DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0026
PLATE II.
OF THE MAP OF ATTICA \
"INTRODUCTION TO THE LIST" OF MODERN NAMES OF TOWNS, VILLAGES, MONASTERIES,
FARMS, ETC. " IN ATTICA" WITH THEIR ANCIENT NAMES.
It appears from Eustathius, that the number of the Attic Demoi was I74, many of which are now utterly-
destroyed, and not only the ruins, but even the names scarcely remain. I have endeavoured to trace
a Ancient Attica contained about 650 square miles, or
did not exceed in size one of the smaller English counties.
The population, in the most nourishing period of the republic,
may be estimated at half a million, of which twenty thousand
only were Attic citizens, ten thousand were metoikoi or do-
miciled strangers who paid a capitation tax, and four hundred
thousand were slaves! A state of society with all its boasted
freedom, which by comparison evinces the blessings con-
ferred through Christianity on the great mass of modern civilized
population, in combining servitude with independence. Thucy-
dides relates, that Pericles, at the commencement of the Pelo-
ponnesian war, announced in an assembly of the Athenians the
extent of their resources. He informed them, that besides their
certain revenue, six hundred talents' were annually paid them by
their tributary states, which are said to have included a thousand
cities. He stated to them that they had thirteen thousand
heavy armed troops, exclusive of those in garrisons, and sixteen
thousand who guarded the city, besides twelve hundred cavalry,
sixteen hundred archers, and three hundred triremes ready
for sea.
Although Attica was comparatively unproductive, yet her geo-
graphical and peninsular position, together with the goodness
of her ports, were highly favourable at that period to the promo-
tion of commerce and maritime superiority, and the excel-
lence of her civil institutions and early pre-eminence in intel-
lectual culture, rendered her the resort of opulent and refined
strangers, and prepared the way, by her influence over the minds
of men, for the subsequent successes of her arms. Elated with
the ascendancy acquired in the early part of the Peloponnesian
war, this diminutive state appears to have aspired to universal
dominion ; but having wrecked her resources in the attempted
conquest of Sicily, Athens herself became subdued by her rival;
yet in that disastrous crisis, her moral influence did not forsake
her, for she still retained her political existence as well as during
the Macedonian conquest and the convulsions of subsequent re-
volutions ; and even after the establishment of the Roman Empire
she still preserved the semblance of power2.
The imports of Ancient Attica, of which corn was the chief
commodity, were drawn from Euboea, Macedonia, the Chersone-
sus, and the countries bordering on the Euxine, while her ex-
ports were oil, w,ne, honey, objects of art, manufactured pro-
duce, marble, and silver from the mines of Laureum. The coined
silver of Attica, which, from its purity became the chief medium
of commercial intercourse at the east of the Mediterranean, was
generally imprinted with the rudeness of the early mintage,
doubtless with the view of preserving by association the cha-
racter of the currency.
The advantages resulting from a system of agricultural eco-
1 The total revenue of the republic was by Aristophanes in his Vespje, v. 656
probably exaggerated when he gave it at 2,000 talents. The value of a talent of
6000 drachmae at 65 grains troy to the drachma, in coined shillings, would be
223(. 8s. 9d„ and according to the value of silver to corn, b. c. 435, compared
with its relative value to that commodity at the present time, the talent would
be worth 2,149/. 9s. 4JA, or as 9.62 to 1. The total revenue of Attica there-
fore at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war (if estimated only at
1,600 talents) was equivalent in our currency to 3,439,150/.
nomy, practised by proprietors who passed much of their time on
their estates, were exemplified in Attica, and the number and
populousness of 174 towns attest the extent to which superior
policy, united with commerce, had enriched that country. These
towns were classed in the ten tribes of Attica, but it is remark-
able that those enrolled in each tribe had no geographical re-
lation to each other, for Aphidna with Phalerum may be ob-
served in the tribe Aiantis with Marathon and Rhamnus on the
opposite side of the Peninsula ; also in the tribe Hippothoontis,
Pirseeus is found with Deceleia on Mount Parnes; and Pentele,
Colonos, and Anaphlystus belonged to the tribe Antiochis, but
intervening between them were many towns classed in other
tribes. From this distribution of the demoi among the tribes,
no distinct territorial combinations were likely to agitate the re-
public, while, on the contrary, their disjunction was conducive to
the union of the various interests of the community *■ The most
important function attached to the tribes was the election of the
council of Five Hundred, each tribe annually nominating fifty
deputies, constituting a senate for the regulation of the political
affairs of the state, whose measures, however, were subject to
the collective sanction of the people.
Since the epoch of the splendid acme of Athenian power, the
population of Attica has progressively dwindled to a number far
below that recorded to have inhabited it when Cecrops first num-
bered and united, and introduced laws among the dispersed pea-
santry. Attica was then found to contain twenty thousand men;
under the Ottoman despotism it could not have possessed twenty-
five thousand souls. That climax of misrule, abetted by the ex-
actions of the Codgea-Bashees, the Greek collectors of the re-
venue, together with the inroads of the Albanese, and the
incursions of pirates, rendered property so insecure, that no other
inducement or opportunity was offered to the cultivator, after meet-
ing the rapacity of the government, than the production of a
scanty subsistence even from the most fertile land.
Modern Attica was of late divided into four districts called
Messo'i'a, Katta Lama, Eleusina with Mount Casha, and the Dis-
trict of Athens. The soil of Attica is light, calcareous, and arid.
It was computed of late, that in this province there were one
hundred thousand goats, sixty thousand sheep, and three thou-
sand labouring oxen. The agricultural labour is principally per-
formed by the Albanian settlers, who still preserve their own
dialect; the Greeks themselves having been generally little
traders and manufacturers, or agents for the Turks. The com-
merce of the country was entirely in the hands of the Hydriots,
or foreigners, for the Athenians themselves possessed neither
ships nor seamen.
The chief wealth of Attica still consists in the olive, of which
trees there are said to be forty thousand alone in the great olive
Regarding the relative value of Attic money, see note in Lealce's Topography
of Athens, on the Cost of the Buildings of Pericles. [ED.]
■ Hadrian gave to the Athenians the island Cephallenia. V. Dio. Cass, in
Vit. Hadrian. [ED.]
3 Mr. Mitford considers the English term " ward " as the more appropriate de-
signation for <pvXn : but viewing the territorial separation of the towns composing
each of them, that word would therefore not be so appropriate as the usual term
" tribe." Mitford's Greece, V. I. p. 408. [ed.]
VOL.
III.
OF THE MAP OF ATTICA \
"INTRODUCTION TO THE LIST" OF MODERN NAMES OF TOWNS, VILLAGES, MONASTERIES,
FARMS, ETC. " IN ATTICA" WITH THEIR ANCIENT NAMES.
It appears from Eustathius, that the number of the Attic Demoi was I74, many of which are now utterly-
destroyed, and not only the ruins, but even the names scarcely remain. I have endeavoured to trace
a Ancient Attica contained about 650 square miles, or
did not exceed in size one of the smaller English counties.
The population, in the most nourishing period of the republic,
may be estimated at half a million, of which twenty thousand
only were Attic citizens, ten thousand were metoikoi or do-
miciled strangers who paid a capitation tax, and four hundred
thousand were slaves! A state of society with all its boasted
freedom, which by comparison evinces the blessings con-
ferred through Christianity on the great mass of modern civilized
population, in combining servitude with independence. Thucy-
dides relates, that Pericles, at the commencement of the Pelo-
ponnesian war, announced in an assembly of the Athenians the
extent of their resources. He informed them, that besides their
certain revenue, six hundred talents' were annually paid them by
their tributary states, which are said to have included a thousand
cities. He stated to them that they had thirteen thousand
heavy armed troops, exclusive of those in garrisons, and sixteen
thousand who guarded the city, besides twelve hundred cavalry,
sixteen hundred archers, and three hundred triremes ready
for sea.
Although Attica was comparatively unproductive, yet her geo-
graphical and peninsular position, together with the goodness
of her ports, were highly favourable at that period to the promo-
tion of commerce and maritime superiority, and the excel-
lence of her civil institutions and early pre-eminence in intel-
lectual culture, rendered her the resort of opulent and refined
strangers, and prepared the way, by her influence over the minds
of men, for the subsequent successes of her arms. Elated with
the ascendancy acquired in the early part of the Peloponnesian
war, this diminutive state appears to have aspired to universal
dominion ; but having wrecked her resources in the attempted
conquest of Sicily, Athens herself became subdued by her rival;
yet in that disastrous crisis, her moral influence did not forsake
her, for she still retained her political existence as well as during
the Macedonian conquest and the convulsions of subsequent re-
volutions ; and even after the establishment of the Roman Empire
she still preserved the semblance of power2.
The imports of Ancient Attica, of which corn was the chief
commodity, were drawn from Euboea, Macedonia, the Chersone-
sus, and the countries bordering on the Euxine, while her ex-
ports were oil, w,ne, honey, objects of art, manufactured pro-
duce, marble, and silver from the mines of Laureum. The coined
silver of Attica, which, from its purity became the chief medium
of commercial intercourse at the east of the Mediterranean, was
generally imprinted with the rudeness of the early mintage,
doubtless with the view of preserving by association the cha-
racter of the currency.
The advantages resulting from a system of agricultural eco-
1 The total revenue of the republic was by Aristophanes in his Vespje, v. 656
probably exaggerated when he gave it at 2,000 talents. The value of a talent of
6000 drachmae at 65 grains troy to the drachma, in coined shillings, would be
223(. 8s. 9d„ and according to the value of silver to corn, b. c. 435, compared
with its relative value to that commodity at the present time, the talent would
be worth 2,149/. 9s. 4JA, or as 9.62 to 1. The total revenue of Attica there-
fore at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war (if estimated only at
1,600 talents) was equivalent in our currency to 3,439,150/.
nomy, practised by proprietors who passed much of their time on
their estates, were exemplified in Attica, and the number and
populousness of 174 towns attest the extent to which superior
policy, united with commerce, had enriched that country. These
towns were classed in the ten tribes of Attica, but it is remark-
able that those enrolled in each tribe had no geographical re-
lation to each other, for Aphidna with Phalerum may be ob-
served in the tribe Aiantis with Marathon and Rhamnus on the
opposite side of the Peninsula ; also in the tribe Hippothoontis,
Pirseeus is found with Deceleia on Mount Parnes; and Pentele,
Colonos, and Anaphlystus belonged to the tribe Antiochis, but
intervening between them were many towns classed in other
tribes. From this distribution of the demoi among the tribes,
no distinct territorial combinations were likely to agitate the re-
public, while, on the contrary, their disjunction was conducive to
the union of the various interests of the community *■ The most
important function attached to the tribes was the election of the
council of Five Hundred, each tribe annually nominating fifty
deputies, constituting a senate for the regulation of the political
affairs of the state, whose measures, however, were subject to
the collective sanction of the people.
Since the epoch of the splendid acme of Athenian power, the
population of Attica has progressively dwindled to a number far
below that recorded to have inhabited it when Cecrops first num-
bered and united, and introduced laws among the dispersed pea-
santry. Attica was then found to contain twenty thousand men;
under the Ottoman despotism it could not have possessed twenty-
five thousand souls. That climax of misrule, abetted by the ex-
actions of the Codgea-Bashees, the Greek collectors of the re-
venue, together with the inroads of the Albanese, and the
incursions of pirates, rendered property so insecure, that no other
inducement or opportunity was offered to the cultivator, after meet-
ing the rapacity of the government, than the production of a
scanty subsistence even from the most fertile land.
Modern Attica was of late divided into four districts called
Messo'i'a, Katta Lama, Eleusina with Mount Casha, and the Dis-
trict of Athens. The soil of Attica is light, calcareous, and arid.
It was computed of late, that in this province there were one
hundred thousand goats, sixty thousand sheep, and three thou-
sand labouring oxen. The agricultural labour is principally per-
formed by the Albanian settlers, who still preserve their own
dialect; the Greeks themselves having been generally little
traders and manufacturers, or agents for the Turks. The com-
merce of the country was entirely in the hands of the Hydriots,
or foreigners, for the Athenians themselves possessed neither
ships nor seamen.
The chief wealth of Attica still consists in the olive, of which
trees there are said to be forty thousand alone in the great olive
Regarding the relative value of Attic money, see note in Lealce's Topography
of Athens, on the Cost of the Buildings of Pericles. [ED.]
■ Hadrian gave to the Athenians the island Cephallenia. V. Dio. Cass, in
Vit. Hadrian. [ED.]
3 Mr. Mitford considers the English term " ward " as the more appropriate de-
signation for <pvXn : but viewing the territorial separation of the towns composing
each of them, that word would therefore not be so appropriate as the usual term
" tribe." Mitford's Greece, V. I. p. 408. [ed.]
VOL.
III.