THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK AGRICULTURE
Agriculture arrived in Greece during the sixth millennium
b.c.e., well before the earliest known Greeks, the Mycenae-
ans, built their great palaces in the middle of the second mil-
lennium. Th e Mycenaean kingdoms operated centralized
economies in which the products of agriculture were gath-
ered in by the palaces and then redistributed as needed to the
subject population. Th is system collapsed along with Myce-
naean civilization around 1200 b.c.e. In the unsettled condi-
tions of the Dark Age that followed, the population of Greece
declined dramatically, the economy deteriorated, and Greeks
came to rely more heavily on livestock than on agriculture to
supply them with food.
Th e eighth century b.c.e. saw a revival of Greek fortunes.
Th e population increased, and land soon became scarce. Th e
desire of many Greeks to have their own farms probably con-
tributed to the boom in colonization that lasted down to the
beginning of the fi ft h century. During this period an ideol-
ogy linking landownership and agriculture to citizenship
and virtue began to emerge. In the Classical Period (fi ft h and
fourth centuries b.c.e.) and later some Greek philosophers
argued that farmers were a city-state’s best defenders and
most prudent citizens. Agriculture continued to be highly re-
garded during the Hellenistic Period (323–31 b.c.e.). Th e new
Greek kingdoms in Asia and Egypt encouraged the further
development of agriculture through experimentation and
scholarship. Th e Roman conquest of the eastern Mediterra-
nean over the course of the last two centuries b.c.e. seems to
have brought about no substantial changes in the practice of
agriculture there.
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
Before a discussion of specifi c farming practices, it is neces-
sary to consider briefl y the geography and climate of Greece,
since the nature of the land and the weather dictated where
and how farming could be done. Greece is a very mountain-
ous country, and much of it was not well suited to agricul-
ture. Terracing—building walls along the sides of hills to
create fl atter farmland and prevent soil erosion—seems to
have been a common practice among ancient Greek farm-
ers. Th e best farmland, like that in Messenia in the south-
western Peloponnese, was extremely valuable. Th e Spartans
conquered Messenia in the eighth century b.c.e. and used its
rich lands to support their totalitarian military system. Un-
fortunately, much of the textual evidence for Greek farming
comes from Athens, whose territory, Attica, had some of the
poorest farmland in the region. What crops could be grown
and when and how they should be cultivated, varied, some-
times considerably from place to place. Th us it is diffi cult to
generalize about Greek agriculture.
Th e Greek climate is quite variable both from year to
year and from region to region, especially with respect to
rain. Although springs supplied some water for agriculture,
there were few rivers or streams capable of supporting irriga-
Marble statue of Demeter (carved ca. 350 b.c.e.), Greek goddess of
fertility who governed the cycle of the seasons and the growing of
grain (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)agriculture: Greece 37tion, so most farms depended on rainfall. Th is made farming
an unpredictable and risky proposition. It was better to have
many widely scattered plots of land rather than one big one;
with fi elds spread over a relatively large area, a farmer could
be confi dent that at least some of his plots would yield a good
crop in any particular year. If, on the other hand, a farmer
had one large plot of land and there was insuffi cient rain to
support the crops he was growing, he could face famine or
bankruptcy. Summers in Greece tend to be warm and dry.
while the winters are relatively mild and wet. Because irri-
gation was usually not an option, most crops were grown in
the winter rather than the summer. Wheat was sown early in
the fall and harvested in May and June of the following year.
If, however, the winter crops failed, one could sow quick-
growing plant varieties in the spring.