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Keeping the Balance: Ancient Greek Philosophical Concerns with Population and Environment Author(s): Richard Harrow Feen Source: Population and Environment, Vol. 17, No. 6 (Jul., 1996), pp. 447-458 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27503492 . Accessed: 12/02/2015 15:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Population and Environment. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Keeping the Balance: Ancient Concerns with Population Richard Harrow Greek Philosophical and Environment Feen Hayek Freedom Foundation Not until the rise of the Greek city-States do we see a civilization more than pas sively concerned with the delicate balance between food supply and population. Ancient Athens was especially troubled by demographic pressures. Thus the an cient Greek philosophers, particularly to the relationship between size for for a city-state their writings. of their Plato population day. Cold and Aristotle, were and resources when reality, not metaphysics, more sensitive than the ideal postulating was the inspiration to popular opinion, the concern over "overpopulation" (be Contrary as a state in move resources defined into dis which and ing population is not a new one. Ancient societies were also aware of the equilibrium) Malthusian dilemma of population the limited agri expanding beyond cultural means of the community. The early Babylonian (1700 B.C.), the forerunner of epic of Atrahasis the Noah story of Genesis, the effort on presents great flood as a conscious the gods' part to control the growth of the human population as "the land was bellowing like a bull" under the stress of mankind. The epic concludes with the observation that barrenness, part of the cosmic order to balance Please address correspondence 20007. D.C to Dr. stillbirth and natural disasters were all numbers with the land's humankind's 2500 Wisconsin A Journal of Interdisciplinary and Environment: Population Volume 17, Number 6, July 1996 ? 1996 Human 447 Sciences Press, Inc. Studies Washington, Feen, Avenue, This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions #632, N.W., 448 POPULATIONAND ENVIRONMENT poem later, in the Homeric (Kilmer, 1972). Nearly a millennium bounty so on load "the of War to the have Zeus is said Trojan brought Cypria, death might empty the world," and thus "relieve all nurturing earth." had some real indicate that ancient communities While such myths ization that there was a limit to the carrying capacity of the land on which they lived, not until the rise of the Greek city-states do we see a civilization food between balance with the delicate than passively concerned Plato The ancient Greek and especially philosophers, population. supply their readers of the dangers posed by overpop and Aristotle, often warned of the stationary state?one committed ulation and were strong advocates so was with the In taken Malthus to zero population Robert fact, growth. that he devoted an entire chapter to the Hellenic world Greek experience in his classic study, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1872, Seventh more Edition). some scholars have come to question that the assumption Recently, were caught in a Malthusian the Athenians, the ancient Greeks, mainly dilemma. argues that the pro Garnsey Breaking with traditional wisdom, ductive capacity of Attica has been persistently underrated, while Mulhern or political rather than economic holds that metaphysical, factors, dictated bounded for a small, autonomous, the philosopher's distinctly preference state 1975). (Garnsey, 1988; Mulhern, Did Athens truly "suffer" from what we define today as overpopula to the relationship be sensitive the Greek philosophers tion? And were the ideal size for a city tween population and resources when postulating state (polis) of their day? it is necessary Before we can answer these questions, of ancient Greece and societal conditions the demographic ning of the classical period. to first turn to at the begin POPULATION EXPLOSION: GREECE ENTERSTHE CLASSICAL AGE Dark Ages? scholars agree that by the end of the preclassical B.C.?the Mediterranean underwent significant demographic change. Although we have no definite statistics for Greece, we know that 1000 and 400 B.C. the population between of Europe doubled, increasing to 10 20 million, while for the same period the population of Greece from increase of Greece during 1978). The population tripled (Jones & McEvedy, two to three percent per annum. this period may have approached In the eighth century we witness the first great waves of Greek coloni we see a dramatic rise zation to Africa, Asia and Europe. Correspondingly, Most eighth century This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 449 RICHARDHARROW FEEN in the number of recorded settlements within Greece itself. Land which or never settled came under the plow. Incorporating had been abandoned new techniques, and crop species, technologies agricultural productivity triad of cereals, vines and olives took hold and the radically improved, across the Greek world as the main staples of existence. Cattle, sheep and lost pasture to cultivated land (Hanson, 1995, pp. 36-43). goats gradually The switch in diet from from one of meat to one based on cereals is in the literature of the day. As French points out, "the sacri best reflected fices of cattle in the Homeric poems are on a lavish scale, scarcely con in fifth-century Athens. On the other hand, neither ceivable lentils nor to the peasant of Aristophanes' are even comedies, peas, familiar enough mentioned in Homer" (1956, p.12). After centuries of strict agrarian control, the old estates of the aristoc and social pressures. By the seventh racy broke up under new economic and sixth century, we therefore see a far greater dispersion of landed prop small land erty among the Greek populace. The growth of an independent, class of farmers did not come without major political owning upheaval. for Athens and Sparta, wise Fortunately leadership prevailed and a peace was reached between ful compromise the people (demos) and ruling land owners of of debt and the redistribution (oligarchy) over the canceling land. so called fifth century opens?the "golden age" of is fairly well populated. mainland As a result of increased and the international grain trade, there are few recorded cases productivity of famine and food shortages. By the mid-fifth century demographic pres sures began to take their toll on the stability of the city-states as the Greek some 60% contained and archipelago peninsula nearly 3 million people, of the Balkan total of 5 million If there was a problem (Jones & McEvedy). with the city-states it now had more to do with the feeding themselves, to of the land and less its unequal distribution. do with carrying capacity Is it any wonder then, that in the political writings of one of Greece's most famous philosophers, a heightened concern Plato, one encounters with the and and balance between self-sufficiency territory? population While Mulhern "has argues that Plato's best known work the Republic, to do with little food numbers and comparatively supply" (1975, p. 280), this is not entirely true. When the Greece?the PLATO'S REPUBLICAND LAWS: SEEKINGA BALANCE In the first part of the Republic, where the dialogue focuses on the ideal commonwealth, to the nexus Plato immediately turns his attention This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 450 POPULATIONAND ENVIRONMENT to and state growth. Men come between dynamics together population on a of create a self-sufficient he the division based notes, society, society and the work more easily done." labor as "more things will be produced When all the occupations for a self-sufficient society are created and all the are men "will needs live met, pleasantly together and a pru physiological dent fear of poverty or war will keep them from begetting children beyond their means" (2.375). But as most men rebel against living in such a simple "primitive" society and want to have fine furnishings to lay on and meat to as it "must be eat, the community says Plato, will have to be enlarged swollen up with a whole multitude" of people catering to the creation of luxuries. "The country will now be too small," he adds, and "if we are to have enough pasture and plow land, we shall have to cut off a slice of our territory ... so we shall be at war" (2.372-75). neighbor's this part of the dialogue Although simply supports Plato's favorite ethi cal doctrine, that all conflict originates from "desires untempered by rea maxim increases? that son," there is the additional political population if they include "unproductive" of society?clearly members especially or with them In either war." societies short, wary of "beget bring "poverty their means" while avoid those societies conflict, ting offspring beyond bent on expanding to their population without added their burden, regard invite violence into their lives. and chaos To guarantee that the actions of the state and its people remain in the "realm of temperance," Plato calls for the creation of a special ruling class, are to hold mates the Guardians?who in common?and and property instructs them to put limits on the population and territory of the state. to grow only so far as it can increase in size "The state should be allowed a loss of unity . . . [and that] it shall be a self-sufficient without state and one" (4.422). Thus Plato gives his principle of optimum size; implying as it does comes with the bal that societal harmony, unity, and self-sufficiency ancing of resources to people. By putting limits on growth, Plato obviously seeks to avoid the terrible class and interstate warfare which haunted Greek communities for hundreds of years. In a later and less known political work, the Laws, Plato again con cerns himself with the relationship between population and resources. This treatise takes the form of a discussion one of whom between statesmen, has been drafted by his countrymen to write legislation for the founding of a new colony, a colony which is the direct result of demographic pres sures. As one of the characters poses the question: "Tell me this, will the settlers comprise all that wish to go from any part of Crete, supposing that there has grown up in every city a surplus population too great for the country's food supply?" (4. 707). This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 451 RICHARDHARROW FEEN to be feared as it leads to civil unrest. To Plato, famine was something As he notes, "owing to a scarcity of food, people are inwant, and display a to follow in an attack on the property of the readiness their leaders In a case statesman will act like a such says Plato, the wise wealthy." a and the of physician "purge" "body politic" "plague" of rebellious, hun title of gry people by shipping them abroad and giving "the euphemistic to their evacuation" (5. 735). emigration was actually used as a means to balance population That colonization with food supply we need turn only to Herodotus' narrative on the coloni of Cyrene from the island of Thera during the sixth century. Facing a major famine as a result of a series of droughts, the people passed a degree "to send brother from brother, chosen by lot" (Histories 4. 150). According to an inscription discovered in Cyrene, the terms of settlement were quite harsh as the decree called for compulsory severe limitations on enlistment, the right to return, and strong threats against defaulters. This fear of poverty and the accompanying unrest leads Plato to advo cate the creation of a stationary state. Thus he would have his colony's families and territory locked together in a formalized, rigid, land tenure one or where the division of landed is strictly for system; property selling bidden and only one son can inherit the family estate (5. 737-739). Plato even goes so far as to firmly set the number of households at 5,040. Why zation as taxes, it is a number easily divisible, Perhaps because are to be divided equally.1 Assuming is that each household a made up of some ten people?mother, few and relatives father, children, slaves?the colony's population could reach 50,000; an average mid-sized Greek city-state of the classical period. As "the number of households must remain unchanged," Plato men tions the use of adoption to equalize male heirs. But, he admits, stronger measures may be necessary. "In case we are in absolute desperation" and are "faced with a superabundance of citizens, owing to the mutual affec tion of those married which drives us to despair, there still remains ... the sending forth of colonies." Or, if the state be "attacked" by disease or war, Plato recommends?but of for naturalization only under protest?the this number? property, etc. eigners (5. 740). in his Laws? Perhaps because it has the greatest 'Why did Plato suggest 5,040 households number of divisors for convenient (59) including all the digits from one to ten thereby making subdivisions. because is 12, this would the main divisor serve to provide the state Moreover, with state council twelve etc. Plato by adopting the duodecimal tribes, twelve committees, from the Athenian was Athens had system was departing tradition, which largely decimal. ten tribes and ten divisions of the council, each acting for one-tenth of the year; this, of conflicted with the division of the year into 12 months. course, This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 452 POPULATIONAND ENVIRONMENT There can be no doubt when reviewing the Laws, that Plato was more aware the pro than of the Malthusian dilemma of population outstripping indeed a limit to how ductive capacity of the land. In short, that there was could support until famine and/or civil un the environment many people its rest reared for a stationary head. Thus Plato's preference state; one are in order to and territory balanced where carefully people together a achieve well-ordered, stable, prosperous society. To Plato, overpopula is to be feared most by the wise statesman. tion, not foreign invasion, as to Plato was directly influenced by the The issue remains whether and economic of fifth and fourth century conditions social, political or political There are some scholars who believe that philosophy Greece. can be reached reference to independently by the thinker without theory "is not "The history of ideas," says Mulhern, specific, prevailing conditions. a history of ages and their particular products" (1975, p. 278). No one, on population vacuum. in a complete Plato's emphasis however, writes is was what all result of the around him, "control" undoubtedly happening in his home town of Athens. especially CLASSICAL ATHENS: CARRYING CAPACITY AND DEMOGRAPHIC PRESSURES there is a lack of precise and detailed information relating to Although the population size of Athens during the classical period?Attica being some 2,400 scholars agree that from the time of the square km?most invasion Persian War (480) to the start of the Peloponnesian (431), the was as a result transformed trends. of country totally During demographic this fifty year period, says Garnsey, Attica's population density doubled, from around 50 persons per square km to 105 (1988, p. 90). As to the size of the general population, estimates range from around 120,000-150,000 a in to of to 315,000 480, persons 250,000 just before the great high point war (Garnsey; Gomme, 1933). Generally speaking, Athens was one of the most densely populated cities of the western world during this period. Being the hub of Hellenic commerce and culture, people flocked to her for employment and other activities. The question that arises how did We herself? feed Athens is, know the soil and climate was more than suitable for olives and vines, but what of cereals? The debate over the carrying capacity of Attica has yet to be resolved. On the one hand, Carry believes that the soil was ill-suited for the intense of grain and that only one-third cultivation to one-quarter of the Athenian This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 453 RICHARDHARROW FEEN in cereal production were home grown (1949, pp. 74-75). requirements on the that the productive other hand, believes capacity of Attica Garnsey, has been vastly underrated and suggests that Athens generally never had to find grain from outside Attica for more than one-half of its resident popula on foreign grains, and tion. As he concludes, "Athens was less dependent in particular on distant sources of grain, than is generally assumed" (1988, p. 105). The typical Athenian grain farmer, however, could spare little to sell in the marketplace. The size of the average peasant farm in classical Greece was between 4 to 6 hectares, with subsistence from 3 requiring anywhere to 4 hectares of cultivated land (GaWant, 1991 pp. 82-86). The size of the farm that an ordinary Athenian might have worked during this period has to be at around 2 to 4 hectares, been estimated just barely big enough to Gallant's in the calculations, (Garnsey, 1988, p. 46). According a 4 life the estate have Greek failed of hectare would farm, 24-year cycle to meet its production goals in 4 out of 12 years (33%), and in 7 out of the last 18 (39%). "With alarming the Greek Gallant, regularity," concludes "would have found themselves short of food" (1991, p. peasantry running in the Greek comedies?especially those 110). That the farmers portrayed of Aristophanes in life lot of their and Menander?should complain bitterly should come as no surprise. Even if the average farmer was able to supplement his food supply in a viable of ways?including hunting and fishing, gathering wild flora, and turning to kinsmen and patrons for assistance?the bigger the population, to the less able was the individual farmer to turn to these other means support himself and his family. It should be noted that as more of Attica came under the plow, so too did deforestation and and soil erosion. The loss of trees to both commerce came with ecological In comparing cultivation costs. of the environment his day to the past, Plato lamented, "What is left now is like the skeleton of a body wasted by disease; the rich soil has been carried off and only the variety bare framework of the district is left" (Critias 111). Is it any wonder then, that the heavens of the blessed?the Elysian Fields?were thought of as lush, green meadows? the strain created by a growing citizen and equally Overall, large for eign resident population?which only added pressure on food stuffs and affected Athens' standard of living. employment opportunities?gravely in agriculture and commerce were simply absorbed by popula Advances tion increases. "When one compares however stan roughly the material dards of sixth and fifth century Athens," says French, "one is struck by the lack of positive evidence for any real advance in creature comforts" (1964, This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 454 POPULATIONAND ENVIRONMENT p. 162). Fortunately, Athens' mighty fleet, large silver reserves, great port and stable markets made it easy for her to get the food supplies she from domestic or international sources. needed, whether As to the other Greek city-states, most likely they faced similar demo Other than Athens and Sparta?which commanded problems. graphic some two-fifths of the Peloponnesus?most states on the Greek mainland had to survive on less than 1000 square km, being hemmed in by both and geographic factors. Thus Thebes, Corinth, and others relied political on trade and commerce to feed their rather large, growing populations. At least when the great war broke out between the Athenian and Spartan in 431, there was plenty of manpower around for the nearly thirty empires of fighting. worth years' To be expected, the Peloponnesian War did have a direct effect upon the population of Athens. Besides the combat casualties, in 425 the plague carried off a large number of citizens, many of whom came within the city walls for protection. While Athens' overall population did recover by the fourth century, its ability to close the gap between home production and of cereals, unfortunately, did not. Due to the loss of its fleet, consumption now gaining a stranglehold on other states?especially Macedonia?were the Athenian time the in the Aristotle settled grain supply. By philosopher in the mid-fourth was es Athens it some of the century, already showing sential features of the typical Greek city of the Hellenistic period, "above to food crises" (Garnsey, 1988, p. 163). all, a chronic tendency ARISTOTLE: LINKING OVERPOPULATION WITH CIVIL UNREST concern with The Greek the balance between and re population sources therefore did not end with Plato. His student, Aristotle, also be came an advocate of the stationary state. In his Politics, Aristotle especially warns his readers of the civil unrest that can occur "if the number of off spring exceeds what In his discussion the amount of property will support." of Plato's Laws, Aristotle even criticizes Plato for not to a from certain level." As enough "prevent doing reproduction exceeding he notes, "If no restriction is imposed on the rate of reproduction, and this is the case in most of our existing states, poverty is the inevitable result; and poverty in its turn, civic dissension and wrongdoing" produces (2.6.12). Any land equalization scheme, concludes Aristotle, "ought to be the of the in of number children the accompanied by regulation family," as "it is a sorry thing that a large number of persons should be reduced from that of comfort to penury" (2.7.5). On whether any actual state or statesmen had a conscious This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions policy of 455 RICHARDHARROW FEEN from expanding beyond regulating fertility so as to prevent the population the means of subsistence, Aristotle gives the example of Crete. The legisla tor there, he explains, for the segregation of women "included a provision to prevent them from having too many children; he for which purposes also instituted homosexual relations" (2.10.9). concern with overpopulation Aristotle's is more than tied to his con cern with poverty and the resulting political conflict. Ifa state be as big as or the whole it how could have, he asks, a "true Babylon Peloponnesus, constitution" "A (i.e., a democratic legislative body)? great state," he notes, "is not the same as a populous state" (7.4.6). "Who can give it orders, unless he have the voice of fifty men?" And how can the citizens judge in the courts and elect the best candidates if they do not "know one wisely another's characters?" (7.4. 7-14). With these political considerations in mind, Aristotle concludes that the "optimum standard of population the greatest survey is, in a sentence, a life of self-sufficiency." able number he What required for achieving means by "surveyable" is that the number of citizens be easily compre able to gather together in one spot to pursue political hended, definable, and social activities. As Aristotle no doubt noticed, the city and territory of Athens was so big that gathering all the citizens en mass to debate and vote on legislation in the Assembly was nearly an impossible task. "Athens is so of people Isoc large and the multitude living here so great," complained rates in the mid-fourth century, "that the city does not present to the mind an imagine easily grasped or sharply defined" (Antidosis 171). As to how Aristotle would limit family size, he recommends abortion over the use of exposure, of infants. There should be i.e., the abandonment a law, he suggests, "in all states where the system of social habits is op increase, to prevent the exposure of children to death posed to unrestricted in order to keep the population down." The proper thing to do, he merely says, "is to limit the size of each family, and if children are then conceived in excess of the limit so fixed, to have miscarriage induced before sense and life have begun in the embryo" (7.16.18). Aristotle's of exposure as a way to limit family size is a condemnation first for ancient Greece, as exposure was the standard method of getting rid of unwanted children and was sanctioned law and religion by both Greek of 1983a). Scholars are still debating whether exposure, especially an impact on the size of the Athenian population. had to girls, According was the of children to "of exposure Engels, negligible importance," while as 10% were at of Golden, nearly birth, exposure played a girls exposed in role significant pressures managing population (Engels, 1980; Golden, (Feen, 1981). In regard to abortion in ancient Greece, all available This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions evidence indi 456 POPULATIONAND ENVIRONMENT cates that techniques were well advanced for inducing a miscarriage by Aristotle's day. But whether abortion was resorted to primarily for medical or family planning is unclear purposes (Feen, 1983a). As for the Hippo cratic Oath and its famous pledge forbidding to assist in an the physician seems a to it in be late the of medical ethics abortion, development history assume some at While Aristotle did in that the (Feen, 1983b). point the fetus, if not actually human life, was worthy of respect mother's womb, and should not be aborted, he did not believe in the sanctity of human life. After all, he notes, "there should certainly be a law to prevent the rearing of deformed children" (7.16.18). That Aristotle a risky should go so far as to endorse abortion?still in a the means fourth of procedure century?as family planning, clearly demonstrates how desperate he is to retain the delicate balance between the "property will support." Like Plato before him, "offspring" and what fears what overpopulation Aristotle would do to the unity and self-suffi state. of the he As when cency earlier, explained people exceed carrying civil unrest is the direct result. To Aristotle then, the "good life" capacity, can be achieved in the polity only if population and resources are in har mony. It is ironic that as Aristotle was lecturing in the Lyceum, one of his was students, Alexander, busy replacing the city-state with vast em in the East. Once the fertile and spacious lands of Asia Minor and pires to became came in large numbers, the Greeks open settlement, Egypt Hellas as was now con much of the land forever, especially abandoning in the hands of the wealthy centrated few. The ideal of the small, unified, self-sufficient in the quest for conquest and city-state was soon forgotten earlier empire. CONCLUSION As we have seen, the ancient Greeks were the first to be overtly con cerned with the balance between and carrying capacity. Their population Plato and Aristotle, often warned their readers of philosophers, especially the dangers it would of how affect posed by overpopulation; adversely life by creating poverty and rebellion. Thus both Plato's and community Aristotle's obsession with the creation of a stationary state: one governed by zero population growth. As for the Greek city-states there can be no doubt that themselves, dilemma of popula many of them, especially Athens, faced the Malthusian tion outstripping the productive the of land. in the classi Athens capacity This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:12:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 457 RICHARDHARROW FEEN on her given cal period simply could not support a growing population even not to half her territorial base. Attica was fertile feed just enough people. on population Both Plato and Aristotle's is no "control" emphasis too doubt the result of what they saw happening in Athens and elsewhere; on too a mass. not and small land Cold many people reality, unproductive was the inspiration for their writings. The only answer for metaphysics, survival then, was either war, export and commerce, or population control. As war and commerce to the philosophers did not provide for a life of be and aggressive tendencies "virtue," the only way to avoid expansionist tween people and states they held, was to limit the size of the population to fit the productive few statesmen capacity of the land. Unfortunately, heeded Plato' s and Aristotle' s advice. That most nations today ignore the ancient Greek warnings that civic on come resources size and should happiness depends balancing population as no surprise. After all, modern to is ancient the society basically geared Roman maxim that a great state is a large populous state. As the early Italian statesman and political Botero summed up the theorist Giovanni situation back in 1588, in his book, The Causes of the Greatness of Cities: If the World would be governed by Reason, and every man rest content with that, which to him, willingly justly belongs then would, the of the ancient lawmakers assuredly, judgment to be embraced. be worthy But experience, which sheweth us, that by the Corruption of Humane Force prevaileth Nature, . . . teacheth us also that the above Reason judgment of the Romans deserves to be preferred before the opinions of the Gre cians (Hutchinson, 1975, p. 377). REFERENCES Carry, M. {1949). don Press. The geographic background of Greek and Roman history. Oxford: Claren in the Craeco-Roman infanticide Clas (1980). The problem of female world. Engels, Donald. sical Philology, 75, 112-20. and exposure in ancient the status of the Feen, Richard (1983a). Abortion greece: Assessing newborn sources. InWilliam from classical et. al. (Eds.). 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