I j2 TRADERS AND CRAFTSMEN V
distant coastal villages, or even from the Peiraeus, only went to
market occasionally, as a rule when they wanted to buy for them-
selves. On such occasions they brought their catch with them,
and one might easily happen to meet them selling their fish en
routed Fishermen are also depicted thus on Attic vases (see
Plate XIIŁ, c}* The catching of certain fish required special
skill and organization, there were, for instance, official tunny-
watchers 3 With freshwater fish matters were different. The
Boeotian eels, in Athens a highly esteemed delicacy, were
brought to market by the fishermen themselves *
Quite a number of people were engaged in overseas trade
There must have been a proper organization in a few branches,
in the buying and selling, for instance, of pottery and oil;5
but an official arrangement was made only for the corn-trade
which more than anything else was of vital importance to
Athens.6 Here we need not concern ourselves with the various
laws on this matter, but it is important to know that the corn-
traders, the sttopolai, who, surprisingly enough, are never men-
tioned in comedy, formed an organized group, superintended
by special officials, the sitopkylakes* These traders bought the
corn from the emporot who could be called real 'corn-lovers',
and between the two groups bitter economic quarrels occurred 7
It is significant of the organization of the corn-traders that they
arranged for a common price-policy such as we cannot suppose
to have existed in any other branch of trade. To prevent
speculation no sttopoles was allowed to buy up more than fifty
'baskets' of grain 8 In the speech of Lysias just referred to
the corn-traders are described as swindlers and extortioners
It seems almost certain that the impression given by that
speech is misleading, and that, on the whole, they were quite
honest merchants. At any rate, they formed a unique and most
important group of middlemen.
1 Plat 29
2 Cf also, e g, H Schaal, Pom Tauschhandel zum Welthandel, pi 21 Cloche,
pi. XXXVI, XXXVIII, 2
3 K.3i3; cf Strabo V, 223, 225, XVIII, 834
4 A 88off, 962, K.864ff, L 36, yooff, frg 363-4,499, Stratus 44
5 New and striking evidence of the size and importance of the trade m Attic
pottery is given by the excavations at Al-Mina, cf L, Woolley, JHS ? 8 (193 8),
rff,i33ff
8 Cf Heichelheim, P -W Suppl. VI, %^$
7 Xen. oik. 20, 27 - Lysias XXII
* Lysias XXII, 5 For the cpoppuSs of wheat cf also Th 813