In the country

The city states were very small. You could walk to most villages from the city centre in a day, and more people lived in the countryside than in the city itself.

Rich people had homes in the city, and large estates in the country. The work on the estate was usually done by slaves. Poorer people would have small farms, and these people would have to do all the work themselves.

The poorer farmers would get the whole family to help with the jobs around the farm. The younger children helped with the farm work by scaring away the birds from the newly planted seeds, and the older children herded the sheep and goats. Young men would plough the fields using oxen to pull the ploughs.

The land was stony and crops like wheat did not grow well. The Greeks bought the wheat to make their best bread from Egypt, but they did grow many grapevines and olive trees. On the steep mountains, the farmers would keep their sheep and goats. These provided milk, meat, skins to make leather and wool to spin and weave into cloth.

The Greeks would dry their grapes in the hot summer sun to make raisins, or they would crush them to make wine. The olives were shaken from the tree when they were ready for harvesting, and some were crushed to make olive oil, whilst others were pickled in salty water to preserve them.

It took a great deal of hard work to make olive oil. First the ripe olives were packed into baskets, and then the baskets were placed between two wooden discs which made the press. The handle of the press was weighted with heavy stones, and sometimes young men swung on the handle too! This made the top of the press push down onto the ripe olives, squashing them, so that they released their juices. The oil ran into large collecting jars, while the skins and stones of the olives stayed in the baskets. Olive oil was so valuable that it was given as prizes to winners in the Olympic Games. The best oil was used for cooking, and the lower grade oil was burned in lamps.