We do not need to assume that the larger estates were operated by
gang slave labour, although slave-operated facilities may have developed
in the late Hellenistic and early imperial period, when estates owned by
prominent Macedonians were confiscated by Roman officials and
numerous indigenous people became suddenly enslaved and available
within the region.^23 At Olynthos, unusual concentrations of domestic
equipment are consistent with a slave presence, although accommoda-
tion and equipment would indicate slave numbers per household unit in
doublefigures at most.^24 Most of the known properties in Macedonia
and Thrace dating from the pre-imperial age appear to be family-owned
estates or facilities run by small groups of specialist personnel, with small
numbers of free or slave hands, rather than intensively exploited invest-
ments owned by absentee landlords.
The best known model for domestic storage patterns in an urban
context is Olynthos (Fig. 7.1), where the ceramicpithoswas the most
characteristic type of storage container, used for dry and liquid food-
stuffs, although baskets, textiles, and clay-lined pits could also be used.^25
If an average family needed thousands of litres of cereals and hundreds of
litres of wine to assure self-sufficiency, then the very largepithosin
House A vii 4, room g, with capacity for 190 litres, could feed a house-
hold of six persons for a little more than one month.^26 Room g in House
A vii 4 corresponds to about a quarter of the main store room in the Villa
of Good Fortune in dimensions, but one fortieth the storage capacity of
the latter. In case we might be tempted to think that the presence of more
generous storage facilities in the villa section at Olynthos and the com-
parative absence of such storage arrangements on the North Hill point to
economic disparities between the occupants of these two districts, there
is strong evidence that houses close to the agora on the North Hill were
better appointed and more valuable, in resale terms, than the villas.^27
Cahill is surely correct to see in these very different approaches to storage
a set of variant economic strategies. There is an almost complete spatial
disjunction between, on the one hand, residential accommodation close
to the agora, which constituted higher value real estate, yielded more
(^23) This is the thesis of Adam-Veleni 2009; for the historical context, Rizakis 2002.
(^24) Cahill 2002, 263–5; cf. Xen.Oec.7.25–38; 8.2–19; Chandezon 2011 for a review of
personnel involved in estate management.
(^25) Cahill 2002, 227 (three offivepithoiin the Villa of Good Fortune, Room j, contained
olives, straw (cereals), and pine bark (wine?), respectively; and 227–30 for discussion of
average consumption requirements and further refs.
(^26) Cahill 2002, 232–3.
(^27) Cahill 2002, 233–5; 277–81 withfigure 49 and App. 2, 294–9, for the epigraphic
evidence of property sales.
280 Dining cultures