Grain Distributions and the Revenue of the Temple of Hera on Samos

GOVERNMENTS, ANCIENT AS WELL AS MODERN, frequently have shown great concern over the adequate supply of food for their citizens; failure to do so could result in human misery and social instability. In many modern states, food is made available at no cost or at reduced cost to poorer segments of the population. Attempts to analyze the activities of Greek city-states in this field have often been marred by assumptions drawn from modern practices and especially from the conviction that measures including the distribution of food must be concerned primarily with subsistence. This paper seeks to demonstrate that one of the most important pieces of evidence in these matters-a law from Hellenistic Samos providing for free distribution of grain to citizens-has been consistently misinterpreted as a measure intended to improve or preserve the standard of living of citizens. A close examination of the text will reveal that those who framed the law were not concerned primarily with the supply of food to the city or to individual citizens either in times of crisis or in more normal circumstances. The law instead was aimed at the simplification of the financial administration of the temple of Hera; that is, the grain law's primary purpose was to convert a revenue in kind into cash in a way that was orderly, secure, and convenient. The law, then, serves more as evidence for the administrative practices and the temple procedures of Greek states than it does for their social services.