Lecture 3 - Living off the land Flashcards
Greek climate and terrain
hot, dry summers, growing season is winter and spring, less than 20% if suitable for crops, few rich plains and valleys, majority of population involved in farming.
Italian climate and terrain
Regional variations, Mediterranean triad (wheat, olives and grapes), barley substituted for wheat in poor soils, transhumance (moving of herds to different grazing areas).
Subsistence and surplus
majority of farms were small and subsistence farming was common.
Making money from farming
made easier with the introduction of coinage, big estates in classical Greece thus rich men needed money for civic duties, the Roman elite - money needed for games and shows.
Rome - empire and agrarian change
Conquest in the 2nd century BC brought slaves into the empire, rich elites hired them, this put pressure of small farmers.
Laborers
were free, slaves and helots.
Status and ideology
landowning and citizenship in Greece, landowning and ideology - Rome’s peasant/agrarian identity. More virtues such as self-sufficiency and toughness.
City and empire
perishables, suburban villas, luxuries for the elite, export of wine and oil, imports of exotics
Feeding the city
Population growth and crop failures, some Greek colonies, Athens is evidence for corn imports in the late 5th century BC but colonies in Hellespont may support the idea of earlier grain routes.
Rome’s provinces
different climates and agricultural systems, empire generated - local elite estates farm for cash export - wine and oil from Gaul and Spain and olives from Africa.
New farming techniques
manuring, terracing, and irrigation, grafting, new plant varieties, labor-saving devices.
Warfare and the land
According to Thuydides, Athens suffered during the Peloponnesian war.
