Note 273 — Chapter VIII · SERFS OF SPARTA, CRETE, THESSALY, ETC.

Eustath. ad Il. π. p. 1120. Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. viii. 7. 12, who observes that, in later times, the Arcadians though more attached to liberty than any other Greeks, yet maintained a great number of slaves, standing in need of husbandmen, goatherds, swineherds, herdsmen, and drove-keepers, and expert woodsmen. The Corinthians had forty-six myriads of slaves, for which reason the Pythian oracle called them Chœnix-measurers, probably because they allowed their slaves a chœnix of corn per day. Athen. vi. 103. Under the tyranny of Athenion the citizens of Athens were at one time reduced to the fourth part of a chœnix of barley per diem, which, observes the sophist, was rather a cock’s food than a man’s. Athen. v. 53.