Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:09:23.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Legume production at Cyrene in the Hellenistic period: epigraphic evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2018

Muna H. Haroun Abdelhamed*
Affiliation:
PhD candidate at University of Leicester.

Abstract

Legumes seem to have been cultivated and to have formed an essential part of the human diet during the Greek and Roman periods. This paper examines the cultivation of pulses in Cyrenaica during the Hellenistic era. It considers the regional production capacity for legumes to meet local needs and argues the involvement of different kinds of pulses in interregional commerce alongside cereals and other dry grains. This study has been implemented via investigating Hellenistic epigraphic evidence from Cyrene. It has traced the cost of pulses mentioned in inscriptions of the fourth and third/second centuries BC and compared them with that of wheat and barley. Pulses and cereal costs indicated by Diocletian's ‘Edict on Maximum Prices of AD 301’ have also been investigated to assess the general trend of their prices over time. The examination demonstrates that varieties of pulses were produced in Cyrenaica during the Hellenistic era and were likely as significant as wheat and barley. It also indicates that they were probably traded from the region alongside other dry commodities.

يبدو أن البُقول كانت قد زُرعت في الفترتين الإغريقية والرومانية وشكلت جزء أساسي من النظام الغذائي البشري . تتناول هذه الورقة زراعة البُقوليات في كيرينايكي (إقليم المدن الخمس ) خلال العصر الهللينستي. إذ تعتبر أن قدرة الإقليم الإنتاجية للبُقول كانت تغطي الاستهلاك المحلي كما تناقش أنه تم الاتجار بأنواع مختلفة منها بين الأقاليم إلى جانب أنواع متعددة من الحبوب بما فيها القمح والشعير. بُني هذا العمل على دراسة محتوى نقوش هللينيستية من مدينة كيريني، حيث تم تتبع أسعار البُقول المذكورة في نقوش القرن الرابع ق .م ثم في نقوش القرنين الثالث والثاني ق .م . ولتتبع النمط العام لأسعار البُقول مقارنة بأسعار القمح والشعر عبر فترات مختلفة تم كذلك دراسة أسعار البقول والحبوب الواردة في مرسوم الأمبراطور دقلديانوس لسنة 301 ميلادي . لقد أظهر البحث أن كيرينايكي كانت قد أنتجت أنواعاً مختلفة من البُقول في الفترة الهللينيستية وأنها قد لا تقل أهمية عن القمح والشعير، كما بين هذا العمل أن البقوليات ربما كانت من بين السلع التي صُدرت من الإقليم إلى جانب منتجات جافة أخرى.

Type
Part 2: Research Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Libyan Studies 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, R. C. 2009. How prosperous were the Romans? Evidence from Diocletian's price edict (AD 301). In Bowman, Alan and Wilson, Andrew (eds), Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 327–45.Google Scholar
Amemiya, T. 2007. Economy and Economics of Ancient Greece. Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
Applebaum, S. 1979. Jews and Greeks in Ancient Cyrenaica. E. J. Brill, Leiden.Google Scholar
Bresson, A. 2011. Grain from Cyrene. In Archibald, Z. H. (ed.), The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries BC. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 6695.Google Scholar
Bresson, A. 2016. The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy: Institutions, Markets, and Growth in the City States. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Caputo, G., and Goodchild, R. 1955. Diocletian's price-edict at Ptolemais (Cyrenaica). Journal of Roman Studies 45.1–2: 106–15.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B., and Chatterton, L. 1984. Medicago: its possible role in Romano-Libyan dryfarming and its positive role in modern dryfarming. Libyan Studies 15: 157–60.Google Scholar
IGCyr = Dobias-Lalou, Catherine. 2017. Inscriptions of Greek Cyrenaica in collaboration with Bencivenni, Alice, Berthelot, Hugues, with help from Antolini, Simona, Marengo, Silvia Maria and Rosamilia, Emilio. CRR-MM, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. ISBN 9788898010684, http://doi.org/10.6092/UNIBO/IGCYRGVCYR.Google Scholar
GVCyr = Dobias-Lalou, Catherine. 2017. Greek Verse Inscriptions of Cyrenaica in collaboration with Bencivenni, Alice, with help from Reynolds, Joyce M. and Roueché, Charlotte. CRR-MM, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. ISBN 9788898010684, http://doi.org/10.6092/UNIBO/IGCYRGVCYR.Google Scholar
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 1994. Definition and classification commodities, 4: pulses and derived products. Available at: www.fao.org/es/faodef/fdef04e.htm (accessed on 3 September 2017).Google Scholar
Flint-Hamilton, K. B. 1999. Legumes in ancient Greece and Rome: food, medicine, or poison? Hesperia 68.3: 371–85. Available at: www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/148493.pdf (accessed on 10 January 2017).Google Scholar
Foxhall, L., and Forbes, H. A. 1982. Σιτομετρεία/The role of grain as a staple food in classical antiquity. Chiron 12: 4190.Google Scholar
Galen. 2003. On the Properties of Foodstuffs. Edited by Powell, Owen and Wilkins, John. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. 1988. Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. 1998. Cities, Peasants, and Food in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hippocrates. Regimen in Acute Diseases, XVIII. Available at: http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=0&query=Hipp.%20Acut.%20app18 (accessed on 14 August 2017).Google Scholar
Idrisi, al- (الإدريسي ). n.d. Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq. Vol. 1. Maktabat al-thaqafat al-diniya, Cairo. Available at: https://ia600204.us.archive.org/13/items/nuzht-almushtaq/nuzht-almushtaq.pdf (accessed on 17 August 2017).Google Scholar
IG = Inscriptiones Graecae II et III: Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriores. 1913–40. 2nd edition, parts 1–3. Edited by Johannes Kirchner. Berlin.Google Scholar
Laronde, A. 1987. Cyrène et la Libye hellénistique. ‘Libykai Historiai’: de l’époque républicaine au principat d'Auguste. Études d'Antiquités africaines. Éditions du Centre de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.Google Scholar
Messina, V. 2014. Nutritional and health benefits of dried beans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Available at: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/100/Supplement_1/437S.full.pdf+html (accessed on 3 September 2017).Google Scholar
Moreno, A. 2007. Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S. 2011. Armies, navies and economies in the Greek world in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. PhD dissertation, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S. 2013. The daily grain consumption of classical Greek sailors and soldiers. Chiron 43: 327–56.Google Scholar
Pelling, R., and al Hassy, S. 1997. The macroscopic plant remains from Euesperides (Benghazi): an interim report. Libyan Studies 28: 14.Google Scholar
Pliny. Natural History. Vol. IV, Book xvi. 1945. Translated by Rackham, H.. William Heinemann Ltd, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pliny. Natural History. Vol. V, Book xviii. 1956. Translated by Bostock, John and Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas). Bohn, London.Google Scholar
Prantl, M. 2011. Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices of 301 AD: a fragment found in Aigeira. Historia.scribere 3: 359–97. Available at: https://webapp.uibk.ac.at/ojs/index.php/historiascribere/article/viewFile/208/105 (accessed on 26 August 2017).Google Scholar
Reynolds, J. M. 1971. Libya and Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices. Libya Antiqua 8: 3342.Google Scholar
Rosamilia, E. 2017. The introduction of bronze standard in Cyrenaica: evidence from the damiergoi accounts. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 201: 139–54.Google Scholar
Stroud, R. S. 1998. The Athenian Grain-Tax Law of 374/3 B.C. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, vols 1, 9, 18, 48. 1923–2002. Lugduni Batavorum.Google Scholar
Theophrastus. 1966. Enquiry into Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs. Translated by Hort, A. F., Loeb Classical Library. William Heinemann, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Webley, D. 1979. Plant remains. In Lloyd, J. A. (ed.), Excavations at Sidi Khrebish Benghazi (Berenice), vol. 2. Supplements to Libya Antiqua 5: 31.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. 2009. Approaches to quantifying Roman trade. In Bowman, Alan and Wilson, Andrew (eds), Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 214–45.Google Scholar