V	TRADERS    AND     CRAFTSMEN	119
subjected to threats by the barbarian gods, because he did not
keep open the trading places,^1
Aristophanes seems to criticize the emporos only once., in the
PloutoS) at a time when social tension had greatly increased
He then speaks of the 'insatiable Thessalian slave-dealers^7
who took great risks for the sake of gain.^2 No doubt such men
represented a type that to some extent cut across the usual
pattern of empona^ and therefore caused resentment. It is for
this reason, and not because he was engaged in a special kind
of local trade, that even the slave-dealer could be called a
kape/os.^5 Otherwise there is no sign of criticism of the
emporot) and the question how the emporos has made his money
is never asked It seems to have been the general opinion,
needing no explanation, that it was not the emporos^ but the
toll-gatherer, who made illegal gains from sea-trade ^4 To carry
contraband, and thus to break the customs laws, was a heavy
crime, and one with which again the toll-gatherer is charged,
not the merchant or shipowner.^5
Their way of making money, however_3 certainly helped to
give rise to feeling against the kapehi* Again and again, the
comic writers allude to the insidious machinations of the flour-
dealers, the innkeepers, the bird-sellers, the wool-merchants,
or the fishmongers — all of them kapeloL ^6 A lame kapelos got
the nickname 'partridge', because of the tricks this bird is said
to play in order to lead the hunters away from its nest.^7 A
comic writer also called a man a racketeer when he forced up
prices 'like Achilles' with Priam ^8 It goes without saying that
war-profiteers were most unpopular, so that spear-makers or
dealers in arms are regarded as deserving very heavy punish-
ment, no less than ambitious generals, runaway slaves and
^3 dv5pccrro8oKcnTT}Ao$ 6 vuv Aey6[jevo$ acouorepiTtopos (Isaios in Harpokr ,
sv)
*K248	^5F_36iff
^6	K 1009, €639!; E422ff, frg 465, 683 — E 153$ Pl^f. — B 1079^
adesp   934 — F i386f —frg   387, 7*F, Plat   29, Archipp   25.   If the word
ccAcprrocuGipoi (E 422fF) is really to be interpreted on these lines, it must have
meant tradesmen who ga\e flour to the peasants in exchange for their products
(cf E Siyff)   But this I doubt   I should rather believe the word to be a comic
perversion of dA^iTOTrcbArjS or ocAcprroTTOios, suggesting that the flour was ex-
changed, i e. that they gave bad flour instead of good, they were 'flour-swindlers'
Cf the similar idea in frg 683
^7	B 1292^ cf 767f	^8 Phryn. 52