Lecture 5: Classical Greece—Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade

Classical Greece—Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade .................................

Lecture 5

I

n this lecture, you will learn that the food culture of ancient Greece

is largely the result of its unique geography. Greece is an extremely

mountainous appendage hanging off the end of Europe and dipping

into the Mediterranean. Easy access to the sea means a lot of fi sh, but they

don’t have a lot of arable farmland, which means that with any sizeable

population, the Greeks have diffi culty providing grain. They have to seek

out fl at plains elsewhere and colonize them. This is key to understanding

why Athens became a mercantile state and why wealth was distributed fairly

evenly through the population.

The Geography of Greece

 Being a society heavily dependent on trade, it’s not surprising that

the Greeks invented money. The Lydians were fi rst after about 625

B.C., but most city-states coined their own money soon thereafter—

and money clearly fosters trade. All of the new colonies that the

Greeks set up were allowed to fi gure out how to govern themselves.

There’s a great deal of political experimentation. Like the United

States, they started with a relatively clean slate.

 Most of the colonies keep in close contact with the mother cities,

even if they become politically independent, so they remain closely

tied into Greece’s economy, supplying some products and serving

as a market for others—especially manufactured goods like pottery.

 What Greece can grow, if not huge quantities of grain, are plants

that are better suited to hillsides, such as olives, grape vines, and

fruit trees. They experience long, hot summers and wet winters ideal

for these crops. These, apart from providing food for the people,

are excellent articles of trade. They can be preserved and stored

in amphorae, and olive oil and wine can be shipped anywhere. In

addition, Mount Hymettus, covered in wild thyme, still makes some

of the best honey in the world.