22 EDwaRD M. HaRRIs aND DavID M. LEwIs
bought anchovies. Although the consumption of meat is normally associated
with the sacrifice of large animals, we should not underestimate the varieties of
birds and small game available in the agora, as well as products such as sausages
and blood-puddings.^109 And not all baking was done for domestic consump-
tion: Athens boasted a wide range of cakes and pastries,^110 many of which were
available in the marketplace. Herbs and seasonings brightened up the diet, and
whilst some were grown at home, it is clear that many were imported from
outside Attica. Salt was important for seasoning, and Theophrastus imagines
that a fieldworker preparing some broth will have salt at hand to season the
dish (Char. 14.11). Few households supplied their own salt: most would have
had to buy it at the market (cf. Carusi, this volume).
One must bear in mind that many of the bleak views of Athenian peasant
farmers struggling to survive operated on the assumption that the only mar-
ketplaces in Attica were in the city of Athens itself, the Piraeus and Sounion. As
we have seen earlier, however, epigraphic and archaeological evidence attests
that marketplaces were well within reach of even the most remote farmstead in
Attica. Our view of Attic agriculture will need to be revised to accommodate
these new findings.^111 One should add to this picture the evidence of travelling
peddlers, who made a living visiting more out-of-the-way districts. We find
one such peddler in Aristophanes’ Acharnians (860–958), a travelling Boeotian
trader with a variety of products in his baggage. In a fragment of Antiphanes (fr.
69 K-A) we hear of an itinerant fishmonger who visits the countryside selling
sprats and red mullet.^112 But even when Theophrastus lampoons the country
bumpkin (agroikos), he does not imply that this rustic never emerges from his
farmstead:When he is going into town, he asks anyone he meets about the price of
hides and salt fish, and whether today is the first of the month,^113 and he
says right away that when he reaches town he wants to get a haircut, do
some singing at the baths, hammer some nails into his shoes, and while
he’s going in that direction pick up some salt fish at Archias’. [Theophr.
Char. 4.15, tr. Rusten]He also fails to see the virtue of perfume, declaring it no sweeter than thyme
(Char. 4.3; cf. Eupolis fr. 222 K-A). What is amusing for Theophrastus is that
the bumpkin makes a fuss about purchasing goods and services, something that
is utterly prosaic and unworthy of mention to a city dweller. Here, two things
are clear: the through-and-through rustic does not engage in market transac-
tions to the same degree as an urbanite – hardly a surprise; but that said, he does
emerge from his farm to visit the city, and he does engage in market transac-
tions when he goes there. The point we should take is that for Theophrastus,
it was only the worst sort of yokel who could regard visiting the market, the
baths or the barber as a novelty.^114 Likewise, in Aristophanes’ Acharnians, the