Agriculture ancient Greek

The ancient Greek economy revolved around agriculture. Most inhabitants in the Greek world were in some way connected to farming and the production of the food supply needed for society. With a geography of hills (mountains) and valleys (plains), the amount of arable land in Greece was not as significant as in other areas with broad plains, such as southern Russia or even Laconia in the Peloponnese.

The mountains could not be used for cereal production, but they could be used for herding and the growing of viticulture. The plains were often small in area, capable of only supplying food for the local community. Most of the regions in Greece could not support massive increases in population, as seen in the age of colonization after the Dark Ages in the eighth century. During the Dark Ages, the population of Greece had expanded, requiring many cities to send out colonies since they could not adequately feed their entire population.

By the Classical Age, some cities, such as Athens, were importing their food supply from outside the main Greek world. It is probable that only about a quarter of the land was suitable for farming. For some areas, like in the Peloponnese, with Laconia and Messina, the land was more extensive than in Attica. The city of Athens, as the largest consumer of goods, could not cultivate enough supplies in their own region.

The practice of agriculture resulted in technical works being written down. Most of these agricultural works were known and used, but most have been lost. The works mainly came from the Near East and Africa and were translated into Greek. Many of the practices were then translated into Latin and have come down through Roman writers. Land tenure in Attica was probably the same throughout the rest of southern Greece. It is clear from the ancient sources that the rich and powerful began to control and occupy more land, but they did not eliminate the poor farmer.

This produced a situation where small farms became subservient to the large estates, resulting in inequalities not only in economic strength but also political power. Consequently, some poor farmers became enslaved through debt to the wealthy landowners. Solon decreed that individuals could not sell themselves into debt servitude; however, he did not split the land up among the poor farmers.

This was different in Sparta, where Lycurgus divided the lands more equally among the Spartans. In other cities, tyrants often rose to power because of similar disaffection. They would often decrease the power of the nobles by giving land to the poor. After the fifth century, land began to become concentrated once again into the hands of a few, including in Sparta. Although they were extensive, the estates never became as large as they had been under the Romans.

The major crops in Greece were wheat, barley, olives, and grapes. Local farms would produce vegetables and fruits. In the early Greek period, the diet was mainly in the form of cereals, as seen in the Odyssey. Barley was easier to cultivate than wheat and did not need as much water, but wheat was more nutritious.

The soil was not heavy, as in northern Europe, so it was less rich. On the positive side, though, it did not take a heavy plow with animals to till the soil, so it was easier to plant and cultivate. Messenia was the only region in Greece where the soil was rich enough to allow two crops to be grown per year. While the land was not well suited for cereal growing, it did allow the cultivation of olive trees.

Olives were known to have been grown since the early Greek period. Unlike grain cultivation, which occurred yearly, olives took years to mature and were a long-term prospect. Olives were a versatile fruit that could be eaten or pressed into oil for fuel and dipping sauces.

Unlike northern Europe, with its deep and compacted soil, Greek territory was mainly covered with light soil, making plowing fairly easy. Unlike France or Germany, where teams of oxen were needed to pull the heavy plows required to create deep furrows, in Greece, the work could be done with a single ox, or even humans pulling the light plows. With the furrows relatively shallow, the yield was often not as extensive as in northern Europe.

The main cereal crops were barley (probably over 70 percent of the production), and wheat, both of which were planted in October through December and then harvested in April and May. It is interesting that in the winter months in Athens, there were no religious festivals, and assembly meetings seemed to have been rare due to the importance of planting. Since the rains came in the winter months, the crops would receive adequate water; by spring and into the summer, the amount of rain decreased dramatically.

The barley crop was used for making barley cakes, which were probably more common than bread and porridge and provided most of people’s caloric intake. Wheat (emmer and durum) and hulled barley were grown in most areas, while millet could be grown in areas of greater rainfall. The winnowing, threshing, and storage of grains took place in June and July.

The Greeks practiced the two-field system, in which one field was cultivated with grain, barley or wheat while the other remained fallow. In the fallow field, weeds were allowed to grow, which were then plowed under to provide nutrients for the soil. Alternatively, the other field was planted with beans and other legumes, which allowed nitrogen to be reintroduced into the soil.

This rotation of crops allowed the soil to be constantly repaired and remain productive. After cultivation, the fields would be used for grazing, allowing manure to be introduced to fertilize the field and introduce more nutrients.

Most farms were small, probably only amounting to about five hectares in Attica, although aristocrats would have up to twenty hectares. In Sparta, due to its communal system, smaller farms were about twenty hectares in size, while the richest citizens had estates up to fifty hectares. This system allowed a farmer to produce enough food for his family, with a small amount left over to sell.

The other main foodstuffs were vines and olives. Vines were pruned in early spring, just prior to the harvesting of the grain, and were gathered in September to be pressed to make wine. Shortly after the grape harvesting and pressing, olives would be harvested and pressed into oil. For the farmer who probably had all three types of crops, the year was always full of work. Often, a field would have both olive trees and cereal production side by side, with a vineyard on a nearby hill or mountain.

The profitability of the three types of crops also allowed for diversification. Cereal would produce the lowest profitability per acre, and at the same time suffered the greatest risk from adverse weather; olive trees, which took several years to mature, produced about 3 times as much profit than cereal, and vineyards produced a profit of over 20 times as much. These gains varied by region, of course, due to the type of soil and whether the terrain was flat, or on mountains and hills.

Spring was the rainy season, and during this time, the fallow lands were prepared for new planting. Now the fields were planted with grain and the rains allowed the crops to flourish. In the summer, when the rains stopped, irrigation from the streams and rivers provided the water needed to continue the growing season. The grain was harvested in June and July, when the farmer cut the stalks with sickles by hand. The grain was then threshed by animals trampling it underfoot and then stored in sacks. The grain would be ground into flour and made into bread in the homes. Women or slaves worked to make the bread.

After the harvesting of grain, the farmer would turn to preparing the farms for winter. In fall, during the initial downtime between the harvesting of grain and that of the vineyards and olive groves, the farmer cleaned the farm and collected wood for the winter. He would then break up the soil that had hardened over the summer, which required extensive work since the farmers did not have animals to pull the wooden plow. At the same time, the grapes were harvested.

The grapes picked from the vine were put into vats, where the farmers and their families crushing them by stomping. The juice was then collected into amphorae and allowed to ferment into wine. In late autumn and early winter, the olives were ripe for being either picked by hand or knocked off the trees with a pole into a cloth below.

The olives were then allowed to ferment for a few weeks to soften them before they were brought to the vats to be crushed by hand and the oil put into amphorae. After the harvesting of olives and grapes, the trees and vines were pruned. In late winter, legumes were harvested.

In Greece, cattle were a symbol of power—the more cattle a family owned and possessed, the more power it had. While most farms did not have extensive herds of cattle, some had large numbers, amounting to over 200 cattle and 1,000 sheep and goats. Cattle, sheep, and goats were all capable of surviving on the mountainsides. Sheep and goats became common and were easier to raise than cattle, and they also provided meat, milk (which could be made into cheese), and hides used for clothing. In addition, pigs and chickens were commonly kept on farms.

Although oxen were plow animals, they were also used for sacrifice. Donkeys and mules were used as pack and draft animals. Although restricted to the nobility, horses were used for military actions and racing. In Thessaly, the raising of horses was extensive among the aristocracy. Horses were used by the nobility for racing, especially in the Panhellenic Games. This was seen in Aristophanes’s The Clouds, where the son of the hero loves horse racing and gambling, and showing the prejudices of the nobility and the poor.

Other foodstuffs were used as well. Fish was harvested, especially anchovies and tunny. Often, they were salted and preserved in amphorae. Fishing was especially prominent in the Bosporus region. Farms also would often keep bees, which provided honey for preserves, medicine, and wax.

Agriculture was the mainstay of most Greeks, which allowed the various regions to flourish during good times; however, droughts occasionally occurred, which could wreak havoc. The regions often were affected in their population by the amount of arable land available. When the population exceeded the food supply, it could lead to civil war or other forms of warfare, colonization, and pestilence.