Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The Public Sphere 219
omy, in other words, that was not dependent on imports, but that
supported itself by farming, fishing, hunting, trapping, and gathering
plants, wild fruits, and nuts. It was an ideal that few, if any, poleis
achieved. The extreme example to the contrary is Athens, whose
economy by the middle of the fifth century b.c.e. was very largely
dependent on imports. When the Athenians took the decision to
abandon the Attic countryside at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian
War and live off the revenue and trade from their empire, they were
tacitly acknowledging the extent to which they had shifted from a
land-based to a maritime economy. No doubt the abandonment of
the countryside caused a great deal of economic hardship to many
people; however, the fact that such a move was possible is a measure
of the degree to which Athens was unable to support itself
agriculturally.
Probably the main imports and exports throughout the Greek
world were grain, wine, olive oil, and pottery. The most common
form of commercial container was a two-handled jar with a narrow
neck known as an amphoreus, meaning “carried on both
sides,” which gives us the word amphora. Amphorae varied greatly
in size and shape, depending on what type of commodity they
were intended to hold, though the average capacity in Classical
and Hellenistic times was about five gallons. Plain on the outside,
amphorae were often coated on the inside with resin or pitch to
prevent seepage. They were generally stacked upright on ships
and horizontally in shops and in the home. Some 40,000 amphora
handles have been found in Athens, and 90,000 in Alexandria,
making these cities the largest importers of wine—though, as indicated,
not all would have contained wine. Few items are as ubiquitous
as amphorae in the ancient world—or as expressive of the
repetitive nature of daily life.
Athens’s chief import was grain, its main supplier being the
Black Sea region, particularly the Bosphoros. Other major sources
included Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, Sicily, and Italy. Its dependency
on imported corn was a leading factor in Athens’s decision to
develop the Piraeus, which in the second half of the fifth century
b.c.e. became the foremost commercial port in the eastern Mediterranean.
So vital was imported grain to Athens’s survival that the
demos made it a capital offense to ship it to ports other than the
Piraeus. It was also illegal to extend a maritime loan other than to
a merchant who agreed to convey grain to the Piraeus. In the high
season, a minimum of six grain ships had to dock at the port each
day to meet Athens’s huge requirement.