Fish Lists in the Wilderness
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FISH LISTS IN THE WILDERNESS: The Social and Economic History of a Boiotian Price Decree Author(s): Ephraim Lytle Source: Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 79, No. 2 (April-June 2010), pp. 253-303 Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40835487 . Accessed: 18/03/2014 10:14 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 71.168.218.10 on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:14:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HESPERIA 79 (2OIO) FISH LISTS IN THE Pages 253~3°3 WILDERNESS The Social and Economic History of a Boiotian Price Decree ABSTRACT This articlepresents a newtext and detailedexamination of an inscribedHel- lenisticdecree from the Boiotian town of Akraiphia (SEG XXXII 450) that consistschiefly of lists of fresh- and saltwaterfish accompanied by prices. The textincorporates improved readings and restoresthe final eight lines of the document,omitted in previouseditions. The discussioncovers the arrange- mentof the text and the sources of the lists, one of which probably originated in a customhousein the nearby port of Anthedon, as wellas thelarger social and economiccontext of the decree, which has beengenerally misunderstood. An enigmaticHellenistic inscription on twostones from the Boiotian town ofAkraiphia (SEG XXXII 450) consistschiefly of a longlist offish names accompaniedby numbersthat are presumedto be prices.1Although its importancehas been recognizedby some scholars, and theevidence it pro- videslies at the heartof influentialrecent work on fishingand the ancient economy,the inscriptionnevertheless remains little studied and its wider implicationslargely unexplored. This maybeattributable inpart to itsorigins in themurky waters of Hellenistic Boiotia, but it is also thecase thatmany of the document'smost important features have been misinterpreted. This réévaluationof the decreeis dividedinto six sections.It begins witha reviewof the modernhistory of the inscriptionand a new edition of the text,which, apart from the shortprescript, appears never to have beenreexamined, in spiteof deficiencies in theeditto princeps, including the omissionof the final eight lines. This reexaminationleads in thefollowing sectionto new conclusionsabout the composition of the document and its 1. ForAkraiphia, see Fossey1988, Once calledKarditsa, the modern village Sosin and KentRigsby for their careful pp.265-275, with references; more re- has beenofficially renamed Aicpocíípviov. criticismof early drafts, to theanon- centlyDer neuePauly 1, 1996, cols. 408- I wouldlike to thankthe 9th Epho- ymousHesperia referees for valuable 409, s.v.Akraiphia (P. Funke).Various rateof Prehistoric and ClassicalAntiq- suggestions,and to MarkLandon and formsof the name are attested in antiq- uitiesand especiallythe ephor, Vassilis MollyRichardson for many improve- uity(ÄKpocupicc, ÄKpocicpia, ÄKpaicpiai, Aravantinos,for granting me permis- mentsto thetext. All translationsand ÄKpaicpiov,ÄKpaiipviov, ÄKpaicpvia), sionto studyand republishthis in- photographsare my own. givingrise to manytransliterations. scription.I am also indebtedto Joshua © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens This content downloaded from 71.168.218.10 on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:14:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 254 EPHRAIM LYTLE arrangementon thestones. In thethird and fourth sections I explorethe originsof the two separate lists offish that appear in the document, and the relationshipbetween those lists and the economies of Akraiphia and the neighboringport of Anthedon. In thefifth section I reexaminethe prices recordedin the inscription and their implications for our understanding of therole offish in ancient food culture and the importance ofmarine fishing inthe Greek economy. Finally, I argue that the social context of this price decreeis morecomplex than previous discussions suggest. THE HISTORY AND TEXT OF THE INSCRIPTION In 1934M. P.Guillon extracted a badly weathered limestone block from thesuperstructure ofa modernwell in thevillage of Karditsa, on thesite of ancientAkraiphia. This stone,block B of theinscription, preserved tracesof at least41 linesof text recognizable as an alphabeticlist offish namesaccompanied by acrophonic numerals. In his publicationof the inscription,Michel Feyel managed to readthe names of 17 fish,only six ofwhich were accompanied by a whollylegible number.2 Nevertheless, he deducedthat the inscription represented a list of maximumprices expressedin obolsand chalks per mina, and he datedit, on thebasis of letteringand dialect, to theearly 2nd century b.c. The dateis consistent withhis interpretation ofthe list as a productof the political and social upheavalin Boiotiaduring this period, when, according to Polybios,the increasingpower of demagoguesforced the strategoi to enactpopular decreeson behalfof the poor.3 Feyel'spublication attracted little attention. Rostovtzeff cited the "curi- ousinscription from Acraiphia" in two footnotes in his Social and Economic theHellenistic World.4 and Léon Lacroix . 2. Feyel1936, pp. 27-36. Historyof D'ArcyThompson 3. 1936, 36. the forthe ofGreek fish names Feyel p. recognized inscription'simportance study 4. Rostovtzeff1941, vol. 3, p. 1369, andpublished, simultaneously, short articles on thenames that Feyel had n. 35, and p. 1615,n. 128. managedto read.5 Otherwise, scholars largely ignored the inscription until 5. Thompson1938; Lacroix1938. 1965,when Christian Llinas discovered in thevillage a secondinscribed Feyelhazarded a specificidentification forfewer than a half-dozenof the block,which also contained an alphabeticallist of fish names with prices namedfish, not surprising given the andapparently belonged to thesame inscription. Claude Vatin eventually notoriousdifficulties involved in publishedthe text of thisnew stone (block A), togetherwith a revised matchingancient fish names with the editionof the text of the first (block B).6 Paul Roeschsoon republished speciesknown to modernscience. theprescript on blockA (linesA.l-A.i.7), which contains the names of Feyel'stask was furthercomplicated thefact that A themagistrates responsible for the inscribing of the decree and a clause by Thompsons Glossary In ofGreek Fishes (1947) wouldnot be stipulatingthat the fishmongers employ certified weights.7 onlythree foranother decade. Both fulllines and four half- Roeschcorrected Vatin's text in a half- published lines, nearly Lacroixand Thompson were able to dozenplaces, and his discussion did much to rectify "certaines inexactitudes improveFeyeFs commentary, and surles institutions d'Akraiphia et de la Béotie."8 Lacroixproposed a numberof resto- thatwere Surprisingly,no one appearsever to havereexamined block B orthe rations(1938, pp. 55-56) better ofblock A A.i.8-42and Vatins subsequentlyconfirmed. part (lines ii.4-42).Meanwhile, pub- 6. Vatin1971 SEG XXXII hasworked its tothe center of a numberof discus- (= 450). lication way important 7. Roesch1974 (= SEG XXXVIII sions,ranging from the role of price controls in Classicaland Hellenistic 377). poleisto thenature and scaleof ancientfisheries and theirimportance 8. Roesch1974, p. 5. This content downloaded from 71.168.218.10 on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:14:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FISH LISTS IN THE WILDERNESS 255 Figure1. BlockB, Thebes Museum to Greekeconomies. With these larger questions in mind,I receivedper- missionin 2004 to study the blocks in the Thebes Museum. Block A could notbe located,but I was ableto examineblock B (Fig. 1) on a number 9. When I visitedthe Thebes Mu- ofoccasions.9 It became thatVatin's text could be in seumon 1 apparent improved May 18,2004, foundblock B I alsodetermined that an additional lineson seton itsside behindthe manyplaces. eight blockB, immediately recorded butomitted Vatinfrom his almost guardshack in thecourtyard. I could byFeyel by edition, certainly notlocate block A. I returnedto the belongto thesame inscription. The restorationofthese lines leads to very museumon May 22, whereI metYan- differentconclusions about the arrangement ofthe text on thestones, the nis Kalliontzis,entrusted by the Greek natureof the lists it contains,and the decree's larger social and economic withthe task of EpigraphicSociety context.I begin by presenting a revised text.10 compilinga catalogueof the museum s 3,000or moreinscriptions. He had not seenblock A. I can findno referenceto ThebesMuseum, no inv.nos. (in 1936,block B hadthe provisional anyonehaving seen it afterPaul Roesch, inventorynumber 10) who reportedhaving examined it at the BlockA: H. W. Th. 0.18 L.H. 0.010-0.014m. museumin 1972.The remodeled 0.70, 0.65, m; newly Block B: H. max.W. max.Th. 0.63 L.H. 0.010- museumwas scheduledto openin May 0.74, 0.41, m; 2009 butas ofMay 2010,it remains 0.016m. closed.It is myhope that when the