A Brief History of Greek Colonization

The land-owning elite exploited the labor of the poorest farmers who were eking out a precarious existence on small plots of land. One bad year meant borrowing next year's seed from a wealthy neighbor, and a run of lean years could put a family so deeply into debt that it lost its land. Aristotle calls this group, boy Missoui, or the middle. The Agathoy protected and protracted their economic and social exclusiveness by marrying only within the group. If a commoner family became wealthy enough, it could marry into the nobility. Third mobility, though not impossible, was not easy. In any case, as arable land became more precious, the basilies and other