Note 1494 — Appendix A (to p. 37). The supposed Agricultural and Northern Diakria.

Thuc. I. 2. Xenophon indeed, de Vect. I. 3, calls Attica all productive (παμφορωτάτη), and declares that things that could not even grow in many places bear fruit in Attica. But the context shows that this only applies to the most favoured districts, cp. ibid. 5, quoted below; the reference, too, is strictly to the variety of Attic crops (doubtless a result of Athenian luxury and enterprise); cp. Plato, Critias, 110e–111a: “(fifth century) Attica can vie with any land in the variety and excellence of its products (τῷ πάμφορον εὔκαρπον τε εἶναι); but in those days” (i.e. in the mythical past) “in addition to their quality it produced them in great abundance.” Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. VIII. 8, says that “at Athens the barley produces more meal than anywhere else, since it is an excellent land for that crop”; but this says nothing as to the amount of land in Attica under barley. Boeckh, Public Economy, I. p. 109, calculates that in ancient Attica 955,500 plethra out of a total area of 2,304,000 were under corn; but his calculation is based on a series of conjectures as to the yearly consumption and import which hardly weigh against the considerations adduced below.