12 EDwaRD M. HaRRIs aND DavID M. LEwIs
of cash as an exchange medium, expansion of transport facilities, and growth
of non-agricultural markets for foodstuffs.’^67 New Institutional Economics also
stress the role of law and order in creating the conditions necessary for the
expansion of markets.^68 Other factors include increasing demand as the result
of rising incomes and more extensive manufacturing production. The agora in
Athens was certainly a permanent market where buyers and sellers congre-
gated most days of the year.^69 As we saw earlier in this chapter, the market at
Sparta also appears to have met frequently. The market in Corinth appears to
have met regularly and was even more full than usual during the festival of
Artemis Euclea (Xen. Hell. 4.4.2).
The central agora in Athens was so large that it was divided into different
sections. Xenophon (Oec. 8.22) claims that slaves sent to the market for shop-
ping had no trouble finding different wares, because they were all kept in their
appointed places. Eupolis (fr. 327 K-A) mentions the place where books are
for sale,^70 and has one of his characters recall how ‘I went around to the garlic
and the onions and the incense and straight to the perfume, and around to the
trinkets.’ Pherecrates (fr. 2 K-A) mentions the wreath stalls, the perfume mar-
ket and the stalls for bergamot, mint and larkspur. The same poet characterizes
perfume stalls as an area where young men were apt to loiter and chat (fr. 70
K-A; cf. Polyzelus fr. 12 K-A; Theophr. Char. 11.8). Theophrastus (Char. 11.4)
writes of parts of the agora where walnuts, myrtleberries and fruits are for sale.
Alexis in his Kalasiris mentions a quarter known as the ‘circles’ (kykloi) where
utensils were sold (Poll. Onom. 10.18–19). Periodically – probably once every
lunar month – this area was set aside for a slave auction (Lewis, Chapter 14
in this volume). A separate part of the market was called the ‘women’s agora’
where one could find items just for women (Poll. Onom. 10.19). Wine was
available near the city gate in the Ceramicus (Is. 7.20; cf. Ar. fr. 310 K-A).
Another area was noted for its fresh cheese (Lys. 23.6), others for vegetables
and pots (Ar. Lys. 557), flour (Ar. Eccl. 686) and meat (Teles fr. 2 K-A). If one
wanted to hire a porter or a worker, one went to the hire market (Pherecrates
fr. 142 K-A). It is vital to grasp that what enabled the Athenian agora to meet
every day, what enabled it to grow to such a size that it developed subsections
and what made the construction of permanent market buildings an attractive
choice to the polis was high levels of demand. We will return to this theme
later in the chapter.Space
Markets may also vary in spatial terms. At the lowest level there are local mar-
kets where buyers and sellers from a relatively small area gather to exchange
goods and services. Although we have plentiful evidence for large perma-
nent markets in cities such as Athens, Corinth, Miletus and Delos, there is less