I CEREALI NELL’ANTICA GRECIA E L’APPROVVIGIONAMENTO GRANARIO DELL’ATENE CLASSICA

Abstract

Cereals, chiefly barley, covered roughly three-quarters of the food requirements of ancient Greeks. The agrarian practices were modelled on this basic need. However, although recent studies have stressed their efforts to maximize production, climatic conditions and the scarcity of animal manure doomed the ancient Greek world to a low productivity. So the more populous poleis had to import large quantities of grain. This was the case of classical Athens, which particularly after the loss of empire in 404 BC was forced to set up a new policy. Its most important aspects were the good relations with Bosporan Kingdom in Crimea (the main producer of Triticum compactum, the most suitable grain for bread-making) and the legislation about the maritime and retail trade. This policy was relatively successful, but dependence on grain imports was for Athens a major factor of political and military weakness.