A temporary turn for the better occurred in the economy of the Aegean area after 170 B.C., while between 155 and 145 Cyrenaica was separated from Egypt, remaining under Euergetes II, and this may have saved the country from the full burden of impositions to which it had been formerly, and was to be subsequently, subject. Yet precisely in 162 Cyrene is found in a state of revolt, and Euergetes’ arrangement to obtain consignments of wheat from Egypt was made in the year 155.
Do these factors find expression in the prices of the Demiurgi steles, and if they do, in what form? The recorded prices reveal several fluctuations during the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.: wheat varies between 8; 5; 2. 2/6 and 3. 1/6 dr.; barley between 16; 2; 2.4/6 and 1.4/6 dr.; pulse between 12; 5; 5 7.2/6 and 3 dr. The prices on nos. 31 and 34 (3rd century) and on 35 (end of the 3rd century?) are all unusually high (wheat — 8 dr.; hay 40 dr.; cummin and raisins, 20 dr.). The prices tend to fall after 170 B.C., to judge from nos. 38 and 42, in harmony with the general improvement in the contemporary Greek world. It may be that Euergetes II, who was both unscrupulous and able, took steps to amend the economic situation by taking over the management of the temple estates. In the 3rd century, at all events, Cyrenean wheat was being sold at prices like those current in mainland Greece. Between 270 and 170 wheat prices were at first lower than those of Greece (no. 40), then fell considerably (no. 31 — 2.2 dr.), approximating to those in Egypt (1-2 dr. the artaba = 1.1/4-2 1/2 dr. the medimmus). This phenomenon reflects the general decline of grain prices which took place after 270 B.C.;[725] Cyrenean prices seem to have been depressed by the steady rise of Egyptian production and by the competition of other countries overseas. Barley prices fluctuate less throughout the period and approximate closely to those of Greece, indicating that they were less prone to be influenced by temporary market conditions, meteorological variations, and the fluctuations of the international market. Notwithstanding, the price soars to 16 dr. at the end of the 3rd century or at the beginning of the 2nd (no. 35) in an exceptional year. As to olive oil, although our evidence is limited, it should be noted (nos. 38, 40), that the oil marketed stood at the same nominal price as in the 4th century B.C., implying that its real price had fallen by fifty percent. The Ptolemies had developed oil production in Egypt as a state monopoly by every means in their power, and imposed an excise of 50 percent, on the imported product, even when brought from their own overseas dominions;[726] the reason for the fall of the price of Cyrenean olive oil is therefore clear.[727]
As has been observed, Cyrenean wheat production seems to have been adversely affected by external competition in the 3rd and at the beginning of the 2nd century, and in 155 B.C. Euergetes was forced to demand wheat from Egypt. Cyrenean wheat rose in price after 170, yet the stability of the prices of barley and oil throughout the period shows that the position of Cyrenean agriculture had not been seriously impaired before the beginning of the 2nd century; it was apparently the wheat export that was the chief sufferer. Why then did Euergetes need wheat from abroad?
It has already been suggested that the upsetting of the balance between the livestock branch and arable farming in the Plateau and steppe areas was apt to bring about social conflict, insecurity, and a decline in the fertility of both branches. It may be accepted that the silphium-growing areas passed into the hands of the Ptolemies as royal property, a view that finds support from the information[728] that the product was being smuggled out of the country by the inhabitants of Charax (Χάραξ) on the shore of the Syrtic Gulf, which suggests a strict state supervision of its export. The silphium areas had shrunk as time went on, probably due to the expansion and intensification of agriculture in the territory. This restriction is deducible from the ancient sources, for while Herodotus[729] knew its area was identical with the greater part of the country, and Theophrastus reports that it flourished in the greater part of Libya,[730] — Strabo[731] places its region as a distance of 200 stades (25 miles) from the sea, Pliny,[732] south of the cultivated zone, Arrian[733] and Ptolemy,[734] on the fringes of the desert. Most interesting is the difference between the indications of Theophrastus and Strabo. The retreat of the plant to the edges of the desert, then, took place mainly between the late 4th and the 1st centuries B.C., i.e. in the period when Cyrenean agriculture was being intensified and the cultivated areas extended over the Plateau and southward. Bonacelli[735] noted that Theophrastus[736] described a plant (ἀβρότονον) which was fed on by the flocks in the silphium area; this he identified as Artemisia herba alba (wormwood). This plant’s northern limit of growth is the meeting point of the terra rossa with the reddish yellow soils of the southern plateau slopes, but this does not necessarily contradict Theophrastus’ statement[737] that silphium grew on the greater part of the country, since he writes in the same place that silphium “is absent from the mountain in spring and winter.” The silphium, in point of fact, flowered in winter,[738] when the flocks were grazing the steppe, and Arrian tells us that it needed fencing to protect it from the sheep;[739] moreover Theophrastus himself evidences that the sheep grazed the silphium zone in that season.[740] Accordingly we are forced to conclude from Theophrastus, that the plant flourished chiefly in the south of Cyrenaica in his day. Its limitation to the south and the expansion of the royal lands in this direction were found to restrict the winter pasture of the Libyan tribes, especially when the plant’s areas diminished and needed stricter protection. Capelle, following other scholars,[741] has indeed pointed out that the report of Strabo and Solinus[742] that the Berber nomads uprooted the plant out of hostility and owing to oppressive taxation, is not later than c. 200 B.C., being derived from Eratosthenes.
Other factors may have contributed to the contraction of pasture areas. It is reasonable to think that the Ptolemies conducted the horserearing branch as a royal monopoly. Real evidence for this conjecture with regard to Cyrenaica is not abundant: Rostovtzeff, who voices it three times,[743] finally confesses that “We may think that they (sc. the Ptolemies) had large horse-studs in Cyrenaica.
727
Rostovtzeff explained the low prices of oil and wine in Greece in the 2nd century B.C. by the existence of an adverse balance of imports and exports. (
730
VI, 3, 3: “It occupies a large area of Libya — it is said more than 4,000 stadia. It grows in great abundance around the Syrtis from Euesperitae onward.”