L'approvisionnement en blé des cités grecques à l'époque hellénistique

During Homeric times, Greek society was founded on oikos, with an autarkical ideal and some commercial activities. During the archaic period, the ideal was still the same but the structures became larger and the polis appeared. Many crises about land lead people to leave: colonisation and the search for fertile land were the principal activities during this period. In the Classical period, the corn trade expanded. Athens, which had never been self-sufficient, took stringent measures to control the corn trade and to assure the regularity of the corn supply. For the Hellenistic period, the Greek inscriptions (honorific decrees) are the main source of information and attest the practices of the sitonia and of the « subscription-loan », often made by benefactors who acted in their individual capacity. Two methods of supply were used: the « credit-sale » (the benefactor furnished the corn himself and was reimbursed later by the city, often without interest); the other method, the one used more often, was the « constitution of a fund », so that the city could buy the corn at the best price and retail it. Very often, in this case too, the benefactors accepted to be reimbursed without interest.Darmezin Laurence. L'approvisionnement en blé des cités grecques à l'époque hellénistique. In: Rites et rythmes agraires. Séminaire de recherche sous la direction de Marie-Claire Cauvin. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 1991. pp. 113-118. (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient, 20