The Ancient Greek Economy. Markets, Households and City-States

INTRODUCTION 17

It is also possible to discern a market in labour in the ancient Greek world.

Most hired labourers came from within the city-state, but one should not

underestimate the mobility of labour.^79 The Greek state did not erect barriers

to impede the mobility of labour. Workers moved back and forth from one

area to another without passports, visas or work permits. An Athenian named

Leocrates owned slaves working in a forge, moved to Megara in 337 where he

was a merchant active in the grain trade, then returned to Attica after living

in Megara for more than five years (Lycurg. Leocr. 21–7). The only thing a for-

eigner had to do when entering Attica in search of work was to register as a

metic after a certain period, pay an annual tax and find a prostates to represent

him in legal proceedings.^80 Similar arrangements existed in other Greek com-

munities.^81 The evidence of the Greek world illustrates the insights of New

Institutional Economics:  the creation of institutions protecting the rights of

foreigners was decisive in promoting the expansion of the market for labour.

Many workers took advantage of this freedom of movement.^82 The accounts

for the construction of the Erechtheum from the later fifth and early fourth

centuries record payments to 122 different workers: 22 are citizens, 18 slaves,

26 of unknown status and 56 metics.^83 Building accounts from Eleusis dated

to 330 and 329/8 give similar proportions: out of eighty-five workers whose

status can be determined, twenty-nine are citizens, forty-five are metics and

eleven are foreigners.^84 Two come from Corinth, three from Megara, one

from Samos, three from Boeotia and one from Cnidus.^85 There are also large

numbers of foreigners found in building records from Epidaurus, Delos and

Delphi. In many cases the status of these workers is unknown. At Delphi,

however, there are seventeen citizens and seventy-nine foreigners (the status

of seventy-seven is unknown).^86 These workers came from cities as close as

Sicyon, Corinth, Argos, Aegina, Megara and Athens but also from as far away

as Knidos, Olynthus, Larissa, Trikka, Croton in Southern Italy and Cyrene.^87

Many of those working on Delos came from the Cyclades but others from more

distant cities such as Sinope, Byzantium, Assos, Mytilene, Chios, Clazomenae,

Thebes, Corinth, Crete and Egypt.^88 The need for skilled workers for con-

struction in major sanctuaries therefore created a demand that could only be

satisfied by regional and interregional labour markets.^89

Doctors also circulated widely throughout the Aegean and beyond to satisfy

the need for medical skills. Cos produced an oversupply of doctors, who trav-

elled to Caria, Delphi, Cnossus, Gortyn and Aptera on Crete, Halicarnassus and

Calymna.^90 Diogenes from Pergamum went as far as Acarnania. Some moved

from place to place, such as Apollonius of Miletus who visited many islands and

received public honours at Tenos, or Asclepiades of Perge who practiced his skills

in many cities.^91 Others, such as Menocritus of Samos, who practiced medicine

in Carpathus for twenty years, might settle in a foreign city.^92 High demand

for medical skills and the limited supply of doctors permitted some doctors to