despite political campaigns and petitions calling for its repeal.9 Returning to Corinth, all we can say is that, if the procedure described in the fragment of Diphilus is based on a real historical procedure, and if a law banning unemployment (and begging?) existed there, it seems that the two were related to each other. Ordinary Corinthians were required to earn their living honestly and to regulate their private expenditures according to their earnings. In a way, the assumption that austerity on the part of ordinary citizens is a proof of a righteous and honest life has proved evergreen. The rhetoric accompanying austerity policies in contemporary Europe has linked the
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Lucia Cecchet concept of austerity with that of virtuous economy: in such economies a state does not spend beyond its actual capabilities. Public and political debate on this topic has taken a moral connotation, based on identifying the guilty and the virtuous countries. What is more, it has shifted from the level of public to that of private spending. The press and other media have contributed to propagating national stereotypes of working and spending habits based on oversimplifications of socio-economic realities: so, citizens of virtuous countries are devoted to work, pay their taxes and avoid incurring debts, while their counterparts in ‘lavish countries’ are lazy and greedy.10 The circulation of stereotypes about the lifestyles of cities, countries or peoples is certainly not a novelty. It already existed in the world of Greek poleis. It will suffice to recall the images of cities such as Sybaris – the realm of luxury – or of Sparta – the most famous example of self-restraint. However, to what extent such stereotypes match historical reality, is, as we know, an entirely different question. In contrast to today, the ancient Greeks did not employ generalized austerity as a tool for tackling economic crisis. I have argued elsewhere that they often resorted to debt relief instead, based on an awareness that debts and widespread poverty increased social conflict.11 The Corinthian procedure suggests that generalized austerity was deployed as a preventive tool against criminality, rather than as a reaction to economic crisis. Austerity as a punitive measure: the Megarian decree Quite different is the case of austerity generated by sanctions imposed in a more impersonal way by an external power. International sanctions have been increasingly used in recent years, allegedly as a reaction against a country’s violation of international rules. In 2014 and 2015, the US, EU governing bodies and other western countries imposed sanctions on Russian companies and individuals, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine in February 2014. Russia responded with a total ban on food imports from the EU, the US and other countries that imposed sanctions. In 2014 and 2015 financial crisis broke out in Russia, resulting in the collapse of the rouble’s value, a dramatic increase in food prices and widespread poverty.12 Even more dramatic is the situation in Yemen. In 2015 a sea, land and air blockade was imposed on the country by a Saudi-led coalition, supported by the US government, in the context of Yemen’s civil war. The shortage of food, water and medicines caused by the total embargo has resulted in an enormous humanitarian crisis, with at least 8 million of Yemeni people suffering under starvation and cholera epidemics.13 Despite differences in the types of sanctions and the nature of these crises, these cases clearly
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief show that generalized austerity as a product of sanctions takes its toll on the country’s population at large and not only on specific target groups. What do we know about austerity imposed by external powers relating to the ancient Peloponnese? One famous case is attested for the classical period: the Megarian decree passed by the Athenians, possibly in 433/2.14 Although we do not know the decree’s exact content, we can infer, mainly from Thucydides, that it excluded the Megarians from the harbour and market (agora) of Athens and, apparently, also from the harbours of Athens’ allies.15 Whether or not the decree originated in a religious dispute over the sacred land of Eleusis and in reaction to Megara’s sheltering of Athens’ runaway slaves (Thuc. 1.139.2), as the Athenians claimed, it was clearly a political decision whose implications reached far beyond relations between Athens and Megara. It came to be perceived as an intolerable offence by other members of the Peloponnesian League, to the point that it was mentioned in their congress of 432 and its repeal was one condition required by the Spartans during negotiations with Athens later the same year.16 It has long been discussed whether the decree had a real impact on Megara’s economy.17 From Aristophanes we have a clear answer. At the Lenaea festival in 425 the playwright presented his Acharnians, one of his plays that most denounces the ongoing Peloponnesian War. In an early scene the protagonists Dicaeopolis, an Athenian farmer, announces his intention to make a private truce with the Peloponnesians, including their allies the Megarians and the Boeotians, and to open a marketplace in which they could freely trade. This decision embodies Dicaeopolis’ reaction against the hardships caused to Athenian farmers by the war. Since its beginning, so he explains, he had had to abandon his fields and move to the city, where he lives in poverty. Whilst before he used to produce from his fields all he needed for living, now he is obliged to buy everything (lines 31–39). His new resolution is to make business with those excluded from Athenian trade. At lines 530 ff. Dicaeopolis mentions the edict about the Megarians and that it had brought them to starvation. A Megarian farmer arrives at Dicaeopolis’ marketplace (lines 719 ff.), declaring his satisfaction at eventually being able to sell his goods. (What he tries to sell are his own daughters, hidden in a sack and advertised as piglets.) Answering Dicaeopolis’ questions, he explains that the price of grain is ‘as high as the gods’, salt is entirely under Athenian control and garlic has become a rarity, since the Athenians dig out its bulbs from the fields each time they invade Megara (lines 755–60). This scene has too often been dismissed as comic parody, devoid of historical meaning.18 However, there is no reason to doubt that
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Lucia Cecchet Aristophanes is here delivering a truth. It is unlikely that Athens ever enforced the prevention of Megarians (or Megarian residents) from entering the ports of its allies, but on its own the ban on importing goods from the Piraeus will have dealt a heavy blow to Megarian economy. The Piraeus was the closest place where Megarians could purchase grain from the Black Sea, and local production alone was probably insufficient to satisfy internal demand, or else we can hardly understand the Megarian farmer’s complaint about its price being ‘as high as the gods’. Moreover, during the first years of the Archidamian War the Athenians established a fort at Salamis and in 427 Nicias seized Minoa, an island in front of Nisaea, Megara’s port (Thuc. 2.93.4; 3.51). Further economic damages were inflicted by annual Athenian invasions of the Megarid until 424, attested by Thucydides (4.66) and by the passage of Acharnians cited above. Who paid the dearest price? Certainly, Megarian citizens and residents, and above all the weakest strata, including small farmers and the landless who could not rely on their own food production and had to buy goods in the marketplace (Legon 1973, 167–8). It is no chance that the Megarian citizen in Acharnians is himself, like Dicaeopolis, a farmer. A strain of complicity stemming from their shared socio-economic position plays a role here within the usual Aristophanic parody of small farmers. It is certainly possible that the austerity imposed on Megara’s population and the consequent economic hardship fuelled turmoil in the city and the stasis in the early years of the Peloponnesian War briefly mentioned by Thucydides (3.68.3; 4.66). Thucydides’ silence about starvation in Megara should occasion no surprise: he is generally laconic about the state of civilian populations, as in his brief notice about the Potidaeans’ resort to cannibalism to escape starvation during the city’s siege by the Athenians in winter 430/29.19 The Athenians did not present the Megarian decree as an action of preventative defence or as a necessary humanitarian intervention. Its punitive nature appears to be clear from its origins as a reaction to Megara’s violations, in a spirit not fundamentally different from that behind Athens’ annihilation of the Melians in 416. Modern sanctions, by contrast, have been generally presented by their supporters as actions of self-defence or interventions on behalf of third countries. On 8 May 2018 President Trump justified his imposition of new sanctions on Iran, accompanying his withdrawal from the so-called ‘Iran Nuclear Deal’, as necessary to protect the American people: ‘America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction’.20 At the start of the speech he makes it clear that America’s target is the Iranian regime as ‘the leading state sponsor
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief of terror’. The Iranian people, whom he addresses later on, are presented as victims of that regime and, indirectly, as potential beneficiaries of America’s blow against the regime by applying sanctions. As we know, the Megarian decree exacerbated the hostility of the Peloponnesians against Athens and her allies. It contributed to the escalation of tension eventually resulting in the outbreak of war. Likewise, the effects of modern sanctions on international politics and on local populations show that they do not open the way to painless conflict resolution. Rituals of inversion: the poor ‘become rich’ for a day The one piece of good news about austerity as a characteristic of the life of the poor is that from time to time poleis temporarily suspended it. This happened usually within the context of established rituals and feasts: in some of the carnival-like feasts attested in the Greek world the poor and slaves were given the possibility of living for one day like the rich. One such example from the Peloponnese is from Troezen. According to Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae (14, 639), during the month of Geraestius slaves played at knucklebones with the citizens, and their masters entertained them at a feast.21 The inversion of roles between masters and slaves is largely attested in Saturnalia-like festivals. In Attica, during the festival of Kronos slaves were feasted by their masters (Accius, Ann. 2–7). At the annual sacrifice in honour of Zeus Pelorius in Thessaly, not only did masters serve food to their slaves, but prisoners were also set free to join the feast.22 One interesting case, which incorporated a wide range of citizens, comes from the Dorian Greeks, the Rhodians: a fragment of the historian Theognis contains the text of the song, the so-called ‘Song of the Swallow’, sung by the citizens of Lindos on Rhodes during the feast at the beginning of the spring.23 The song was sung by young males, presumably ordinary and poor citizens, in front of the house doors of the rich. It contained a request for food and wine or else they would break into their homes. Threats and recourse to (fictive) violence were part of such rituals,24 but they could occasionally degenerate into real violence. According to Plutarch, at Megara, sometime after the overthrow of the tyranny in the sixth century, the poor broke into the houses of the rich and insisted on being entertained and banqueted sumptuously. He also says that a decree was enacted by which the poor received back the interest they had paid on their debts.25 Sara Forsdyke has interpreted this episode as the degeneration of a ritual of inversion of the roles of rich and poor similar to those occurring in Carnival-like feasts.26 If this is true, it seems to be quite an isolated case in our records. Rather than fuelling social conflicts,
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Lucia Cecchet inversion rituals normally functioned as safety valves, releasing tensions imposed by social hierarchies and the unequal distribution of wealth within the citizen body. Some rituals may have preserved memories of historical events of social unrest. In the case of Megara, there is no reason to doubt that the episode of the poor entering the houses of the rich was a historical event of strife revolving around the question of debts. The poor not only claimed the return of their interest paid, but achieved it through the enactment of the decree. Civic strife related to debts is widely attested in archaic and classical Greece. Commenting on an event of unknown date on the history of Corinth, Aelian (VH 14.24), possibly relying on a fourth-century source, says that two rich Corinthians remitted the debts of the poor and that, by so doing, ‘they gained not money, but life itself’ because those creditors who did not cancel the debts were killed by the debtors.27 In Megara a similar outburst of violence may have given rise to an inversion ritual which staged the poor entering the houses of the rich as a form of ritualized commemoration. Plutarch probably merged the description of the ritual with the historical occasion of civic strife in the sixth century (Cecchet 2014, 166). Such rituals also fulfilled the function of reminding the rich of their obligations toward the poor and the potential dangers of not respecting them. Euergetism for the poor Rituals of inversion had an important role in subverting social hierarchies; but their effect was limited by the fact that they functioned only in temporary and symbolic terms. The Greek poleis also deployed more frequent and institutionalized ways of securing social cohesion between rich and poor. These entailed, above all, forms of public financial support from the wealthy to the city. While it is true that poleis were far from being egalitarian societies and that wealth disparity among citizens was a normal fact,28 it was also regular practice for the rich to give financial support to their fellow citizens through liturgies and, above all, from the Hellenistic period through euergetistic donations.29 In both practices, a wealthy individual (or group) bore the financial burden of a public expense for the city. The main difference between liturgies and benefactions was that the former were part of the institutional and financial organization of the polis, and as such were compulsory for citizens from high census, whereas euergetistic donations were impromptu acts dependent more on individual initiative – though this distinction is muddied by the fact that public pressure on the rich was always strong and the city’s officials could make specific requests for donations or loans.30
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief It is a common view that, in the Hellenistic poleis, since access to offices became increasingly limited to members of the wealthy elite, public benefactions served as means for compensating ordinary citizens for their loss of active roles in politics and administration.31 But donations were much more than rewards: increasingly often during the Hellenistic period, and later on the Imperial Age, they became the way in which the polis secured funding for public infrastructures, events such as festivals and, what interests us here, financial coverage in periods of economic crisis. Particularly in periods of hardship, wealthy benefactors were expected to help their cities. One way was to grant interest-free public loans with flexible payback time. From the Peloponnese, we have some interesting cases of loans from private citizens to the city.32 A stele found close to the agora of Argos contains a decree, dated around 100 bc, honouring Augis, a wealthy citizen, for his past services and loans to the city. Only the last of his services is specifically mentioned, namely the loan of 10,000 drachmae for funding the agon of the Titeia, introduced in 195 bc in honour of Titus Quinctius Flamininus (lines 13–14). Earlier loans to the community are also mentioned, without stating their amount (lines 10-11), in connection with difficult conditions the city had gone through (line 11: χρείας γενομένας). Augis’ loans are linked to the memory of economic hardship and they apparently helped the polis to recover. He was obviously not happy to let his benefactions go without reward. He appeared before the Council and reminded his fellow citizens of his generosity (lines 9–10). In the decree he was awarded a bronze statue (lines 22 ff.). This example shows clearly that, in relations between benefactor and city, and between the wealthy elite and the demos, both parties ought to gain something.33 Benefactors were not always members of the city’s own elite; they could also be citizens from other poleis. An honorary decree from Kotyrta in Laconia, dating to the second or first century bc,34 attributes honours to Peisitas, a citizen from neighbouring Asopos, for giving a monetary loan to the city ‘for all the time she was in need’ without claiming interest on it (lines 9–12). Peisitas and his offspring were awarded several honours (lines 16–25): the titles of proxenos and euergetes, security and protection (asphaleia and asylia), citizen rights (isopoliteia), the right of pasture (epinomia), exemption from taxes (ateleia) and a special seat during sporting competitions ( proedria). As well as granting financial aid to the polis, these forms of benefactions from local or neighbouring elites contributed to propagating the idea that, in case of need, the rich would put their wealth at the community’s disposal. This system of rewards in the form of public honours showed the demos’ awareness of the important role of the wealthy.
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Lucia Cecchet Euergetism, either through donations or generous loans, usually benefitted the entire citizen body; but there are also a few cases in which the poor are explicitly indicated as the main recipients of donations. One comes from the Dorian world outside the Peloponnese. An inscription of the year 196 bc from Iasos in Caria describes a donation by Queen Laodike III to the city.35 The stele contains Laodike’s letter to the citizens of Iasos and the decree awarding honours to her and her husband Antiochus III. Laodike explicitly links her donation to other benefactions that Antiochus had earlier granted the citizens of Iasos, helping them recover from natural disasters – a reference to the earthquake of 198 bc. The queen makes clear her purpose of following her husband’s will in strengthening the city, increasing the number of citizens and improving their conditions. For this reason, she explains, she has decided to make a benefaction to the city’s poor (lines 13–14: τινὰ εὐεργεσίαν μὲν εἰς τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας). She establishes a yearly distribution of 1,000 Attic medimnoi of grain for a period of ten years, to be delivered to the representatives of the demos. The proceeds from the sale of a fixed amount of the grain shall be used to provide dowries to the daughters of poor citizens, (lines 22–23: προῖκας| ταῖς τῶν ἀσθενούντων πολιτῶν θυγατράσιν). Special provisions for the poor are rather rare in euergetistic donations, but there is at least one similar case. Diodorus Siculus reports that the Macedonian Queen Phila, wife of Demetrius, at some point in the late fourth century arranged marriages for girls from poor families at her own expense.36 In both cases, beyond the general philanthropic and social nature of their acts, Laodike’s and Phila’s donations are gendered in character, as the donors are queens and the recipients women (Ramsey 2011, 510–29). There are a few more cases in which euergetistic donations and ‘good services’ seem to be directly specifically towards the poor. A decree from Aegina (IG IV2 , 2.750) dating to the time of the Mithridatic Wars (88–63 bc ) honours a local officer, Diodoros, an agoranomos (lines 3–4), for distributing grain ‘to those in need’ (lines 13–14: [π]αρέχων ἱκανὸν σ[ῖ]τον παρὰ ἀπο - - - /[.]\τ[ο]ν χρόνον τοῖς δεομένοις) when the island was afflicted by the raids of pirates (lines 10). An honorary decree from Herakleia Salbake in Caria, dating to the middle of the first century ad, praises a local doctor, Archelaos, for his services to the community, and especially for offering (his services?) during a period of crisis (lines 11–12: ἐν τοῖς / ἀναγκαίοις καιροῖς) to the city, both publicly (i.e. as a public officer) and as a private citizen (lines 11–12: δημοσίᾳ καὶ / ἰδιωτικῶς). Particular emphasis is given to the fact that he put his medical knowledge at the service of those in need (lines 12–13: [διὰ] τῆς ἰατρικῆς τέχνης εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀπόρων ὄνησιν πλείστην /
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief μελ[έτην]).37
Reference to the poor in this inscription is not certain, since in medical language words such as δεόμενοι and ἄποροι indicate simply ‘those in need’, in the sense of ‘the sick’, and not necessarily ‘the poor’.38 However, in the Aeginetan inscription it is most likely that the recipients of grain distribution were the lower strata of the citizen population. As for the services of doctors to the poor, we have one interesting case from the Peloponnese. A stele from Gytheion in Laconia honours a doctor, Damiadas, for lending his help indiscriminately to all, freemen and slaves, rich and poor (lines 19–20). The words, used in antithesis, are, respectively, πένητες, πλούσιοι, δοῦλοι and ἐλεύθεροι (though πένητες is restored: [πένησι καὶ] l. 20).39 Damiadas was praised precisely for not letting any group be deprived of medical care, regardless of economic and social status. The most famous case of benefactions clearly directed toward the poor comes from Lycia. The Lycian magnate Opramoas, originally from Rhodiapolis, was one of the richest euergetai of Asia Minor, during the second century ad. He was renowned in the poleis of Lycia for several donations and was awarded honorary citizenship in many of them. The honorary inscription, dating to the mid-second century ad, from the Letoon near Xanthos records, among his many benefactions, donations to the city of Xanthos, including payments for the burial of the poor (lines 30: δίδωσιν δὲ καὶ κηδευτικὸν τοῖς βιώσασιν), supply of dowries to girls from poor families (lines 31: ἐκδίδωσιν δὲ καὶ τὰς πενιχρὰς παρθένους) and financial support for the poor (lines 32: τρέφει δὲ καὶ τοὺς πενομένους).40 What did the polis, as a whole, gain from donations specifically directed to the poor? In her letter to the Iasians, Laodike clearly states that her benefactions have the same purpose as those of her husband: strengthening and increasing the citizen body following natural disasters.41 In general terms, excessive austerity and poverty of the lower strata would eventually threaten the well-being of the whole community; obstacles to marriages were, after all, a threat to demographic growth and a fuel for social turmoil. Recently, Cédric Brélaz, commenting on the fact that these (few) cases of euergetism to the poor occur in contexts of crisis, either natural catastrophes or wars, has stressed their intrinsic practical motivations, in line with the view that help to the poor in pagan antiquity had mainly utilitarian – and not philanthropic – purposes.42 In one case, the beneficial effects of euergetism toward the poor are made clear. Strabo (14.2.5) refers to an ancestral tradition of the Rhodians, who ‘take care of their multitude of poor people’ by supplying provisions to the needy. He explains that,
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Lucia Cecchet the needy are supported by the well-to-do, by a certain ancestral custom; and there are certain liturgies that supply provisions, so that at the same time the poor man receives his sustenance and the city does not run short of useful men, and in particular for the manning of the fleets. (trans. M. Austin, no. 110).
This custom of the Rhodians appears to be an institutionalized and constant practice of euergetism, not a measure confined to contexts of crisis. Assisting the poor on a regular basis had a very specific purpose: it enabled the Rhodians to help the whole city by strengthening the fleet. Commenting on this custom, Migeotte (1989, 521) defined it as part of the ‘social contract’ rather than charity: a practice in which both parties, rich and poor, found their own advantage. By granting a minimum living to the poor, the rich ensured that the fleet never ran short of crews and the poor avoided struggling for their daily bread. What Strabo does not say, however, is that this form of mutual giving between rich and poor, or ‘social compact’, also contributed to reducing the risk of social conflict and turmoil.43 A similar purpose should probably also be assumed behind the donations of Laodike, Phila and Opramoas. The border between philanthropy and political pragmatism was a blurry one. Conclusion In the eyes of Greek elites, austerity was the proof of the honest life-style of the poor. Some hints in our sources, such as the procedure attested by Diphilus for Corinth, suggest that public officers could conduct investigations into common citizens’ sources of income and punish those living above their economic capabilities. In recent years, the equation of austere life and honest life has emerged in the context of discussion surrounding the austerity policies enforced in many European countries. Unlike us, however, the ancient Greeks did not use austerity as a ‘medicine’ against economic crisis. The Megarian decree suggests that poleis did use sanctions against other poleis, generating austerity as a punitive measure, in a way not fundamentally different from international sanctions recently adopted by western countries. At times, it was felt that the demos ought to be ‘freed’ from austerity through actions of elites aimed at ensuring civic peace and social cohesion within the citizen community. Poleis could grant their ordinary and poor citizens (and even their slaves) forms of temporary release from poverty and an austere life, above all during Carnival-like festivals, some of which are attested in the Peloponnese. The austere lifestyle of the lower strata was mitigated also by regular donations that the rich granted to the city and, in some cases, specifically to the poor. It was mainly this system of
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief public giving that stabilized social tensions and ensured pacific relations between rich and poor. Abbreviations I. Iasos = W. Blümel, Die Inschriften von Iasos. (Inschriften Griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 28), Bonn, 1985. IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–. LGM = K. Latte and H. Erbse, Lexica Graeca Minora, Hildesheim, 1965. MAMA = Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua, London, 1928–. Notes 1 For criticism of austerity in depressed economies, focused on Britain, see P. Krugman in The Guardian, 29.4.2015. On the discourse of austerity as a ‘morality tale’, Kelsey, Mueller, Whittle and Khosravinik 2016. 2 For an overview of debates in the social sciences about definitions of poverty, Ruggeri Laderchi, Saith and Stewart 2003; Green 2007; and, with specific reference to the ancient world, Cecchet 2015, 13–42. 3 For example, Hom. Od. 17, 229–32; Eur. El. 375–6; Isocr. 7.44; Dem. 3.34; Cecchet 2015, 49–66 and passim. 4 Diphilus, F 31 Kassel–Austin = F 32 Kock = Athen. Deipn. 6, 227d-e. 5 Cecchet 2016, with bibliography. 6 Nic. Dam., Müller, FHG III, 90 F 59 p. 393 = Brill’s New Jacoby 90 F 58 = Konst. VII Porph., Excerpts on Virtues and Vices I, p. 342–22, Büttner-Wobst. 7 F 40b Carey = Lex. Rhet. Cant. 12 (LGM 72), 3; F 246 Carey = Diog. Laert. 1.55. 8 Notably, Bolkestein 1939, 285. For a review of the debate, Cecchet 2016, 133 n.75. 9 On the law today and campaigns calling for its abolition, S. Aziz, The Guardian, 24.1.2019. 10 For discourse analysis of media coverage, Bickes, Otten and Weymann 2014. The newspaper Bild (26.02.2015) called the Greeks ‘greedy’ (giere) in the context of the initiative, ‘Nein! Keine weiteren Milliarden für die gieren Griechen!’ (‘No! No more milliards for the greedy Greeks!’). 11 Cecchet 2018. 12 On increased poverty in Russia, Agence France-Presse, The Guardian, 22.3.2016, 13 On humanitarian crisis in Yemen, A. Symington, UN News, 26.3.2019. 14 Thuc. 1.139; Plut. Per. 30; Ar. Ach. 515–40 (cf. Pax 483); Pax 610. De Ste. Croix (1972, 226–7) identified four different Megarian decrees, whereas the majority of scholars maintain there were only two, i.e. the ‘Exclusion decree’ (under discussion here) and Charinus’ decree concerning the murder of an Athenian herald by the Megarians. 15 Thuc 1.139 says the decree excluded the Megarians from the ports within the Athenian arche. 16 Thucydides does not mention the decree among the causes of the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, but he refers to it on the two occasions mentioned above,
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Lucia Cecchet namely, among the arguments voiced by the Peloponnesians at their congress and during the negotiations of 432 (Thuc. 1.69; 1.140.4); see Brunt 1951, 270. 17 De Ste Croix (1972, 225–89, 381–93) maintained that the decree had limited economic consequences, mainly on the grounds that the trading ban applied only to Megarian citizens and not to resident aliens in Megara and to Megarian slaves, in whose hands rested the largest part of the city’s commercial sector. In his view, the decree was rather a tool for humiliating the city, especially Megarian aristocrats, by banning them from access to the civic and religious agora (not the marketplace). French (1976) too believed that the decree had no impact on Megara’s economy. Cf. also MacDonald (1983) for the idea that Megara lived substantially on locally– grown products and the decree had no economic consequence; he argues that by banning Megarians from accessing the ports of other cities, it aimed at breaking ties between notable Megarians and citizens of its colonies in the northern Aegean and Black Sea. For objections, however, Gauthier 1975; Wick 1977; Parker 1983, 166; Rhodes 1987, 155; Hornblower 1991, 111. 18 So French 1976, 245. 19 Thuc. 2.70.1; Hornblower 1991, 356. 20 The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/ trump–speech–iran–deal.html. 21 Forsdyke 2005. 22 Baton, FGrHist 268 F4 = Brill’s New Jacoby (1st edn.) 268 F 5 = Athen. Deipn. 14, 45, 639d–640a. 23 Theognis, FGrHist 526 F1 = Brill’s New Jacoby (1st edn.) 526 F1 = Athen. Deipn. 8, 360b-d. 24 Forsdyke 2005, 78 with nn. 78–9 for literature on such rituals. 25 Plut. Greek Questions 18 = Mor. 295d. 26 Forsdyke 2005, 78–9. 27 In this passage Aelian makes the same comment about a wealthy Mytilenian. 28 Cf. the seminal works of Davies 1981 on Athens, and Hodkinson 2000 on Sparta, both of which make a clear case for considerable inequalities in wealth among citizens in these poleis during the classical period. 29 Veyne 1976; Gauthier 1985; Zuiderhoek 2009; Domingo Gygax 2016; Aneziri, this volume, Chapter 13. 30 Wealthy Athenians who refused to undertake a liturgy could be challenged (or they could challenge other wealthy citizens) to exchange property by means of an antidosis procedure: see Gabrielsen 1987; Christ 1990, 161–4. 31 Hamon 2005; 2007; Heller 2009; Brélaz 2013, 69–72. 32 BCH 88, 1964, 569–79 = Migeotte 1984, no. 20. 33 Domingo Gygax 2013; 2016. 34 IG V 1, 962 = Migeotte 1984, no. 25. Cf. also Gauthier 2005, 89–93. 35 I. Iasos 4, ll. 1–32. For a translation and notes to the text, Ma 1999, 330–1; for analysis of its discourse of benefaction, 196–8. Revision of the text and further comments in Nafissi 2001. 36 Diod. 19.59.4. Carney (2000, 169) argues that Phila may have stood as a role model for royal women in other Hellenistic kingdoms. 37 Robert L. and J. 1954, no. 70 = MAMA VI, 114 and pl. 21. The nature of the
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief crisis is not explained in the inscription, but, as Brélaz (2013, 76) suggests, it may be a famine or epidemic. 38 Brélaz (2013, 76), with n. 66 referring to Samama (2003) for the study of medical language. 39 IG V 1, 1145. I am grateful to Sofia Aneziri for pointing out this inscription to me. 40 Balland 1981, no. 67. 41 See Ma (1999, 198) on Laodike’s references to Antiochus’ earlier benefactions to the city as a way of ‘re–writing Iasian history into a Seleukid past’. 42 Brélaz 2013, 76–7. For the view that in the pagan world help to the poor was a sporadic and non-institutionalised practice, see notably Bolkestein 1939; cf. Hands 1968; recently, Parkin 2006. 43 On reciprocal relations between rich and poor, Fuks 1979–1980; Cecchet 2014.
Bibliography Austin, M. 2006 The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman Conquest. A selection of ancient sources in translation, 2nd edn., Cambridge. Balland, A. 1981 Fouilles de Xanthos VII. Inscriptions d’époque impériale du Létôon, Paris. Bickes, H., Otten, T. and Weymann, L.C. 2014 ‘The financial crisis in the German and English press: metaphorical structures in the media coverage on Greece, Spain and Italy’, Discourse and Society 25.4, 424–45. Bolkestein H. 1939 Wohltätigkeit und Armenpflege im vorchristlichen Altertum, Utrecht. Brélaz, C. 2013 ‘Les pauvres comme composante du corps civique dans les poleis des époques hellénistique et impériale’, Ktèma 38, 67–87. Brunt, P.A. 1951 ‘The Megarian Decree’, AJPh 72, 269–82. Carney, E.D. 2000 Women and Monarchy in Macedonia, Norman. Cecchet, L. 2014 ‘Gift-giving to the poor in the Greek world’, in F. Carlà and M. Gori (eds) Gift-Giving and the Embedded Economy in Ancient Greece and Rome, Heidelberg, 157–79. 2015 Poverty in Athenian Public Discourse: From the eve of the Peloponnesian War to the rise of Macedonia, Historia Einzelschriften 239, Stuttgart. 2016 ‘The Athenian nomos argias: notes for a possible interpretation’, Incidenza dell’Antico: Dialoghi di Storia Greca 4, 117–42. 2018 ‘Debt cancellation in the Classical and Hellenistic poleis: between demagogy and crisis management’, in J. Filonik, B. Griffith-Williams and J. Kucharski (eds) The Greeks in a Changing World: Ancient answers to modern questions, Special issue of The European Legacy 23.1–2, 127–48.
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Lucia Cecchet Christ, M.R. 1990 ‘Liturgy avoidance and antidosis in classical Athens’, TAPhA 120, 147–69. Davies, J.K. 1981 Wealth and the Power of Wealth in Classical Athens, New York. Domingo Gygax, M. 2013 ‘Gift-giving and power relationships in Greek social praxis and public discourse’, in M. Satlow (ed.) The Gift in Antiquity, Oxford, 45–60. 2016 Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The origins of euergetism, Cambridge. Forsdyke, S. 2005 ‘Revelry and riot in archaic Megara: democratic disorder or ritual reversal?’, JHS 125, 73–92. French, A. 1976 ‘The Megarian Decree’, Historia 25, 245–9. Fuks, A. 1979–80 ‘The sharing of property by the rich with the poor in Greek theory and practice’, SCI 5, 46–63. Gabrielsen, V. 1987 ‘The antidosis procedure in classical Athens’, C&M 38, 7–38. Gauthier, P. 1975 ‘Les ports de l’empire et l’agora athénienne: à propos du “décret mégarien”’, Historia 24, 498–503. 1985 Les cités grecques et leurs bienfaiteurs (IV e-I er siècle avant J.C.). Contribution à l’histoire des institutions, Paris. 2005 ‘Trois exemples méconnus d’intervenants dans des décrets de la basse époque hellénistique’, in P. Fröhlich and C. Müller (eds) Citoyenneté et participation à la basse époque hellénistique, Geneva, 79–94. Green, M. 2007 ‘Representing poverty and attacking representations: perspectives on poverty from social anthropology’, in D. Hulme and J. Toye (eds) Understanding Poverty and Well-being, London, 24–45. Hamon, P. 2005 ‘Le Conseil et la participation des citoyens: les mutations de la basse époque hellénistique’, in P. Fröhlich and C. Müller (eds) Citoyenneté et participation à la basse époque hellénistique, Geneva, 121–44. 2007 ‘Élites dirigeantes et processus d’aristocratisation à l’époque hellénistique’, in H.-L. Fernoux and C. Stein (eds) Aristocratie antique: Modèles et exemplarité sociale, Dijon, 79–100. Hands, A.R. 1968 Charities and Social Aid in Greece and Rome, Ithaka. Heller, A. 2009 ‘La cité grecque d’époque imperiale: vers une société d’ordres?’, Annales (HSS) 64, 341–73. Hodkinson, S. 2000 Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, London. Hornblower, S. 1991 A Commentary on Thucydides. Books I–III, Oxford.
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Austerity for the poor: imposition and relief Kelsey, D., Mueller, F., Whittle, A. and Khosravinik, M. 2016 ‘Financial crisis and austerity: interdisciplinary concerns in critical discourse studies’, Critical Discourse Studies 13.1, 1–19. Legon, R.P. 1976 ‘The Megarian Decree and the balance of Greek naval power’, CPh 68, 161–71. Ma, J. 1999 Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor, Oxford. MacDonald, B. 1983 ‘The Megarian decree’, Historia 32, 385–410. Migeotte, L. 1984 L’emprunt public dans les cités grecques, Québec. 1989 ‘Démocratie et entretien du peuple à Rhodes’, REG 102, 515–28. Nafissi, M. 2001 ‘L’iscrizione di Laodice (I.Iasos 4): revisione del testo e nuove osservazioni’, PdP 56, 101–46. Parker, R. 1983 Miasma: Pollution and purification in early Greek religion, Oxford. Parkin, A. 2006 ‘You do him no service: an exploration of pagan almsgiving’, in M. Atkins and R. Osborne (eds) Poverty in the Roman World, Cambridge, 60–82. Ramsey, G. 2011 ‘The Queen and the city: royal female intervention and patronage in Hellenistic civic communities’, Gender & History 23, 510–27. Rhodes, P.J. 1987 ‘Thucydides on the causes of the Peloponnesian War’, Hermes 115, 154–65. Robert, L. and J. 1954 La Carie: Histoire et géographie historique avec le recueil des inscriptions antiques, II Le plateau de Tabai et ses environs, Paris. Ruggeri Laderchi, C., Saith, R. and Stewart, F. 2003 ‘Does it matter that we do not agree on the definition of poverty? A comparison of four approaches’, Oxford Development Studies 31, 243–74. Samama, E. 2003 Les médecins dans le monde grec: sources épigraphiques sur la naissance d’un corps médical, Geneva. Ste Croix, G.E.M. de 1972 The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, London. Veyne, P. 1976 Le pain et le cirque: Sociologie historique d’un pluralisme politique, Paris. Wick, T.E. 1977 ‘Thucydides and the Megarian Decree’, L’antiquité classique 46, 74–99. Zuiderhoek, A. (ed.) 2009 The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, elites and benefactors in Asia Minor, Cambridge.
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13 CIVIC AND RELIGIOUS EUERGETISM IN THE HELLENISTIC PELOPONNESE: THE EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE Sophia Aneziri Euergetism is a phenomenon characteristic of the ancient Greek world. It increased in importance from the fourth century onwards,1 although it has become clear that, due to the nature of the information available to us through honorific decrees and honorific inscriptions, the role of benefaction in meeting the financial needs of ancient Greek cities tends to be exaggerated.2 As Gauthier has rightly noted, from the fourth to the middle of the second century civic benefactors were still first and foremost πολιτευόμενοι (politically active citizens) who demonstrated their devotion to their city through the magistracies they assumed or the missions they accomplished, whereas later benefactions were addressed to the entire population, not just citizens, and were transformed into a ‘système de gouvernement’.3 This went hand in hand with a decrease in the magnitude of royal benefactions to cities – a logical consequence of the external and internal problems that most kingdoms were facing by the beginning of the second century.4 This article focuses on epigraphic evidence for euergetism in the Peloponnese during the Hellenistic period and aims at analysing its specific expression(s) in that region. Compared with other regions the inscriptional material is rather limited and unbalanced regarding both the documented kinds of benefaction and their chronological distribution, a fact which needs explanation. I will proceed by discussing religious and civic benefactions in order to determine how they reflected aspects of the region’s public life. I will argue that, compared with other regions, euergetism in Peloponnesian cities shows an unusual and, most importantly, delayed development shaped by local political and cultural factors. Benefactions for religious purposes In 74 bc Euanthes was honoured at Epidauros because he had served as agoranomos (commerce and market overseer) under difficult circumstances and was benevolent and helpful in various respects.5 Being piously
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Sophia Aneziri disposed (εὐσεβῶς διακείμενος τὰ ποτὶ τοὺς θεούς: ll. 41-2), he also contributed to the festivals of the Dionysia and Soteria. In the same century other Peloponnesians were also honoured for financing cults. From early first-century Laconia there survive two decrees: from Geronthrai, honouring Xenokles, son of Nikander, and from Gytheion, honouring Philemon and his son Theoxenos.6 The honorands made gifts of money to pay for repairs to the sanctuaries of, respectively, Hera and Apollo, thus ensuring that the gods were fittingly housed, at the same time relieving their cities of the related costs. In return, Geronthrai awarded Xenokles a hereditary priesthood. Gytheion made Philemon and Theoxenos lifelong and hereditary priests of Apollo and assigned to them full authority over the sanctuary. The office of priest, and with it the sanctuary and all its assets, thus passed to the family of those who supported them financially. Also dating to the first century bc are the decrees of the synodos of the Koragoi (60/59 bc) and the koinon of the priestesses of Mantineia (42/1 bc) honouring Nikippa and Phaena, respectively, who in various ways supported the cult of Demeter and Kore and their related associations.7 More specifically, Nikippa took on the task (τὰν λειτουργίαν: IG V 2, 265, l. 13) of the celebration of the mysteries of Kore without restraint (ἀνεπικωλύτως: ll. 13–14:), met all the costs relating to the cult and the synodos zealously and unsparingly (ἐποιήσατο πᾶσαν [δα]πάν[αν ἀ]φειδῶς καὶ ἐκ[τε]νῶς ἃν ἔδε[ι εἴ]ς τ[ε] τὰν θεὸν καὶ τὰν σύνοδον: ll. 14–15), conducted the procession of the Koragia with formality and magnificence (ἄγαγε δὲ καὶ τὰν πομπὰν τῶν Κοραγίων ἐπισάμως καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῶς: ll. 15–16), sacrificed to the goddess and obtained good omens on behalf of the synodos in a manner worthy of herself and of the synodos (ἔθυε τᾶι θε[ῶι] καὶ ἐκαλλιέρει ὑπὲρ τὰν σύνοδον ἀξίως αὐσαυτᾶς καὶ τᾶς συνόδου: ll. 17–18). She also contributed eighty drachmai to meet an urgent need (προσεπέδωκε δὲ καὶ εἰς κατεπείγουσαν χρείαν δ[ρ]αχ[μ]ὰς ὀγδοήκοντα: ll. 18–19), provided a robe for the goddess (εἰσήνεκε δὲ καὶ τᾶι θεῶι πέπλο[ν]: ll. 19–20), accommodated and conducted appropriately the unspoken mysteries of the goddess ([κ]αὶ ἐστέγασεν καὶ εὐσχημόνισεν τὰ περὶ τὰν θεὸν ἄρρητα μυστήρια: ll. 20–21), received the goddess in her own house, as was customary for those who became priests ([ὑ]πεδέξατο δὲ καὶ τὰν θεὸν εἰς τὰν ἰδίαν οἰκίαν, καθώς ἐστιν ἔθος τοῖς [ἀ]ε[ὶ] γινομένοις ἱερεῦσιν: ll. 21–23), performed magnificently the customary thirtieth day ceremonies by the opening of the temple (ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ τὰ νομιζόμενα ἐν τοῖς τριακοστοῖς τᾶι ἀνοίξει τοῦ ναοῦ μεγαλομερῶς: ll. 23–25) and, finally, provided for the construction work the temple still needed (προενοήθη δὲ καὶ ἇς προσεδεῖτο ὁ ναὸς [ο]ἰκοδομᾶς: ll. 25–26). Phaena, as priestess of Demeter, behaved with similar competence and generosity: she undertook all the services and took no account of the
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Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese expenses relating to the goddess and the priestesses, without hesitation placing herself and her fortune at the disposal of the cult on each occasion.8 After her priesthood (καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἱεριτεῦσαι: IG V 2, 266, ll. 13–14), she continued to offer lavish banquets and other benefactions and to cover cult expenses (οὐ διαλέλοιπε εὐεργετοῦσα δείπνοις τε μεγαλομερέσι καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις εὐεργεσίαις τε καὶ δαπάναις ταῖς εἰς τὰν θεὸν γινομέναις καὶ εἰς τὰς ἱερείας: ll. 14–16). She also promised that her daughter and granddaughter
would continue to meet the annual costs of the cult after her death (ll. 18–22). The objective of the donation was the perpetual commemoration of her own devotion to the goddess and the priestesses (ll. 22–23).9 Euanthes, Xenokles, Nikippa and Phaena are characteristic examples of benefactors who put their private property (ἴδιον βίον) at the service of public life within the framework of the offices they assumed as overseers of the market, priests or priestesses. The benefaction, and consequently the piety it expressed, could be extended beyond the duties (Euanthes) or the period of office (Phaena), and the office could become perpetual (Xenokles). In contrast, the case of Philemon and Theoxenos at Gytheion took place outside the framework of an office: they acted spontaneously in paying for repairs to the sanctuary of Apollo; afterwards they were rewarded by the city with the lifelong and hereditary priesthood. This official handover of the cult, or more accurately of its management and financing, relieved the city of a burden,10 while at the same time conferring honour and prestige on the pious benefactors.11 Another example of a donation for a religious purpose made in the first century Peloponnese is attested in an inscription found in 1997 in Exochori, near Kardamyli.12 The stone preserves parts of two decrees, one concerning the founding of contests and one honouring their sponsor. Based on the phrase ἀφῆκε τᾶι πόλει (SEG 65, 245, ΙΙ l.2), Themos assumes, with good reason, that the sponsor, a man named Komas, donated to the city a sum of money, the interest from which would pay for the annual contests named Badeseia (SEG 65, 245, Ι l.14).13 All these cases date to the first century bc, so the question arises whether there is evidence of such acts in the Peloponnese before the first century. The finds are rather few and differ significantly from the above mentioned cases, as I will explain below. In the first quarter of the fourth century, at Skillous in Elis, the historian Xenophon dedicated to Artemis a plot of land, bought with money from the share of the spoils from his campaigning in Asia Minor, and established there a cult of the goddess.14 Two more instances of private property dedicated to serve cults are attested on the island of Kalaureia (modern Poros) in the late third century. A woman called Agasikratis dedicated to Poseidon the sum of
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Sophia Aneziri 300 drachmai to pay for a sacrifice of an animal to Poseidon and Zeus Soter. This was to occur every other year (διὰ τριῶν ἐτέων) on the seventh day of the month of Artemision, on an altar near the statue of her husband Sophanes (βω[μ]ὸν ἑσσαμένους παρὰ τὰν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτᾶς Σωφάνεος) on behalf (ὑπέρ) of Agasikratis herself, her husband and their children Sosiphanes, Nikagora and Aristokleia.15 At around the same time a couple, Agasikles and Nikagora, dedicated a sum of money (ἀργύριον) and a piece of land (χωρίον) to Poseidon and Zeus Soter, so that a sacrifice of an animal might be offered to the two gods each year on an altar set up in front of the statues of the donors, near the bouleuterion (βωμὸν ἑσσάμενοι πρὸ τᾶν εἰκόνων αὐτῶν τᾶν ποὶ [τ]ῶι [β]ουλευτηρίωι).16 Further, in the second century, in a (funerary?) epigram from Megalopolis of Arcadia, Megakleia, daughter of Damokrates, descendant of Philopoimen and hieropolos of Aphrodite, was praised for having built a wall around the temple of the goddess and a building (oikia) for the xynoi daitymones, whose identity (association or public guests?) is uncertain.17 Yet for none of these cases, dated before the first century, is there a text of the recipient community in honour of the donor. These cases clearly attest the piety of the donors, but do not testify to the acceptance of the gifts as benefactions and of the donors as benefactors by a political community, or to any civic rewards for them.18 Moreover, three of these cases cannot be described as purely Peloponnesian: Xenophon, who lived in Skillous in exile from Athens and financed there the foundation of a cult, was quite possibly not a citizen of Skillous, but a resident alien who acted with the approval of the Spartans,19 while the island of Kalaureia (which provides two of the cases above) can – based on its geographic position – be argued equally persuasively to belong or not belong to the Peloponnese.20 What about non-religious benefactions? Since religious benefactions represent just one of many areas in which civic liberality intersected with public life,21 it seems appropriate to search for evidence of other types of gifts and in general of civic benefactions in Peloponnesian cities.22 Before the end of the second century there are a few honorific inscriptions for Peloponnesians who rendered services to their cities, mostly concerning the gymnasium. 23 Apart from two gymnasiarchs honoured at Troizen in the fourth century,24 two agoranomoi, one of whom is mentioned as having also served several times as an ambassador to Rome and to Hermione, were honoured by the same city in the second century.25 From Argos there is an early second-century honorary decree
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Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese for a gymnasiarch, who among other things covered the cost for the oil,26 while around the middle of that century the city of Aigeira honoured Polyklastos, son of Lakleidas, for donating the oil for the gymnasium.27 An Epidaurian named Ision, also a gymnasiarch, was honoured by the g ymnasia of Epidauros and by his fellow-citizens (συμπολιτεύοντες), though the reason for these honours is unknown.28 From the late second century onwards (i.e. in the late Hellenistic period) there is a significant increase in the number of inscriptions with which Peloponnesian cities praised their citizens for a variety of civic benefactions. The services rendered included embassies to Rome,29 help with freeing hostages,30 the erection and restoration of public buildings,31 the provision of grain (sitos)32 and various related benefactions.33 In some cases, persons are honoured because they were assuming expensive magistracies, as agoranomoi or g ymnasiarchoi.34 The evidence shows clearly that before the late Hellenistic period the attested cases of Peloponnesians honoured by their cities for assuming a magistracy, making a financial contribution, or any other service, are not numerous and relate mainly to the g ymnasia. This can be explained by the general fact that the operation of the gymnasium was a pressing financial burden on the Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, while at the same time it was an institution wholly in line with Peloponnesian perceptions of the training befitting future citizens.35 A major shift occurs in the late Hellenistic age and throughout the Imperial period, when the number of Peloponnesian inscriptions honouring citizens for assuming magistracies and for various financial contributions to their city increased exponentially.36 An attempt at interpretation The material treated above concerns gifts or services offered by citizens to their home cities in the Peloponnese and the resultant honours paid to them by those cities. The evidence is almost exclusively inscriptional.37 How should we interpret the paucity of such inscriptions in the Peloponnese before the end of the second century, when in the rest of the Greek world there is much more evidence of citizens being honoured for benefactions made to their cities?38 The assumption that this may be due to the lack of an ‘epigraphic habit’ of recording honours on stone cannot be seriously considered, since evidence from all over the Greek world suggests that public recognition was a major element of the system of euergetism, especially when the benefactor was a member of the community in question.39 That there were inscriptions that have been lost is certainly possible, but again, the systematic absence of epigraphic
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Sophia Aneziri material from most parts of a large geographical region such as the Peloponnese cannot be ascribed simply to chance.40 The scarcity of evidence for civic benefactors in the Peloponnese in the first two centuries of the Hellenistic period becomes even more unusual if placed within a broader socio-economic and political framework. As in the rest of the Greek world during the Hellenistic age, the Peloponnesian cities had financial burdens due to many reasons,41 while at the same time there was considerable wealth in the hands of the few.42 The fact that, despite these circumstances, members of Peloponnesian elites are not recorded as assuming roles comparable to those assumed by the elites of Greek cities elsewhere43 may be attributable to the specific political conditions in the Peloponnese, especially the existence of tyrannies until the end of the third century. Tyrants would not have tolerated display of public generosity on the part of (potential) rivals.44 Another factor until the mid-second century was probably the influence of the Achaean League on the priorities of the cities, especially on local elites: that is, the almost constant need for contributions to war expenses.45 This notwithstanding, members of the higher social classes in Peloponnesian cities are certainly not absent from the epigraphy of the early and middle Hellenistic periods: offerings and dedications, sometimes connected with some public role played by the donor, were an assured means of public commemoration by prominent individuals, but we have no evidence that they were recognized as acts of euergetism by the communities of the donors.46 The increase after 146 bc, and especially from the end of the second century onwards, in the evidence attesting donations and services to the political community, along with civic rewards for them, is indisputably consonant with the worsening of the financial situation in the Peloponnese, as in Greece in general, at that time.47 Another important factor, regarding the Peloponnese in particular, was the changed political situation: the tyrannies were long over, the Achaean League had been dissolved, and the elites of Peloponnesian cities at last openly adopted the Hellenistic practice of euergetism. The fact that much of the activity and beneficence of civic benefactors in the first century was directed towards religious matters is in step with the trend towards the re-organization and financing of cults that was taking place in other parts of the Greek world at that time (as a consequence of the ravages of the Mithridatic wars): what has recently been described as ‘l’été indien de la religion civique’ (‘the Indian summer of civic religion’).48 It is thought that in this period, which witnessed the economic and political contraction of the Greek world, religion and cult
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Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese gained increased importance as a link with the past and tradition, helping Greek cities forge their identities anew.49 Religious benefactions were moreover a fertile field for the activity of elites, since piety was a civic value and a first-class vehicle for public display and acquiring prestige. As a whole, the material from the Peloponnese validates Gauthier’s thesis regarding the divergent nature of euergetism in different geographical environments and periods, but it still leaves open many questions. It may be expected that future finds and the publication of more material will contribute to elucidating the course of euergetism in Peloponnesian cities. Acknowledgements I wish to thank my colleagues Ioanna Kralli (Ionian University, Korfu) and Eftychia Stavrianopoulou (University of Heidelberg) for their remarks on the text, and Janet Koniordos for the English. Abbreviations CGRN = J.–M. Carbon, S. Peels and V. Pirenne-Delforge, A Collection of Greek Ritual Norms, Liège, 2016 (http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be, accessed 24/11/2018). Dubois, RDA II = L. Dubois, Recherches sur le dialecte arcadien II. Corpus dialectal, Louvain-la-neuve, 1986. IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–. I.Olympia = W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold, Die Inschriften von Olympia, Berlin, 1896. LGS = H. Th. A. von Prott and L. Ziehen, Leges graecorum sacrae, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1896–1906. LSCG = F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés des cités grecques, Paris, 1969. Moretti, ISE = L. Moretti, Iscrizioni storiche ellenistiche. Testo critico, traduzione e commento, 3 vols, Firenze, 1967–2001. Rizakis, Achaïe III = A. Rizakis, Achaïe III. Les cités achéennes: épigraphie et histoire. Meletemata 55, Athens, 2008. SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923–. Syll.3 = W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols., 3rd edn, Leipzig, 1915–24. Notes 1 All dates are bc unless otherwise indicated. 2 Precisely because honouring the donor and making public the appreciation of the gift and the honours bestowed are an inseparable part of the reciprocity inherent in the practice of euergetism, there are far more records of donations than of expenditure for the same purposes based on the regular budgets of cities or temples. In other words, the community was more committed to publicize the donations than the regular flow of its finances. Hence a considerable part of the
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Sophia Aneziri epigraphic material consists of decrees or short texts with which the recipients of such gifts paid honour to the donors. 3 Gauthier 1985, 68–9, 72–3. 4 According to Polybius, royal gifts had dwindled from magnificent to paltry (Polyb. 5.90; cf. Walbank 1957, I. 622). On this change in royal euergetism, Bringmann 1993, 11–12. 5 IG IV² 1, 66 = Moretti, ISE III 135. 6 IG V 1, 1114 (Xenokles at Geronthrai, first century); 1144 = LSCG 61 (Philemon and Theoxenos at Gytheion, ca. 80). Cf. Giannakopoulos 2017, 221–7. 7 IG V 2, 265 (Nikippa); 266 (Phaena = Bielman 2002, 58–61 no 9). Cf. Taeuber 1994, 205–7; Van Bremen 1996, 27–8; Jost 1996, 193–200 (for the dating see pp. 193–4). 8 IG V 2, 266 ll. 6–12: ἱερίτευχε γὰρ τᾷ Δάματρι μεγαλοπρεπῶς, οὐδένα λόγον δαπάνας ποιουμένα οὔτε εἰς αὐτὰν τὰν θεὸν οὔτε εἰς τὰς καθηκούσας ἀντ’ ἐνιαυτοῦ τᾷ θεῷ λειτουργίας οὔτε εἰς τὰς ἱερείας, παρέσχηται δὲ καὶ ταῖς ἀεὶ ἀντιτυγχανο[ύ]σαις ἱερείαις εὔχρηστον αὐσαυτὰν καὶ τὸν ἴδιον. βίον ἀπροφ. άσιστον, ὑπηρετοῦσα πρὸς πᾶσαν λειτουργίαν καὶ δαπάναν τὰν ἀνήκουσαν εἴς τε τὰν θεὸν καὶ τὰς ἱερείας. 9 IG V 2, 266 ll. 18–23: τὰς γὰρ ἀντ’ ἐνιαυτοῦ γινο. μένας δαπάνας ὑ.π’ αὐτᾶς ἐντέταλται ἐπιτελεῖν ἀντ’ αὐσαυ.τᾶς, ἐάν τι ἀνθρώπινον πάθῃ, τὰς ἐγγόνους αὐτᾶς Θεοδώραν τε τὰν θυγατέρα καὶ Φαηνὰν Δαμασίλα τὰν τᾶς θυγατρὸ[ς] θυγατέρα, ὅπως ἁ ἐκτένεια αὐτᾶς εἴς τε τὰν θεὸν καὶ τὰς ἱερείας αἰωνίου μνείας τυγχάνουσα διατελεῖ. Phaena’s instruction to
her daughter and granddaughter for the perpetual support of the expenditures was obviously part of her will: they would inherit assets that would yield a steady income sufficient to provide for the stated purpose year after year. This part of Phaena’s benefaction, which is linked to a fixed long-term funding of a purpose defined by the donor, belongs to the category of gifts classed in contemporary literature as ‘endowments sub modo’, ‘fondations’ or ‘Stiftungen’ (for these types of gifts and the termini used to describe them, Aneziri 2020: 15 n. 2). For the specific case of Phaena, Laum 1914, ΙΙ no. 4. 10 The financial difficulties of Gytheion during the first half of the first century are well known from the decree honouring the Cloatii brothers for loans made to the city (IG V 1, 1146 = Migeotte 1984, no. 24). 11 I consider this practice as a variant of the sale of priesthoods so common in the Hellenistic age (Buraselis 2008). The difference is that here the priesthood is not explicitly sold, but ‘granted’ to the persons who de facto met the current pressing financial needs of the cult and their descendants (cf. the priesthood of the Dioskouroi in Laconia in the Augustan period: SEG 11, 679). Dignas (2006, 78–9) understands the case of Philemon and Theoxenos as the ‘privatization of a cult’ and interprets it as a ‘way to attract long-term benefactors and to support financially troubled sanctuaries on a regular basis’. 12 Themos 2015 = SEG 65, 245. 13 From the way in which this gift appears to have operated, it may also be classed as an endowment sub modo. On the use of this type of gift to finance festivals and contests, Aneziri 2014. 14 Xen. Anab. 5.3.7–13 (Laum 1914, II no. 12); cf. Purvis 2003, 65–120; Badian 2004, 43–5; Versnel 2011, 131–4; Hupfloher 2012, 11–13; Graf 2013, 117–18; Bourke 2018: 176–180. Xenophon bought a plot of land for the goddess in a place which Apollo’s oracle appointed and erected there an altar, a temple and a statue of
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Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese Artemis Ephesia. The money came from the share of the spoils from the campaign in Persia, which Megabyzos had returned to Xenophon. A festival, which included sacrifice and banquet, was to be organized every year from the tithe of the products of the land at Skillous. 15 IG IV 840 (LGS II 52; Laum 1914, II no. 57; LSCG 58; CGRN 106). 16 IG IV 841 (Laum 1914, II no. 58; Syll.3 993; LSCG 59; CGRN 107); cf. Harter– Uibopuu 2011, 125–6. These two cases from Kalaureia are very similar, and lead us to think that they reflect a practice reproduced within the elite of the island of Poros or even just within a single family (the donors, judging by their names, may be related). For this family, see Papazardakas and Wallensten 2020. 17 IG V 2, 461: [τᾶ] τρ. ίτον εὐόπλου Φιλοποίμενος. αἷμα. [λαχούσας] / [ξε]ῖνε Μεγακλείας αἴνεσον εὐξενίαν., / [ἃ]ν ἀπὸ Δαμοκράτους λέκτρων ἠνέγκατο μά.[τηρ], / [τᾶς] ξενίας [ἁγνὰ]ν Κύπριδος ἱροπόλον. / [δ]αίμονι γὰρ ναοῖο πέριξ εὐερκέα θρινκὸν / θ. ήκατο καὶ ξυνοῖς ο.[ἰ]κία δαιτυμόσι· / εἰ δὲ γυνὰ πλούτοιο καλὰν ἀ.λάξατο φάμα[ν], / [ο]ὐ θαῦμ’· ἁ προγόνων παισὶ ἔπεστι ἀρετά; cf. Van Bremen 1983, 223–5; Bielman 2002,
no 31; Savalli-Lestrade 2003, 251–4; Meier 2012, 153–4. 18 The two inscriptions from Kalaureia (see above nn. 15 & 16) record the actual act of donation, that is, the deed by which the benefactor transfers the property or sum of money to the community. These two cases, along with the case of Xenophon at Skillous, are religious activities of a private nature and are not – at least directly – connected with the cultic interests of the city. 19 On Xenophon probably not having been a citizen of Skillous, see Tuplin 2004, 267 and Bourke 2018, 177. On Xenophon’s residence in Skillous, see also D.L. 2.51–52. 20 There is also a decree of the Argive branch (ἐν Ἄργει συνόδου) of the association of Dionysiac artists of Isthmos and Nemea, honouring in 113/112 the treasurer, Zenon, who paid for the customary (κατὰ νόμους) sacrifices and the erection of a statue of Dionysos, thereby strengthening the association’s cultic activity (IG IV 558; cf. Aneziri 2003, 363–6 no. B9). This is, though, an activity within a particular association, which cannot even be defined as Peloponnesian, since this association of Dionysiac artists had branches outside that region as well (Aneziri 2003, 56–65). 21 For the different fields in which civic benefactors were active within or outside their cities, Quass 1993. 22 The case of Theokritos and Amphalkes, who were honoured by Tegea, has nothing to do with civic benefactions or gifts, but with their activities during war (IG V 2, 16, late third century = Dubois, RDA II. 84–6). The cases of the tyrant Lydiadas, his father Eudamos (SEG 52, 447–9) and the politician Philopoimen (IG V 2, 432 = Syll.3 624), who were honoured in Megalopolis, are also outside the scope of this essay, because the honours were awarded posthumously and those honoured were political leaders. 23 In addition, individuals and groups who trained at the gymnasium awarded honours mostly to the magistrates of the gymnasium, following a widespread practice in the Greek g ymnasia. Thus, around the second century, individuals at the gymnasium in Messene and young boys in Teuthrona (in Lakonike) set up votive inscriptions for magistrates of the gymnasium (epistates: SEG 47, 391; hypogymnasiarch: SEG 52, 401; gymnasiarch and two hypogymnasiarchs: SEG 22, 304). In the same period, the aleiphomenoi of the gymnasium in Troizen honoured two – otherwise unknown – persons as their benefactors (IG IV 790; 792).
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Sophia Aneziri IG IV 749; 753. In IG IV 753 the gymnasiarch is honoured along with the hypogymnasiarch. 25 IG IV 789; 791 (ca. early second century). There is also an early-third-century decree with which the Troizenians honoured two envoys and an unknown benefactor (probably from Myndos) who negotiated the release of hostages (IG IV 750 = Bielman 1994, no 19; cf. Paschidis 2008, 226–9 no B8). 26 Aristokrates, son of Kleainetos (Curty and Piérart 2009, 183–202 = SEG 59, 357). 27 Rizakis, Achaïe III no. 173 (SEG 24, 337). 28 IG IV² 1, 642. 29 IG IV2 1, 63 (Epidauros, 115/114), 64 (Epidauros, second/first century); IG V 2, 268 (Mantineia, 10 bc /ad 10). 30 IG V 2, 20 (Tegea, first century bc /first century ad). 31 IG V 1, 1370 – embellishment of a sanctuary (Kalamai, Messenia, 51/50); IG V 2, 268. 32 IG IV2 1, 65 (Epidauros, first century); 66 (Epidauros, 74); IG V 1, 1370; 1379 (Thouria, Messenia, second/first century); IG V 2, 268; 437 (Megalopolis, late second century). 33 I cite once again IG IV2 1, 65 and 66 (cf. n. 32); IG V 1, 1370 and IG V 2, 268, 437 (see nn. 29, 32); and additionally IG IV 2 (Aegina, 69); IG V 1, 1427 (Messene, first century) and IG V 2, 446 (Megalopolis, first century). See also SEG 22, 266 (Argos, ca. 100). 34 IG IV 2 (cf. n. 33); IG IV2 1, 66 (cf. nn. 32, 33); Rizakis, Achaie III no. 192 (Pellana, first century). To another context belong the Lacedaemonians Damiadas and Laidas, who were honoured in the first century by the city of Gytheion to which they offered their services as doctor and hoplomachos respectively (IG V 1, 1145, 1523). 35 The needs of the gymnasium are the subject of Fröhlich 2009. For the related benefactions, see the material assembled by Ameling 2004. For the g ymnasia in the Peloponnese, Shipley 2018, 213–14. 36 For the late Hellenistic period see nn. 29–34. Of the numerous inscriptions from the Imperial period see, for example, SEG 23, 207 (Messene, Augustan age); IG IV 602 (Argos, ad 116–117); IG IV² 1, 674 and 675 (Epidauros, first century ad); IG V 1, 479 (Sparta, ad 131/132); IG V 2, 269, 270 (Mantineia, first century ad), 463 (Megalopolis, second century ad), 516 (Lykosoura, ad 1/2 – for the date see Cossage 1954), 517 (Lykosoura, late second/early third century ad); Corinth VIII 3, 306 (Corinth, ca. 170 ad); I.Olympia 452, 478 (Olympia, third century ad). 37 In line with the reciprocity which was a basic feature of euergetism, the gifts or services rendered and the honours paid are recorded in the same texts, usually honorific decrees or honorific inscriptions. In the case of the honorific inscriptions the text is usually very brief (e.g. SEG 11, 1109) or very general and does not offer a clear picture. 38 Cf. the evidence collected by Gauthier 1985 and Quass 1993. 39 There are of course other methods of public gratitude, such as the oral announcement of honours in the citizen assembly or in other institutional collectivities like the Cretan syssitia (these thoughts emerged from a discussion with Angelos Chaniotis; for the syssitia, Chaniotis 2005, 87 n. 55). But orally expressed honours did not exclude written ones; on the contrary, they were very often 24
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Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese combined. On the epigraphic habit in the early hellenistic Peloponnese, in general, see Shipley 2018, 199–201. 40 Among the unpublished inscriptions from Messene there may be more such cases, but the general picture will not change. We also cannot exclude the possibility that in some areas of the Peloponnese honorific inscriptions may have been engraved on perishable material such as lead (Kralli 2017, 409, 431; for this practice see IG V 2, 510 1.8 and 511 ll. 10–11). 41 The needs of the Peloponnesian cities are confirmed by the evidence for epidoseis, voluntary contributions made by the citizens to meet specific needs such as the fortifications in Troizen and Megalopolis (Migeotte 1992, nos. 21, 23, 24) and for loans (Migeotte 1984, nos. 19–21, 25) – I mention only the material up to the end of the second century. Most donations by Hellenistic rulers to the Peloponnesian cities involved money, soldiers, and weaponry (Ameling, Bringmann and Schmidt– Dounas 1995, nos. 41–4, 47, 51–5, 70–1, 74–6), and the same holds true for the donations of Hellenistic kings to the Achaean League and to Aratos (cf. Ameling, Bringmann and Schmidt–Dounas 1995, nos. 64–9). 42 Cf. the article by Selene Psoma in this volume, Chapter 14. Shipley 2018 evaluates the evidence of surveys (pp. 183–99), construction projects (pp. 201–14), material culture (pp. 215–24) and coinage (pp. 224–38), showing that all this ‘rebuts the notion of absolute economic decline’ (pp. 239). Furthermore, he rightly points out that the financial difficulties do not mean a ‘decline in polis culture’ (p. 213). More negative is the view of Rizakis and Touratsoglou 2008 on the financial situation of the Peloponnese in the Hellenistic age, nevertheless laying emphasis on the disparities between different periods and cities. 43 The view of Shipley 2018, 214 (‘a fortiori, the early Hellenistic period, with its numerous decrees of honours to citizen benefactors, is part of a golden age of polis politics, continuing the classical tradition of public debate, political competition, and aspiration to honours’) does not match circumstances in the Peloponnese. 44 On tyrants in the Hellenistic Peloponnese (among others, Aristomachos, Aristodemos, Aristippos, Lydiadas, Eudamos), Kralli 2017 passim and Shipley 2018, 107–15. For inscriptions in which cities in the Peloponnese and elsewhere honour Peloponnesian tyrants or member of their families, e.g. IG II² 774; Moretti, ISE I 41; SEG 52, 447–9. 45 For as long as the League played a major role in the political affairs of the Peloponnese, there is ample inscriptional documentation regarding relations between Peloponnesian cities. For example, there are numerous inscriptions relating to arbitrations and, in general, to the resolution of disputes (Harter-Uibopuu 1998), as well as inscriptions attesting friendly intra-Peloponnesian relations (Kralli 2017, 399–488). 46 Hence we do not have honorific inscriptions and decrees, but only dedications of the donors. E.g. the two agonothetai in Megalopolis in the fourth and second centuries (IG V 2, 450; 453), the agonothetes in Messene at the end of the third century (SEG 55, 513), the gymnasiarch in Kythera (IG V 1, 938) and the gymnasiarch in Pharai (Achaia) at the beginning of the second century (Rizakis, Achaie III no. 62). See also the case of Megakleia above n. 17. 47 This image is confirmed by the evidence for loans in the Peloponnese in this period (Migeotte 1984, nos. 18–21, 24, 25).
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Sophia Aneziri Deshours 2011. The Peloponnese is the outstanding example of these developments, as aptly demonstrated by Lafond 2006 and 2016. 48 49
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Civic and religious euergetism in the Hellenistic Peloponnese Curty, O. and Piérart, M. 2009 ‘Un gymnasiarque argien de la basse époque hellénistique’, in O. Curty (ed.) L’huile et l’argent: Gymnasiarchie et évergétisme dans la Grèce hellénistique, Paris, 183–202. Deshours, N. 2011 L’été indien de la religion civique: étude sur les cultes civiques dans le monde égéen à l’époque hellénistique tardive. Scripta antiqua 30, Bordeaux. Dignas, B. 2006 ‘Benefitting benefactors: Greek priests and euergetism’, AC 75, 71–84. Fröhlich, P. 2009 ‘Les activités évergétiques des gymnasiarques à l’époque hellénistique tardive: la fourniture de l’huile’, in O. Curty (ed.) L’huile et l’argent. Gymnasiarchie et évergétisme dans la Grèce hellénistique, Paris, 57–94. Gauthier, P. 1985 Les cités grecques et leurs bienfaiteurs, BCH Suppl. 12, Paris. Giannakopoulos, N. 2017 ‘Decrees awarding offices for life and by hereditary right as honours’, in A. Heller and O.M. van Nijf (eds) The Politics of Honour in the Greek Cities of the Roman Empire, Leiden and Boston, 220–42. Graf, F. 2013 ‘Individual and common cult: epigraphic reflections’, in J. Rüpke (ed.) The Individual in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean, Oxford, 115–35. Harter-Uibopuu, K. 1998 Das zwischenstaatliche Schiedsverfahren im achäischen Koinon: zur friedlichen Streitbeilegung nach den epigraphischen Quellen, Köln. 2011 ‘Money for the polis: public administration of private donations in Hellenistic Greece’, in R. Alston and O.M. van Nijf (eds) Political Culture in the Greek City after the Classical Age, Leuven and Paris, 119–39. Hupfloher, A. 2012 ‘Kultgründungen durch Individuen im klassischen Griechenland’, in J. Rüpke and W. Spickermann (eds) Reflections on Religious Individuality: Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian practices, Berlin and Boston, 11–41. Jost, M. 1996 ‘Evergétisme et tradition religieuse à Mantinée au Ier siècle avant J.-C.’, in A. Chastagnol, S. Demougin and C. Lepelley (eds) Splendissima civitas: Etudes d’histoire romaine en hommage à François Jacques, Paris, 193–200. Kralli, I. 2017 The Hellenistic Peloponnese: Interstate Relations. A narrative and analytic history, from the fourth century to 146 bc, Swansea. Lafond, Y. 2006 La mémoire des cités dans le Péloponnèse d’époque romaine (IIe siècle avant J.C.– IIIe siècle après J.C.), Rennes. 2016 ‘Euergetism and religion in the cities of the Peloponnese (first century bc to first century ad): between civic traditions and self-assertion of the elites’, in M. Melfi and O. Bobou (eds) Hellenistic Sanctuaries: Between Greece and Rome, Oxford, 18–26.
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Sophia Aneziri Laum, B. 1914 Stiftungen in der griechischen und römischen Antike, 2 vols., Leipzig. Meier, L. 2012 Die Finanzierung öffentlicher Bauten in der hellenistischen Polis, Mainz. Migeotte, L. 1984 L’emprunt public dans les cités grecques: Recueil des documents et analyse critique, Paris. 1992 Les souscriptions publiques dans les cités grecques, Geneva and Québec. Papazarkadas, N. and Wallensten, J. 2020 ‘Religion and family politics in Hellenistic Kalaureia. Three new inscriptions from the sanctuary of Poseidon’, Opuscula 13, 139–164. Paschidis, P. 2008 Between City and King: Prosopographical Studies on the intermediaries between the cities of the Greek mainland and the Aegean and the royal court in the Hellenistic period (322–190 bc), Meletemata 59, Athens. Purvis, A. 2003 Singular Dedications: Founders and innovators of private cults in classical Greece, London and New York. Quass, F. 1993 Die Honoratiorenschicht in den Städten des griechischen Ostens, Stuttgart. Rizakis, A. and Touratsoglou, Y. 2008 ‘L’économie du Péloponnèse hellénistique: un cas régional’, in C. Grandjean (ed.) Le Péloponnèse d’Epaminondas à Hadrien, Paris, 69–82. Savalli-Lestrade, I. 2003 ‘Archippè de Kymè, la bienfaitrice’, in N. Loraux (ed.) La Grèce au féminin, Paris, 247–95. Shipley, D.G.J. 2018 The Early Hellenistic Peloponnese: Politics, Economies, and Networks 338–197 bc, Cambridge. Taeuber, H. 1994 ‘Stifterinnen im griechischen Osten’, in E. Specht (ed.) Frauenreichtum: Die Frau als Wirtschaftsfaktor im Altertum, Vienna, 199–219. Themos, A. 2015 ‘Γίνεσθαι τὸν ἀγῶνα τῶν Βαδησιείων κατ’ ἐνιαυτόν. Επιγραφή καθιερώσεως αγώνων από το Εξωχώρι Καρδαμύλης’, in A. Matthaiou and P. Papazarkadas (eds) Ἄξων: Studies in Honor of Ronald S. Stroud, Athens, 543–69. Tuplin, C.J. 2004 ‘Xenophon, Artemis and Scillus’, in T.J. Figueira (ed.) Spartan Society, Swansea, 251–81. Van Bremen, R. 1983 ‘Women and wealth’, in A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt (eds) Images of Women in Antiquity, Beckenham, 223–42. 1996 The Limits of Participation: Women and civic life in the Greek East in the Hellenstic and Roman periods, Amsterdam. Versnel, H.S. 2011 Coping with the Gods, Leiden. Walbank, F. 1957 A Historical Commentary on Polybius, vol. I, Oxford.
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14 LUXURY AND WEALTH IN THE HELLENISTIC PELOPONNESE Selene Psoma What can we say about luxury and wealth in the Peloponnese during the Hellenistic period?1 From the last decades of the fourth century and most of the third century bc this area suffered at the hands of the Macedonians. It was also a victim of Aetolian aggression and Achaean ambitions. The ‘Peloponnesian spring’ promised by Agis and Cleomenes of Sparta never materialised and the most glorious of the region’s cities found themselves under cruel tyrants. Roman conquest brought peace, but Rome’s civil wars left their trace on the face of what Strabo (8.2.1, C 335) described as the planeleaf-shaped peninsula (ἐοικυῖα φύλλωι πλατάνου τὸ σχῆμα). Despite all that, life was good – for some, at least. The Hellenistic historian Harmodios of Lepreon,2 whose work On the Customs in Phigaleia (Περὶ τῶν κατὰ Φιγάλειαν νομίμων) is often cited by Athenaeus, speaks about Pytheas of Phigaleia in south-western Arcadia, who was so proud of his large collection of gold, silver and electrum vessels that he asked his relatives to write about them in his funerary epigram.3 One wonders how Pytheas was able to acquire such a collection and what his resources were. Was he a significant landowner of Phigaleia, a city in the border area between Arcadia and Messenia? The mountainous character of this city is well-known; but the impressive remains of various temples (Artemis, Zeus Soter and Athena, Dionysos) at Phigaleia and its chora, including the temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai, as well as the description by Harmodios of feasts in a religious context, reveal that this Arcadian city was prosperous.4 So its citizen, Pytheas, could acquire (or inherit) the wealth which permitted him to live in a luxurious way and be proud of his tableware. However, as the epigram dates from the third century bc and silverware was not common in mainland Greece before Alexander III (‘the Great’), Pytheas was quite possibly one of the very many Arcadians who fought with Alexander or his Successors in the East, acquired considerable wealth and, once back in his native city, showed off the silverware that he acquired for his services to the Macedonians.5 There were Arcadians among the mercenaries who fought in the East, as
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Selene Psoma is revealed by the names Tegea and Heraea given to two cities founded by Seleukos I.6 Literary evidence reveals that the Macedonians had the habit of offering precious goblets to their guests during symposia, while in the early Hellenistic period they completely changed the way that symposia were organized among Greeks, turning them into a big show of luxury.7 Hence we face some key questions. What do we know about luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese? Can coin hoards and numismatic production provide any evidence about this subject? What do we learn from inscriptions? What do the literary sources reveal? How could we combine these three types of source? What was the historical context of the Hellenistic Peloponnese against which we should see these documents? What was considered as wealth and as luxury? From the Homeric poems to the late Hellenistic period – with considerable changes – wealth was possession of land and livestock, along with slaves who could be used to cultivate the land or look after the livestock,8 and who could be rented or sold to provide income.9 Agricultural and livestock products could create a surplus through slave labour. This surplus could be invested in various activities, including maritime trade of various commodities and the creation of workshops producing different items that increased one’s wealth. This was regarded as wealth, and wealth was a condition sine qua non for living honourably in a polis, honouring the gods and participating in the life of the community.10 However, wealth could also provide the possibility of living very comfortably, in large houses with baths and on fine estates,11 surrounded by slaves and beautiful objects, such as luxurious furniture,12 precious carpets from Sardis, clothes from Amorgos and Kos,13 pillows and stromata from Syracuse and so on.14 Rich people of the Hellenistic period used to wear Laconian shoes,15 loved perfumes, food and wine of excellent quality,16 and made extensive use of silverware, the pride of our friend Pytheas.17 Theopompus noted the big change in terms of wealth by describing a parvenu who had recently acquired wealth and began to use silverware, whereas earlier in his life he had had to eat and drink from broken pottery.18 Note that there was a distinction between winter and summer silverware for those who were very wealthy and most probably used different residences during the summer.19 Literary sources and archaeological evidence both point to the great rarity of silverware in Greece during the Archaic and Classical periods. A prominent Athenian like Timotheus had to borrow two silver phialai from Pasion, the banker ([Dem.] Against Timotheus 22, 24). Lysias, a very rich metic, had four silver phialai (Lys. Against Eratosthenes 12.10–12). Philip II
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese of Macedon possessed a golden phialeion that he always placed under his pillow.20 There was a significant change with the Third Sacred War which is also reflected in the change of the gold/silver ratio before the end of Philip’s reign.21 Another, far more significant, change took place under Alexander III and was also accompanied by a 1:9 gold/silver ratio.22 Let us now turn to the Peloponnese during the Hellenistic period and what the different sources tell us about the subject. Coinage and numismatic evidence We will begin with the numismatic evidence, as possessing chremata, often translated as ‘money’, is a sign of wealth. Of the 80-plus hoards found buried in the Peloponnese from the 330s to the late first century, six contained silver staters (tetradrachms) of Philip II and were all buried before 310.23 The Attic weight coinages of his sons, Alexander III and Philip III, were more important by far for numismatic circulation in this area. Alexander III is represented by 30 hoards of silver tetradrachms and drachmas, and Philip III by 13 hoards.24 These coinages were present in hoards buried from the last decades of the fourth century to the late third century. There is only one hoard whose burial can be dated within the first quarter of the second century.25 The coinages on the Attic standard of the Successors began to arrive at the very beginning of the third century. We have silver coins of Lysimachus in thirteen hoards,26 of Demetrius Poliorcetes in seven hoards,27 and of the Seleucids (Seleukos I– Seleukos III) in seven hoards all buried between 295 and 215.28 There are also tetradrachms of Athens in more than ten hoards with similar burial dates.29 Worth special mention are the silver staters (tetradrachms) of Ptolemy I and II buried in more than five hoards dated between 250 and 21530 and the very few tetrobols of Antigonus Gonatas in one hoard (Sophikon: 225–200 bc).31 We know of three hoards of gold coins: staters of Philip II and Alexander III from Corinth (IGCH 77: 327–325 bc) and Messenia (IGCH 123: 300 bc), and staters of the last three Temenid kings (Alexander III, Philip III and Alexander IV) and Demetrius I from Epidaurus (CH VII 64: 295 bc).32 Some staters of Philip II may have arrived with his troops operating in the Peloponnese after Chaironeia or have been given to friends in the cities.33 Most of the silver and gold coins on the Attic standard of the last Temenids arrived with the return of Alexander III’s veterans.34 A significant number continued to arrive with troops dispatched by his Successors. Ptolemy I and Demetrius Poliorcetes were active in the Peloponnese and issued coins in Peloponnesian mints, while Ptolemy II was the ally of Athens and Sparta during the Chremonidean War.35
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Selene Psoma The tetradrachms of Athens arrived mixed with the other Attic-weight currencies in the Hellenistic Peloponnese, an area restricted to the Aeginetic standard down to the 330s, which changed forever with the influx of Temenid Attic-weight currency.36 All other hoards contain currencies on the reduced Aeginetic standard, which was introduced during the last decades of the fourth century,37 and was used by cities and leagues of the Peloponnese and Central Greece.38 Local currencies remained of importance at Corinth, Elis and Argos.39 To these coinages, those of Sicyon and a number of less significant mints, were added the small silver coins of the Achaean League issued with federal types, which may have continued to be issued after 146.40 We also need to mention Sparta’s silver coinage on the local and the Attic standard. Monetary circulation is reflected in epigraphic documents dating from the Hellenistic period: A donation list from Argos of 323 bc mentioning Aeginetan drachmas and Alexander III’s drachmas (IG IV 617). An epigraphic document of the early third century from Epidauros mentioning sums for burnt offerings (Askl. 43, cf. IG IV2 1, 97: drachmas of Alexander, Attic drachmas, drachms of Argos, Aeginetan and Corinthian staters and a gold stater). A document of similar date mentioning a fee calculated in drachmas of Alexander (IG IV2 1, 98) An honorary decree of Troizen dated to 287 bc mentions drachmas of Alexander (IG IV 750) A document from Stymphalos (234 bc) with a fee calculated in Aeginetan drachmas (IG V 2, 357 = SEG 11, 1105) The silver coins issued with the name and types of Alexander III were used in a number of transactions and arrived with troops and trade in the Peloponnese. It is not a simple coincidence that at Sparta Kings Areus (309–265), Cleomenes III (235–222) and later Nabis (207–192) also issued silver tetradrachms on the Attic standard to finance their military operations. There were also silver Alexanders issued by Peloponnesian cities during the early Hellenistic period and some early second-century tetradrachms of Messene with the city’s own types and on the Attic standard. These coinages served needs related to the Macedonians as far as the Alexanders are concerned, while the tetradrachms of Messene with civic types were issued for the needs of the Antiochic War (c. 189 bc).41 The big change that we observed in monetary circulation after the 220s can also be observed in epigraphic documents. As hoards buried after this date were monopolized by silver coins issued on the reduced
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese Aeginetan standard, which became the monetary standard par excellence in Greece from the third century to the late Hellenistic period, epigraphic documents never mention currencies other than drachmas and obols without any reference to their issuing authority. This points to a common coinage on the same standard, i.e. the coinage of the Achaean league and other coinages of Peloponnesian cities in the league, as well as coinages of leagues and cities outside the Peloponnese on the same standard.42 What do these hoards and coinages say about wealth in the Peloponnese during the Hellenistic period? With some few exceptions, coinages were issued to serve needs for currency, not to show off wealth. The historical background of the period points in the same direction as far as the Peloponnesian mints are concerned. There were various needs that could be met with silver coinages: payments of misthos to mercenaries, repairs of walls and other public buildings, money for the organization of the Isthmian, Nemean and (most importantly) Olympic games, everyday life and everyday needs. There were certainly wealthy citizens. To them belonged the hoards of gold staters from Messenia, Elis and Corinth. These were among the richest areas in the Hellenistic Peloponnese, as we learn from literary sources and archaeology. A variety of literary sources – the Histories of Polybius of Megalopolis; Plutarch’s biographies of two Spartan kings, Agis IV and Cleomenes III, and two Achaian leaders, Aratos and Philopoimen; along with seven of the ten books of Pausanias’ Periegesis; and various fragments of poets and writers collected by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistai and by Plutarch in his Moralia (very little is said by Strabo, Diodorus or Livy) – help us imagine the world of Hellenistic Peloponnesian elites. This same world is also revealed by epigraphic evidence, which we will examine first. Differences of scale Before exploring this evidence, however, we need to stress that there is a difference of scale between the Peloponnese – and mainland Greece generally – and the Greek East, the kingdoms founded by Alexander III’s Successors. This is explicitly stated by Plutarch when mentioning the wealth of the Spartan king Agis IV. Agis himself admits that his wealth could not be compared with that of the Ptolemies or the Seleucids (Agis 7.2). With this in mind, let us turn to the Peloponnese, the land’s wealth and its wealthy classes. Epigraphic evidence If participation in the Olympic Games is an indication of wealth, we may note the significant number of Olympic victors from the Peloponnese.
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Selene Psoma From the total of 266 known Olympic victors in the Hellenistic period, 97 came from the Peloponnese. Half of these were from Elis (48), followed by Laconia (14), Arcadia (9), Argos (6), Messene (5), Sicyon (4), Achaia (4), and Corinth (1).43 There are also seven known Peloponnesian victors from the Isthmian games.44 There is also another group of prominent citizens revealed mainly by literary evidence. These citizens played a major role in their cities’ politics and entertained friendly relations with the Hellenistic courts. They all belonged to the elite classes of their cities and led embassies to the courts of Alexander III45 and his Successors.46 Beginning with Demaratos, Philip’s personal friend, down to the Isthmian games of 197 bc, these people played a major role in Peloponnesian politics. Embassies to Hellenistic royalty and later to Rome were one of the tasks undertaken by city elites.47 They were involved in the ransoming of prisoners,48 erection and/or restoration of public buildings,49 including walls,50 and provisions for corn51 and oil.52 They also assumed expensive magistracies, such as the agoranomia or gymnasiarchia,53 and were involved in religious matters,54 and various related benefactions.55 Wealthy citizens participated in public subscriptions and an eranos.56 The famous sculptor Damophon from Messene made loans to the city of Lykosoura in Arcadia and then cancelled part of them. The brothers Cloatii did the same for Gytheion.57 There is also evidence of foundations aiming to finance religious and other activities.58 To the evidence we have from the third century, we can add the sale of citizenship at Dyme and Tritaea (Achaïe III 3, 94). It is mostly after the mid-second century that the cities’ needs seem to increase and the cities faced these needs with the precious help of wealthy citizens. What about dedications to sanctuaries by these leading Peloponnesian classes during the Hellenistic period? Did they express their piety and enrich the shrines of their native Peloponnese? Temple inventories record precious objects of various types dedicated in sanctuaries; however, they are almost completely absent from Peloponnesian sanctuaries, except at Isthmia. Inventories are known from other Greek cities: at Athens from the Acropolis, the Asklepieion and the Brauroneion, from Aphaia on Aegina, and from Delos, Samos, Didyma and Lindos. In the cases mentioned the initiative of keeping records of dedications can be explained by particular circumstances.59 Hence from the limited number of inventories in the Greek world during the Hellenistic period we can assume that their almost complete absence from the Peloponnese is not only a Peloponnesian phenomenon. Dedications at the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros had the form of ex-votos, while at Olympia athletes commemorated their
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese victories by erecting statues. We can understand more about the absence of inventories from Peloponnesian sanctuaries through the information from Pausanias (6.19.2–15) and Athenaeus (11.59, 479f–480a) about city treasuries at Olympia. These were small buildings which housed various precious objects that the cities used during religious ceremonies. Athenaeus cites Polemon’s account of a list of objects in the treasuries of Sicyon, Metapontion and Byzantion, as well as in the temple of Hera. This list was evidently copied at Olympia, probably from a bronze tablet, a material frequently used in Elis, Argos and western Greece.60 Peloponnesian resources The evidence we have collected points to the wealth of the regions of Messene and Elis.61 This was the reason, as well as their location on the West coast of the Peloponnese, that they were often plundered by pirates and others as we learn from Polybius.62 Messene was considered the best land in the Peloponnese (Paus. 4.15.6), and was spared from the war against Cleomenes III.63 Polybius mentions the richness of Elis,64 a vast rich agricultural area of some 2660 km2. For Polybius, Mantinea was the second city in terms of wealth in the whole area.65 Owning land between Corinth and Sicyon could make a person rich, as the god of Delphi revealed.66 Literary sources also report particular details of agricultural and other production in the Peloponnese. For Arcadia this evidence has been collected by James Roy (2000). It reveals a significant number of commodities. The Peloponnese had the nickname Apia because of its large production of pears (Ath. 14.62, 650b). Laconia had various resources and also had access to iron,67 and to marble at Krokeai, while shells from its coast provided purple of the best quality (Paus. 3.21).68 Peloponnesian honey was also known.69 Messenia also produced large quantities of wheat (Paus. 4.7.2). In the rich land of Elis high-quality flax (byssos) was grown (Paus. 5.5.1–2). This was extremely expensive when Pliny wrote his Naturalis Historia (19.20). However, Pausanias reported that it was woven in Achaia and was used for women’s hairnets and clothes (6.26.6; 7.21.14). A number of agricultural products are noted by sources cited by Athenaeus: radishes from Corinth and Kleonai (2.48, 56f), vinegar from Kleonai (2.75, 67d), oregano from Arcadia (2.77, 68b), cabbage (2.79, [69a) and figs (3.7, 75a) from Laconia, apples from Sidous in Corinthia (3.20, 82a), and one of the best cheeses in the ancient world from Tromileia in Achaia (14.76, 658c). Livestock was also important. There is evidence of horse breeding in Laconia.70 Horse breeding is also reported in Messenia: Nicagoras
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Selene Psoma of Messene brought horses to sell at Alexandreia where he met king Cleomenes III.71 A large estate in Elis with its livestock and herdsmen is described in the Theocritean(?) Herakles Leontophonos (25.13–17).72 Polybius describes the herds of Arcadian pigs moving between plains and forests (12.4.5–14).73 Inscriptions mention the sacred flocks (hiera probata) of the sanctuary of Alea Athena at Tegea (IG V 2, 3), and we learn from Polybius (4.18.10; 19.3) about the flocks (thremmata) of the goddess Artemis Hemeraia at Lousoi in Arcadia. We have already mentioned Laconian shoes and the women’s hairnets and clothes produced in Achaia. Pellene was known for its upper garments such as cloaks (Ath. 10.7, 414e; Str. 8.7.5 C 386), while the richness and variety of items produced in Corinth’s workshops are well known.74 Among these were mattresses (Ath. 1.49; cf. 2.31–2). Corinthian jars (kadoi) were also well known (Ath. 6.29, 236c). Cauldrons (lebetes) and other bronze items were made at Argos,75 Phleious produced wine, Elis provided cookers, and Sicyon had a significant fish market (Ath. 1.49; 7.31–2). As we have seen, the area between Sicyon and Corinth was considered very rich (Ath. 5.60, 219a). Timber was available in this area and this was a very precious commodity. Sicyon’s prosperity was most probably based on timber. Archaeological evidence points to local workshops producing items mainly for local consumption.76 Drinking cups (skyphoi) were produced at Argos, Sparta, Lousoi, and Pylos, lekythoi in Elis, flasks (lagynoi ) at Pylos, lamps at Patrai, mirrors, daggers and other bronze objects at Corinth.77 If we turn now to material culture, we need first to note Messene’s fortification walls, by far the most impressive in mainland Greece and Thrace (Byzantion), according to Pausanias (4.31.4–6). It was at Messene and intra muros that impressive marble family graves were erected and in use in some cases from the fourth century to the late Hellenistic period. There were also graves in the gymnasium. Messene was a pioneer in introducing these honours for significant elite families. The cities of western Asia Minor followed suit, but not till almost two centuries later: Archippe was supposed to be buried where the other benefactors of the city of Kyme were buried (SEG 33.1035 ll. 11–14). The reasons why Messene introduced such intra muros burials have recently been discussed by Fröhlich (2004, 203–27), who concludes that they were related to the existence of a powerful local elite. There was a leading class of big landowners and merchants in Messenia, mentioned when they favoured Philopoimen’ s execution (Paus. 8.51.6–7). Turning to Sparta, Kyniska, a member of the Eurypontid royal family of Sparta, who gained two Olympic four-horse chariot-race victories in
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese the 390s bc, was followed by other Spartan women during the Hellenistic period.78 These women possessed the means to develop horse breeding and were either members of the royal families or belonged to the highest Spartan aristocracy connected to the royal houses. This was certainly the milieu of both the mother and grandmother of King Agis IV, Agesistrata and Archidamia were rich women and were able to provide the king with six hundred talents to support his reforms (Plut. Agis 4.1, 6.4, 9.3). During this period there were Spartan citizens whose luxurious way of living is mentioned by Plutarch (Agis 7.4–8). Precious clothes and goblets were borrowed by Amphiares from the king’s mother (18.4). This luxurious living continued at Sparta after Agis’ death (Plut. Cleom. 2.1). Cleomenes III’s wife Agiatis was also rich, as she inherited from her father Gylippos (1.1). So too was his mother, Kratesikleia (6.1). Both Cleomenes himself and his step-father Megistonous were also wealthy (11.1). A prize of forty minas was offered to Dionysian artists (12.2). A bronze crater and two silver phialai, each holding two kotylai, as well as silver goblets, were used by the king during symposia entertaining foreign visitors (13.4). A full description of a symposion organized by the king is provided by Athenaeus (4.21, 142e). Statues and paintings were also brought to Sparta from Megalopolis (25.1). Two earlier Spartan kings, Areus and Akrotatos, had also lived in luxury.79 According to Pausanias (4.29.9–10), Machanidas and Nabis, tyrants in Sparta after the defeat of Cleomenes, plundered the Spartans and were used to luxury. Philopoimen recognized Machanidas on the battlefield by his luxurious red clothes and the jewels of his horse (Plb. 11.18.1). Nabis’ methods were heavily criticised by Polybius for how prominent Spartan families suffered at his hands (Plb. 13.6.3; 16.13.1–3). Nabis collaborated with his wife, who stole (ἀφείλετο) all the precious jewellery of the Argive aristocracy (Plb. 18.17.5). Nabis and his wife managed to accumulate a fortune worth 120 talents (Plut. Phil. 15.4). After Nabis’ death, his house was offered to Philopoimen (Plb. 20.12.1–3; Paus. 8.51.2; Plut. Phil. 15.4), who refused. The offer was made by Timolaos, a prominent Spartan and his hereditary xenos. These Spartans were used to luxury items. Perfume sellers were probably no longer expelled from Sparta by the leading class.80 The last Peloponnesian leader, Philopoimen, to whom Nabis’ estate was offered, was not a very rich man (Plut. Phil. 2.3). His income came from his estate. The booty he collected was spent in weapons, horses and the release of prisoners (Plut. Phil. 4.1 & 3). For Philopoimen, ‘it was impossible for a man who lived more extravagantly than his own resources allowed to keep his hands off public money’ (Plb. 10.22.5).
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Selene Psoma According to Pausanias, he had a stoa built at Megalopolis with money acquired by selling 3000 Spartans. There was another stoa at Megalopolis whose name ‘Myropolis’ referred to the perfume shops it housed. It had been built with money from booty collected in Arcadia during the war between King Akrotatos of Sparta and Aristodemos, the tyrant of Megalopolis in the late 260s.81 Another stoa in the agora of the same city was a donation of a certain Aristandros and was named after him.82 There is also evidence about a road network in the Peloponnese while Pausanias praised the road between Tegea and Argos (8.54.5). Mainalon housed two stadia, one for athletic games and another which served as a hippodrome (Paus. 8.36.8). These were certainly used for competition among the elite. The rich citizens of Megalopolis were asked by Aratos to contribute one third of their land for new settlers but refused (Plb. 5.93.1–7). The Sicyonian Aratos, who became leader of the Achaean League, expelled the Macedonians from Corinth and Athens, resisted Sparta’s ambitions over the Peloponnese, and passed money that he was given by Ptolemy III on to his fellow-citizens, especially for ransoming citizens who had been captured (Plut. Ar. 11.2). Aratos paid Ptolemy back not only by being his precious ally in the Peloponnese, but also by sending him works of art – Sicyonian paintings by Pamphilos and Melanthos – from his own collection (12.5). He also received six talents a year from Ptolemy for his services. The Sicyonian leader relied on his own silverware and his wife’s golden jewellery to pay Erginos sixty talents to let the Achaeans into Corinth (19.1–2). He gave 25 talents out of 150 to Diogenes to evacuate the Macedonian garrisons from Attica (34.5–7). He also possessed a house at Corinth that Cleomenes spared, promising him an annual sum of twelve talents to collaborate with him (41.3).83 We may turn now to the richest area of the Peloponnese, Elis. The richness of the area, described by several authors, needs no more comment. Xenophon was delighted with his estate in Skillous and pictured the area as an idyllic place (An. 5.3.7–13). It was the region’s richness, as well as that of neighbouring Messene, which attracted pirates. It was plundered many times, from the Corcyreans at an unknown date (Paus. 6.24.4) and Agis II in 400 bc (X. HG 3.2.26) to Philip V of Macedon (Plb. 4.75.1–7) and later Sulla. Impressed by their wealth, Polybius depicted the Eleans as spending most of their lives on their big estates. He also mentions a traveling lawcourt moving from one place to another, as these Eleans were not eager to travel to lawcourts (4.73.5–8). Elean wealth is also reflected in their Olympic victories in the chariot races and the horse-race (keles).84 Prosopography reveals that there was a largely stable local elite that can be traced from the fourth century bc to the third century ad.85 This picture
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese of rich landowners living luxuriously on their estates and enjoying country life, as Xenophon did at Skillous, seems to be the epitome of the good life of prosperous and wealthy people. This may have been the desideratum of their neighbours, the Achaeans, whose land was not rich (Plut. Ar. 9.4), and who had to send colonies to South Italy.86 These colonies acquired very considerable wealth. The best known was Sybaris, whose lifestyle became proverbial. According to Timaeus of Tauromenion, the Sybarites ridiculed those travelling from abroad and were proud of getting old near the rivers of their city.87 *
*
*
We can therefore conclude that, despite the continuous war and troubles that the planeleaf-shaped peninsula suffered, the Peloponnese’s leading classes managed to maintain a wealthy lifestyle. It seems that the period of luxury in the East had its lesser equivalent in the area that concerns us. Peloponnesian wealthy elites were ready to undertake expensive acts of euergetism, initially before, but mainly after Rome had begun to dominate the Peloponnese. To the native elites were now added rich negotiatores such as the brothers Cloatii. What do we know about the other social classes? Did euergetism have a trickle–down effect redistributing wealth to the so-called lower classes, whose primary hopes lay in the redistribution of land (Plb. 4.81.2)? Abbreviations Achaïe III = A. Rizakis, Achaïe III. Les cités achéennes: épigraphie et histoire. Meletemata 55, Athens, 2008. Askl. = W. Peek, Inschriften aus dem Asklepieion von Epidauros, Abhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-Historische Klasse 60. 2, Berlin, 1969. CH = Coin Hoards, The Royal Numismatic Society, London. IG = Inscriptiones Graecae, Berlin, 1873–. IGCH = M. Thompson, O. Mørkholm, and C. M. Kraay (eds) An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards, New York, 1973. IvO = W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold (eds) Inschriften von Olympia, Berlin, 1896. SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923–. Notes 1 For the history of the Hellenistic Peloponnese down to 146 bc, Kralli 2017. 2 For Harmodios, Zoumbaki 2005 no. 117. 3 Ath. 11.14, 465c–d = Harmodios of Lepreon, FGrHist / Brill’s New Jacoby 319 F3.
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Selene Psoma On Phigaleia, Nielsen 2004, 527–8 no. 292. Cf. Theophr. Char. 23.3. 6 App. Syr. 297–8. For the cities in northern Syria, Cohen 2006, 73 (Achaea), 108 (Heraea), 139 (Tegea). Cf. Cohen 2013, 203 (Achaea) not to be confused with Achaea in Aria (p. 274). 7 Ath. 3.100, 86f; 4.3, 128a–130d: the symposion at the wedding of a rich Macedonian. See also Ath. 5.46, 210e; 12.56, 540b. 8 Ath. 6.103, 272d for the slaves of the citizens of Dardanos. 9 Xen. Vect. 4.14 (Nikias’ 1000 slaves), 15 (Hipponikos’ 600 slaves). 10 Xen. Oec. 11.9–10, cf. Vect. 6.1. 11 Ath. 6.18, 230f. 12 Plut. Mor. 99e; 101c. 13 Ath. 2.30–31, 48 b–d; Schol. on Ar. Lys. 150; Ath. 6.67, 255e. 14 Ath. 6.67, 255e. 15 Ath. 6.67, 255e. For Laconian shoes, see also Ath. 5.54, 215c, regarding Lysias, the tyrant of Tarsos in Cilicia. For sandals as a sign of wealth, Ath. 8.29, 342a. See also Ar. C 96 W (ap. Ath. 12.58, 541b) regarding the himation worn by a rich citizen of Sybaris at the festival of Hera at Lakinion, celebrated by all Greeks from southern Italy. It was later sold to the Carthaginians for 120 talents. 16 Ath. 8.29, 342a. 17 Ath. 6.4, 224b; 6.17, 230a. 18 Theopompos, FGrH / Brill’s New Jacoby 115 F 252, ap. Ath. 6.18, 230f. 19 Ath. 6.17, 230f. 20 Douris FHG II 470 = Brill’s New Jacoby 76 F 37a, ap. 6.19, 231b-c. Cf. Plut. Mor. 198c about Aemilius Paulus and the first silver item in the house of the Aelii. 21 Ath. 6.19, 231d–f; for the ratio, Lewis 1968, 105–10. 22 See previous note; for the ratio, Lambert 1996, 84–8. 23 IGCH 74–76, 79, 83, 84. 24 Touratsoglou 1998. 25 IGCH 246. 26 IGCH 132, 137–138, 158, CH VII 71; IX 179; IGCH 173, 176, 179; CH IX 201; IGCH 180-181, 187. 27 IGCH 143, 158; CH VI 27; VII 69; IGCH 179 (= CH VIII 316), 181. 28 CH VII 64; IGCH 170, 179 (= CH VIII 316); CH IX 179; IGCH 181, 186–187. 29 CH I 43; IGCH 121, 131–132, 138, 143, 158; CH VI 27; VII 69; IGCH 176, 179; CH IX 201; IGCH 181, 186–187. 30 IGCH 85; CH IX 179; IGCH 171, 173, 176, 179 (= CH VIII 316), 180–181, 187. 31 IGCH 179 (CH VIII 316.) 32 See also IGCH 121 from Achaea, with two staters of Philip II and Alexander III, four tetradrachms of Alexander III and two of Athens. 33 D.S. 16.8.7. 34 Touratsoglou 1998. 35 Chryssanthaki-Nagle 2005, 165–7 with literary sources and bibliography. 36 For monetary circulation in the Peloponnese before the reign of Alexander III, Psoma 2011. 37 For Argos, Walker 2006, 265–6; for Elis, Walker 2006, 170–8, and 2004. 4 5
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese Tsangari 2007, 245–9. IGCH 85, 171, 200. 40 Boehringer 2008. 41 For Peloponnesian Alexanders, Price 1991: Corinth (nos. 667–706) 310–290 and 220–215 bc; Sicyon (nos. 707–726) 323–317 and 225–215 bc; Argos (nos. 727–740): 220–215 and 190 bc; Hermione (no. 741): 220 bc; Megalopolis (nos. 743–753) 225–223 bc; Pellene (no. 742) 225–215 bc; Messene (nos. 754–756) 190 bc. For Messene, see also Grandjean 2003, 109, 123–6. 42 Cf. the agreement between the Achaean League and Orchomenos (234/3 bc: IG V 2, 344), the loan of the Cloatii to Gytheion (IG V 1, 1146), the octobolos eisphora document from Messene (IG V 1, 1432), the foundation of the Badeseia (Themos 2015). See also IG V 2, 345 ll. 19–25 (21), Orchomenos, 79/8 bc, with amounts calculated in minas, staters, obols and argyrion symmachikon. For the argyrion symmachikon, Psoma 2019. 43 Moretti 1957, 456 (Kleitor), 461 (Patrai), 462 (Elis), 464 (Argos), 465 (Patrai), 466 (Elis), 476 (Elis), 478 (Sparta = IvO 171), 480 (Elis), 483 (Heraia), 486 (Tegea), 487 (Sparta), 489 (Elis), 493 (Corinth), 494 (Elis), 496 (Messene: IvO 172), 497 (Elis), 501 (Elis), 502 (Argos), 505 (Elis), 506 (Elis), 510 (Sparta), 514 (Mantinea), 515 (Sparta), 522 (Elis), 529 (Arcadia = IvO 174), 530 (Elis), 531 (Elis = IvO 177), 535 (Aigion), 536 (Elis), 540 (Elis = IvO 175), 541 (Aigeira), 544 (Elis), 560 (Elis = IvO 176), 562 (Elis), 563 (Elis = IvO 180), 564 (Elis = IvO 181), 565 (Sparta), 566 (Sparta), 570 (Elis), 571 (Sicyon), 573 (Messene), 574 (Sicyon), 576 (Thelpussa), 577 (Elis), 578 (Argos), 580 (Messene), 583 (Elis = IvO 179), 585 (Elis= IvO 182), 587–588 (Elis), 592 (Argos), 593 (Tegea), 595 (Argos), 600 (Tegea), 601 (Elis), 605 (Argos), 608 (Megalopolis), 621 (Elis), 647 (Sicyon), 653 (Sparta), 655–657 (Akriai, Laconia), 660–661 (Akriai, Laconia), 663 (Elis = IvO 197), 664 (Elis), 670 (Elis = IvO 198), 671 (Elis = IvO 199), 672 (Elis = IvO 200), 673 (Elis = IvO 201), 674 (Elis = IvO 202), 675 (Elis = IvO 203), 676 (Argos), 677 (Kyparissia, Laconia), 678 (Elis = IvO 205), 679 (Elis = IvO 206), 680 (Elis), 684 (Sicyon), 688 (Sicyon), 690 (Kyparissia, Laconia), 691 (Elis), 692 (Elis), 693 (Elis), 694 (Elis), 695–696 (Elis), 697 (Elis), 698 (Elis), 702 (Sparta), 705 (Elis), 707 (Elis = IvO 207), 708 (Argos), 711 (Elis = IvO 191), 713 (Messenia), 714 (Elis = IvO 714), 715 (Elis = IvO 195), 716 (Messenia), 718 (Elis = IvO 213), 720 (Elis = IvO 216, 217), 722 (Elis). Cf. also IvO 189, 209, 214, 215, 216, 218. 44 For the Isthmian games during the Hellenistic period, Farrington 2012, nos. 1. 85 (Hermione), 1. 87 (Sicyon), 1. 91 (Epidaurus), 1. 93 (Tegea), 1. 94 (Achaea), 1. 100 (Messene), 1. 101 (Tritaia = Moretti 649). 45 Peloponnesians and Alexander III, Heckel 2006: Alcias from Elis (= Zoumbaki 2005, A51), no. 9; Damis from Megalopolis, no. 102; Deinarchus from Corinth, no. 105; Deinarchus from Corinth, no. 106; Demaratus from Corinth: no. 107; Eteocles from Sparta, no. 119; Eudamidas I of Sparta, no. 119; Euphranor from Corinth, no. 121; Euphron from Sicyon, no. 122; Eutychides from Sparta, no. 123; Evagoras from Corinth, no. 124; Hippias from Sparta, no. 140; Monimus from Sparta, no. 170; Moschion from Elis, no. 170; Neon from Messene, no. 174, Onomastoridas from Sparta, no. 184; Pausippus from Sparta, no. 194; Thibron from Sparta, no. 265; Thasyboulos from Messene, 267. 46 Paschidis 2008, 469–505. 38 39
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Selene Psoma IG IV 750, Troizen, 287 bc; and later to Rome: IG IV2 1, 63, Epidaurus, 115/114 bc, 64 (second/first century); IG V 2, 268, Mantinea, 10 bc/ ad 10. See also Aneziri, this volume, Chapter 13. 48 IG IV 750, Troizen, 287 bc [and ships]; IG V 2, 20: Tegea, first century bc/ first century ad. For IG IV 750 see Bielman 1994, no 19. For euergetism in the Peloponnese, see Aneziri, this volume, Chapter 13. 49 IG IV2 1, 65, Epidaurus, first century; IG V 1, 1114, Geronthrae, first century [sanctuary of Hera]; IG V 1, 1144: Gytheion, ca. 80 bc [sanctuary of Apollo]; IG V 1, 1370, Kalamai, Messenia, 50–1 bc [sanctuary of Hippothoos]; IG V 2, 268, Mantinea, 10 bc/ ad 10. 50 IG V 2, 440, Megalopolis, 131 bc; 441, Megalopolis, 130 bc . 51 IG IV2 1, 65, Epidauros, first century; 66, Epidauros, 74 bc; IG V 1, 1370, Kalamai, Messenia, 51–0 bc; IG V 1, 1379: Thouria, Messenia, second/first century; IG V 2, 268, Mantinea, 10 bc/ad 10; IG V 2, 437, Megalopolis, late second century. 52 Achaïe III 173, Aigeira, mid-second century. 53 IG IV 2, Aegina, 69 bc; 66, Epidauros, 74 bc (agoranomos). 54 IG IV 558, Argos, 114 bc. 55 Varia: IG IV 2, Aegina, 69 bc; IG IV2 1, 65, Epidauros, first century; 66, Epidauros, 74 bc; IG V 1, 1114, Geronthrai, first century (sanctuary of Hera); IG V 1, 1144: Gytheion, ca. 80 bc (sanctuary of Apollo); IG V 1, 1370, Kalamai, Messenia, 51–0 bc; IG V 1, 1427, Messene, first century; IG V 2, 268, Mantinea, 10 bc/10 ad; IG V 2, 437, Megalopolis, late second century; IG V 2, 446, Megalopolis, first century; IG V 2, 511, Thisoa. 56 Public subscriptions (epidoseis): IG V 2, 439, Megalopolis, 145 bc; Achaïe III 18, Dyme, third century; IG V 1, 11, Sparta, first century. Eranos: Achaïe III 1, Dyme, 280/79 bc. 57 For Damophon, Sève 2008. For the Cloatii, IG V 1, 1146: Gytheion, 71/70 bc. 58 Made by Agasicles and Nicagora (IG IV 841, Calauria, late third century) and Nicippa, daughter of Pasias: IG V 2, 265, Mantinea, 64–61 bc. For euergetism in the Peloponnese, Aneziri, this volume, Chapter 13. 59 Scott 2011; for example, ‘The accounts at Athens detail the paradosis, the handover from one set of treasurers of Athena to the next, at which a stock-check of sacred objects under their control was made to ensure nothing was amiss’ (240). 60 For Elis, IvO nos. 1–43. For Argos, cf. the unpublished fourth-century archive from the sacred treasury of Pallas Athena (Kritzas 2006); its publication is in preparation. For western Greece, IG IX2 1, 4, passim (Corcyra). 61 Plb. 2.5.1 (Messenia and Elis), 4.3.7, 4.4.1, 4.5.1, 4.5.5. 4.6.9–12 (Messenia); 9.4.10 (Elis). 62 Plb. 4.5.7–8: Aetolians attacked Aigeira in Achaia; 4.6.3: Klarion, near Megalopolis, was used by Philip V to sell booty; 4.6.9–12 Dorimachos and Skopas against Messene; 4.7.4: crossed Achaia; 4.9.10: plundered Elis; 4.14.5: plundered Sicyon; 4.18.8: extensive plundering; 4.19.5: stole the thremmata of the goddess; 4.59.1: Euripidas plundered Dyme, Tritaia and Pharai; 4.60.4–5: booty from Achaia for the Aetolians; 4.69.8: Philip V sent to Corinth the booty; 4.73.5: collected booty in Elis; 4.73.6: plundering in Elis; 4.75.1–2, 7–8: booty of Philip V; 9.4.10: booty from Elis for the Aetolians; 4.80.16: Philip V and booty at Heraia; 4.86.4: Philip V and booty at Dyme; 9.34.9–10: Peloponnesian sanctuaries suffered attacks. 47
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Luxury and wealth in the Hellenistic Peloponnese Plb. 4.5.5; 4.32.1. Plb. 4.73.6–10. 65 Plb. 2.62.11. There is no need to take into consideration the information from Timaeus (Ath. 6.103, 272b) about the 460,000 slaves at Corinth. Μυριάδας should be corrected to χιλιάδας. See also Westermann 1940, 458, 462–3. 66 Ath. 5.60, 219a. 67 Timber was exported to Delphi and Central Greece: Rizakis-Touratsoglou 2008, 76–7. 68 There was also marble at Tainaron (rosso antico) which was exported to Crete and Delos (Str. 8.5.7, C 267), and purple at Hermione, which was exported to the East (Plut. Alex. 36.2) ; Rizakis-Touratsoglou 2008, 76. 69 Columella, De Agricultura 9.14.18–19. 70 Paus. 3.8. 71 Plb. 5.37.10. 72 That this work is not by Theocritus, see Gow 1943. 73 Roy 2000, 331. 74 Salmon 1984, 101–27. 75 On workshops in general, see Sanidas 2013. 76 Rizakis and Touratsoglou 2008, 73–4. 77 For daggers, Plut. Ar. 25.2. 78 Paus. 3.8; On horse breeding in the Peloponnese, see also Str. 8.8.1, C 388. On Kyniska, see Paradiso and Roy, this volume, Chapter 4. 79 Ath. 4.20. 142b. 80 Ath. 15.34, 684f. 81 Paus. 8.30.7–8. 82 Paus. 8.30.10 83 This was the same annual pension given by Ptolemy Euergetes to the philosopher Arcesilaus (Ath. 12.77, 552c). 84 Moretti 1957, nos. 522, 531, 585, 663, 670, 671, 672, 673, 674, 675, 679, 680, 693, 694, 695–696, 697, 698, 705, 707, 711, 720. 85 Zoumbaki 2001, 63, 77–8; Roy 2006. 86 For the argument that the Eleans did not send colonies to Epirus, Dominguez 2015. 87 FGrH / Brill’s New Jacoby 566 F 50. 63
64
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INDEX The authors use either the Greek or Latin versions of names. Both Greek and Latin versions are given when the two different versions are used in the volume by different authors. 300; see also Alcenor, Argos, Chromius, hair, Othryades, Sparta Spartan champions at Thyrea 161 Achaean League xvii, 248, 253 n. 41, 266, 269 n. 42; see also Aratos coinage of 260–1 influence on elite 248 Achaia/Achaea, Achaeans 132, 181–2, 188, 253, 262–4, 266–70 Achilleion (sanctuary of Achilles, Sparta) lead votives 39 acquisitive behaviour xvi, ch. 11 passim; see also elite, inheritance, wealth annoyance with 211 coercive 208 non-coercive xvi, ch. 11 passim and poetry 210–2, 218 n. 21 acquisitive individuals ch. 11 passim; see also banausoi, craftsmen, knowledge performance Acrocorinth 145; see also burials, graves acropolis; see also sanctuaries of Athens vxi, 8, 13, 190, 192, 262; see also Athena of Emborio on Chios 7 of Paroikia 192 of Sparta 99, 200 n. 22 administration at Agios Vasileios 32 exclusion of ordinary citizens and monopolisation by the elite 233 Adriatic region Sparta’s involvement in commercial circuit 62 Aeginetic (reduced) standard 260; see also coinage, Temenid Attic-weight coinage Aelian 232
Agasikles/Agasicles 246, 292 n. 58; see also cult, euergetism, landed property, Nikagora Agasikratis 245–6 Agathyrsi and habrosune¯ 166 Agesilaos/Agesilaus (uncle of Agis IV) debts 86 Agesilaos/Agesilaus II (king of Sparta) 57–8, 63, 129, 131, 133; see also Kyniska campaign in Asia Minor 129, 131 horse breeding 63 influence on Kyniska 58, 65, 68 lifestyle 131 Agesistrata 63, 86, 265; see also Agis IV, Archidamia, Spartan women Agiatis 265; see also Gylippos, Kleomenes III, Spartan women Agido 20–1; see also Alkman, women Agios Konstantinos 33, 46 n. 20 Agios Stephanos 32–3, 45 n. 9 Agios Vasileios 32 Agis I (king of Sparta) and helots 78 Agis II (king of Sparta) 67, 266 Agis IV (king of Sparta) 84–5, 97, 111 cancellation of debts 86 reforms xiv, 77, 84–6, 124, 128–31, 257, 265 and truphe¯ 124, 131 and wealth 261, 265 ago¯nothete¯s, agonothetes, agonothetai 166, 253 n. 46 agora; see also agoranomia, market, trade Argos 233 Athens 229, 238 n. 17 Corinth 226
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Index Elis 37 Megalopolis 266 Sparta 81, 83, 86 agoranomia, agoranomos, agoranomoi 234, 243, 246–7, 262; see also Diodoros Siculus, elite, Euanthes, magistrates agricultural and pastoral resources xvii, xviii, 4, 59, 67–8, 81, 87, 233, 258, 263; see also barley economy, epinomia, harvest, horses products 263 right of pasture 233 Aigeira 247, 269 n. 43, 270 n. 62 Aigialeia 187–8 Aigies sanctuary of Athena Alea 39 dedications of lead female figurines 48 n. 74 Aigina/Aegina, Aiginetan(s) 168, 209, 214 n. 16, 234 coins from 82–3, 92 n. 33 decree 234 and euergetism 234 temples 181–2 of Aphaia 38, 262 Aigion xvii, 248, 253 n. 41, 266, 269 n. 42; see also Aratos Aigisthos 4; see also chlide¯, Elektra Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 104 Aetolia, Aetolians 183–4, 257, 270 n. 62; see also Thermon Aetolian League 257, 270 n. 62 akolasia, ἀκολασία (intemperance, license) 108–9, 111, 128–9, 133 akrasia, ἀκρασία (lack of self-control) 128 Akrotatos (king of Sparta) 265–6 alazoneia, ἀλαζονεία (boastfulness) associated with truphe¯ by Plutarch 127, 129–30 Alcaeus 22; see also poetry Alcenor (Argive) 161; see also Champions, battle of, Chromius, Othryades aleiphomenoi 251 n. 23 Alepotrypa Cave 32; see also Diros Bay
Alexander III (Alexander the Great) xvii, 257, 259–60 coinage 259–60 veterans 259 Alexander IV 259; see also coinage Alexanders (gold and silver coins of ) 82, 260; see also coinage Alexandreia/Alexandria (Egypt) 19, 22, 135, 264 Alkibiades/Alcibiades 4 teams in Olympic four-horse chariot-race 64 Alkman/Alcman ch. 2 passim, 61, 140, 212; see also poetry, Sparta First Partheneion xii, 19, 21, 23, 26, 34–5 on luxury in Sparta xii, 9–10, ch. 2 passim, 34–5, 43 Panhellenic aspects 22–3 transmission of ch. 2 passim on wedding preparations 12 Alkmeonidai 192; see also chariot-racing, dedications, wealth Alkmeonides Panathenaic victory 11; see also chariot-racing, dedications, wealth allotments 110; see also Aristotle, kle¯ros, landed property Amazonomachy, marble sculptured metope of the Athenian Treasury, Doric (sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi) 195 ambassadors, embassies 246–7, 262 Amorgos 258 Amphalkes 251 n. 22 Amphiares 265 Amphimachos 5, 14 n. 18 Ampolo, C. 142 Amyklai/Amyklaion/Amykles Chitón 35 clothing and textile/lead dedications 31, 33, 36–9 Konidaros plot 33 sanctuary of Apollo Amyklaios/ Amyklaion 31, 36–9 throne of grey and white marbles xvi, 186, 189 Amyklaion (sanctuary of Apollo
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Index Amyklaios, Sparta) xv, 31, 36–9, 186, 189 Anacreon 6, 14–5, 22, 43; see also poetry Anacreontic vases 167 anaisthe¯sia, ἀναισθησία (lack of sensation) 128–9 Andania 9, 163, 166 Anderson, J.K. 66–7 andragathia, ἀνδραγαθία (manly virtue) 58 andrapoda 60; see also slavery andreia, ἀνδρεία (manliness) and Sparta 124 Andromache (dramatic character) 33; see also Euripides Andros ex-Oikos (Delos) 192 anesis, ἄνεσις (female license); see also Aristotle of Spartan women 101, 107–9, 110–11, 113 Anios (legendary king of Delos); see also Archegesion temple 191 Ano Mazaraki temple of Artemis 181–2 Anthologia Palatina 47 n. 64, 58 Antibes 8 Antigone (dramatic character) 121; see also Euripides, truphe¯ Antigonos Gonatas coins 259 Antiochic War (c. 189 bc) 260 Antiochos III 234; see also euergetism, Laodike III apeirokalia, ἀπειροκαλία (‘vulgar extravagance’, excess) 131 associated with truphe¯ by Plutarch 127, 130 Apelleas of Megara; see also Kyniska, sculpture sculptor of Kyniska’s statue groups at Olympia 62 Aphaia (temple of, Aigina) 38, 262; see also Athena Aphrodite clothing and textile dedications 31, 37 cult 31
Cypris 4, 121 dedication of a vaguely phallus boulder 8 dedicator to 8 dressing of the image/statue of 31, 37 hieropolos of 246 Morpho, sanctuary of 36 sexual desire as truphe¯ 121 Apia (Peloponnese’s nickname) 263; see also pears Apollo Amyklaios xvi, 35–6 Chitón 35 throne of grey and white marble xvi, 186, 189 archaic temple of (Delphi) 192, 194–5 Daphnephoros 181 dedications chiton 35, 37–8 clothing and textile dedications 31, 42 kouroi 8 lead votives 39 Delios, temple of (Naxos) 187, 191–2 Doric treasury of the Athenians (Delphi) 198 Epikourios, temple of (Bassai) 257 Hyperteleatas 42, 48 n. 78 oracle 218 n. 20, 250 n. 14 as part of a holy triad (Pellana) 36 priesthood 244–5 Ptoios, sanctuary of (Boiotia) 8, 11 sanctuaries Delphi 181, 195 Gytheion 244–5, 270 n. 49, n. 55 Kynouria 48 n. 76 Phoiniki 42, 48 n. 78 Sparta 35–6 temples Corinth 187–8 Delos 181, 183, 190 Eretria 181–2 Thermos (Thermon) 185 Tyritas, sanctuary (Kynouria) 48 n. 76 Aratos of Sikyon 253, 261, 266 private collection of paintings 266
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Index archaeological evidence xi, xii, xiv, 7, 22, 31, 33, 44, 71, 82–3, 88, 119, 133, 142, 144–6, 148, 150–1, 154, 163, 172, 195, 218, 258, 261 Archegesion (sanctuary of Anios, Delos) 192 Archidamia 86, 265 Archidamian War 230 Archidamos/Archidamus II (king of Sparta) 57, 133 Archidamos/Archidamus III (king of Sparta) 59, 140 Archippe 264; see also burials, euergetism architects xvi, 200 n. 22 Lakonian 219 n. 39 architecture xv, ch. 10 passim; see also building material, Ionian-Dorian buildings Archaic 184, 188–95, 197–8 Doric xvi, 183, 185–8, 191, 193–8 Geometric 181–3, 190 Ionic 182–4, 186–8, 191–2, 194–5, 198 sacred ch. 10 passim arete¯, ἀρετή (excellence) 58, 174 n. 53, n. 55 Areus I (king of Sparta) 260, 265 coins 82 argias nomoi 227; see also Athens, law Argolid, Argolis 143–5, 161, 172 Argos, Argives xx, ch. 8–9 passim, 209, 213, 216 n. 7, 251 n. 20, 265–6 bronze production 264 coins/currency 260 decree, honorary 233, 246–7 defeat at ‘Battle of the Champions’/ loss of Thyrea xv, xx, 162–4, 166, 169–70 Dorian identity 150 and euergetism xix, 233, 246–7 festival of Hera 37 Heraion 37–8, 185–6, 197 Hestiatorion 186 marriage practices 12 men, prohibition on long hair ch. 9 passim Olympic victors 262 pre-classical Argive funerary practices and society xv, ch. 8 passim
women, prohibition on wearing gold xv, ch. 9 passim Aristandros donation of a stoa (Megalopolis) 266 Aristippos 253 n. 44; see also tyranny aristocracy xv, 81, 147–8, 238, 265; see also elite, tyrant Aristodemos (tyrant of Megalopolis) 253 n. 44, 266; see also tyranny Aristodemus (tyrant of Cumae) 173 n. 22 Aristokleia 246; see also euergetism Aristomachos (tyrant of Argos) 253 n. 44, 266; see also tyranny Aristophanes on Alkman/imitation of 8, 23–4 and truphe¯ 3, 121–2 works Acharnians 229–30 Birds 12, 24 Frogs 121–2 Lysistrata 12, 24 Wasps 121 Wealth 8, 226 Aristotelian Polity of the Lakedaimonians 41, 44; see also Herakleides Lembos Aristotelianism 128; see also Aristotle Aristotle criticism of the Lycurgan constitution ch. 6 passim, 140 on ephors and gerontes 107 on horses 61 influence of Plato 106 influence on Plutarch 128 on truphe¯ 122, 128 on truphe¯ and license of Spartan women xiii, ch. 6 passim, 133, 140 on Sparta and oliganthro¯pia 77, 98 on Sparta and property, wealth ch. 6 passim on Sparta and war 77, 213–14 on vices and virtues 128, 130 works Eudemian Ethics 128 Nicomachean Ethics 122 Politics ch. 6 passim, 213 Rhetoric 122 Arkadia/Arcadia 9, 189, 246, 257, 262–4, 266, 269 n. 43
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Index Arkesilas of Kyrene victory at Pythian Games 65 armour 144, 183; see also Glaukos (Homeric) gold 5, 132 Arrigoni, G. 64 Artemis; see also Artemis Orthia, Eileithyeia, Iphigeneia Brauronia/Brauroneion (Athens) 31, 41, 43–4, 47 n.48, 262 Chito¯ne, sanctuary of (Miletos) 38 cult Delos 31 Tanagra 31 Thebes 31 Hemeraia, sanctuary of /sacred flock of (Lousoi) 264 Ephesia (Skillous) cult/temple 245–6, 250–1 n. 14 festival 251 n. 14 Limnatis, temple of (Sparta) clothing and textile dedications 39 temples Ano Mazaraki (Rakita) 181–2 Delion (Paros) 188, 192 Phigaleia 257 E, temple of (Delos) 190 Artemis Orthia, sanctuary of (Sparta); see also ‘Great Pit’ archaic ivory and terracotta dedications 40–1, 44 clothing and textile dedications 40–2, 44, 99 coins 83 jewellery dedications 34, 44, 99 lead votives 39, 43 male–associated rites 44 temples I 181–3 II 186 Artemisia I 209 artisans xvi, xx; see also banausoi, craftsmen social mobility 214–5, 219 n. 34 Asia Minor 28, 59, 131, 163, 235, 245 Asios of Samos 9–10; see also poetry Asklepieion (sanctuary of Asklepios, Athens) 38, 262
Asklepieion (sanctuary of Asklepios, Epidauros) 262 Asklepios/Asclepius dressing of the image/statue of 36–7 as part of a holy triad cult (Pellana) 36 sanctuaries Athens 38, 262 Epidauros 262 Asopos 233 asphaleia (security) 233; see also euergetism, Peisitas assassins 100, 216 n.4; see also Helen of Sparta, tyranny asylia (protection) 233; see also euergetism, Peisitas ateleia (exemption from taxes) 233; see also euergetism, Peisitas Athena Alea sanctuary (Aigies) 39 sanctuary and temple (Tegea) 181–2, 185, 198, 199 n. 11, 264 Chalkioikos sanctuary and temple (Sparta) 31, 37, 39, 42–44, 186, 200 n. 22 clothing and textile dedications 31, 37 Makistos, temple of (Skillous) 187 metal dedications 39, 43, 48 n. 78 Pallas 4 festival (Athens) 11 treasury (Argos) 270 n. 60 Polias sanctuary and temple of (Athens) 8 statue of (Athens) 37 temple of (Paroikia) 188, 192 Pronaia, sanctuary of (Delphi) 195, 198 sanctuary Lindos 38, 262 Palaiokastro hill (Kythera) 39, 48 n. 76, n.78, 49 n. 101 temple and Zeus Soter (Phigaleia) 257 Athenaios/Athenaeus 6, 14 n, 14, 63–4, 257, 263, 265 Deipnosophistai 12, 140, 231, 261 and truphe¯ 3 as a negative behaviour 140
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Index Athenian Treasury, Doric (sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, Delphi) 195 Athenian Treasury, Doric (sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi) 195 Athens, Athenian(s) 4, 8, 11–3, 23–4, 28 n. 22, 37–8, 41, ch. 4–6 passim, 121, 124, 126, ch. 8 passim, 162, 166, 170, 188, 190, 192–3, 195, 198, 209, 214, 226–7, 229–31, 246, 249, 258–60, 262, 266–8; see also Athena, Cleisthenes, Melos, sanctuaries, slavery, Solon, temples acropolis vxi, 8, 13, 190, 192, 262 austerity imposed by xix, 229–30 coins 88 Doric treasury of 198 economic growth 88–90 sanctuary of Asklepios/Asklepeion 38, 262 sanctuary of Athena Polias 8 Attic weight standard see Temenid Attic-weight coinage Augis; see also Argos, euergetism bronze statue of 233 loans to Argos 233 aulos; see also Demeter, Dyme, festivals, women prohibition of 9 austerity introduction passim, 34, 98, 107, 114, 119, ch. 8 passim, 215, 219, ch. 12 passim alternation with luxury 147–150, 153 generalised/poverty-driven xviii, xix, ch. 12 passim, esp. 225, 227–9 imposed by external powers xix, 225, 228–30 imposed on the poor xviii, ch. 12 passim imposed on the rich xviii, ch. 8–9 passim; see also restriction(s) moral connotation 227–228, 236; see also Sparta, austerity as relief measures xviii, ch. 12 passim self-imposed xi–xiii, xvi, xix, 22, 34, 81, 87, 97, 107, 112–13, 119–20, 124, 141, 147–150, 153, 175 n. 66, 198, 215, 225, 236
Spartan/Lycurgan xi–xiii, xvi, xix, 22, 34, 81, 87, 97, 107, 112–13, 119–20, 124, 141, 149, 175 n. 66, 198, 215 Bacchiad family 147, 149; see also Corinth, oligarchs Badeseia (annual contest/festival, Exochori) 245, 269 n. 42 banausoi 214; see also artisans, craftsmen barley 6, 59, 62 basket, basketry 44, 45 n. 9; see also kalathoi wool-basket 7, 33 Bassai temple of Apollo Epikourios 257, 201 n. 40 Bathykles 189, 200 n. 22 Bayliss, A. 25, 28–9 n. 30 Bdelykleon (dramatic character) 121; see also Aristophanes, truphe¯ Beattie, A.J. 8, 39 beggars, begging 173 n. 25, 226; see also law, Plato ban on 227 seers 125–6 benefaction, benefactor(s) see euergetism Bennett, J. 169 Bernhardt, R. 139 Biton statue in Delphi 189 Black Sea 218, 230 Blaineau, A. 60, 62, 65 blockade 228 Blok, J. 149 Boardman, J. 142 bobbins, bone 42; see also textile(s) Boia 32 Boiotia/Boeotia, Boiotian(s)/ Boeotian(s) 188, 229 coins 92 n. 33 sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios 8 sculpture 189 treasury of (Delphi) 194 bone bobbins 42 brooches/fibulae 41 comb 48 n. 81 horse 62
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Index needles 32, 42 prismatic bead 48 n. 76 from sacrifices 43 stamp 48 n. 76 booners see Anacreontic vases booty 265–6, 270 n. 62 Bouleuterion Delos 191 Kalaureia 246 Bourdieu, P. xv, 152; see also habitus Bowie, E. 23 Brauron sanctuary/temple of Artemis 31, 41, 43–4, 47 n.48, 262 Brauroneion (sanctuary of Artemis, Brauron) cult 31 inventories 43–4, 47 n. 48, 262 temple 41, 43–4 breeding and/or training horses xiii, ch. 4 passim, 263–5; see also horses Brélaz, C. 235 bribe, bribery 209–10, 217 n. 16; see also corruption of basileis 5 of ephors and gerontes 107 as a proof of wealth seeking/love of gold and silver xiii, 100, 107, 217 n. 17 of Spartan males 100, 112, 217 n. 17 bronze 62, 81, 154 n. 16, 214, 233, 264 armour 144, 218 n. 23 belt 7 brooch 33, 41, 48 n. 78 in burials 144–6 coins 62, 83 crater 265 dedications 7–8, 34, 39, 42, 99 discus 8 figurines/statuettes 7, 22, 183 jewellery 34 panels 200 n. 22 pins 33, 44, 48 n. 78, 146 statue 233 tablet 9, 263 tambourine 39 victory statues 62 Bronze Age 32–3, 60; see also chariots, Linear B tablets, textile(s)
Late 32 Middle 32 palatial system 33 bronze workers social mobility 214 brooch, fibula bone 41, 48 n. 78 bronze 33, 41, 48 n. 78 cicada 9–10 dedications 7, 35, 40–2 golden 9–10, 164 ivory 41, 48 n. 78 silver 41, 48 n. 78 building material ch. 10 passim; see also architecture, temples, treasuries granite 183, 185, 190–1 limestone (poros) ch. 10 passim marble chapter 10 passim mud brick 182–3, 185 oolitic 185, 193–4 sandstone 182, 184, 187, 197 schist 185, 199 stone socle 182–3 tuff 193–4 wattle, daub, pise 182–3 wood 183–6, 192 bullion 62, 83; see also coinage Burford, A. 64 burials 31–3, 42, 46, ch. 8 passim, 235; see also grave goods, graves, funerary legislation Argive xv, ch. 8 passim as elite social competition 148 Corinthian xv, ch. 8 passim intra muros 264 Messene 264 as a marker of wealth/funerary luxury ch. 8 passim pot burials 144–5 of the poor 235 ‘warrior’/‘hero’ 144, 147 button 41; see also clothing ivory 48 Byzantion 264 coins 83 treasury 263 Byzes (Naxian craftsman) 192
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Index C, temple (Thermos/Thermon) 184 cabbages, Lakonian 263 Callimachus 37 Cannon, A. 150 Carey, C. 22–3, 28 carnival ritual of inversion 231 as a temporary release 236 carpets, precious from Sardis 258 Cartledge, P. 101 Cato the Elder 139 Central Greece xvi, 38, 91 n. 25, ch. 11 passim coins 260 paths to wealth 210 volatility of wealth 213 Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies (CSPS) ix Chaironeia, battle of 259 Champions, battle of xv, ch. 9 passim Charinus decree 237 n. 14 chariot-racing xiii, xix, ch. 4 passim, 264; see also harmatotrophia, horses, Kyniska as a display of wealth xiii, 11, 58–9, 63 chariots 11, ch. 4 passim 97, 266; see also kannathra as a display of wealth 60 locally manufactured 60 Charondas of Catana 172 n. 14 chest 44 cloth- 33 Chitón 35; see also Apollo chiton (tunic) of Apollo 35, 38 of Asklepios 36 Doric 40–1 long (ἑλκεχίτωνες) 9 men 4 as a display of luxury 10 women 40 chlide¯, χλιδή, χλιδᾷς (effeminacy, luxuriousness, you luxuriate) 4–5, 14 n. 16 chorus 24–5, 101, 104
Spartan young women/girls xii, 9–10, 21, 35 chremata as a display of wealth 259; see also coinage, wealth Chremonidean War 259 Chromius (Argive) 161; see also Alcenor, Champions, battle of, Othryades chrysophorein, chrysophoria, χρυσοφορία (to wear gold, wearing of gold); see also Argos, Champions, battle of, women and habrosune¯ xv, ch. 9 passim Cicero 162 and luxuria 3, 139 pro Murena 139 Cinyras 21 citizen behaviours 141, 152, 169; see also euergetism citizenship xv, 90, 151–3, 216 n. 3; see also euergetism, isopoliteia and habrosune¯ 141, 169 honorary 233, 235 loss of 90 as a performance 141, 152, 169 rights 152, 233 sale of 262 civic strife, civic unrest, social turmoil; see also civil wars, stasis between poor and rich citizens 213, 232 civil war Rome 257 clasp 33; see also brooch, grips classes, social 209, 212, 264–5; see also elite, euergetism, inequality, mobility, slavery based procedures xviii, xix division/tensions between xix, 21, 231–2, 236 endogamy 101, 104 upper/higher 207, 248, 261–2, 264–5, 267 use of luxury as a class distinction/ division 13, 141, 147–8 by funerary practices 147–8, 150 working/lower 208, 216 n. 1, 267 Clazomenaean treasury (Delphi) 195
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Index Cleinias 102 Cleisthenes 88 Cloatii brothers; see also decree(s), negotiatores and euergetism 267 loans to Gytheion 250 n. 10, 262 clothing, dressing, garments ch. 3 passim, 99, 114, 122, 132, 140–1, 170, 226, 264; see also chiton, himation, peplos, pharos-veim, phoinikis, textile(s) dedications ch. 3 passim, 99 dressed female figures xii, 32 dressing the deity 31, 35, 37–38, 47 n. 49 coloured 9, 15, 38 purple 4, 10, 20–1, ch. 3 passim, 127, 130, 140, 166 saffron 38, 121 luxurious 8–9, 12, ch. 3 passim, 100, 167, 258, 263–5 restriction(s) on 9, 99, 162–3, 166 sacral 35–6 coinage, coins xvii, xviii, 82–4, 87–8, 92 n. 33, n. 38, n. 41, 123, 125, 217 n. 10, 253, 258–61; see also Temenid Attic weight coinage, bullion, currency, hoards, money supply bronze 62, 83 gold xvii, 83–4, 124, 259 silver xvii, 62, 83–4, 259, 124, 259–60 Spartan xiii, xviii, ch. 5 passim, 125 Coldstream, J.N. 149 colonies 238 n. 17 and wealth 213, 218 n. 27, 267 comb ivory and bone 48 n. 81 loom 40 tortoiseshell 3 weaving xii, 42 commerce see trade commodities 47 n. 48, 81, 87, 258, 263; see also trade Spartan woman as 104 competition xv, 233; see also citizenship, euergetism aristocratic 31 chariot–racing/horse–races 59–60, 62–4, 68, 266
political 253 n. 43 social 148, 266 and the use of sanctuaries 31 for wealth acquisition 89 conspicuous consumption xiv, ch. 8 passim cookers 264 cooks 126, 219 n. 38 Copper Age sites 32 Corcyreans 266 Corinth 36, 87, ch. 8 passim, 187, 198, 219 n. 40, 232, 236, 263, 266 and artisans xx, 214–5 austerity imposed on the poor xix, 226–8 coins/currency 259–61 Olympic victors 262 pre-classical funerary practices xiv–xv, ch. 8 passim temple of Apollo 187–8 treasury 193, 1966 workshops 264 Corinthia 263; see also Corinth burial 144–6, 149 settlement 144 Corinthian Treasury (Delphi) 193, 1966 corruption 6; see also bribe, education, ephors, gerontes, Spartan women and austerity xiii, xvi, 107 by luxury/truphe¯ 3, 13, 105–6, 111–3, 120, 131, 140 by seeking wealth 107, 112 in Sparta 107, 111–3 Cos precious clothes from 258 craftsmen, craftspeople xvi, 80–1, 91 n. 17, 125–6, 132, 214–15; see also artisans Cranae 33 credit; see also debt(s) creditors killed by debtors 232 in Sparta 84–7 and wealth 86 cremation 142, 154 n. 16 crescent-shaped items 32; see also loom-weights
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Index Crete, Cretan(s) 81, 102, 124, 148, 153, 188–9, 252 Crimea 228 criminality, criminals xviii, 226–8; see also law crisis; see also civic strife, stasis contexts of 235–6 dedications in time of 35 ethnic 150, 153 socio-economic xviii, ch. 5 passim, 150, 153, 225, 228, 233–4, 236 Croesus 161, 209, 216 n. 7; see also Pantaleon cult xvii, 23, 28 n. 22, ch. 3 passim, 152,181–2; see also dedications, sanctuaries, temples, euergetism xvii, ch. 13 passim of a holy triad 36 restriction(s) related to 9, 166 cups, drinking (skyphoi) 21, 130, 132, 264 currency xiii, xviii, 59, 82, 84, 125, 259–261; see also coinage, iron spits, Temenid Attic–weight coinage Cyclades 212 temples xv, 183, 185, 187–90, 192 Cynics, Cynicism influence on Plutarch 128, 130–2, 134 n. 7 Cyrus truphe¯ of his sons due to their education 105, 112 Damaratos (king of Sparta) 16 n. 43, 77, 59 Olympic chariot-race victory 58–9 Damaratos (Philip II’s friend) 262 Damiadas 235, 252 n. 34; see also doctor, euergetism Damonon (Spartan) stele 68, 69 n. 23 winner at several regional races 61 Damophon of Messene 262 Darius I 105, 209–10 debt(s) vii, xviii, xix, ch.5 passim, 228, 231–2; see also credit, economy, klaria, loans cancellation by Agis IV 86
debtors 86–90, 232 relief xix, 86, 228 in Sparta 84–89 and Spartan oliganthro¯pia 86–7 decadence associated with truphe¯ and hubris 139 food as a symbol of 21 meaning of truphe¯ for Plutarch xiv, ch. 7 passim decree(s) 84, 92 on debt relief 231–2 honorific 233–4, 243–6, 249–50 n. 2, 250 n. 10, 251 n. 20, 252 n. 25, 37, 253 n. 43, 46, 260 Megarian decree xix, 228–231, 236, 237–8 nn. 14–7 dedications xii,15 n. 24, ch. 3 passim, 61, 114, 169, 197, 253 n. 46 bronze 7–8, 34, 39, 42, 48 n. 77, 99 clothing and textile xii, 8–9, ch. passim, 99 as a display of wealth 10–1, 31, 38, 43, 99, 149, 248, 262 increase of 149–50 jewellery 34, 41, 44, 48 n. 77, 99 of land 245–6 large-scale sculptural 7, 219 n. 34 lead 8, ch. 3 passim regulations/restrictions on 8–9, 39 victory monuments xiii, 58, 62, 218–9 n. 31, 262–3 Delion temple of Artemis 188, 192 Delos Apollo, festival of 9–10 archaic buildings with marble 191 Archegesion 192 Artemis, cult of 31 Eileithyeia, sanctuary of 190 Propylon I–II 191 sacred buildings 181, 183, 190–2 sanctuaries 38, 262 temples Anios 191 Apollo 181, 183, 190–1 Artemis E 190 G 190 Hera/Heraion 190–2
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Index Leto/Letoon 191 Neokorion 190 treasury (Karystos) 191 Delphi ch. 10 passim, 209, 263 Apollo, archaic temple of 192, 194–5 Apollo, sanctuary of 195 Archaic/Doric buildings in limestone/poros 193–4 sanctuary of Athena Pronaia 198 Ionic/Doric buildings in marble 192, 194–6 regulation of the Labyadai 163 sacred buildings 192–196 sanctuary of Athena Pronaia 198 statues of Kleobis and Biton 189 temple of Ga 193 treasuries xvi, 193–5 Demeter cults 9 Demeter and Kore 244 Dyme 166 dedication(s)/votive offerings skin of a wild beast 9 textile 39 Eleusinion (Kalyvia Sochas) 39 festival (Dyme) 9 identification issue 39 prohibition(s)/restriction(s) 9, 39, 163, 166 mysteries Andania 9, 163, 166 Arkadia 244 sanctuaries Andania 9–10 Demeter and Kore (Tanagra) 38 Sparta 8 temples Demeter and Apollo (Sangri, Naxos) 187, 192, 195 Demeter and Kore (Mantineia) 244 Lykosoura 163, 166 Thesmophoros 9 Demeter and Apollo, temple of (Sangri, Naxos) 187, 192, 195 Demeter and Kore, sanctuary of (Tanagra) 38 Demeter and Kore, temple of (Mantineia) 244
Demetrius I Poliorcetes 234; see also Phila coins 259 Demetrius of Phaleron 162–3 Democedes of Croton 209–10; see also doctor Demosthenes; see also argias nomoi Against Eubulides 227 Despoina, sanctuary of (Lykosoura) 9–10 restrictions 10 destitute (ptochos) 226; see also beggars, poor citizens Diadochoi 257, 259, 261–2 Dickey, K. 146–8, 151–2 Didyma, Didymaion sanctuary and temple of Apollo 38, 262 Dicaeopolis (dramatic character) 229–30; see also Aristophanes dildo, tortoiseshell 13 n. 3 Diodorus Siculus 234.261 Diogenes Euergetes 266 Diogenes of Sinope 131–3 Diomedes 5, 218 n. 4 Dion (tyrant of of Syracuse) 135 n. 14 Dionysia 244 Dionysiac/Dionysian artists 251 n. 20, 265 Dionysios I (tyrant of of Syracuse) teams in Olympic four-horse chariot-race 64 Dionysodotos the Lakonian 25 Dionysos/Dionysus; see also Dionysia, Dionysiac artists in Aristophanes’ Frogs 121–2 clothes/garment offerings 37 cult by Dionysiac artists 251 n. 20 dressing of the image/staue of 37 festival/Dionysia 244 on hubris and truphe¯ 122 sanctuary and altar (Yria, Naxos) 187 statue 251 n. 20 temples Phigaleia 257 I–IV (Yria, Naxos) 183–4, 186–7
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Index Dioskourides treatise on the Lakedaimonian constitution 85 Dioskouroi cult 250 n. 1 as part of a holy triad 36 Diphilus 227, 236; see also Corinth, unemployment Emporos 226 Diros Bay 32 discus, bronze 8 distaff Helen of Sparta’s/golden 33 doctor 210, 234–5, 252 n. 34 for the poor 235 Doliana grey marble from 185 white marble from xvi, 185 donation see euergetism donor(s) 246, 248, 249–50 n. 2; see also euergetism, dedications agonothetai 253 n. 46 gymnasiarchs xvii, 247, 253 n. 46 queens 234 women 35–6, 43, 246, 250 n. 9 Dorian(s) xv, 149–50, 227, 231, 234 see also ethnicity Doric Treasury (sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, Delphi) made of marble 195, 198 Doric Treasury of the Athenians (sanctuary of Apollo, Dephi) 198 dowries 209; see also marriage, inheritance, wedding, women funded for poor girls xix, 234–5 Spartan women’s 101, 104, 110 and wealth 101, 104, 110 Dracon 227 dress fastener; see also brooch, pins part of clothing and textile dedications xii, 35, 41, 43 prohibition of 42 dress, dressing see clothing dressing accessories 35, 44; see also brooch, dress fastener Duplouy, Alain 169 Dyme 166; see also Andania burning of credit archives 86
festival of Demeter 9 plundering of 270 n. 62 and sale of citizenship 262 earthquake, of 198 bc (Iasos) 230 Echinos votive relief 68 Eckstein, F. 60 economy, economics vii, xviii, 32, ch. 5 passim,103, 123, 141, 143, 152–3, ch. 11–12 passim, 248; see also coinage, conspicuous consumption, debt(s), loans, money supply, trade austerity policies impact on ch. 12 passim closed economy xviii, ch. 5 passim constraints on economic development ch. 5 passim economic growth 88–9, 183–4 mobility ch.11 passim Spartan 57, 59, 61–3, ch. 5 passim, 99, 104, 110, 112, 119 textile(s) 32 warfare impact on 213–4 education ch. 6 passim Aristotle on 98, 108, 112 corrupted by truphe¯/wealth 98, 103, 105–6, 108, 112–3 Plato on 98, 103, 105–6 Spartan male 84, 132 Spartan female 99, 105–6, 108, 112 Egypt, Egyptian(s) 33, 188, 209, 216 n. 7, 218 n. 27 Eileithyeia/Eileithyia/Eleutho as Artemis ‘look–alikes’ 31 cult 36 as part of a holy triad cult (Pellana) 36 sanctuary of (Delos) 190 electrum, vessels 257 Electra (dramatic character) 4 Eleusinion (sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, Kalyvia Sochas) lead dedications 39 Eleusis 229 Elis, Elean(s) xvii, 37, 62, 92, 209, 217 n. 12, 245, 260, 264, 268–70 acquisition of the sanctuary of Olympia 210 coins/hoard 82, 261
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Index currency 260 Olympic victors 262 peplophoric ritual for Hera 37 plundered by Macedonians 270 n. 62 seers 217 n. 17 wealth/landed estates 263, 266 elite xii, xvii, 21, 43, 84, 87, 132–3, ch. 8 passim, 165, 169, 207–8, 215–6, 236, ch. 14 passim; see also luxury, wealth control over administration and politics 233, 262 display of wealth/luxurious lifestyle 21–2, 43,140, 142, 147–9, 226 and euergetism 233, 236, ch. 13 passim, 264, 266 killing of/violence against xix, 232 social competition 147–9, 266; see also burials and tyranny 222, 248 Emborio on Chios acropolis sanctuary 7 harbour sanctuary 7 enkrateia, ἐγκράτεια (self-control) 128–9; see also so¯phrosune¯ Ephorus xiv on helots 78–9 on pleonexia and truphe¯ 124 on Sparta 124 ephors; see also Aristotle, Sparta and bribery 107 lifestyle 107 and truphe¯ 129 Epidauros Limera 32 Epidauros/Epidaurus 243, 247, 260 sanctuary of Asklepios 262 epidoseis (public subscriptions) 253 n. 41; see also euergetism, subscription epigram 39 funerary 246, 257 Kyniska 58, 62 Pytheas 257 Simonides 62 epigraphy, epigraphic evidence viii, xvi, xvii, 7, 31, 38, 81, 83, 166, ch. 13 passim, 260–3; see also decree(s), inscriptions Epimenides of Phaestus 162; see also Solon
epinomia (right of pasture) 233 eranos 262; see also elite, euergetism Eretria temple of Apollo Daphnephoros 181–2 Erginos bribed by Aratos of Sikyon 266 Ergotimos 16 n. 39 ethnicity, ethnic groups; see also Dorian(s) and funerary practices/display xiv, 147–50, 153 Euagoras (Spartan) three-time winner of Olympic chariot-race 64 Euanthes (agoranomos) 243, 245 Eudamos (tyrant of Megapolis) 251 n. 22, 253 n. 44 euergetism, euergetes xvi, xvii, xix, xx, 233, ch. 13 passim, 260, 266–7; see also donor(s), patronage, subscription civic 246–9 from foreigners 235, 267 gendered 234–5, 244–6 religious xvii, 38, 243–6, 248–9, 251 n. 18 royal 234–5 for the poor xix, 232, 234–6 as political pragmatism 236 and trickle-down effect 267 and war expenses 248, 253 n. 41 eunuchs; see also Cyrus as bad educators 105, 112 and luxury/truphe¯ 6, 105 Persian 105, 112 Phrygian 100 Eupolia (2nd w. of Archidamos II) 57 Euripides; see also Helen of Sparta on truphe¯ xiii, 4, 120–1 and Spartan women 99–101, 104–5, 113–14, 140 works Andromache 100 Cyclops 100 Hekuba 174 n. 63 Ion 121 Iphigeneia at Aulis 121 Orestes 100
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Index Phoenician Women 121 Suppliant women 3, 120 Troades 99 Eurotas valley 32 Eurydame (2nd w. of Leotychidas II) 57 Eurypontid royal house xiii, 57–9, 97, 264 euteleia, εὐτέλεια (simplicity) 130 associated with Sparta by Plutarch 131–2 opposed to truphe¯ by Plutarch 131 ex-votos 37, 42, 47 n. 55, 262; see also dedications excavations 22, 83, 145 ‘Exclusion decree’ see Megarian decree fabric see textile(s) farms, farmers, peasantry 87, 214, 229–30; see also economy, debt(s), loans, interest rates, Megarian decree Aristophanes’ parody on 229–30 Athenian/Attic 88–9, 229–30 helots xviii Megarian xix, 229–30 perioikoi 81 Spartan 79 feast(s) 257; see also civic strife, inequality carnival-like/ritual of inversion 231 female figures, figurines dressed xii, 32 lead xii, 32, 40–1 red-figure kylix 70 n. 41 festival(s) xiii, 9–10, 12, 25 n. 28, 35, 64, 70 n. 40, 233; see also euergetism, sanctuaries Badeseia 245, 269 n. 42 carnival-like 231, 236 with chariot/horse race 62, 67–8, 69–70 n. 23 and contests 64, 245, 250 n. 13 Demeter 9, 166 Dionysia 244 and finances 250 n. 13 Gymnopaidiai 25, 134 Hera 164, 268 n. 15 Hyakinthia 36, 63–4, 70–1 n. 41
Koragia 244 Kronos 231 Lenaia 229 as occasion for a display of wealth 9, 11–12, 43, 63, 164, 166, 268 n. 15 Panathenaia 37 panhellenic 68 Poseidon Gaieochos 60 prohibition/regulation 9, 11 and ritual of inversion 231 Saturnalia-like 231 Soteria 244 fibula see brooch figs, Lakonian 263 financial crisis ch. 5 passim, 228; see also austerity ‘finger’ weaving 42; see also textile(s) Finley, M.I. 123, 218 n. 26 fish consumption 6, 92 n. 41, 226 market 264 flashing ch. 1 passim; see also habrosune¯, luxury, truphe¯, wealth flasks (lagynoi) 264 flocks, sacred of Artemis Hemeraia (Lousoi) 264 of Athena Alea (Tegea) 264 Foley, A. 144, 150 foreigners 62, 133–4, 169 associated with luxury 4, 14 n. 15, 43, 100, 140–1 n. 14 and euergetism xix, 235, 250 n. 10, 262 expulsions from Sparta/xene¯lasiai 80, 91 n. 17 formal burial 145,151; see also burials Forsdyke, S. 231 Fourmont, Michel (Abbé Fourmont) 8, 39 Foxhall, L. 41–2 fragments Alkman 21, 23, 25 Ephoros 124 Lysias 227 of poets and writers 26, 261 Simon of Athens 65 Stesichoros 23 Frölich, P. 264 Fuks, A. 103
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Index funeral practices xiv, 7, 33, 99, ch. 8 passim, 163; see also Argos, Corinth, mourning practices funerary cycles 150, 153 funerary legislation xv, 7, 139, 148–9, 153, 162–3, 172 n. 14; see also Argos, Athens, Corinth, Solon, sumptuary legislation funerary luxury ch. 8 passim; see also Argos, burials, Corinth, stone cists G, temple of (Delos) 190 Ga, temple of (Delphi) 39 Gambreion laws/garments restrictions for women in mourning 163 garments see clothing garrisons Macedonian 266 Gartziou-Tatti, A. 37 Gauthier, Ph. 243 Gelon (tyrant of Gela and Syracuse) 172 n. 14 gender benefactors 234 dedicants 38 and habrosune¯ 4, 6, 14 nn. 15–6, ch. 9 passim and luxury display xii, xiii, xv, xix, 4, 6, 10–13, 43 and truphe¯ ch. 6 passim Geometric period 33, 172, 181–3, 190, 199; see also Argos, Corinth burials/grave goods 33, ch. 8 passim Late 48, 146–8 Middle 144, 146, 148, 151 temples 181–3, 190 Geraki, Late Helladic textile production 32 Geronthrai/Geronthrae/mod. Geraki 81, 250 coin hoard 92 n. 33 sanctuary of Hera 244, 270 n. 49, n. 55 gerousia, gerontes ambition/greed for office 107 and bribery/corruption 107 gift-exchange 5
Gigantomachy, marble sculptured metope of the Athenian Treasury, Doric (sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi) 195 Gitiadas 200 n. 22; see also architects, sculptors Glaukos (Homeric) 218 n. 24 gold armour 5 Glaukos (Spartan) 218 n. 24 Gleba, M. 37, 45 n. 9 gold 33, 35, 62, 87, 99–100, 124–6, 142, ch. 9 passim, 209; see also luxury, philoploutia, truphe¯, wealth armour/shield 5, 132, 218 n. 24 associated with Muses 27 n. 2 coins/hoards xvii, 82–4, 93 n. 60, 124, 259–61 dedications 9 and habrosune¯ ch. 9 passim love of/philochre¯matia xiii, 100, 107–12 jewellery/ornaments 1, 5–7, 9–10, 20–1, 35,100,141, 125–6, 141–2, ch. 9 passim, 266 from Siphnian/Thasian mines 196, 209 prohibition 9, 44, 99, ch. 9 passim tableware 130, 132–3, 257 wearing/chrysophorein xv, 5, 14 n.18, ch. 9 passim gold and silver staters 259–61 gold/silver ornament makers and truphe¯ 125–6 Gorman, R., and Gorman, V. 3, 98, 120–2, 153 Corrupting Luxury in Ancient Greek Literature 3 Gortyn 189 Gortyn code restrictions concerning gifts 163 grain consumption and distribution xviii, 82, 88, 91 n. 25, 229–30, 234–5, 247; see also harvest, Megarian decree grave goods xiv, 7, 31–2, 142–9, 172 n. 15; see also Argos, burials, coinage, Corinth, sarcophagus armours/weapons 144, 150 disappearance of 144, 149
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Index non-perishable 145–6 reappearence of 144, 146–7, 149 graves xiv, 7, 32, ch. 8 passim, 172 n. 15 marble 264 as a marker of social distinction/ wealth ch. 8 passim, 264 ‘Great Pit’ 42; see also Artemis Orthia Greece (modern); see also austerity debt crisis 225 national governments 225 Grewe, B.-S. 2, 4, 13 n. 2 Gribble, D. 64 grips, hair golden 9–10 Gylippos (f. of Agiatis) 265 gymnasiarchia, gymnasiarch(s), gymnasiarchoi, hypogymnasiarch(s) 246–7, 251–2 n. 23–4, 253 n. 46, 262 Gymnopaidiai 25, 134 gynecocracy; see also Aristotle, Spartan women Sparta considered as a 109, 111 Gytheion 32–3, 235, 250, 252 n. 34; see also Cloatii brothers, Damiadas, Philemon, Laidas, Theoxenos decree 244, 250 n. 10 hoard 92 n. 33 loans to 250 n. 10, 262, 269 n. 42 sanctuary of Apollo 244–5 habitus xv, xvi,152–3; see also Bourdieu habrosune¯/habrosyne¯/ἁβροσύνη; see also austerity, luxury, truphe¯, wealth feminine overtones/associated with women 4, 6, 14 nn. 15–6, ch. 9 passim and foreigners/Lydian/Persian influences 4, 14 n. 15, 43, 100, 140–1 n. 14 and hair/hairstyle 3, 5–6, ch. 9 passim in Herodotos 166–7 in Hesiod 120, 167 Homer, absence in 120, 167 imagery from metallurgy 169 meaning and moral connotations xiv, 4, 98–9, 120, 123 140–2, 166–71 as a model of citizen performance 141, 169
and wearing of gold/chrysophorein xv, ch. 9 passim in Pindar 168–9 in Plutarch’s works on Sparta 124–5 in Sappho 140 Hagesichora 9–10, 20–1; see also Alkman Hägg, R. 147–8, 150 Hagiorgitika 189 Hagnon 12 hair 9–11, 20, 39, 44, 132, 141, ch. 9 passim, 263–4 and habrosune¯/luxury 3, 5–6, ch. 9 passim cutting as a mourning ritual/display 162, 164–5, 173 n. 25 prohibition(s)/restriction(s) 9, 44, 161–3 pubic 16 n. 37 Spartan bride’s 12 hair ornament; see also comb hairnet 39, 263–4 prohibition 3, 163 silver and gold/golden 5, 10, 141, 164, 167, 173 n. 20 tortoiseshell 3 hairstyle Argive men’s xv, 162 prohibition xv, 9, 162 Spartan men’s 164–5 Hall, J. 148 harbour sanctuary (Emborio on Chios) 7 harmatotrophia (breeding and/or training chariot–horses) 57, 59, 63, 65; see also horses Harmodios of Lepreon On the Customs in Phigaleia 257 Harris, E. 85 harvest xviii, 87; see also agricultural and pastoral resources, economy, farms, landed property, wealth ‘paradox of the bumper harvest’ 87 headgear, headband 6, 34, 43 Lydian 35 Hecuba, Hekabe 33, 99, 174 n. 63 he¯done¯, ἡδονή (pleasure) 128 Helen of Sparta (Eleni) 33, 40, 113 as part of a holy triad cult (Pellana) 36 and truphe¯ xiii, 99–100, 113
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Index Helladic period; see also graves Early 32 Late 33, 143 Middle 32, 145 Helos, Heleians 78, 91 n. 12; see also helots helots xiii, xviii, 24, 43, 63, 68, ch. 8 passim, 209, 217 n. 17; see also Sparta, Helos and coins 83, 92 n. 38 as grooms and taming/breeding horses 59–61 myth of their origins 78, 91 n. 12 revolts 78–9 sale of 80 Hera 4, 121, 172 n. 17, 184–5, 188 Akraia, sanctuary and temple of (Perachora) 149, 181–2 clothing and textile dedications 37 dressing of the image/statue of 37 festival Argos 37 Lakinion 268 n. 15 Samos 164 sanctuaries Geronthrai 244, 270 n. 49, n. 55 Samos 9, 38 temples Argos 37, 185–6, 197 Delos 190–2 Doric 188 Olympia 37, 185, 196, 263 Samos 181–2, 184, 187 Heracles 195 Heraea (Syria) 258, 268 n. 6 Heraia (festival of Hera, Argos) 37 Heraia (Arkadia) 270 n. 62 Heraion (sanctuary and temple of Hera, Samos) I 181–2 II 184 III (of Rhoikos and Theodoros) 187 IV (of Polykrates) 187 inventory 38, 262 Heraion (sanctuary of Hera Akraia, Perachora) 149, 181–2 Heraion (sanctuary of Hera, Argos) 38, 185–6, 197
dedication of a patos 37 Hestiatorion 186 Heraion (sanctuary of Hera, Delos) I 190 II 191 Herakleia (on the Pontus) 80 Herakleia Salbake decree and euergetism 234 Herakleides Lembos/Heracleides Lembus 41, 99 Herakles Leontophonos 264 Hermes dressing of the image/statue of 37 Hermione (dramatic character) xiii and luxury/wealth 99–101, 105, 113 Hermione (Argolid) 246, 271 n. 68 Herodotos/Herodotus xv–xvi, 23, 57–8, 60, 64, 77, 85, 140, ch. 9 passim, 192, 196, ch. 11 passim on habrosune¯ and gold 166–7 on hairstyle and the Battle of Champions 161–2, 164–5 on Spartan males’ bribery 100 Hesiod 5, 90, 214 use of habrosune¯ 120, 167 Hestiatorion (Argos) 186; see also Heraion (Argos) hieropolos; see also priests of Aphrodite 246 Hilareia; see also Leukippides, Phoibe Sanctuary (Sparta) 36 himation (cloak) as a display of wealth 268 n. 15 worn by Asklepios 36 hippodrome(s) 59–60, 62, 67, 71 n. 46, 266 Hippoiatrikos falsely attributed to Simon of Athens 61 Hipponax 6 Hippothoos, sanctuary of (Kalamai) 270 n. 40 hippotrophia (breeding and/or training horses) ch. 4 passim, esp. 59, 61, 65 hoards xvii, xviii, 47, 82–3, 92 n. 33, 258–61; see also coinage Hodkinson, S. xi,13, 16 n. 44, 28 n.
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Index 29, 34–5, 42, 46 n. 22, 48 n. 77, 49 n. 92, 57, 63, 66, 70 n. 38, 82–3, 97, 99, 106, 112, 141 Hofmeester, K. M. 2, 4, 13 n. 2 Homer, Homeric epics 62, 120, 167, 218 n. 24, 226, 258 absence of the word habrosune¯ and its cognates in 120, 167 Homeric Hymn to Apollo 9–10 Iliad 5, 33 Odyssey 33, 60 wealth/luxurious lifestyle in 5, 33 Homeric Hymn to Apollo wealth/luxurious lifestyle in 9–10 homoioi 77–8, 80–1, 83, 87, 89, 106, 112–3; see also Sparta homonoia 124 hoplomachos 252 n. 34; see also Laidas horses 21, ch. 4 passim; see also chariot-racing, Kyniska, hippotrophia age and performance in competition 65–6 breeding and maintenance xiii, ch. 4 passim, 263–265 chariot-horses xiii, 57, 63, 65, 264, 266 Enetic 61–2, 70 n. 29 horse races xiii, 20, ch. 4 passim, 266 Ibenian 16 n. 38, 20, 61 jewels worn by 265 Kolaxaian/Colaxaean 16 n. 38, 61 Scythian 20 household/oikois 33, 80, 91 n. 16, 101, 103–7, 110 elite 16 n. 41 and luxury 13 poor 34–5 Spartan women’s xiii, 63, 98–9, 101, 105, 111, 113 hubris/hybris/ὕβρις (arrogance) 174 n. 55 associated with oriental people and women 139 and brides 105 and truphe¯/wealth 105, 122, 140, 165 Hutchinson, G.O. 21–2 Hyakinthia (Spartan festival) 35, 63–4, 69 n. 20, 70–1 n. 41; see also Apollo, chiton
Hyakinthian Way (Sparta) 36; see also festivals Iasos, Iasian(s) and earthquake 230 and euergetism 234–6 inscription 234 Ibycus 22 iconographical evidence 38, 44, 163 idleness, argia, ἀργία 105, 121, 125; see also argias nomoi laws against xviii, in Athens 227 in Corinth 226–7 indulgence; see also vices in education 105 and luxury 1–2, 6, 10–11, 105, 122 in Spartan lifestyle 107, 108, 120 inequality, socioeconomic 77; see also civic strife, stasis in Plato’s Laws 103 Spartan xviii, ch. 5 passim, 109–10, 113, 141, 238 n. 28 inheritance 6, 97, 104, 209, 219 n. 38, 250 n. 9, 257 and Spartan women 57, 63, ch. 6 passim, 265 inhumation 142–5; see also burials inscriptions xvii, 9, 16 n. 38, 65, 91 n. 25, 234–5, 238–9 n. 37, 258, 264; see also decree(s), epigraphy honorific xvii, 166, 234–5, ch. 13 passim land tax 166 of Olympic victors xiii, 58, 61 on restrictions 39, 41, 163 interest rates 245; see also loans interest-free public loans 86, 233 and euergetism 86 and money supply 89 International Sparta Seminar ix Ion (dramatic character) 121; see also Euripides, truphe¯ Ion of Chios 133; see also poetry, symposion Ionia, Ionian(s) xvi, ch. 11 passim associated with habrosune¯/luxury xi, 9, 140–1, 170
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Index buildings 184–5, 192 volatility of wealth 212–3 Ionian–Dorian buildings ch. 10 passim, esp. 182–6, 192 Iphigeneia (dramatic character) 4; see also Euripides as Artemis ‘look-alike’ 31 on truphe¯ 121 Iron age, Early burials/grave goods 7, 144–5 Lakedaimonian/Spartan textiles 32–3 iron spits (Spartan currency) 82, 125; see also coinage, Sparta Ision (gymnasiarch) 247; see also euergetism Isocrates 59 isopoliteia (citizen rights) 233; see also citizenship Isthmia; see also Isthmian games sanctuary and temple of Poseidon 149, 185, 262, 199 n. 11, 200 n. 19 Isthmian games 261–2 Isthmian games victors 169, 211 comparison with victory in war 169 and habrosune¯ 169 odes to 211 and wealth 211 Iulis on Keos 163 ivory xii, 22, 142 brooch 41, 48 n. 78 button and pins 48 n. 78 plaque 40–1, 44 sunshade 6 jars (kadoi) Corinthian 264 jewellery 11–2, 83, 99, 144, 161, 163–4, 265–6; see also hair, necklace bronze 34, 41 in burials 7, 144, 172 n. 16 dedications/votives 34, 41, 44, 99 gold 1, 5–7, 9–10, 20–1, 35, 100, 125–6, 141–2, ch. 9 passim, 266 for horse 265 prohibition 161, 163 regulations 3, 9, 44 silver 5, 41, 48 n. 78, 125–6
and truphe¯ 126 jugs (lekythoi) 264 Kabeireion (sanctuary of Kabeiros and Pais, Thebes, Boiotia) 38 Kaibel, G. 63–4 kakopatheia, κακοπάθεια (misery) 128 Kalamai sanctuary of Hippothoos 270 n. 40 kalathoi (wool-baskets) dedications of 7 silver 33 Kalaureia island (modern Poros) Bouleuterion 246 cult of Poseidon 245–6 cult of Zeus Soter 246 kallo¯pismos, καλλωπισμός (ostentation) associated with truphe¯ by Plutarch 126–7 Kalypso Island 5 Kalyvia Sochas Eleusinion 39 kannathra, kannathron 60, 63–4, 69 n. 22, 135 n. 19 Kardamyli 245 Karia, Karian(s)/Caria, Carian(s) 209, 216 n. 7, 234 Karion (dramatic character) 8; see also Aristophanes karteria, καρτερία (endurance) 128 associated with Sparta by Plutarch 129 Karystian Treasury (Delos) 191 Karystos, Karystian(s)/Carystus, Carystian(s) treasury (Delos) 191 Kennell, N. 44 Kimon of Athens three-time winner of Olympic chariot-race 64 kinship ties 147–8 klaria, klaroi, κλάρια (written proofs of debts); see also Agis IV, debt(s), skytale¯ burning of 86 Kleobis statue in Delphi 189
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Index Kleomenes/Cleomenes III (king of Sparta) 84, 92 n. 33, 97, 111, ch. 14 passim; see also Agiatis, Gylippos, Kratesikleia and coinage 82, 260 defeat of 265 family 265 lifestyle 126–7 military operations 260 reforms xiv, 124, 128–30 and truphe¯ 124, 127–31 and wealth 265 Kleonai 263 kleos and wealth 168 kle¯ros, kle¯roi 63; see also Sparta Knidian treasury (Delphi) 195 Knopiadas 11 knowledge performance, workers social mobility 217 n. 17 and wealth 210, 214 Kolophon, Kolophonian(s)/Colophon, Colophonian(s) 14 n. 14 and habrosune¯ 4, 164 and Lydians 4, 164 Komas 245 Konidaris plot (Amyklai) 33; see also funeral practices Koragia 244 Koragoi, synodos of (Mantineia); see also Demeter, euergetism, Kore, Nikippa, Phaena, priests, decrees of 244 Kore; see also Demeter mysteries Andania 9, 163, 166 Arkadia 244 sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (Tanagra) 38 temple and cult of Demeter and Kore (Mantineia) 244 Kotyrtaxix, 233 kouroi, korai, Caryatids; see also sculpture, ‘Sounion Group’ dedications 7–8, 13, 198, 219 n. 33 fancily dressed 13 influenced from Egyptian sculpture 188 marble 146, 192, 194–5
Kraay, C.M. 83 Krates 127, 131 Kratesikleia 265; see also Kleomenes III, Megistonous, Spartan women Krokeai 263 Kronos festival 231 Kuhn, A. 166 Kurke, L. 98, 120, 140, 169 Kurtz, D. 14, 142 Kyme (Aeolis) 264 Kyniska xiii, ch. 4 passim, 264; see also Agesilaos II, chariot-racing breeder of horses 58–9, 63, 65, 67, 70 n. 38 first woman in Greece as 58 chariot-racing victories at the Olympic games ch. 4 passim, 97, 264 first-ever female victor xiii, 57–8 dedications at Olympia epigram xiii, 62 statue groups made by Apelleas xiii, 62 influence from Agesilaos II 58, 65, 68 and wealth display ch. 4 passim, 97 Kynouria 161 sanctuary of Apollo Tyritas 48 n. 76 Kyparissia; see also coins, hoards hoard of Elean coins 82 Kyrene/Cyrene 65, 91, 209 treasuries V–VI 197 Kythera commercial and strategic importance 32–3 dedications clothing and textiles 43–4 by the gymnasiarch 253 n. 46 by women 43 hoard of c. 525–500 bc 82 murex shells trading 33 sanctuary of Athena on the Palaiokastro hill 39, 48 n. 76, n.78, 49 n. 101 and traders Phoenician traders 220 n. 42 from Sparta 220 n. 42
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Index labour force, workforce free 60 helotic 59–61, 63, 68, 77–80 management 77–80, 87 skilled 60–1, 135 n. 19 slave 34, 258, 77–80, 258 Labyadai; see also Delphi, funerary legislation regulation of the 163 Laconisers 106 ‘Lady of Auxerre’ 189; see also sculpture Laidas 252 n. 34; see also euergetism, hoplomachos Lakedaimon, Lakedaimonian(s)/ Lacedaemon, lacedaemonian(s) xii, 22, 25, 31–2, 35, 39–42, 44, 61, 69–70, 85–7, 99–101, 106, 109, 112, 141; see also Lakonia, perioikoi, Sparta Lakinion festival of Hera 268 n. 15 Lakonia, Lakonian(s)/Laconia, Laconian(s) xix, ch. 2–7 passim; see also Sparta, Lakedaimon access to iron 263 art, artists 214–5, 219 n. 39 Bronze Age 32–3, 60 burial and wealth display 7, 31–3 carriages and wagon manufacture 60 decrees 233, 244 euergetism 233, 235, 251 n. 23 festivals 25, 28 n. 24, 35, 43, 60, 62, 64, 67, 134, 251 n. 14 hippodromes/chariot-racing ch. 4 passim, 264 horse breeding ch. 4 passim Iron Age, early 7, 32–3, 145 metalwork 200 n. 22 Olympic victors 262 pottery 22, 36, 43, 81, 91 n. 22 road network 81 sculpture 189 settlement and burial assemblages 32 textile production, economy 32–5, 43 Theban invasion of 24 Lakonian Gulf 33 Lampito (1st w. of Archidamos II) 57 Lampsacus eunuch from 6
landed estates 62, 67, 258, 265; see also landed property Elean 266–7 Spartan 79, 89, 265 women’s 63, 68 landed property xi, ch. 6 passim, 209, 212–13, 217 n. 11, 217 n. 16, 251; see also landed estates, landholding, Plato, Sparta, wealth communal 110, 112 dedicated to cults 245–6, 251 n. 18 equality/inequality of 103, 106–7, 109–10 exchange 238 n. 30 Spartan 57, 78, 98, ch. 6 passim female rights to inherit and control 43, 57, 59–60, 63, 85–6, ch. 6 passim taxation on 166, 107 landholding 63, 104, 110 Laodike III euergetism to the Iasians 234–6 Lapatin, K. 142 law, legislation xiii, xv, xviii, ch. 1 passim, 25, 34, 38, 43, 226; see also decree(s), Dracon, Gortyn code, restriction, Solon, Sparta, taxation, women argias nomoi/against idleness 227 on begging 227, 237 n. 9 on clothing 9, 99, 162–3, 166 on funerals xv, 7, 139, 148–9, 153, 162–3, 172 n. 14 graphe¯/public prosecution 227 on hair 9, 44, 161–3 of hospitality 174 n. 63 Lex Oppia 3 Lycurgan/Spartan xiv, 29 n. 30, ch.5–7 passim, 215 on regulating austerity xviii, ch. 8–9, 12 passim on regulating display of wealth ch. 8–9 passim sacred 8 on slavery 79–80 sumptuary 3, 38, 43, 139, 149, 153, 162–3 on wearing gold ch. 9 passim
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Index lawcourt, travelling 266 lawgivers, legislators 2, 90, 102–3, 106–10, 112, 125, 129, 131, 172 n.14; see also Dracon, Lykourgos, Solon lead for engraving inscriptions 253 n. 40 for magical incantation 43 lead figurines, miniatures dedications 8, ch. 3 passim leagues xvii, 229, 248, 253, 260–1, 266, 269 n. 42; see also Achaean League, Aetolian League, Peloponnesian League coins 260 leather votives 31 Lechaion Road valley (Corinth) 145; see also burials, graves Lefkandi Toumba burial 7 leisure 108 as a display of luxury and wealth/ social class marker xii, 10–1, 13, 141 Lenaea festival (Athens) 229 Leon (Spartan) Olympic four-horse chariot-race victory and monument 61 Leonidas II 85, 129 Leotychidas II (king of Sparta) 16 n. 43, 57, 59, 212 taking a bribe 209, 217 n. 17 lessus 162; see also funerary legislations Leto dressing of the image/statue of 37 sanctuary (Xanthos) 235 temple (Delos) 191 Letoon (sanctuary of Leto, Xanthos) 235 Leukippides; see also Hilareia, Phoibe sanctuary (Sparta) 36 Leuktra, battle of 111, 124, 196 Lex Oppia 3 license, female xiii, ch. 6 passim, 140; see also Spartan women limestone xvi, 146, 154, ch. 10 passim; see also poros oolithic 185 shelly 187, 197
Lindos 209; see also ‘Song of the Swallow’ feast 231 sanctuary of Athena 38, 262 Linear B tablets 32, 37, 47 literary evidence xvi, xvii, 4–7, 22–3, 34, 38, 44, 65, 80–1, 83, 119, 131, 133, 135, 139, 163, 165, 208–9, 226, 258, 261–3 livestock, Lakonian 258, 263–4 Livy 261 and luxuria 3 loans xix, 85, 90, 209, 232–4, 262; see also debt(s), interest rates, klaria, skytale¯ and euergetism 86, 233 land as a collateral 86 and loss of citizenship 90 loaves, poppy-seed as luxurious food 21 Lombardo, M. 120.167 Longanikos 33 loom comb 44 loom warp threads 40 loom-weights xii, ch. 3 passim; see also crescent-shaped items dedications 35, 42 inscribed 35, 37, 42 terracotta/stone 32, 36 Lotos-eaters 5 Lousoi 264 sanctuary of Artemis Hemeraia 264 love-gift 21 Luce, J.–M. 150 luxuria 3, 13, 98, 123 luxurious behaviour xiii–xiv, ch. 1 passim, 21–2, 43, 58–60, 63, 99, 133, ch.8–9 passim, 226, 254, 258, 265, 268 n. 7, n. 15; see also habrosune¯ luxury introduction passim, ch. 1–4 passim, 81, 87, ch. 6–10 passim, 219, 228, ch. 14 passim; see also habrosune¯, truphe¯, wealth changing modern meanings 1–2, 122–4 gendered associations xii, xiii, xv, xix, 4, 6, 10–1, ch. 6, ch. 9
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Index Greek terminology for 120–2 inexact correspondence with habrosune¯ 120, 125 problems equating it with truphe¯ 132–3 as Roman concept 3, 13, 98, 123 Lycia, Lycian(s) 235; see also euergetism, Opramoas Lydia, Lydian(s) 161, 164, 209 headgear 10, 20–1, 35 and habrosune¯/luxurious and corrupted lifestyle 4, 43, 140, 167 Lydiadas (tyrant of Megapolis) 251 n. 22, 253 n. 44 ‘Lydian experience’ 43; see also Anacreon, elite, luxurious behaviour Lygdamis (tyrant of Naxos) 200 n. 26 Lykinos Olympic chariot-race victory 60 Lykosoura/Lycosura loans to 262 sanctuary of Despoina 9–10 temple of Demeter 163, 166 Lykourgos/Lycurgus; see also austerity, Sparta reforms and eliminating truphe¯ xiv, 29 n. 30, 84–5, 97, 108, 119, 124–6, 128–33 lype¯, λύπη (pain) 128 Lysandros as corrupted/fully depraved 140 Lysias (speech writer) 227, 258; see also metic Lysias (tyrant of Tarsos) 268 n. 15 Lysimachos silver coins of 259 Macedonia, Macedonians xvii, 209, 216 n. 7, 234, 257, 266 coins 260 and luxury 258 and symposia 258 war against Sparta 91 n. 25 Machanidas (tyrant of Sparta) and luxury 265 magistrates, magistracies 226–7, 262
as benefactors/euergetism 243, 247, 251 n. 23 Magnesia 189, 200 n. 22 Plato’s 80 Mainalon 266 malakia, μαλακία (softness) 119, 122 associated with polyteleia (extravagance) 132 opposed to karteria (endurance) 128 and truphe¯ 127–30 Mamousia (ancient Keryneia) temple 187–8, 200 n. 23 Mani peninsula white marble from 189, 197 Mantineia/Mantinea Demeter and Kore, cult and temple 244 and wealth 263 marble xv, xvi, chapter 10 passim , 263, 271 n. 68 Cycladic 192 family graves 264 grey xvi, 185–6, 189 Hymettan (Attic) 192 Parian 185, 192, 195, 197, 200 n. 23 Pentelic (Attic) 192 poor quality/rare in Peloponnese xv, xvi, 188–9 white xvi, 189, 199 n. 13 Mariandynoi 80; see also helots, Penestai prohibited selling of 80 market xviii, xx, 62, ch. 5 passim, 104, 229, 243, 245, 264; see also agora, trade Sparta, lack of developed market economy xviii, 81–2 marriage; see also dowries, wedding, women and inheritance 57, 104 for poor girls xix, 234–5 regulations about 104, 111 same social class 101, 104 Spartan 12, 16 n. 41, n. 43, 57, 104–5 and wealth 99, 101, 104–5, 210 Massaliots, Treasury of (Delphi) archaic 195 material culture 22, 31, 142, 148–9, 264 materials see building material
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Index Mazzarino, S. 140 Megabyzos 250 n. 14 Megakleia 246; see also Aphrodite, priests Megalopolis 246, 251 n. 22, 253 n.41, n. 46, 261, 265 stoa 266 temple of Aphrodite 246 megaloprepeia, μεγαλοπρέπεια (magnificence) 130 Megara, Megarians, Megarid xix, 62, 212, 228–32 annual Athenian invasions of 229–30 debt relief xix, 231–2 farmers xix, 229–230 poor citizens, decree in their favour 231–2 treasury of 194, 197 Megarian decree xix, 228–231, 236, 237–8 nn. 14–17 causes of 229 Megaron B (Thermon) 183 megaron, Mycenaean see ‘Mycenaean megaron’ Megillos 25, 102 Megistonous 265; see also Kleomenes III, Spartan women Meineke, A. 167 Melanthos 266; see also paintings Melos, Melians Athens’ annihilation of 230 Menelaion (sanctuary of Helen and Menelaios, Sparta) 32, 45 n. 9 dedications bronze jewellery 34 clothing and textile 32, 40, 42 from Kyniska 58 lead figurines 39, 40, 43 Menelaios 5, 60, 99 mercenaries xvii, 209–10, 217 n.16, 218 n. 27 Arcadian 267 misthos to 261 Messene 83, 91 n. 25, 251 n. 23, 253 n. 46, 266 best land of the Peloponnese 263 coins 83, 260 inscription on land tax 166
Olympic victors 262 as pioneer in honouring elite families 264 and wealth 263–4 Messenia 9, 26, 59–60, 163, 166, 214, 257, 259, 261, 263–4; see also Andania, Messenian war coins 259, 261 conquest of 210, 214, 217 n. 12, 219 n. 31 hippodromes 67–8 horse-breeding 263 manufacture of chariots 60 newly-liberated xvii Messenian war, Second 26, 214 metallurgy as imagery for discourse on habrosune¯ 169 metalwork, Lakonian 200 n. 22 Metapontion 196 treasury 263 metic 258 Meyers, G.E. 37 mikroprepeia, μικροπρέπεια (stinginess) 130 Miletos/Miletus, Milesian(s) 173 n. 25, 212–3 sanctuary of Artemis Chito¯ne 38 socioeconomic volatility 214 military activity see warfare military equipment 60 Miller, S.G. 66 Minoa Island 230 Minoan civilisation 32 mints 83, 88, 259–6; see also coinage mirage, Spartan see Spartan mirage misthos 261 Mithridatic wars 234, 248 mobility, socioeconomic xvi, 148, ch. 11 passim monetary policy, circulation 233, 260; see also debt(s), economy, loans Spartan 77, 82, 84 money supply 89, 93 n. 60 Monopteros, Sikyonian 193, 196 morality, moral discourse on austerity 107, ch. 12 passim on habrosune¯ xiv, 123, ch. 8 passim, 169 on luxuria 98, 123
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Index on luxury 2–3, 123, ch. 8 passim, on truphe¯ xiv, 98, ch. 6–7 passim, 140 Moretti, L. 57 Morris, I. 31, 151–2 Most, G. 26 mourning practices; see also funeral practices display of 164 restrictions xv, 162–3, 170 murex shell dye 32–3, 41, 263 Muses association with gold 27 n. 2 Musonius Rufus Lecture 20 130 Lycurgus’ removal of truphe¯ as a corrupting influence 130–1 Mycenaean civilisation 32, 36–7, 143–4 ‘Mycenaean megaron’ (Pellana) 36 Mykonos, relief pithos 40 ‘Myropolis’; see also Megalopolis stoa 266 Nabis (king of Sparta) 260, 265 Naxos, Naxian(s) ch. 10 passim architectural invention 190 and marble 190–2 oikos (Delos) 190–1 stoa (Delos) 190–1, 200 n. 25 temple of Apollo Delios 187, 191–2 temple of Demeter and Apollo (Sangri) 187, 192, 195 temple of Dionysos I–IV (Yria) 183–4, 186–7, 190 Near East relations with Sparta 41 necklaces 21 needles, bone 32, 42 negligence, ameleia, ἀμέλεια in education 105 and truphe¯ 105 negotiatores 267; see also elite, Cloatii brothers Nemea temple of Zeus 201 n. 40 Nemean games 168, 211, 261–2 Nemean games victors 168 and habrosune¯ 168
odes to 168, 211 Peloponnesian 262 and wealth 211 Neokorion (Delos) 190 Neolithic sites 32 Nestor gold shield of 5 Nicias (Athenian general) 230 Nikagora (d. of Sophanes) 246; see also euergetism Nikagora 246; see also euergetism Nikandre statue in Delos 189 Nikippa 244–5; see also euergetism, priests Nikoleika (ancient Helike) temple of Poseidon Helikonios 183–4 Nisaia (port) 230 Nordhaus, W. 87; see also harvest North Cemetery (Corinth) 145; see also burials, graves nose¯mata, νοσήματα (diseases) associated with truphe¯ by Plutarch 127 numismatic evidence 82, 258–9; see also coinage Oedipus 174–5 n. 63 oikos/oikoi (in religious sanctuaries) 183, 185–7, 190–4, 196 oil consumption 82, 146, 247, 262; see also perfume scented 167 Olbia decree 84, 92 n. 41 oliganthro¯pia, Spartan 86, 98; see also debt(s), Sparta, women oligarchs, oligarchy xix–xx, 111, 113, 115, 147; see also aristocracy, elite Olympia 37, 58, 60–4, 67–9, 196–8, 209–10, 217 n. 12, 219 n. 32, 262–3 Elean acquisition of 210 use of limestone (poros) xvi, 196–7 penalty imposed at 64 peplophoric ritual 37 temple of Hera 184–5, 188, 196, 263 temple of Zeus 201 n. 40 treasuries 196–7, 263
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Index victory monuments at 58, 60–2 Olympic games xiii, ch. 4 passim, 261; see also Kyniska, Pindar Olympic games victors xvii, ch. 4 passim, 261–2 and habrosune¯ 168, 221 odes to 211 Peloponnesian 261–2 and wealth ch. 4 passim, 211, 261–2 Opramoas of Rhodiapolis 235–6; see also euergetism oracle–mongers 115, 214, 218, 250; see also seers orality announcement of honours 252 n. 39 tale of the Battle of the Champions 164–5, 175 n. 66 Orestes (dramatic character) 100; see also Euripides orientalising phase, type 22, 40, 48 n. 78, 142, 184 Osborne, R. 24, 39, 43, 141 Othryades 161; see also 300, Alcenor, Champions, battle of, Chromius ownership see landed property Page, D. 26 painters 214, 266 paintings 2, 22, 145, 184–5, 189, 265; see also architecture, pottery, sarcophagus Aratos’ private collection 266 Sicyonian 266 Pamisos valley as best lands for horses’ pasture 59 Pamphilos 266; see also Melanthos Panathenaia, Great 37 Panathenaic games 11; see also Alkmeonides Panayia Field (Corinth) 145; see also burials, graves Pandora in Hesiod 5 panhellenic festivals 68 Pantaleon 209, 216 n. 7; see also Croesus parasols 4
Paris/Alexandros 5 judgment of 4, 121 wearing gold 100 Paroikia (Oaros) acropolis 192 temple of Athena Polias 188 use of marble 192 Paros, Parian(s); see also Delion, Paroikia marble 185, 192, 195, 197, 200 n. 23 temples 188, 192 Parthenon, frieze 38 Parthenon, Hekatompedon 38 parvenu 258; see also wealth Pasion (banker) 258 patos robe 37; see also Heraion (Argos) Patrai 264; see also workshops Patroklos Funeral Games of 5 patronage 209; see also euergetism Spartan 112 Pausanias (regent of Sparta) 62, 209 as a depraved individual 140 Pausanias the Traveller (writer) 35–7, 46 n. 33, 58–60, 62, 65–6, 71 n. 56, 192, 219 n. 39, 261, 263–6 Pavlopetri 32–3, 45 n. 10; see also archaeological evidence Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project (PUAP) 45 n. 10 pears 263 Peisitas 233 Peleus 12, 101, 104; see also pottery, Thetis, wedding Pellana cult of a holy triad 36–7 inscribed loom–weights 36–7 ‘Mycenaean megaron’ 36 ‘Protogeometric Temple’ 36, 42, 199 n. 6 sanctuary 38 Pellene 264, 269 n. 41 Peloponnese introduction passim, 8, 12, 19, 31, 62, 86, 89, 124, 139–42, 146, 161, 163, 168, ch. 10–14 passim agricultural and pastoral resources xvii, xviii, 4, 59, 67–8, 81, 87, 233, 258, 263
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Index enhanced wealth in Hellenistic period xvii, xx, ch. 14 passim fewer opportunities for social mobility xvi, 148, ch. 11 passim impact of Alexander III’s conquests xvii, xx, 257, 259–61 lack of good–quality marble xv, xvi, 188–9 less acquisitive activity xvi, ch. 11 passim regional distinctiveness xvi, ch. 13 passim stability of wealth xvi, xvii, ch. 11 passim Peloponnesian League congress of 432 229 ‘Peloponnesian spring’ 257; see also Agis IV, Kleomenes III Peloponnesian War xiv, 14, 89, 124, 229–30, 237 pendant plaques 40; see also lead figurines, pharos-veil Penelope 33 Penestai 80; see also helots, Mariandynoi prohibited selling of 80 peplophoric ritual 35, 37; see also clothing, weavers peplos 33, 37; see also clothing, weavers Perachora temple of Hera Akraia/Heraion 149, 181–2 perfume 4, 12, 100, 167, 258, 265–6; see also luxury sellers 265 Periander (tyrant of Corinth) 149, 227 perioikoi 32, 43, 60–2, 78 as craftsmen 81 as farmers 81 festivals 62 hippodromes 60 and money 83 sanctuaries 41 as traders 81 perirrhanteria 189 Peristeri 33, 46 Persia, Persians 14 n. 12, 161, 167, 170, 209–10, 213
associated with truphe¯ 105, 112, 129, 131, 139–41, 167, 250–1 n. 14 impact of their invasions 213, 218 n. 28 Persian wars 59, 141 influence on meaning of habrosune¯ and truphe¯ meaning 120, 139–40 Phaeacia 5 Phaena 244–5, 250; see also priests phallus 8 pharos-veil, garment 42 Pherenikos (racehorse) 66 phialai, phialeion 258–9, 265 Phigaleia temple of Artemis 257 temple of Athena and Zeus Soter 257 temple of Dionysos 257 Phila of Macedonia 234, 236, 238; see also elite, euergetism philanthropy 234–6; see also elite, euergetism and political pragmatism 236 Philemon 244–5, 250 n. 11; see also euergetism, priests Philip II of Macedon 258–9, 262 coins 259 phialeion 259 Philip III of Macedon coins 259 Philip IV of Macedon 266, 270 n. 62 philochre¯matia, φιλοχρηματία (love of money) xiii, 100, 107, 112 philoploutia, φιλοπλουτία associated with truphe¯ by Plutarch 127 Philopoimen/Philopoemen 132, 246, 251, 261, 264–5 Phleious/Phlious coins, silver 83 producing wine 264 Phoenicians 33, 220 n. 42 Phoibe; see also Hilareia, Leukippides sanctuary (Sparta) 36 Phoibos 11 phoinikis (purple/crimson robe) used by Spartan soldiers 34 Phormion, house of 36
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Index Phylarchos/Phylarchus 14 n. 14, 164; see also Kolophon pimps and truphe¯ 125–6 Pindar xvi, 22, 26, 210–11, 217 n. 19 comparison between war and victory in games 169–70, 174 n. 53 epinikia 211–13 odes 210–11 Isthmian 169, 211 Nemean 21, 28 n. 16, 68, 211 Olympian 168, 211 Pythian 65, 168, 211 positive use of habrosune¯ 168–9 pins; see also brooch, needles dedications associated with textiles or clothing xii, 7, 35, 40 bronze 33, 42, 44, 48 n. 78 lead dressing 40–1 orientalising 40, 48 n. 78 silver-gilt 48 n. 78 found in graves/funerary attire 33, 46, 146 Geometric period 33, 46 n. 20, 48 n. 78 iron 33 legislation on 170 Protogeometric period 33 as symbol for the community 170 used to kill 170, 174 n. 63 worn by men 173 n. 20 Piraeus 230 pirates 234, 263, 266 Pisatis 217 n. 12 pit graves 143, 145, 151; see also burials, graves, inhumation, pithos pitchers, silver 133; see also poetry, symposion pithos, pithoi 33, 40, 143–4, 147–8, 150–1; see also burials, graves, inhumation Pittakos of Mytilene 172 n. 14; see also funeral practices Plataia/Plataea, battle of 77, 209, 217 n. 17 Plato 28 n. 29, 34, 80–1, ch. 6 passim, 131 imaginary Magnesia 80
on landed property 102–6 Laws 25, 34, 80–1, ch. 6 passim, 121, 227 Republic 102–3, 107, 110–1 Symposium 121 on Spartans and wealth 60, 81, ch. 6 passim on the truphe¯ of Spartan women xiii, ch. 6 passim, 134 n. 3, 140 Platonism 128, 130 ‘Pleaser’, Τέρπων dedication to Aphrodite 8 pleasure, enjoyment 97, 121–2, 128–9, 132; see also luxury, truphe¯, vices, virtues display of the 11 resistance to 128 through luxurious lifestyle xiv, 1–2, 4, 99 pleonexia, πλεονεξία (greed) 124; see also vices associated with truphe¯ by Plutarch 127 Ploutos (dramatic character) 8; see also Aristophanes Plutarch xiii, 62, 231–2 Aristotelianism’s influence on 128 Cynicism and Stoicism’s influence on 128, 130–2, 134 n. 7 on marriage practices of Sparta and of Argos 12, 16 n. 41, n. 43 meaning of truphe¯ in his work on Sparta xiv, ch. 7 passim Platonism’s influence on 128, 130, 134 n. 7 his reliability on Sparta 34, 119 and Sparta 24, 26, 34, 58–60, 68, 77, 84–6, ch. 7 passim, 261, 265 on Spartan female wealth 97, 111, 130 works Advice about keeping well 127, 131 Against Kolotes 126 Comparison of Aristides and Cato 125 Comparison of Lykourgos and Numa 129 Life of Agesilaos 129, 131 Life of Agis 85, 97, 111, 128,130
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Index Life of Alkibiades 128 Life of Dion 130 Life of Kleomenes 97, 111, 127–8 Life of Lykourgos 84–5, 125–6, 128–130 Life of Pelopidas 119 Life of Philopoimen 132 Life of Solon 85 Moralia 126–8, 131, 261 Sayings of the Spartans 128 poetry xii, xvi, 9, 19, 21–7, 28 n. 18, 261 on acquisitiveness and wealth 208, 210–13, 216 n. 1, 218 n. 21 choral 23–4 on habrosune¯ 120, 125 as a positive behaviour 140, 168–9 lyric xvi, 23–5, 28, 167, 208, 212–13, 218 n. 21 melic 28 n. 23 Polemon of Ilion 61–2, 263 polianomos 8, 39; see also clothing and textile dedications Polignac, F. de 149 Polybius of Megapolis 263–6 Histories 261 Polycrates (writer) 63–4 Polydoros (Trojan prince) 174 n. 63 Polyklastos (gymnasiarch) 247; see also euergetism Polykles/Polycles (Spartan) chariot-racing and victory monument at Olympia 60, 62 Polykrates (tyrant of Samos) 187 Polymestor (king of Thrace) 174 n. 63 polyteleia, πολυτέλεια (extravagance) 127; see also Plutarch responsible for stasis and tyranny 127 and truphe¯ 127, 130–2 Pomeroy, S.B. 64 poor citizens, poverty xviii, xix, 34, 101, 103–5, 132, 147, 214, ch. 12 passim; see also debts assistance to/euergetism to 234–6 and austerity xviii, ch. 12 passim as homoioi xviii, 80, 106 moral aspects/social control 226–7 relations with elite/wealthy citizens 101, 231–2, 235–6
social unrest/violence due to 214, 231–2 Sparta as a poor state 107, 109 poros (soft limestone), use by Peloponnesian cities xvi, 154, ch.10 passim Poseidon dedications 149, 245–6 Gaieochos, sanctuary and festival of (Therapne) 60 Helikonios, temple of (Nikoleika, Helike) 183–4 temple of (Isthmia) 149, 185, 199 n. 11, 199–200 n. 19, 262 pot burials 144–5 poorly furnished 144 potters social mobility 214 Potters’ Quarter (Corinth) 145; see also burials, graves pottery, potters 22, 36, 91, 200, 258 Athenian/Attic 12, 81 black-figure 43 in graves/tombs 143–4 Lakonian 81 terracotta xii, 7, 32, 36, 40, 42, 46, 183–4 Powell, A. ix, 106, 119 prestige and habrosune¯ 168 through grandiose buildings 245, 249 through prowess in war xv, 162, 165–6 social/and wealth 24, 141, 149, 162, 165–6, 168 priests, priesthood; see also Nikippa, Phaena, Philemon, Theoxenos, Xenokles and euergetism 244–5 hereditary 244–5 sale of 250 n. 11 prisoners; see also elite ransom of 262 release of 265 temporary liberation to join feasting 231 prizes 5, 265 prizewinning horse 21
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Index proaulia 39; see also dedications proedria (special seat during sporting competitions) 234; see also euergetism Proetids 172 n. 17 profit xviii, 87, 123, 169, 210, 216; see also wealth obsession with 207, 216 n. 1 Prophitis Ilias (Mount Taygetos) hippodrome 60 Propylon I–II (Delos) 191 prosopography 266; see also elite prostitution 126, 209–10, 217 n.16; see also mercenaries, pimps Protogeometric period burials/grave goods 33, 143–4 dedications 33, 36 Late 144 loom-weights 36–7 Middle 144 pins 33 society 147 ‘Protogeometric Temple’ (Pellana) cult of a holy triad 36 dedications 36 proxenos 233 Psammenitus (Psamtik III) 173 n. 25 Ptoion (Apollo sanctuary, Boiotia) kouroi dedications 8 Ptolemy I coins/ silver staters 259 Ptolemy II coins/ silver staters 259 Ptolemy III 266 public officer 234, 236, 243, 246; see also euergetism, magistrates Pylades (dramatic character) 100; see also Euripides Pylos 47 n. 48, 60, 264 Pyrgos, hoard 82 Pytheas of Phigaleia funerary epigram 257–8 private collection 257 Pythian games victors 65, 211 and habrosune¯ 168 odes to 211 and wealth 211
Rakita temple of Artemis at Ano Mazaraki 181–2 Reden, S. von 38 religion 35–7, 42, 44, 198, 229, 257, 262–3; see also cult, sanctuaries religious attitude/conservatism xvi, 198 religious benefactions/euergetism xvii, ch. 13 passim, 262–3 religious expenditure 44, ch. 13 passim restriction(s) xx, 103, 115, 148, 150, 153, 162–3, 165, 172 n. 14; see also austerity, funerary legislation on building material 192 on display of luxury goods xv, 162–3 on hair xv, 162–3 on poor ch. 12 passim by sanctuaries 8–10, 39 Spartan 80, 99, 148 on women xv, 8–10, 41–44, 99, ch. 9 passim Rhodes, Rhodian(s) and care for the poor 231, 235–6 Rhodiapolis 235 Rhoikos (architect) 187; see also Heraion (Samos) Richer, N. 64 Richter, G.M.A. 192 rituals, rites clothing 99, 114 n. 12 deposition 32, 36 destruction 43 in burials 31 of dressing the deity/cult image 35, 37 funeral/mourning xv, 99, 149, 162–4, 170 of inversion xix, 12, 231–2 male–associated 44 parade 64 peplophoric 35, 37, 46 n. 30 and poetry 24 prohibition of wearing gold for 166 weaving 36–7 wedding 12, 99 Romano, I. 37
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Index Rome 142, 145, 184, 197 civil wars 257 coins 83 debate on use and abuse of wealth 139, 142 domination over the Peloponnese 257, 267 Empire 83 Greek ambassadors/embassies to 246–7, 262 and luxuria 3 Republic 3 on wearing gold 165–6 sacred buildings, construction of xv, ch. 10 passim Sacred wars, Third 259 Sallust and luxuria 3, 139 Samos, Samians 9, 47, 209, 217 n. 16 festival 164 Heraion I–IV 38, 181–2, 184, 187 refugees 196 trade 81 Samuelson, P. 87; see also harvest sanctuaries xii, xiii, 7–11, 13, ch. 3 passim, 82, 99, 149, 152, 162, ch. 10 passim, 209; see also cult, priests, shrines, temples Achilles/Achilleion (Sparta) 39 acropolis sanctuary (Emborio on Chios) 7 Archegesion (Delos) 192 Aphrodite Morpho 36 Apollo (Delphi) 181, 195, 198 Apollo (Gytheion) 244–5, 270 n. 49, n. 55 Apollo Amyklaios/Amyklaion (Sparta) xvi, 35–6, 39, 189 Apollo Hyperteleatas (Phoiniki) 42, 48 n. 78 Apollo Ptoios/Ptoion (Boiotia) 8, 11 Apollo Tyritas (Kynouria) 48 n. 76 Artemis Brauronia/Brauroneion (Athens) 47 n. 48, 262 Artemis Chito¯ne (Miletos) 38 Artemis Hemeraia (Lousoi) 264
Artemis Orthia (Sparta) 8, 34, 39–44, 83, 99 Asklepios/Asklepieion (Athens) 38, 262 Asklepios/Asklepieion (Epidauros) 262 Athena (Lindos) 38, 262 Athena (Palaiokastro hill, Kythera) 39, 48 n. 76, n.78, 49 n. 101 Athena Alea (Aigies) 39 Athena Alea (Tegea) 264 Athena Chalkioikos (Sparta) 31, 37, 39, 42–44, 200 n. 22 Athena Polias (Athens) 8 Athena Pronaia (Delphi) 195, 198 Delos 38, 47 n. 49, 190, 262 Demeter (Andania) 9–10 Demeter (Sparta) 8 Demeter and Kore (Tanagra) 38 Despoina (Lykosoura) 9–10 Dionysos (Yria) 187, 190 Eleusinion/Demeter and Kore (Kalyvia Sochas) 39 Eileithyeia (Delos) 190 harbour sanctuary (Emborio on Chios) 7 Hera/Heraion (Argos) 37–8 Hera/Heraion (Geronthrai) 244, 270 n. 49, n. 55 Hera/Heraion (Samos) 9, 38 Hera Akraia (Perachora) 149 Hippothoos (Kalamai) 270 n. 40 inventories 38, 47 n. 49, 262–3 Ionic 182 jewellery items from 34, 41, 44, 99 Kabeiroi/Kabeireion (Thebes) 38 Leukippides Hilareia and Phoibe (Sparta) 36 Menelaion/Helen and Menelaios (Sparta) 32, 34, 39–40, 42–3, 45 n. 9, 58 Olympia 197–8, 210 Peloponnesian 8–10, 182, 188, 262–3 plundering of 270 n. 62 Poseidon (Isthmia) 149, 262 Poseidon Gaieochos (near Therapne) 60 repairs to 244–5
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Index victory monuments in 58, 60–2 Zeus Messapeus 39 Sangri (Naxos) temple of Demeter and Apollo 187, 192, 195 Sappho 22 and habrosune¯ 140 sarcophagus, sarcophagi 145–7, 152; see also burials, graves replace the other forms of burial 145 Sardis, precious carpets 258 Scholze, J. (curator) 2 sculptors xvi, 262 social mobility 214 Spartan 215 sculpture 146, ch. 10 passim; see also kouroi, marble, statuary dedications 7–8, 13, 198, 219 n. 33 influence from Egyptian 188 monumental/large-scale xvi, 7, 188 Scythians 166, 170 horse 20 sealing 32, 45 n. 9 seers, begging and truphe¯ 125–6 Seleucids coins, silver 259 wealth 261 Seleukos I 258 coins, silver 259 Seleukos II coins, silver 259 Seleukos III coins, silver 259 semata 146; see also graves Semonides 6, 13, 167 Seneca the Younger 139 Seriphos coins 82 settlements, settlers 32, 143–5, 266 sexual behaviour female sexual desire as truphe¯ 99, 121 Spartan males 12 Spartan women as sexually voracious 100 shield 6 gold/Nestor’s 5 shoes, Lakonian
as a display of wealth 254, 258, 268 n. 15 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1, 13 shrines 39, 141, 152, 262 Sidous, apples from 263 Sikyon/Sicyon, Sikyonian(s) 36, 92, 193–4, 198, 264, 266, 270 n. 62 coins 83, 260 Monopteros 193, 196 Olympic victors 262 paintings 266 Tholos 193, 196 treasuries (Delphi) 196–7, 263 silver 142, 265–6, 268; see also bribe, corruption, gold, Sparta coins/currency 59, 62, 82–4, 87–8, 124, 213, 259–61 hoard xvii jewellery 5, 41, 48 n. 78, 125–6 love of xiii, 100 Siphnian mines 196 tableware xii, 21, 130, 132–3, 257–8, 265–6 wool-basket 33 silverware xii, 21, 132–3, 257–8, 265–6 Simon of Athens (writer on horses) 61–2, 65, 71 n. 55; see also Hippoiatrikos, horses Simonides 62, 212 singers 214 Siphnians 194, 196, 209 treasury (Delphi) 195 Skala 33 Skillous/Scillus cult/temple of Artemis Ephesia 245–6, 250 n. 14 richness/wealth of 266–7 temple of Athena Makistos 187 and Xenophon 245–6, 250 n. 14, 266–7 skytale¯ 85; see also debt(s), klaria, loans slavery, slaves xiii, xviii, xix, 6, 24, 43, 59–61, 63, 68, 81, 83, 87, 100, 121, 165, 207, 209, 213, 231, 235, 258, 268; see also helots, law, Mariandynoi, Penestai and festivals 231, 236 granted freedom/manumission 79
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Index runaway 229 sale of 78–80 sold into 78–9 women 34 snack as symbol of decadence 21 Snodgrass, A.M. 7, 149, 151 Socrates 164 Sogenes of Aigina victory at Nemean games 168 Solon funerary laws 149, 162 on habrosune¯/wealth acquisition 85, 125, 140, 212, 216 n. 1 reforms 79, 88, 149, 227 ‘Song of the Swallow’ 231; see also feast, Lindos, poor citizens Sophanes statue of 246; see also euergetism Sophikon 259 Sophilos 16 n. 39 sophists and truphe¯ 125–6 Sophocles 4 Oedipus Tyrannus 174 n. 63 so¯phrosune¯, so¯phrosyne¯, σωφροσύνη (self-control); see also enkrateia, virtues opposed to truphe¯ 130 Sosibios/Sosibius 22, 24–5 On Sacrifices 25 Sosiphanes 246; see also euergetism Sostratus of Aigina 217 n. 16 Soteria 244 ‘Sounion Group’ 192; see also kouroi, statuary Sparta, Spartan(s) introduction passim, 8–9, 12, ch. 2–7 passim, 140–1, 148, 150, 152, ch. 9 passim, 181, 183, 186, 198, ch. 11 passim, 228–9, 246, ch. 14 passim; see also ephors, gerousia, helots, homoioi, iron spits, Spartan women, syssition access to coinage xiii, xviii, ch. 5 passim, 125 austerity xi–xiii, xvi, xix, 22, 34, 81, 87, 97, 107, 112–3, 119–20, 124, 141, 149, 175 n. 66, 198, 215
breeding and/or training chariot-horses xiii, ch. 4 passim, 263–5 closed economy xviii, ch. 5 passim constraints on economic development xviii, ch. 5 passim debt xviii, ch. 5 passim education 111–2 disdain for craftspeople 215 inequality xviii, ch. 5 passim, 141 luxury xviii, 60, 80, ch. 5–6 passim, 141 sanctuaries and temples Achilleion 39 Apollo Amyklaios/Amyklaion xvi, 35–36, 39, 189 Artemis Limnatis 39 Artemis Orthia 8, 34, 39–44, 83, 99, 181–3, 186 Athena Chalkioikos 31, 37, 39, 42–44, 186, 200 n. 22 Demeter 8 Leukippides Hilareia and Phoibe 36 Menelaion 32, 34, 39–40, 42–3, 45 n. 9, 58 socioeconomic crisis xviii, ch. 5 passim textiles xii, ch. 3 passim and truphe¯ xiv, 29 n. 30, 60, 81, 84–5, 97, ch. 6–7 passim Spartan mirage 39, 98, 106 Spartan women xiii, 34, 40, 43, ch. 4 passim, ch. 6 passim, 140, 264–5 access to inherit and control property/wealth 43, 57, 63, 85, ch. 6 passim, 130, 264–65 bad influence on their sons’ education 111–2 philosophers on ch. 6 passim and truphe¯ xiii, 4, 140, ch. 6 passim Spendon 24 sphinxes and lions’ statues, funerary 146 spindle whorl xii, ch. 3 passim; see also spinning, textile(s) dedications 35 miniature 36 terracotta and steatite 42
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Index spinning 31–3, 42–3 sponsor 245; see also euergetism, patronage spool 32, 37 Spyropoulos, T.G. 36–7 stamp bone 48 n. 76 to decorate textiles 41 stasis 77, 230; see also civic strife, civil wars, inequality influence of truphe¯ and poluteleia 127, 131 statuary, statues 194, 219 n. 33, 250–1 n. 14; see also kouroi, sculpture, sphinxes and lions of benefactors/donors 233, 246 bronze 183, 233 brought to Sparta from Megalopolis 265 colossal 188 of deities 36–7, 47 n. 49 funerary 146 from Olympic victors 60, 62, 219 n. 31, 263 made by Apelleas 62 marble 189, 194 statuettes 183 Stears, K. 41–2 stelai; see also decree(s) Damonon 68–9 n. 23 funerary 198 honorary 233–5 Stesichorus 22–3, 28 n. 23 Stoics, Stoicism influence on Plutarch 128, 130–2, 134 n. 7 stone cists 142–5, 147–8, 150–1; see also aristocracy, burials, elite, funerary luxury as a marker of class distinction/ wealth 143–5, 147–8, 150–1 popular in Argolid 145 Strabo 78, 124, 235–6, 257, 261 stromata 258 Stymphalos 260 Sub-mycenaean period Argolid settlements reduction 3 6 burial offerings/brooch 33
subscription, public 262, 253 n. 41; see also epidoseis, euergetism Sulla, L. Cornelius 266 sumptuary legislation 3, 38, 43, 139, 149, 153, 162–3; see also restriction(s) ‘sumptuosa funera’ 163 sunshades feminine association 14 n. 15 ivory 6 Sybaris, Sybarites 173 n. 25 contrast with Sparta 119 and luxury/wealth 228, 267, 268 n. 15 treasury V (Olympia) 197 sycophant (common informer) 226 symposion/symposium, symposia 23, 28 n. 23 by Macedonians 258, 268 n. 7 in Sparta 133, 265 Syracuse 64, 258 funerary restrictions 172 n. 14 treasury II (Olympia) 197 Syria, Syrians 268 n. 6 syssition, syssitia 103 Cretan 102, 252 n. 39 Spartan Aristotle on 106, 112 intended to attack τρυφή 126 Platon on Spartan women as unwilling to participate to 102 Plutarch on 126 tabby weave 32; see also textile(s) tableware 21, 257 gold 132 silver xii, 132, 257–8, 266 Tainaron white marble from 189 Tainaron Peninsula 32 Talanta, hoard 83, 92 n. 33 Tanagra cult of Artemis 31 sanctuary of Demeter and Kore 38 tapestry 33, 43 taxation 47 n. 48, 85, 123, 227–8 and austerity 225 exemption (ateleia) 233 on land 166 on luxury items 3 on Spartan property 107
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Index Taygetos mountains grey marble from xvi, 189 Tegea (Syria) 258, 268 n. 6 Tegea, Tegeans (Arkadia) coins, silver 83 and euergetism 251 n. 22 road network 266 sanctuary and temple of Athena Alea 198, 199 n. 11, 264 wars with Sparta 218 n. 31 TELA+PA 32; see also textile(s) Telemachos/Telemachus 5, 33, 60 Teles On Self-Sufficiency 130 Temenid Attic-weight coinage, currency 259–60 temperance 103; see also education, virtues temples xv, ch. 3 passim, ch. 10 passim, 249 n. 2; see also cult, priests, sanctuaries, shrines Aigina 181–2 Anios (Delos) 191 Aphaia (Aigina) 38 Aphrodite (Megapolis) 246 Apollo (Corinth) 188 Apollo I (Delos) 181, 183, 190 Apollo, archaic temple of (Delphi) 192, 194–5 Apollo Daphnephoros (Eretria) 181–2 Apollo Delios (Naxos) 187, 191 Apollo Epikourios (Bassai) 201 n. 40, 257 Apollo (Thermos/Thermon) 185 archaic 189, 192, 194–5 Artemis (Ano Mazaraki, Rakita) 181–2 Artemis (Delion, Paros) 188, 192 Artemis (Phigaleia) 257 Artemis Brauronia/Brauroneion (Athens) 38, 41, 43–4 Artemis E (Delos) 190 Artemis Ephesia (Skillous) 250–1 n. 14 Artemis Limnatis (Sparta) 39 Artemis Orthia I (Sparta) 181–3 Artemis Orthia II (Sparta) 186 Athena and Zeus Soter (Phigaleia) 257
Athena Alea (Tegea) 181–2, 185, 198, 199 n. 11, 264 Athena Chalkioikos (Sparta) 186 Athena Makistos (Skillous) 187 Athena Polias (Athens) 8 Athena Polias (Paroikia) 188, 192 C (Thermon) 184 Cyclades 183, 187–8, 190–2 Delion 188, 192 Delos 181, 183, 190–2 Delphi 192, 193–5 Demeter (Lykosoura) 163, 166 Demeter and Apollo (Sangri) 187, 192, 195 Demeter and Kore 244 Dionysos (Phigaleia) 257 Dionysos I (Yria) 183 Dionysos II (Yria) 183, 186 Dionysos III (Yria) 184 Dionysos IV (Yria) 187 Doric 183, 185–8, 191, 193–8 G (Delos) 190 Ga (Delphi) 39 Geometric, early 181 hekatompedoi 181–3 Hera/Heraion (Argos) 37–8, 185–6, 197 Hera I (Delos) 190 Hera II (Delos) 191–2 Hera (Olympia) 184–5, 188, 196, 263 Hera/Heraion I (Samos) 38, 181–2 Hera/Heraion II (Samos) 184 Hera/Heraion III (Samos) 187 Hera/Heraion IV (Samos) 187 Hera Akraia (Perachora) 181–2 inventories 31, 38, 41, 44, 262, Ionic 182–4, 186–8, 191–2, 194–5, 19 Leto (Delos) 191 Mamousia (ancient Keryneia) 187–8, 200 n. 23 Megaron B (Thermos/Thermon) 183 Neokorion (Delos) 190 Olympia 184–5, 188, 196, 201 n. 40, 263 Paros 188, 192 Poseidon (Isthmia) 185, 199 n. 11, 200 n. 19
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Index Poseidon Helikonios (Nikoleika) 183–4 ‘Protogeometric Temple’/ Mycenaean megaron (Pellana) 36 Samos 181, 184, 187 small 182–3 Trapeza 181–2, 186, 188, 200 n. 23 for an unknown deity (Thebes) 38 Zeus (Nemea) 201 n. 40 Zeus (Olympia) 201 n. 40 [Athena and] Zeus Soter (Phigaleia) 257 Tenea 156 Terpander 24, 200 n. 22 terracottas 183; see also pottery dedications xii, 7, 32, 36, 40, 42, 46 n. 43, 49 n. 102 figurines xii, 7, 40 frieze 184 loom-weights 32, 36, 42, 46 n. 43 whorls 42, 49 n. 102 Teuthrona 251 n. 23 textile(s) xii, ch. 3 passim, 81, 142; see also clothing, dress, lead figurines, weavers consumption 32 dedications xii, ch. 3 passim, 99 luxurious ch. 3 passim, 100, 258, 265 model xii, 32, 41 pseudomorphs 31, 45 n. 4 tools/working equipment ch. 3 passim unfinished 35, 38, 41 Thaletas of Gortyn 25 Thebes (Egypt) 33 Thebes, Thebans (Boiotia) 24, 31, 196 sanctuary of Kabeiros and Pais/ Kabeireion 38 treasury (Delphi) 196 Themistokles/Themistocles 60, 209, 216 n., 217 n. 16 Themos, A. 245 Theocritean corpus 264; see also Herakles Leontophonos Theodoros (architect) 187; see also Heraion (Samos) Theognis 85, 216 n. 4, 231, 238 Theokritos 251 Theophrastos
on Spartan wagons 60 Theoxenos 244–5, 250 Therapne sanctuary and festival of Poseidon Gaieochos 60 Thermopylae 77 Thermos (Thermon) Megaron B 183 temple of Apollo Thermios 185 temple C 184 Theseus 4, 195 Thessaly 80; see also Penestai cult of Zeus Pelorius 231 Thetis 12; see also Peleus, pottery, wedding tholos Epidauros 201 n. 40 Sikyon 193, 196 Thouria hippodrome 60 Thrace, Thracians 167, 174 n. 63, 216 n. 7, 218 n. 28, 264 thread holder 42; see also textile(s) Thucydides 87, 140–1, 167, 218, 229–30, 237 n. 16 Thyrea xv, xx, 25, 161, 164, 169, 171; see also Champions, battle of Thyreatikoi 25 Thyreatis hippodrome 60 Timaeus of Tauromenion 267 timarchic system 111; see also Plato Timareta 39; see also Artemis, dedications, wedding Timaretos 39 timber consumption 264 for wagons 60 Timolaos 265 Timotheus 258 tin 81 Titane 36 Titeia; see also Titus Quinctius Flaminius agon 233 Titus Quinctius Flamininus 233; see also Argos, euergetism, Titeia tombe principesche 142 tombs xiv, 7, 33, ch. 8 passim, 209; see also burials, graves
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Index tortoiseshell dildo 13 n. 3 hair ornaments 3 trade, traders xx, 87–90, 123, 152, 183, 188, 209–10, 216, 258, 260; see also agora, agoranomia Athenian 88–9, 229 maritime 188, 258 Megarian xix, 229–30 Olympia 62 overseers of the 243, 245 perioikoi 81 Phoenician 220 n. 42 Sikyon 264 Samian 81 of slaves 80 socioeconomic mobility 217 n. 16 Spartan policy 77–8, 80, 82, 92 n.41 foreign 80–83, 87, 90, 220 n. 42 Tralles 166 Trapeza temple 181–2, 186, 188, 200 n. 23 treasuries xvi, 85, 107, ch. 10 passim, 263 trickle-down effect 267; see also euergetism, wealth tripod 21 Tritaia/Tritaea 262 Troizen/Troezen, Troizenians 246, 251–3, 260, 270 nn. 47–8 Tromileia reputed for its cheese 263 Troy, Trojan(s) 5, 100, 174 truphe¯/tryphe¯/tryphê/τρυφή ch. 6–7 passim associated with decadence xiii, 126, 129–30, 139–40 associated with license for women xiii, 4, 139, ch. 6 passim associated with oriental people xiii, 139–40 contrast with σωφροσύνη in Plutarch 130 diverse ancient meanings xiv, 3–4, 120–4, 140 mistranslation of use by Plutarch 125–7 in Plutarch’s works on Sparta xiv, ch. 7 passim
problems equating it with luxury 123–4 trupheroi, trypheroi 122 trupherote¯s, trypherote¯s, τρυφερότης (deficit) 128 ‘trypheron swagger’ 121; see also Aristophanes, wealth Turner, C. 132 tyranny, tyrant 4, 6, 14 n. 12, 85, 131, 149, 173 n. 22, 200 n. 26, 227, 231, 251 n. 22, 253 n. 44, 257, 266, 268 n. 15 inhibiting euergetism xvii, 248 rise of 208, 216 n. 5 Spartan 265 Tyrtaios/Tyrtaeus 22, 24–6, 28–9 n.30, 78, 90, 212, 214, 218; see also poetry Eunomia 28–9 n.30, 214 unemployment xix, 227; see also Corinth prohibition of 227 University of Nottingham vii, ix, xi, xx van Hoof, L. 132 van Wees, H. 84 Veblen, T. 141–2 veterans, Alexander III’s 259 vices; see also virtues Aristotelian system of categorizing 128 associated with luxury and wealth 107, 115, 128–130, 212 virtues; see also vices Aristotelian system of categorizing 128 opposed to luxury and wealth 58, 85, 108, 128–30, 135 n. 14, 162, 207, 211 Wace, A.J.B. 41 Wade–Gery, R. 26 warfare xiv–xvii, 14, 26, 59, 78, 89, 105, 108, 119–20, 124, 132, 139, 141, 152, ch. 9 passim, ch. 11–2 passim, 248, 251, ch. 14 passim; see also Chaironeia, battle of, Champions, battle of
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Index civic strife, Leuktra, battle of, Mithridatic Wars, Peloponnesian War, Plataia, battle of, Rome, Sacred war, Third, stasis wealth introduction passim, ch.1–14 passim acquisition and volatility of ch. 11 passim behaviour/display of wealth xii, xiii, xv, xix, 4, 6, 10–3, 21–22, 43, ch. 4 passim, 130, ch. 8–9 passim, 197–8, 226 disrupted by warfare 213–4 enhanced in Hellenistic period ch. 13–14 passim mobility and stability of ch. 11 passim as a poetry topic 120, 125, 140, 168–9, 208, 210–3, 216 n. 1, 218 n. 21 wealth–based agrarian economies 207 women’s xii, xiii, xv, xix, 4, 6, 14 nn. 15–6, ch. 4 passim, ch. 6 passim, ch. 9 passim, 234–5, 244–6, 264–6 weavers, weaving 31–4, 36–7, 41–3 ‘finger’ weaving 42 weaving comb xii, 42 wedding by abduction 12, 16 n. 41, n. 43 Argive 12 as a display of wealth 12 preparation 39 Spartan 12, 39, 99 wehanos-type of cloth 37 as a tax contribution 47 n. 48 Whitley, J. 148 Wilhelm, A. 166 wine consumption and production 82, 133, 167, 231, 258, 264 women introduction passim, ch. 1 passim, 20–1, ch. 3–4 passim, 85, ch. 6 passim, 121, 130, 133, 139–40, 153, ch. 9 passim; please see also Spartan women Argive xv, 12, ch. 9 passim associated with luxury xii, xiii, 4–6, 10–13, 14nn. 15–6, 43, ch. 4 passim, ch. 6 passim, 121, ch. 9 passim, 264–6
and euergetism 234–5, 244–6, 250 n. 9 prohibition(s)/restriction(s) on women xv, 8–10, 41–44, 99, ch. 9 passim and textile production/dedications xii, ch. 3 passim wool 33, 36, 40, 43, 45; see also weaving, women wool-basket 7, 33 wool-working 34 violet-dark 33 workshops 200, 258, 264 worship, worshippers 8, 10–1, 37 private 32 women 10, 35 Xanthos, Xanthians 218 n. 28 sanctuary of Leto 235 xene¯lasiai 80, 91 n. 17 Xenokles 244–5, 250; see also Geronthrai, priests Xenophanes 4, 12, 14, 164, 167 Xenophon 34, 58–61, 63, 65, 68, 89 on Agesilaos II 58, 65, 68 on chariots 60 on craftsmen 215 on Elis 266 establishing a cult to Artemis Ephesia at Skillous 245–6 and his estate in Skillous 245–6, 266–7 on horses 61, 65 on Kyniska 58, 68 on Lichas 134 on Spartan women’s lack of involvement in wool–working and textile manufacture 34 works Agesilaos 65 On Horsemanship 61 Memorabilia 134 Ways and Means 89 xenos 265; see also Philopoimen, proxenos, Timolaos Xerxes 77 ‘luxurious education’ 105
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Index xoanon of the goddess Orthia 35; see also Artemis, pharos-veil xynoi daitymones 246 Yria on Naxos sanctuary and temples of Dionysos 183–4, 186–7, 190 Zeno of Kitium 131 Zenon 251; see also Dionysiac artists, cult, euergetism
Zeus 4, 85 Messapeus, sanctuary of 39 Pelorius, cult/sacrifice in honour of (Thessaly) 231 Soter cult (Kalaureia) 246 temple of Athena and Zeus Soter (Phigaleia) 257 temples Nemea 201 n. 40 Olympia 201 n. 40 Zeuxidamos (aka Kyniskos) 57
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