V. Extent and Population. In estimating the extent of Athens, it is not sufficient to take into account the circuit of the walls; their form must also be borne in mind, or else an erroneous opinion will be formed of the space enclosed. Athens, in fact, consisted of two circular cities, each 60 stadia, or 7) miles, in circumference, joined by a street of 40 stadia, or 4^ miles, in length With respect to the population of Athens, it is difficult to assign the proportions belonging to the capital and to the rest of the country. The subject has been investigated by many modern writers, and among others by Clinton, whose calculations are the most probable. The chief authority for the population of Attica is the census of Demetrius Phalereus, taken in B.C. 317. (Ctesicles, ap. Athen. yi. y. 272, b.) According to this census, there were 21,000 Athenian citizens, 10,000 metoeci (μέτοικοι), or resident aliens, and 400,000 slaves. Now we may assume from various authorities, that by the term citizens all the males above the age of 20 years are meant. According to the population returns of England, the proportion of males above the age of twenty is 2430 in 10,000. The families, therefore, of the 21,000 citizens amounted to about 86,420 souls; and reckoning the families of the metoeci in the same proportion, the total number of the free population of Attica was about 127,000 souls. These, with the addition of the 400,000 slaves, will give 527,000 as the aggregate .of the whole population. The number of slaves has been considered excessive; but it most be recollected that the agricultural and mining labour of Attica was performed by slaves; that they served as rowers on board the ships; that they were employed in manufactures, and in general represented the labouring classes of Modern Europe. We learn from a fragment of Hypereides, preserved by Suidas (s. v. άπεψηφίσατο), that the slaves who worked in the mines and were employed in country labour, were more than 150,000. It appears from Plato (de Rep. ix. p. 578, d. e) that there were many Athenians, who possessed fifty slaves each. Lysias and Polemarchus had 120 slaves in their manufactory (Lys. c. Eratosth. p. 395); and Nicias let 1000 slaves to a person who undertook the working of a mine at Laurium. (Xenoph. de Vectig. 4.) There is therefore no good reason for supposing that the slaves of Attica are much overrated at 400,000, which number bean nearly the same proportion to the free inhabitants of Attica, as the labouring classes bear to the other classes in Great Britain. If we go back from the time of Demetrius Phalereus to the flourishing period of Athenian history, we shall find the number of Athenian citizens generally computed at about 20,000, which would give about half a million as the total population of Attica. Twenty thousand were said to have been their number in the time of Cecrops (Philochorus, ap. Schol. ad Pind. Ol. ix. 68), a number evidently transferred from historical times to the mythical age. In B.C. 444 they were 19,000; but upon a scrutiny undertaken by the advice of Pericles, nearly 5000 were struck off the lists, as having no claims to the franchise. (Pint. Pericl. 37; Philoch. ap. Scho;. ad Aristoph. Vesp. 716.) A few years afterwards (B.C. 422) they had increased to 20,000 (Aristoph. |
That the population of Attica could not have been much short of half a million may be inferred from the quantity of corn consumed in the country. In the time of Demosthenes the Athenians imported annually 800,000 medimni, or 876,302 bushels, of corn. (Dem. c. Leptim. p. 466.) Adding this to the produce of Attica, which we may reckon at about 1,950,000 medimni, the total will be 2,750,000 medimni, or 3,950,000 bushels. "This would give per head to a population of half a million near 8 bushels per annum, or 5½ medimni, equal to a daily rate of 20 ounces and 7-lOths avoirdupois, to both sexes, and to every age and condition. The ordinary full ration of corn was a choenix, or the forty-eighth part of a medimnus, or about 28½ ounces." It is impossible to determine the exact population of Athens itself We have the express testimony of Thucydides (ii. 14) that the Athenians were fond of a country life, and that before the Peloponnesian war the country was decorated with houses. Some of the demi were populous: Acharnae, the latest, had in B.C. 431, 3000 hoplites, implying a free population of at least 12,000, not computing slaves. Athens is expressly said to have been the most populous city in Greece (Xen. Hell. ii. 3. § 24; Thuc. i. 80, ii. 64); but the only feet of any weight respecting the population of the city is the statement of Xenophon that it contained more than 10,000 houses. (Xen. Mem. iii. 6. § 14, Oeoon. 8. § 22.) Clinton remarks that "London contains 7½ persons to a house; but at Paris formerly the proportion was near 25. If we take about half the proportion of Paris, and assume 12 persons to a house, we obtain 120,000 for the population of Athens; and we may perhaps assign 40,000 more for the collective inhabitants of Peiraeeus, Munychia and Phalerum." Leake supposes the population of the whole city to have been 192,000; and though no certainty on the point can be attained, we cannot be far wrong in assuming that Athens contained at least a third of the total population of Attica. The preceding account has been chiefly taken from Clinton (F. H. vol. ii. p. 387, seq., 2nd ed.) and Leake (p. 618), with which the reader may compare the calculations of Böckh. (Public Econ. of Athens, p. 30, seq., 2nd ed.) The latter writer reckons the population of the city and the harbours at 180,000. VI. Gates. Of the gates of the Asty the following are mentioned by name, though the exact position of some of them is very doubtful We begin with the gates on the western side of the city. 1. Dipyhum (Δίπυλον), originally called the Thriasian Gate (Θριασίαι Πόλαι), because it led to Thria, a demus near Eleusis (Plut. Per. 30), and also the Ceramic Gate (Κεραμεικαί Πύλαι), as being the communication from the inner to the outer Cerameicus (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 8; comp. Plut. Sull. 14), was situated at the NW. comer of the city. The name Dipylum seems to show that it was constructed in the same manner as the gate of Megalopolis at Messene, with a double entrance and an intermediate court. It is described by Livy (xxxi. 24) as greater and wider than the other gates of Athens, and with corresponding approaches to it on either |
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