古代ギリシアにおける自然の荒廃の問題

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H. Michell wrote that Greece had lost all or most of its forests by the end of the fifth century B. C. and that practically all lumber used in construction was imported(Economics of Ancient Greece, p. 82). This assertion, supported by R. L. Legon, seems to be the ruling view among academic historians. But A. Lemos, President of the Maritime Museum of Greece, says that wood suitable for shipbuilding has always been abundant in Greece-more so in the past when most of her now bare mountains were covered with forests. Which of these conflicting views is nearer to the facts? If we reflect on the enormous number of ships used in the battles from Artemisium and Salamis to Actium, we are inclined to accept Lemos' view. It is not reasonable to consider that there were in the Mediterranean world no other countries producing wood fit for shipbuilding than those enumerated in Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. 4, 5, 5. Of course, Athens in the latter half of the fifth century and in the first half of the next century imported much timber from remote countries including Thrace and Macedon. But can we believe that such small states as Epidauros and Hermione, for example, could do so in the same manner? It is far more reasonable to believe that they could obtain timber in their own or neighbouring countries. As is known from the numbers, sizes and types of their warships, the Greeks had tremendously great abilities in lumbering and shipbuilding. They used silver fir for their warships and oars, because it was the best wood for their purposes. It is very light though very strong, and was fit for their methods of lumbering and working, which were fundamentally different from ours. Accordingly mountains in the Greek world were rapidly denuded during the Classical and Hellenistic Ages. About the denudations in Cyprus and on Mount Etna we have fairly good testimonies(Theophr. Hist. Plant. 5, 8, 1. Strab. 14, 6, 5 and Diod. 14, 42, 4). As for Attica the process of the deterioration of natural environments had been mirrored in its literature. For example, Solon in his poems regards Attica as a fertile land, though Thucydides and Plato consider it as one of the most barren countries in Greece. When Peisistratus inspected the countryside, a farmer in the Hymettus Mountain was digging a piece of soil, which was, so to speak, nothing but stones. But such a farmer was only an exception, because even Peisistratus, leader of the Diakrioi, had never met such a one till then (Arist. Ath. resp. 16). In Menander's Dyskolos, however, written after about 250 years, almost the same type of farmer is said to be the genuine Attic farmer(604). In these two or three centuries mountains and hills of Attica had been more and more denuded and losing fertile soil. In the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, one of the most serious problems in Greece was, as is well known, depopulation. All over Greece the tillers of the soil were disappearing. On the neglected farms and on the denuded mountain slopes grew various thorny plants(cf. Pollux, 1, 246). From the Christian point of view, these thorny plants were interpreted as symbols of sin. Greeks under the Late Roman Empire could easily accept the pessimistic world view of the Old Testament expressed in the myth of the Fall of Man and the expulsion from Paradise. Pan, the god of the wild mountains was already dead.
1982-03-30

古代ギリシアにおける自然の荒廃の問題

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