All Greek property was divided both according to its use, and also
according to its nature. If it was such as merely produced enjoyment
to the owner it was called idle; if it was directly profitable, it was
called useful or fruitful. But this distinction is less often mentioned
than that into _visible_ and _invisible_ property, which nearly
corresponded to our division into _real_ and _personal_ property. But
the Greeks included ready money, lodged at a banker’s, as a part of real
property. Its principal kind, however, was of course landed property,
as well as town houses, country farms, and sometimes mining property
held under perpetual lease from the state. Of all these public accounts
were kept, and when special taxes were required they were paid on this
kind of property and according to this estimate. Personal or invisible
property consisted of all movables, such as furniture, factories, changes
of raiment, cattle, and above all slaves, who were employed in trades
as well as in household work. In days of war and of heavy taxing it was
common for the Greeks to “make away with” their property, which then
meant, not to spend it, but to make it invisible property, that is,
invisible to the state, and therefore not taxable.
At every epoch of Greek history land was considered the best and the
most important kind of wealth, and the landholder enjoyed privileges and
rights not allowed to other men, however rich. This arose from the early
form of Greek society. It is clear in Homer that the nobles possess the
greater part of the land as their private property, and much of even the
kings’ wealth was made up of estates. These were also presented to public
benefactors and other distinguished persons. What land was possessed by
the common people can only be judged from Hesiod, who describes what
we should call tenant farming—the occupying of small pieces of land in
poverty, without telling us whether it was freehold or rented from the
nobles. It was probably the former, at least in Bœotia, where we can
imagine the rough slopes unoccupied of old as they now are, or covered
with trees. These farms could be held by any one who had the perseverance
to clear and till them. In later days, when aristocracies prevailed,
they also took for themselves the lands, so much so that at Syracuse and
elsewhere they were called “the land-sharers” as opposed to laborers
and tradespeople. In some states, such as Sparta, it was said that the
nobles, or conquering race, divided the land so as to leave the greater
portion in equal lots for themselves to be worked by their slaves or
dependants, and a smaller portion to the former owners, who were obliged
to pay a rent to the state. But of course no such equality of lots,
if ever carried out, could last. In all states we find the perpetual
complaint that property had come into the hands of a few, while the many
were starving. The Athenians met this complaint by allotting the lands of
islands and coasts which they conquered among their poorer citizens, who
retained their rights at Athens while holding their foreign possessions.
Land was either bare or arable land, or planted with trees. There were
also stony mountain pastures. In historical days, all these lands were
either let by the state on leases, usually for ever (as was especially
the case with mines), or were similarly let by political and religious
corporations, or were worked by private owners for their own benefit by
means of stewards and slaves. Such country farms are often mentioned
in lists of property by the orators. The main produce has already been
described. We have no means of fixing the value of landed property in
Greece, as we generally hear of prices without being told of the amount
of land in question. But the low average of the actual prices mentioned
in Attica points to a great subdivision of such property.
As was before observed, the older Greek houses built in narrow irregular
streets were of little value, being very plain and without any ornament.
Leotychides, who was king of Sparta in B. C. 500, could not contain
his wonder at a ceiling paneled in wood, which he saw at Corinth, and
Demosthenes tells us that the houses of the most celebrated Athenians at
the same period were so modest as to be in no way different from those
of their neighbors. Such houses, which remained the ordinary fashion all
through Greek history, were of course not very valuable, and we hear of
one worth only three minæ (about $60 of our money), of another at Eleusis
worth five, and Demosthenes speaks of what he calls a little house worth
seven (about $140). But we know that Alcibiades and other fashionable men
of his time began to decorate their houses with paintings—a fashion which
became quite common at Tanagra later on; this and other improvements
raised the price of some houses to forty or fifty minæ, and the rich
banker, Pasion, possessed one which was let in lodgings and which was
rated at one hundred.
All these prices are very low when compared with our standard, and can
only be explained by the fact that at Athens, which was probably the
most crowded and the dearest place in Greece, the circuit of the walls
was greater than that required for the houses, so that there was always
building ground to spare. It appears that Athenian citizens did not
invest more than the fifth part of their property in dwelling houses,
unless they kept them for letting out. The ordinary rent of country
houses in Attica was from eight to eight and three-quarters per cent. of
the total value, which is about the same that a builder now expects for
the money he invests in houses. But when we reflect that the ordinary
rate of interest was not five per cent. as among us, but twelve, we have
another proof that houses and house-rent were cheap in Greece. But we
should also remember the fact that as most of the day was spent abroad,
the house was by no means so important as it is in our colder and harsher
climate.
As to the other kinds of real property, that which we know most about,
and which was perhaps the most important, was mining property. There were
gold and silver mines in many parts of Greece, of which those of Thasos
(gold) and Laurium (silver) are the best known. Both these were probably
discovered by the Phœnicians. We are told that the Athenian state used
to let the right of mining on leases for ever, for a fine at the outset,
of which we can not tell the amount, and a rent of four per cent. on the
profit. The shafts in pits were thus divided into lots, and the holder of
the lease could sell it, or borrow money upon it, just as upon any other
real property. Owing to the fixed yearly rent or tax upon the produce of
the mine, the occasional taxes were not levied on this kind of property.
There were officers appointed to watch the working of the mines and see
that the rent was honestly paid, just as we have government officers
constantly supervising distilleries, in order to see the taxes properly
paid. The produce of the mines of Laurium was a great source of wealth to
Athens; just as the gold mines of Thrace were an important gain to Philip
of Macedon. This was especially the case, because they were worked not by
free labor, which is subject to strikes and the raising of wages, but by
slaves bought and hired out for that purpose.
By far the most important part of personal property was the possession
of slaves and of ready money. There is indeed some doubt among Greek
writers about the classing of the latter, and generally we find the
money left by a citizen in bank counted as a part of his real property
in the law courts. There can be no doubt that gold and silver were very
scarce in Greece up to the time of the Persian wars, the first large
quantities being presents from the Lydian and other Asiatic kings. Even
in later days great fortunes were not frequent, and the Greeks always
kept much of their wealth invested in slaves and in vessels of gold and
silver or plate, as we should call it. These latter are always specially
mentioned in inventories of property, and the ready money seems always
a small fraction of the full value in these lists. States, on the other
hand, kept large reserve funds of ready money, because of this general
scarcity of it among private citizens, and the difficulty of borrowing
it during a sudden crisis. Accordingly the ordinary rate of interest
obtained on money was twelve per cent., which was of course greatly
increased when the investment was risky. Thus it was very common to lend
money to a ship-owner in order to enable him to lay in a cargo, and carry
it to a foreign port. But as the money was lost if the ship foundered
the lender expected twenty-five or thirty per cent. in case of its safe
return. We are told that most of the trade in the Piræus was carried on
in this way. Investments on the security of landed property, or of an
established trade, were, of course, safer, and therefore made at a lower
rate of interest.
The oldest banks in Greece had been the temples, in which all manner of
valuables were deposited for safety. The priests had also been in the
habit of lending money, especially to states, upon public security. But
in later days we find banking, especially at Athens, altogether a matter
of private speculation. Originally, the table of a money-changer was a
banking office, and there accounts were kept in books by careful and
regular entries. These private bankers often failed, and such failure
was politely called _rearranging his table_. There was once an Athenian
banker called Pasion, who had been originally a slave, but who received
the freedom of the city, and was enrolled in one of the most important
_demes_, because his bank had stood firm when all the rest failed, and he
had thus sustained the public credit. We are told that letters from his
house gave a man credit when traveling through all the Greek waters, as
all the merchants had dealings with him, and he doubtless issued circular
notes, like those of Coutts’s and other English banks, for the benefit of
travelers.
Of the coinage of money I will speak hereafter. Though the Phœnicians,
especially at Carthage, had invented the use of token money, like our
notes, such a device was, as a rule, unknown to the Greeks, who did not
advance beyond the use of formal bonds for the payment of money. We are
told however that the people of Byzantium used iron money in this way.
It is difficult for us to put ourselves in the place of the ancients as
regards slaves. They were looked upon strictly as part of the chattels of
the house, on a level rather with horses and oxen than with human beings.
No Greek philosopher, however humane, had the least idea of objecting
to slavery in itself, which was, Aristotle thought, quite necessary and
natural in all society; but there were Greeks who objected to other
Greeks being enslaved and thought that only barbarians should be degraded
to this condition. Hence, any Greek general who sold his prisoners of
war as slaves, was not indeed thought guilty of any crime or injustice,
but was sometimes considered to have acted harshly. Still a vast number
of Greeks who might have been brought up in luxury and refinement, were
doomed to this misfortune, in early days, by the kidnapping of pirates,
as Homer often tells us; in later, through the many fierce civil wars;
in both, by being taken up as foundlings, since the exposing of children
was common, and most states allowed the finder to bring up such infants
as his slaves. Frequently the men of captured cities were massacred,
but in almost all cases the women and children were sold into slavery.
There were some parts of Greece, such as Laconia and Thessaly, in which
old conquered nations were enslaved under the conditions of what we call
serfdom. They were attached to the land of their master, and supported
themselves by it, paying him a very large rent out of the produce. These
serfs, called by many names, _helots_ at Sparta, _penestæ_ in Thessaly,
_clarotæ_ in Crete, were also obliged in most places to attend their
masters as light-armed soldiers in war. That they were subject to much
injustice and oppression is clear from the fact that they repeatedly made
fierce and dangerous insurrections, and a writer on the Athenian state
significantly complains that such was the license allowed at Athens to
slaves, that they actually went about dressed almost like free men, and
showed neither fear nor cringing when met in the streets.
Still, though slaves were on the whole better treated at Athens than
elsewhere, they were always liable to torture in case their evidence
was required, as it was common for the accused to offer his slaves’
evidence if he was suspected of concealing any facts which they knew,
and they were not believed without torture. So also the respectable
and pious Nicias let them out by thousands to be worked in the Laurian
silver mines, where the poisonous smoke and the hardships were such that
half the price of the slave was paid yearly by the contractor who hired
them—in other words, if they lived three years Nicias received one and a
half times the value of his slaves. The contractor was also obliged to
restore them the same _in number_, no regard being had of the individual
slave. Again, we find women slaves deliberately employed by their masters
in the worst kinds of traffic. The general price of slaves was not high,
and seems to have averaged about two minæ (under $40); even in the case
of special accomplishments it did not often exceed ten minæ. They wore
a tunic with one sleeve, and a fur cap, in fact the dress of the lower
class country people.
The most important domestic animal in Greece, as in the rest of Europe,
was the horse. Among the Homeric nobles, who went both to war and to
travel in chariots, the use of horses was very great, and one Trojan
chief is said to have possessed a drove of three thousand. And yet
their carts were drawn by mules. In later days, the use of chariots in
war and carriages in traveling almost disappeared from Greece, and was
practiced only in Asia Minor. I suppose this was owing to the scarcity
and bad state of the roads. Cavalry and pack horses were used instead,
and the cavalry of most Greek states was very trifling. The Athenians,
for example, had no cavalry at all at Marathon; and at Platæa none which
could even protect foragers from the Persians, as the Thessalians were
not on the Greek side. The Lacedæmonians had no cavalry at all before the
year 424 B. C. Thus horses (except in Thessaly and a few other places)
were only kept for cavalry purposes, and also for such displays as the
Olympic games and the state processions in religious festivals. At Athens
to keep horses and to drive four-in-hand (in public contests only) was
a proof of either great wealth or great extravagance. The knights or
cavalry were of the richest class, and only kept one horse each as a
state duty. We know that the very cheapest price for a bad horse was
three minæ—that is to say, more than the average for a good slave, though
not in itself a large sum. Twelve minæ seems about the average price for
an ordinary horse. The enormous and perfectly exceptional sum of thirteen
talents is said to have been paid for Alexander’s horse “Bucephalus.”
This name was one used of a special breed called _ox-headed_, from their
short and broad head and neck, and which were celebrated in Thessaly.
Other good breeds came from Sicyon, Cyrene, and Sicily.
For draught purposes and for traveling with packs, much greater use was
made of mules and donkeys, especially of the former, as is still the case
all over Greece. We have no certain knowledge as to the prices given for
these animals. The history of the use of oxen is, on the other hand,
much better known. In Homeric times, and before the use of coined money,
prices were fixed by the number of oxen a thing would cost, and this old
practice is preserved in the Latin word _pecunia_ (from _pecus_) for
money, and in the English _fee_.
But according as men, and with them farming, increased, so much land
was withdrawn from pasture that few more oxen were kept than what were
wanted for field work and for sacrifices. Beef was thought heavy diet,
except in Bœotia; and cow’s milk was never much liked by the Greeks. In
out-of-the-way parts of Greece, such as Eubœa and Epirus, there were
still large herds, and this was also the case about Orchomenus; but
in general we hear that hides and even cattle were imported from the
Black Sea and from Cyrene. The price of an ox at Athens in Solon’s
time is said to have been five drachmæ (one dollar), though much more
was sometimes given. This was not so much on account of the plenty or
cheapness of oxen, as owing to the scarcity of coined money all through
Greece. Accordingly about the year 400 B. C. we find the price greatly
increased, and ranging from fifty to eighty drachmæ. An ox fit for a
prize at games was valued at one hundred ($15.50).
We are told that in Solon’s days an ox was worth five sheep, but probably
in later days the difference was greater, for while oxen became scarce,
the feeding of sheep and goats must at all times have been a very common
employment throughout Greece. Even in the present day, the traveler can
see that from a country for the most part Alpine, with steep ravines
and cliffs and wild upland pastures, unfit for culture and difficult of
access, no other profit could ever be derived. But now, in the day of its
desolation, shepherds with their flocks of sheep and goats have invaded
many rich districts, once the scene of good and prosperous agriculture.
The old Greek peasant dressed in sheepskins, made clothes of the wool,
used the milk for cheese and the lambs for feasting and sacrifice. We
hear of no importing of wool into Greece, but find that the Ionian
colonies in Asia Minor, such as Miletus and Laodicea, were most
celebrated for fine woolen garments, which they made of the wool of
the flocks of Mysia and Phrygia. Many districts all over Greece were
also famed for their woolen stuffs, so much so that the woolen cloaks
of Pallene were given as prizes to victors in some of the local games.
Perhaps Arcadia has remained the least changed part of Greece in this
and in other respects. Even now the shepherds go up in summer with great
flocks to the snowy heights of Cyllene, and live like Swiss peasants
in _châlets_ during the hot weather. In winter they come down to the
warm pastures of Argos and Corinth, where a tent of skins under an old
olive tree affords them sufficient shelter, with a hedged-in inclosure
protected by fierce dogs for their flocks. Such inclosures and even
stalls are mentioned in Homer.
The price of a sheep at Athens in the fourth century B. C. seems to have
varied from ten to twenty drachmæ, its chief value being the quality of
the wool. There is nothing very special known about goats, which were
kept, as they now are, very much in the same way as sheep, and their hair
used for making ropes and coarse stuffs.
In the same way we know little of pigs beyond that their hides were used
for rough coats, and that Homer’s heroes were very fond of pork. We hear
of large droves being kept in the mountainous parts of Arcadia, Laconia,
and Ætolia, where they fed on the acorns in the oak woods. Fowls were not
a usual article of diet, and are therefore not prominent in our accounts
of Greek property. The cock is spoken of as a Persian bird, the pheasant
as a Colchian, and peacocks were an object of curiosity at Athens in
Pericles’ day. The culture of bees, on the other hand, was of great
importance, as it took the place of the sugar plantations of our day—all
sweetmeats being flavored with honey.
It seems certain that the greatest part of the wealth of the Greeks
consisted in these out-of-door possessions, which were managed by slave
stewards and shepherds for their masters, if they lived in the city.
There is reason to think that they neither laid up much money in banks,
nor kept any great treasures in the way of changes of raiment, like
the Orientals, nor in furniture and works of art, like the Romans and
moderns. But owing to the many wars and invasions, this agricultural
wealth was precarious, and liable to sudden destruction. House property,
again, which in walled towns was pretty safe, is from its own nature
perishable. Private wealth therefore was not great on the average, and
the splendid monuments of Greek art in its best days were all the result
of public spirit, and not of private enterprise or bounty. A fortune of
$250,000 in all kinds of property is the extreme limit we know of, and is
spoken of much as $250,000,000 would be now-a-days.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY.