BMCR 2009.02.30, G. J. Oliver, War, Food, and Politics

G. J. Oliver, War, Food, and Politics in Early Hellenistic Athens.
Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2007.  Pp. xxiii, 360; tables 4, maps
7, figs. 8.  ISBN 978-0-19-928350-7.  $140.00.

Reviewed by Michael D. Dixon, University of Southern Indiana
([email protected])
Word count:  1476 words
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Recent decades have seen an explosion in studies of Hellenistic
Athens.[[1]] Graham Oliver's War, Food, and Politics in Early
Hellenistic Athens will surely become an important complement to those
more specialized studies of Athens in the early Hellenistic period and
it will serve for a long time as an important supplement to the general
surveys of Athens in this period.

Oliver has presented a detailed study of Athens in the early
Hellenistic period that ranges chronologically between 322 B.C. with
the loss of Athenian naval power during the Lamian war and 229 B.C.
with the recovery of the Mounychia hill within the Piraeus. Mounychia,
which was lost between 322-307 and 295-229, was the sine qua non of
Athenian independence; its loss dramatically affected the Athenian
economy and the Athenians' ability to import grain. The author places
particular emphasis on the years following 295 B.C.; the loss and
recovery of Mounychia punctuate the termini of his study. Specifically,
Oliver's study of this period is a contribution to the economic history
of Hellenistic Athens and not a narrative account of these years. The
author's focus is on "war, institutions, and economies" with the simple
question underlying his analysis "how did people manage to feed
themselves in times of difficulty?" (4). Our literary evidence for
Athens in the early Hellenistic period is sparse, most notably for the
years following 301 B.C. Our third century sources are mostly
epigraphic, and these Oliver has utilized fully and skillfully in his
analysis. Extant inscriptions, especially those from Rhamnous, play a
central role in the author's analysis. Much more limited, however, is
Oliver's use of the archaeological and numismatic evidence, with use of
the former limited primarily to chapter 3. The book is divided into
three major parts, followed by eight appendices.

In Part One "Economic Vulnerabilities" the author examines some of the
significant issues that affected Athenians' ability to feed themselves
in times of difficulty.  Chapters included within Part One address
controversial issues such as the population in Athens during the early
Hellenistic period as well as the local production of grain and its
importation from abroad. Chapter One establishes the significance to
the Athenian economy of local grains as opposed to those imported to
Attica, as has been the focus of earlier studies on grain and Athens.
The author devotes considerable energy to a detailed analysis of
Demosthenes 20 to measure approximately the Athenian reliance upon
imported grain in the mid-fourth century B.C. In Chapter Two, Oliver
defines the methodology by which he approaches the economic history of
Athens in the period.  The author has applied an inverted island-peraea
model to his analysis in which Athens functioned as the "island" and
its holdings such as Salamis, Lemnos, Imbros, and Skyros as its
"peraea." Further, Oliver examines the degree to which the loss of
Piraeus affected Athens' fiscal control of the harbor and its ability
to conduct commerce there, concluding that one cannot determine the
extent of either. Also of considerable interest is Oliver's discussion
of Olympiodoros and Pausanias's claim (1.26.3) that he had recovered
the Piraeus and Mounychia. Contrary to the conclusions of those who
place this event variously in the 280s, Oliver suggests that
Olympiodoros successfully removed Lachares and liberated Mounychia and
the Piraeus in 295 B.C. His consecutive archonships in 294/3 and 293/2
suggest that this interpretation is a plausible one.

Any discussion of the significance that grain production played in
Attica must address also the number of mouths that needed to be fed.
Oliver takes up the question of Athens' population in the early
Hellenistic period in Chapter Three. Again, relying upon Demosthenes
20, Oliver concludes that the population of Attica almost certainly did
not exceed 300,000 individuals.

In Part Two "War in the Athenian Polis," Oliver addresses war and how
it affected the lives of those living in the Attic countryside,
specifically how it affected the grain harvest and the importation of
grain. Oliver concentrates his analysis on five major periods during
which the Athenians lost control of parts of Attica: the period between
307-304, the mid 290s, c. 287-the late 280s, the period of the
Chremonidean war (268/7-261), and the 240s. The Athenians' inability to
utilize completely locally grown grains in these periods of warfare and
occupation demonstrates their reliance on locally grown grains.
Oliver's study of these five crises demonstrates not only the
Athenians' reliance on local grain, but also the significance of the
Attic fortress system in their ability to harvest it.

The loss of  Athenian naval power during the Lamian war coupled with
the loss of Mounychia through nearly all of the early Hellenistic
period compelled the Athenians to rely more heavily upon different
methods for feeding and  protecting its population. These losses
resulted in a shift of Athenian resources away from a reliance upon
imported grains that increasingly came to be concentrated more on the
defense of the countryside for the purpose of protecting the local
harvests. Oliver divides Athenian military power into three elements:
"infrastructure, command, and manpower" (138). The honorary decree for
Epichares from Rhamnous, according to Oliver, most clearly illustrates
the interconnectedness of these three elements. Oliver utilizes this
important decree frequently throughout his work in order to illustrate
this connection; he also relies heavily upon other evidence from
Rhamnous, which he he presents as a "micro-region...for the region of
Attica." (139). Throughout the 260s specifically, Oliver identifies "a
clear structure of command...infrastructure [that] is developed and
exploited... and a judicious use and innovation in manpower." (140). As
a micro-region, however, Rhamnous is not necessarily representative of
Athens itself or of Attica as a whole. Oliver next turns to the polis
in an effort to see how these three critical elements were interrelated
there.

Chapter Five includes an examination of the fortified demes and rubble
camps, such as the Ptolemaic fort at Koroni, and their roles in the
defense of the Attic countryside. Chapter Six includes Oliver's
investigation of command with analyses of the hoplite general and the
generals for the countryside and how by the second half of the third
century, the former was based in Athens while the later were based in
Eleusis and Rhamnous. In Chapter Seven, Oliver concentrates on Athens'
manpower, a resource critical to the defense of the countryside. Athens
directed its manpower, not towards a fleet as in earlier periods of its
history, but shifted it now to the cavalry, the ephebic corps, as well
as service in garrisons. Other developments in the early Hellenistic
period included the introduction of the epilektoi. Mercenaries, too,
formed a formidable component of the defense of the Attic countryside
and its agricultural resources, although reliance upon them was not
nearly as much as that placed upon citizens. Oliver argues that the
Athenians utilized these mercenary forces primarily in the Attic
garrisons.  Among these were the paroikoi who served in Rhamnous.

Part Three "Polis Economies: Finance, Food, and Friends" examines
Athens' economy from internal sources and from those abroad. Chapter
Eight "Saving the Polis: Civic Finances" is an examination of those
methods by which the Athenians funded their defense efforts. From the
perspective of internal revenues, Oliver acknowledges the continued
significance of the agonothetes' contributions, but the bulk of his
examination is on the epidosis, particularly that of 248/7 B.C., which
he discusses in detail (pp. 200-204) and in Appendices 5 and 6. This
particular epidosis (Agora xvi.213) preserves a thorough record of
monies raised for the collection of the Attic harvest. Other honorific
decrees for individuals who made contributions to epidoseis also point
to the new reliance the Athenians placed on this form of revenue
collection. The epidosis, Oliver claims, was a far more effective
method of raising revenues than the traditionally employed eisphora.

In Chapter Nine, Oliver focuses on those benefactions made by
non-Athenians. Here, Oliver asks "how the economies of food from
overseas were facilitated and why"? (229). He places emphasis upon the
importations of grain to Athens, and generally these are reflected in
honorary decrees. Oliver also examines the sitonia, which he argues had
domestic and external dimensions, suggesting that "the purchasing of
grain could involve the movement of officials abroad.  But equally the
board's responsibility had an impact on the marketplace and perhaps
even on other institutions in Athens...  The sitonia was essentially
one way in which the polis intervened in the grain trade... sitonai
were concerned to provide grain of the highest quality at the best
prices" (259).

Overall, Oliver's War, Food, and Politics in Early Hellenistic Athens
constitutes an important advancement in our understanding of the
Athenian economy and how the Athenians responded to war or times of
crisis in the early Hellenistic period. As a specialized study,
Oliver's analysis will not only become an indispensable resource for
this period of Athenian history, but it also serves as a model by which
to examine other Hellenistic poleis, using this "bottom-up" approach.


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Notes:


1.   The most important general survey is C. Habicht Athens from
Alexander to Antony (Cambridge, Mass. 1997). Equally important, yet
more specialized studies: S. V. Tracy, Attic Letter Cutters of 229 to
86 B.C. (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1990), Athenian Democracy in
Transition. Attic Letter Cutters of 340 to 290 B.C. (Berkeley and Los
Angeles 1995), and Athens and Macedon. Attic Letter Cutters of 290 to
230 B.C. (Berkeley and Los Angeles 2003); R. Parker. Athenian Religion.
A History (Oxford 1996); J. Mikalson. Religion in Hellenistic Athens
(Berkeley and Los Angeles 1998); M.J. Osborne and S. Byrne. A Lexicon
of Greek Personal Names, vol. II (Oxford 1994); J. Traill, Persons of
Ancient Athens (Toronto 1994-); B. Dreyer. Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte des spaetklassischen Athen (322-ca.230 v. Chr.) (Stuttgart
1999); O. Palagia and S. V. Tracy, eds. The Macedonians in Athens,
323-229 B.C. (Oxbow 2003).