Pinpointing the value of the ancient Drachma can be quite tricky; the information regarding its purchasing power is extremely limited, while, of course, it differentiated between city-states and periods.
The numismatic divisions are as follows:
ATHENS (according the the Numismatic Museum of Athens)
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CORINTH (according to the Archaeological Museum of Corinth)
10 Sicilian Litrai | |
| 1 Silver Obol |
SICILY (according the the Numismatic Museum of Athens)
Value
- Wage of an unskilled laborer (per day): 3-4 obols
- Wage (per day) of a rower: 2-3 obols or 1 drachma
- Wage (per day) of a light hoplite: 2 obols or 3 Aeginetan obols
- Wage (per day) of a heavy hoplite: 2 drachmae (1 for him & 1 for his servant) or 3 Aeginetan obols
- Wage (per day) of an archer: 3 Aeginetan obols
- Wage (per day) of a trooper: 1 Aeginetan drachma
- Wage of a cavalryman (per day): 1 drachma
- Victor with a male chorus at the Thargelia: 2000 drachmae
- Victor with pyrrhic dancers at the Great Panathenaea: 800 drachmae
- Victor of the Olympic games: 500 drachmae
- Victor of the Isthmian games: 100 drachmae
- "For a man who brought in a wolf" / ox: 5 drachmae
- "A man who brought in a wolf's whelp" / sheep: 1 drachma
- "A rent equal to the interest accruing on the money [for the mining property and slaves]" (per month): 105 drachmae
- Rent of a bank (per year): 1 talent and 40 mnae
- A house, jewelry, apparel and ornaments: 10000 drachmae
- A lodging-house: 100 mnae
- Marriage-portion: 80-100 mnae
- Rent of a factory: 1 talent
- Jewelry "and the plate": 50 mnae
- Dowry: 40 mnae
- A house and fourteen slaves: 40 mnae
- "On the security of a ship": 20- 40 mnae
- All the furniture within a house: +20 mnae
- Cargo of a ship: 16-40 mnae
- Mortgage of a lodging-house: 16 mnae
- A house: 5-30 mnae
- Rent per year for an allotment: 2 mnae
- Journey money (from Athens to Megara): 80 drachmae
- Apophora (per day): 2-3 obols
- Part of a ransom: 1000 drachmae
- A slave (at a sword-manufactory): 5-6 mnae
- A servant: less than ½ mna or 2-10 mnae
- Fine for disturbing an olive tree: 100 drachmae per tree
- A pension (per day): 4 drachmae
- "The viands of two boys and their sister" (per day) : 5 obols (!twice the price)
- Food for an adult (per day): ~1-2 obols
- A dog: 7000 drachmae
- A Sheep (6th cent) + bushel of grain: 1 drachma
- A Sheep (4th cent): 10-12 drachmae
- Go-cart: 1 obol
- Bread: 10 + 4 obols?
- Eight pike & 12 chrysophryes (fish): 100 drachmae
- A silver bowl and a carpet: 10 mnae
- Eels: 12 drachmae
- Onions, five fish, four perches, a basket with 8 ship's loaves, a jar of dried figs, gilded sandals and cheese: 5 drachmae
- An hetaera (per night): 5 drachmae
- An anchor: 5 drachmae
- A pair of shoes: 2 drachmae
- A vase of Phoenician perfume: 2 drachmae
- Wax and rope: 2 drachmae
- Conger: 10 obols
- A gallon of wine: 10 obols
- 3 cuttle fish: 1 drachma
- Roast fish:1 drachma
- A darning-needle for a sail: 5 obols
- Cybium:3 obols
- A thong for an oar: 2 obols
- Cabbage: 2 obols
- Four scanty chops or steaks: 1 obol
- Urchins: 1 obol
- Mussels: 7 coppers
- Raw pickled fish: 5 coppers
- A statue: 200 Parian drachmae
6th cent (3rd CE) | This is a statue of Artemis and its cost two hundred Parian drachmas, which bear a goat for their device (Diogenes Laertius, Vitae philosophorum 4.6.45) |
594 | But in general Solon’s laws concerning women seem very absurd. For instance, he permitted an adulterer caught in the act to be killed; but if a man committed rape upon a free woman, he was merely to be fined a hundred drachmas; and if he gained his end by persuasion, twenty drachmas, unless it were with one of those who sell themselves openly, meaning of course the courtesans. (Plutarch, Solon 23.1) |
594 | In the valuations of sacrificial offerings, at any rate, a sheep and a bushel of grain are reckoned at a drachma; the victor in the Isthmian games was to be paid a hundred drachmas, and the Olympic victor five hundred; the man who brought in a wolf, was given five drachmas, and for a wolf’s whelp, one; the former sum, according to Demetrius the Phalerian, was the price of an ox, the latter that of a sheep. For although the prices which Solon fixes in his sixteenth table are for choice victims, and naturally many times as great as those for ordinary ones, still, even these are low in comparison with present prices. (Plutarch, Solon 23.3) Lysias, however, in his speech against Nicias ascribes this law to Draco, and to Solon another depriving open profligates of the right to speak in the Assembly. He curtailed the honours of athletes who took part in the games, fixing the allowance for an Olympic victor at 500 drachmae, for an Isthmian victor at 100 drachmae, and proportionately in all other cases. It was in bad taste, he urged, to increase the rewards of these victors, and to ignore the exclusive claims of those who had fallen in battle, whose sons ought, moreover, to be maintained and educated by the State. (Diogenes Laertius, Vitae philosophorum 1.2.55) |
540-490BC (4th cent) | At a time when the price of grain in Egypt was ten drachmae〈a measure〉 , Cleomenes sent for the growers and asked them at what price they would contract to supply him with their produce. On their quoting a price lower than what they were charging the merchants, he offered them the full price they were accustomed to receive from others; and taking over the entire supply, sold it at a fixed rate of thirty-two drachmae〈for the same measure〉. (Aristotle, Economics 2.2.33) if the measure intended is the Attic medimnos , it is 1 1/2 bushels. The Persian artabe may however be meant, which was equal to 1 medimnos and 1/16th. In either case the price is very high compared with 3 drachmae per medimnos, the price at Athens in 390 B.C. Yet Polybius 9.44 says that at Rome during the war with Hannibal (210) corn was sold for fifteen drachmae per medimnos. As a contrast cf. what the same author says of the fertility of Gallia Cisalpina, where in time of peace this same measure of wheat was sold for four obols, and of barley for two. |
494 | όταν ο Φρύνιχος έγραψε τραγωδία «Μιλήτου Άλωσις» και την παρουσίασε στους δραματικούς αγώνες, τα μάτια όλων των θεατών βούρκωσαν απ᾽ τα δάκρυα· και τον καταδίκασαν σε πρόστιμο χιλίων δραχμών (ΗΡ.(6.18.1-6.25.2)) |
480 | Κι άλλη μια γνώμη του Θεμιστοκλή αποδείχτηκε αξιοθαύμαστη για την κρίσιμη ώρα της πόλης, όταν συγκεντρώθηκαν στο κοινό ταμείο των Αθηναίων πολλά χρήματα, έσοδα από τα μεταλλεία του Λαυρίου, κι ο καθένας τους δικαιούνταν να πάρει το μερίδιό του, δέκα δραχμές κατά κεφαλή (ΗΡ.7.144) |
435 | Μισθός ερέτη από τους Κορινθίους: τριώβολο (μάλλον) |
432 | Potidaea being blockaded by a force of heavy infantry (each drawing two drachmae a day, one for himself and another for his servant), which amounted to three thousand at first, and was kept at this number down to the end of the siege; (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.17.4) |
427 | With these the Lesbians agreed to pay a rent of two minae a year for each allotment, and cultivated the land themselves. (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.50.2) |
423 | I also know that I formerly obeyed you, a lisping child of six years old, and bought you a go-cart at the Diasia, with the first obolus I received from the Heliaea. (Aristophanes, Clouds 860-865) |
422 | τῇ δᾳδὶ παίων , κἀξέβαλεν ἐντευθενὶ ἄρτους δέκʼ ὀβολῶν κἀπιθήκην τέτταρας (Aristophanes, Wasps 1391) |
~421 | And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, says— I spent a hundred drachmas upon fish, And only got eight pike, and twelve chrysophryes. (Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 7.136) |
420 | Πρόστιμο από τους Ηλείους στους Λακεδαιμονίους (κατά νόμο όταν κάποιος εκστράτευε κατά την Ολυμπιακή εκεχειρία: 2.000 μνες (2 για κάθε οπλίτη) |
418 | Πρόστιμο τον Άγι: 100.000 δραχμές |
411/10 | I spent thirty minae and two months later, at the Thargelia, two thousand drachmae, when I won a victory with a male chorus; and in the archonship of Glaucippus, at the Great Panathenaea, eight hundred drachmae on pyrrhic dancers. (Lysias, Defense Against A Charge Of Taking Bribes 1) |
5th cent | The relieving troops shall be maintained by the city sending them for thirty days from their arrival in the city that has required them, and upon their return in the same way; if their services be desired for a longer period the city that sent for them shall maintain them, at the rate of three Aeginetan obols per day for a heavy-armed soldier, archer, or light soldier, and an Aeginetan drachma for a trooper. (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.47.6) |
5th cent | the treasury giving a drachma a day to each seaman (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.31.3) |
410 | Since they had come too late, the Athenians determined to send them back to Thrace, whence they had come; to keep them for the Decelean war appearing too expensive, as the pay of each man was a drachma a day. (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.17.2) |
407BC | The ambassadors thanked him, and urged him to make the wage of each sailor an Attic drachma a day, explaining that if this were made the rate, the sailors of the Athenian fleet would desert their ships, and hence he would spend less money. besides, the original compact ran in this way, that the King should give thirty minae per month to each ship, whatever number of ships the Lacedaemonians might wish to maintain. And from this time forth the wage was four obols, whereas it had previously been three. Notes The Attic drachma about 9 d. or 18 cents; it was the average wage of an ordinary day-labourer. A mina 100 drachmae 600 obols. A ship’s crew normally numbered 200 men; hence 30 minae per month per ship 3 obols per day per man. (Xenophon, Hellenica 1.5) |
405 | Ἡρακλῆς ἐν πλοιαρίῳ τυννουτῳί σʼ ἀνὴρ γέρων ναύτης διάξει δύʼ ὀβολὼ μισθὸν λαβών. Διόνυσος φεῦ, ὡς μέγα δύνασθον πανταχοῦ τὼ δύʼ ὀβολώ. (Aristophanes, Frogs 140) |
403-380 | he reckoned for the viands of the two young boys and their sister five obols a day. (Lysias, Against Diogeiton 20) At this period the daily cost of food for an adult could be reckoned at one obol: in the present case, for the food (other than cereal) of three children, the charge of five obols is at least twice what it should be. A more reasonable scale is suggested by the speaker at Lys. 32.28 below. |
4th cent | I imagine, that Nicias son of Niceratus, once owned a thousand men in the mines, and let them out to Socias the Thracian, on condition that Sosias paid him an obol a day per man net and filled all vacancies as they occurred. Hipponicus, again, had six hundred slaves let out on the same terms and received a rent of a mina a day net. Philemonides had three hundred, and received half a mina. There were others too, owning numbers in proportion, I presume, to their capital. (Xenophon, Ways and Means 4.14-15) |
4th cent | and presented to him a silver bowl and a carpet worth ten minas (Xenophon, Anabasis 7.3.27) |
4th cent | Antisthenes, he said, have friends like servants their own values? For one servant, I suppose, may be worth two minas, another less than half a mina, another five minas, another no less than ten. Nicias, son of Niceratus, is said to have given a whole talent for a manager of his silver-mine. So I am led to inquire whether friends too may not differ in value. (Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.5.2) |
4th cent | Well, if I found a good buyer, I think the whole of my goods and chattels, including the house, might readily sell for five minae. Yours, I feel sure, would fetch more than a hundred times that sum. (Xenophon, Economics 2.3) |
4th cent | and with this understanding they borrowed from us three thousand drachmae on the security of their ship for the voyage out and home; (Demosthenes, Against Dionysodorus 6) |
4th cent | If anyone shall dig up an olive tree at Athens, except it be for a sanctuary of the Athenian state or of one of its demes, or for his own use to the number of two olive trees each year, or except it be needful to use it for the service of one who is dead, he shall be fined one hundred drachmae, to he paid into the public treasury, for each tree, and the tenth part of this sum shall belong to the goddess. Furthermore he shall be obligated to pay to the private individual who prosecutes him one hundred drachmae for each olive tree. (Demosthenes, Against Macartatus 71) |
4th cent | I forgave him the three hundred drachmae which I had given his brother for the expenses of his journey to fetch him, and that I would make a contribution of one thousand drachmae toward his ransom. (Demosthenes, Apollodorus Against Nicostratus 8) |
4th cent | I stationed men inside to keep watch, and by Zeus I gave strict orders to the ass-drivers and made them stop carrying off timber from the farm (for in addition to the rest of his property Phaenippus has also this very considerable source of revenue: six asses carry off wood the whole year through, and he receives more than twelve drachmae a day. (Demosthenes, Against Phaenippus 7) |
4th cent | Lysimachus, only one of the worthies of that day, received a hundred roods of orchard in Euboea and a hundred of arable land, besides a hundred minas of silver and a pension of four drachmas a day. And the decree in which these gifts are recorded stands in the name of Alcibiades. For then our city was rich in lands and money, though now—she will be rich some day; (Demosthenes, Against Leptines 115) |
4th cent | The vendor to us of the mining property and the slaves was Mnesicles, for he had purchased them for the plaintiff from Telemachus, the former owner; and the plaintiff leased them from us at a rent equal to the interest accruing on the money, a hundred and five drachmae a month. (Demosthenes, Against Pantaenetus 5) |
4th cent | and besides there were nine or ten slaves who were skilled shoemakers, each of whom paid him a fee of two obols a day, and the superintendent of the shop three obols. (Aeschines, Against Timarchus 97) Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their time at so much per day; this fee was called ἀποφορά. Such slaves could do business for themselves, or hire themselves out to manufacturers, contractors, etc. Much of the skilled labor of the city was performed by slaves. |
4th cent | As regards the things you wrote to me to send you, I have had the Apollo made and Leptines is bringing it to you. It is by a young and good craftsman named Leochares. He had at his shop another piece which was, as I thought, very artistic; so I bought it with the intention of presenting it to your wife, because she tended me both in health and sickness in a manner which did credit both to you and to me. So will you give it to her, unless you prefer to do otherwise. I am also sending twelve jars of sweet wine for the children and two of honey. We arrived too late for the stoling of the figs, and the myrtle-berries that were stored have rotted; but in future we shall take better care of them. About the plants Leptines will tell you. The money to meet these expenses—I mean for the purchases mentioned and for certain State taxes—I obtained from Leptines, telling him what I thought it best became us to tell him, it being also true,—that the sum of about sixteen minas which we spent on the Leucadian ship belonged to us; (Plato, Epistles 13.361) |
4th cent | From the lessee, for the eight years during which Phormio had the bank, he received eighty minae a year, half of the whole rent. These items make ten talents and forty minae. For ten years after that, during which they subsequently leased the bank to Xeno and Euphraeus and Euphro and Callistratus, he received a talent every year. The rent of the factory was a talent a year, and that of the bank a talent and forty minae, making a total of one hundred and sixty minae annually, or eighty minae apiece for each of the two brothers, or ten talents and forty minae for the eight-year period. The rents under the new lease remained the same as before, but Apollodorus received only that from the shield-factory, or a talent annually. (Demosthenes, Against Phormio) |
4th cent | I with difficulty secured the money, the ship being sold for forty minae, the precise amount for which she was mortgaged. (Demosthenes, Against Apaturius 12) |
4th cent | Accordingly I mortgaged my lodging-house for sixteen minae, to Arcesas of Pambotadae, whom Nicostratus himself introduced to me, and he lent me the money at the interest rate of eight obols a month for each mina. (Demosthenes, Apollodorus Against Nicostratus 13) |
4th cent | when Polyeuctus betrothed his daughter to me with a portion of forty minae; (Demosthenes, Against Spudias 6) |
4th cent | made a forcible entry into my house and carried off all the furniture to the value of more than twenty minae; (Demosthenes, Apollodorus Against Nicostratus 15) |
363 | have robbed me of my entire fortune except the house, and fourteen slaves and thirty silver minae, which they have handed over to me—amounting in all to about seventy minae. (Demosthenes, Against Aphobus I 6) |
363 | that my father did not leave me a poor man, nor one possessing an estate of merely seventy minae. My father, men of the jury, left two factories, both doing a large business. One was a sword-manufactory, employing thirty-two or thirty-three slaves, most of them worth five or six minae each and none worth less than three minae. From these my father received a clear income of thirty minae each year. The other was a sofa-manufactory, employing twenty slaves, given to my father as security for a debt of forty minae. These brought him in a clear income of twelve minae. In money he left as much as a talent, loaned at the rate of a drachma a month, the interest of which amounted to more than seven minae a year. a house worth three thousand drachmae, and furniture and plate, and my mother’s jewelry and apparel and ornaments, worth in all ten thousand drachmae (Demosthenes, Against Aphobus I 8-10) |
363 | and took possession of my mother’s jewels and the plate. In these he received the equivalent of about fifty minae. Furthermore, he received from Therippides and Demophon the proceeds of the sale of the slaves until he had made up the full amount of the marriage-portion, eighty minae. (Demosthenes, Against Aphobus I 13) |
350/49 | You think perhaps that this is a sound proposal, but you are chiefly anxious to hear what the cost will be and how it will be raised. I now proceed to deal with that point. As to the cost then: the maintenance, the bare rationing of this force, comes to rather more than ninety talents; for the ten fast galleys forty talents, or twenty minae a ship every month; for two thousand men the same amount, that each may receive ten drachmas a month ration-money; for the two hundred cavalry twelve talents, if each is to receive thirty drachmas a month. (Demosthenes, Philippic 1 28) The proposed pay is 2 obols a day for infantry and marines, 1 drachma for cavalry. The crew of a trireme numbered 200. The daily pay would therefore be: Galleys: 2 ob. x 200 x 10 4000 ob. Infantry: 2 ob. x 2000 4000 ob. Cavalry: 6 ob. x 200 1200 ob. Total, 9200 obols or 15 1/3 minae a day; 460 minae or 7 2/3 talents a month; 92 talents a year. The hoplite normally received 2 obols for pay and the same for rations; the cavalry thrice this amount. Demosthenes’ proposal amounts to this, that the pay should be halved and the men encouraged to make it up by looting. To appreciate these sums, it should he noted that an unskilled laborer at Athens received 3 or 4 obols a day. |
After 350 | I, men of Athens, lent to this man, Phormio, twenty minae for the double voyage to Pontus and back, on the security of goods of twice that value (Demosthenes, Against Phormio 6) |
4th cent | You have heard, men of Athens, the large amount of the dowry,—a talent from Peparethus, a talent from Athens, a lodging-house worth a hundred minae, female slaves and jewelry, and all else that she has in her possession—I give it all, says the will; (Demosthenes, Against Stephanus I 28) |
4th cent | Although he has so large an estate that he gave his daughter a marriage portion of one hundred minae (Demosthenes, Against Stephanus I 66) |
343-340 | paid down to Nicaretê thirty minae as the price of Neaera’s person, and purchased the girl outright from her in accordance with the law of the city and induced Epaenetus to contribute one thousand drachmae toward the marriage portion of Neaera’s daughter. (Demosthenes, Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera 70) They offered, therefore, to remit one thousand drachmae toward the price of her freedom, five hundred drachmae apiece; (Demosthenes, Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera 29-30) |
342-290 | Menander tells us, in his Drunkenness:— We don't do other things as we perform Our duties to the gods. We sacrifice One sheep scarce worth ten or a dozen drachmæ; But for our flute-women, our perfumes rich, Our harpers, Thasian and Mendæan wine, Eels, cheese, and honey to regale ourselves, We do not a whole talent think too much. 'Tis very well to spend a dozen drachmæ When we are sacrificing to the gods (Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 8.67) |
~338 | and then she gave him eight drachmas journey-money and a tunic and a cloak and packed him off to Megara. (Demosthenes, Against Aristogeiton I 56) |
330s | Έρχεται λοιπόν εδώ ο Καλλίας, όχι μέσω αντιπροσώπων αλλά προσωπικά ο ίδιος. Παρουσιάστηκε στην Εκκλησία του Δήμου και έβγαλε λόγο φτιαγμένο από τον Δημοσθένη. Είπε ότι είχε έρθει πρόσφατα από την Πελοπόννησο, όπου έκανε έρανο, για να συγκεντρωθούν εκατό τάλαντα εναντίον του Φιλίππου. Υπολόγιζε και τι ποσό έπρεπε να συνεισφέρει ο καθένας τους· όλοι οι Αχαιοί μαζί με τους Μεγαρείς εξήντα τάλαντα και όλες μαζί οι πόλεις της Εύβοιας σαράντα. Με τα χρήματα αυτά, έλεγε, θα εξοπλιζόταν μια δύναμη τόσο σε στόλο όσο και σε στρατό ξηράς· Μου υπολείπεται να αναφέρω ότι, για να εισηγηθεί αυτή την πρόταση ο Δημοσθένης, πήρε αμοιβή τρία τάλαντα, ένα από τη Χαλκίδα από τον Καλλία, ένα άλλο από την Ερέτρια από τον Κλείταρχο τον τύραννο, και το τρίτο από τον Ωρεό. Οι Ωρείτες, κάτω από την πίεση της ανάγκης και μην έχοντας πόρους, υποθήκευσαν σ᾽ αυτόν για το τάλαντο τα έσοδα του δημοσίου και πλήρωσαν στον Δημοσθένη για τη δωροδοκία τόκο μία δραχμή τον μήνα για κάθε μνα, εωσότου αποπλήρωσαν το κεφάλαιο. (Κατὰ Κτησιφῶντος (94-105)) |
330 | Ο Περικλής ο Φλυέας μήνυσε τον Δημοσθένη για πρόταση παράνομου ψηφίσματος και, επειδή δεν έλαβε τον ελάχιστο νόμιμο αριθμό ψήφων, πλήρωσε πρόστιμο πεντακοσίων δραχμών (ΔΗΜΟΣΘΕΝΗΣ Περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου (18) (102-106)) |
330-322 | εἰ δέ τις τῶν βουλευτῶν, ὄταν ἕδρα βουλῆς ἤ ἐκκλησίας ᾖ, ἐκλείποι τὴν σύνοδον, ἀπέτινον ὁ μὲν πεντακοσιομέδιμνος τρεῖς δραχμάς, ὁ δὲ ίππεὺς δύο, ζευγίτης δὲ μίαν. (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 4.3) |
330-322 | τὸν δὲ μὴ ἰόντα εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον τῶν βουλευόντων τὴν ὥραν τὴν προρρηθεῖσαν ὀφείλειν δραχμὴν τῆς ἡμέρας ἑκάστης, ἐὰν μὴ εὑρισκόμενος ἄφεσιν τῆς βουλῆς ἀπῇ (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Section 30) |
330-322 | πρῶτον μὲν τὰ ἱερὰ περιῆλθον, εἶτ' εἰς Πειραιέα πορεύονται, καὶ φρουροῦσιν οἱ μὲν τὴν Μουνιχίαν, οἱ δὲ τὴν Ἀκτήν. χειροτονεῖ δὲ καὶ παιδοτρίβας αὐτοῖς δύο καὶ διδασκάλους, οἵτινες όπλομαχεῖν καὶ τοξεύειν καὶ ἀκοντίζειν καὶ καταπάλτην ἀφιέναι διδάσκουσιν. δίδωσι δὲ καὶ εἰς τροφὴν τοῖς μὲν σωφρονισταῖς δραχμήν α ἑκάστῳ, τοῖς δ' ἐφήβοις τέτταρας ὀβολοὺς ἑκάστῳ· τὰ δὲ τῶν φυλετῶν τῶν αὐτοῦ λαμβάνων ὁ σωφρονιστὴς ἔκαστος ἀγοράζει τὰ ἐπιτήδεια πᾶσιν εἰς τὸ κοινόν (συσσιτοῦσι γὰρ κατὰ φυλάς), καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιμελεῖται πάντων. (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 42.30) |
330-322 | ὥστε μὴ δύνασθαι μηδὲν ἔργον ἐργάζεσθαι , δοκιμάζειν μὲν τὴν βουλήν , διδόναι δὲ δημοσίᾳ τροφὴν δύο ὀβολοὺς ἑκάστῳ τῆς ἡμέρας (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 49.4) |
330-322 | τούτους δ’ εἰς τοὺς δήμους ἀποδιδόασι. μισθοφοροῦσι πρῶτον ὁ δῆμος ταῖς μὲν ἄλλαις ἀκκλησίαις δραχμήν, τῇ δὲ κυρίᾳ ἐννέα ὀβολούς . ἔπειτα τὰ δικαστήρια τρεῖς ὀβολούς. ἡ βουλῆ πέντε όβολούς· τοῖς δὲ πρυτανεύουσιν εἰς σίτησιν ὀβολὸς προστίθεται [δέκα προστίθενται]. ἔπειτ’ εἰς σίτησιν λαμβάνουσιν ἐννέ’ άρχοντες τέτταρας ὀβολοὺς ἔκαστος καὶ παρατρέφουσι κήρυκα καὶ αὐλητήν, ἔπειτ ἄρχων εἰς Σαλαμῖνα δραχμὴν τῆς ἡμέρας. ἀθλοθέται δ’ ἐν πρυτανείῳ δειπνοῦσι τὸν Ἑκ[ατ] ομβαιῶνα μῆνα, ὅταν ᾖ τὰ Παναθήναια, ἀρξάμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς τετράδος ἱσταμένου. ἁμφικτύονες εἰς Δῆλον δραχμὴν τῆς ἡμέρας ἑκάστης ἑκ Δήλου . λαμβάνουσι δὲ καὶ ὅσαι ἀποστέλλονται ἀρχαὶ (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 62) |
317? | Δεν θεωρεί ανάξιο ούτε και το να είναι αρχηγός ενός πλήθους μικροπωλητών της αγοράς, ενώ συνάμα τους δανείζει πρόθυμα και τους παίρνει τόκο ενάμιση οβολό για κάθε δραχμή τη μέρα. (ΘΕΟΦΡΑΣΤΟΣ Χαρακτῆρες (6.1)) |
1st-2nd cent AD | He had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, that, said he, the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no farther with me. (Plutarch, Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata 43.2) |
2nd cent. AD | First, a pair of shoes from Sicyon worth two drachmas. Put down two drachmas. MYRTALE But you spent two nights with me. DORIO Then, when I came from Syria, a vase of Phoenician perfume, also costing two drachmas, I swear it by Poseidon. Then I brought you onions from Cyprus, five fish from the Nile, and four perches, on our return from the Bosporus. Oh yes, and a basket with eight ship’s loaves, and a jar of dried figs from Caria, and another time a pair of gilded sandals from Patara, you ungrateful creature! And I remember the time I brought you that great cheese from Gythium. MYRTALE All this comes to perhaps five drachmas, Dorio. Not so long ago, when it was the feast of Aphrodite, didn’t I put a silver drachma at the feet of the goddess on your account? Then again I gave your mother two drachmas for a pair of shoes, and many’s the time I’ve slipped two or even four obols into the hand of Lyde here. All these together amounted to the whole worldly wealth of any sailor. MYRTALE The onions, you mean, Dorio, and those fish from the Nile? (Lucian of Samosata, Dialogi meretricii 14.2) |
2nd cent. AD | Who ever heard of a fellow who takes out a girl, pays her five drachmas, and then turns his back on her in bed, weeping and groaning? (Lucian of Samosata, Dialogi meretricii 11.1) |
2nd cent AD | my wrongs have driven me to this outlying farm, where, dressed in skins, I till the soil as a hired labourer at four obols a day, philosophizing with the solitude and with my pick. (Lucian of Samosata, Timon 6) |
2nd cent. AD | I brought you an anchor as you ordered; five drachmae. CHARON That’s dear. HERMES By Hades, that’s what I paid for it, and a thong for an oar cost me two obols. CHARON Put down five drachmae and two obols. HERMES And a darning-needle for your sail. Five obols it cost me. CHARON Put that down too. HERMES And wax to plug up the leaks in your boat, and nails, and a bit of rope which you made into a brace, costing two drachmae in all. CHARON You got these cheap too! (Lucian of Samosata, Dialogi mortuorum 14.1) |
2nd-3rd AD | where you may get Four scanty chops or steaks for one small penny. (Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 4.6) |
2nd/3rd cent AD | But as for eels, without you spend at least Twelve drachmas you can scarce get leave to smell them. (Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 7.55) |
2nd-3rd cent AD | But concerning the boiling of the small polypus, Alexis, in his Wicked Woman, introduces a cook speaking as follows— Now these three cuttle-fish I have just bought for one small drachma. (Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 7.124) |
2nd-3rd cent AD | And, in his Apeglaucomenos, a man being asked for his contribution to the feast, says— A. Indeed you shall not half a farthing draw From me, unless you name each separate dish. B. That reasonable is. A. Well, bring a slate And pencil; now your items. B. First, there is Raw pickled fish, and that will fivepence cost. A. What next B. Some mussels, sevenpence for them. A. Well, there's no harm in that. What follows next B. A pennyworth of urchins of the sea. A. Still I can find no fault. B. The next in order Is a fine dish of cabbage, which you said . . . A. Well, that will do. B. For that I paid just twopence. A. What was't I said. . . B. A cybium for threepence. A. But are you sure you've nought embezzled here? B. My friend, you've no experience of the market; You know not how the grubs devour the greens. A. But how is that a reason for your charging A double price for salt-fish? B. The greengrocer} Is also a salt-fishmonger; go and ask him. A conger, tenpence. A. That is not too much. What next? B. I bought a roast fish for a drachma. A. Bah! how he runs on now towards the end, As if a fever had o'ertaken him. B. Then add the wine, of which I bought three gallons When you were drunk, ten obols for each gallon. (Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 3.86) |