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14 - Classical Greece: Consumption

from Part III - Classical Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Sitta Von Reden
Edited by
Walter Scheidel ,
Ian Morris  and
Richard P. Saller
Sitta Von Reden
Affiliation:
University of Augsburg
Walter Scheidel
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Ian Morris
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Richard P. Saller
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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Summary

introduction

This chapter describes patterns of consumption as affected by regional productive capacities, inter-regional distribution, a range of social and geographical biases, as well as ideology and taste. Consumption is a highly symbolic activity at all social levels and due respect will be paid to interrelations between the economics and culture of consumption. I shall try, as far as it is possible, to give some quantitative assessment of standards of living in comparison to earlier and later periods. Finally, since markets and exchange supplied only a certain amount of domestic consumption, I shall ask under what conditions consumption turned into demand that affected the economy more generally.

Every analysis of consumption must face the conflict between the profligacy of social or political elites and the struggle of the poor to meet basic needs. As was argued in the previous chapters, monetization, increasing contact with the non-hellenic world, changing politics in Greek cities, and the Athenian empire had strong impacts on production and exchange after the Persian Wars. Under these circumstances, both aristocratic and peasant ways of life changed and became subject to public debates about how to live the life of a good citizen. How did these changes affect patterns of consumption both among the elite and the peasantry, and how did changes in civic ideology change the relationship between elite and peasant consumption in the fifth and fourth centuries?

Keywords

ancient nutritionclassical Greececonsumption patternsliving standardsseasonal demand
Type
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The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World , pp. 385 - 406
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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