88 THEFARMERS HI
view of the general partiality of the comedians in favour of the
peasants
The passages mentioned prove that the deeper reason for the
opposition between town and country, which developed in
spite of their close connection, was based on actual differences
in social and economic conditions. The 'most pleasant country
life',1 which is so often described in its modest happiness and
care-free peace, was, at the same time, hard and dirty and poor.
The idealization of a peaceful and sensual life is not the roman-
tic glorification of bucolic existence as with Theokntos, that
was unknown to the earlier Greeks. Even the comedians of
the fifth century, though they praised to the utmost the pea-
sant's life, did not deny its hardships and difficulties. You
must be content with porridge and olives,2 If you get into
debt, the demarchos as a bailiff 'bites you from the mattress' 3
The farmer, on the whole, still adhered to the old otkos-
economy, and he hated all trade where he was always cheated. *
Here older and modern forms of economy met, and they
could not easily work together. The peasant also felt himself
somewhat harshly treated by the State, worse, at any rate, than
the townsman, for instance, when he was called up for active
service, townspeople always found a trick to get out of it.5
'What in town seems golden, becomes lead again in the coun-
try', runs a saying.6 Often the peasants had the feeling that they
fought or suffered for a cause unknown to them; 'there is a lot
we don't know'.7 The poor husbandman, even if by chance he
was not ignorant, could not be concerned with public affairs,
because he had to work so hard.8 Undoubtedly the farmers
had to suffer more than anybody else during the Spartan in-
vasions. When they were forced to settle inside the walls, it
was as if each of them 'had left his own Polls'.0 The country
people longed to leave the safety of the town and return to
1C43. 2K8o6
3 C 37. It is a bug which actually bites Strepsiades IK TGOV aTpco^orcov This,
that the bug drove him from the mattress, is the point of comparison for him when
he calls the bug Sf|piccpx6$ TI$, a bailiff who turns a debtor out of his house
4 A 32ff,K 3i6f,frg 387 That is right, however, m principle only Cf P 563,
where the farmer wants to go home to the country, 'after having bought a good
portion of salt fish' He could not live without the market in town
5 P nygff; 6 Kratmos 318 7 P 618
8 Eur. Hik 42ofF epycov OTTO OUK ocv SOvarro *rrp6$ TOC KOIV* ooropAeTreiv
9 Thuc II, 16, 2, cf 14, z