Climate

The ancient Greeks’ equivalent of our word climate was not ‘klima’ but something like krasis aeros or simply horai (seasons). By these terms they understood primarily changes in temperature, relative humidity and prevailing winds, but even for these they devised no instruments to record their fluctuations. Our concept of climate is immensely more complex, and modern instrumentation permits it to be considerably more sophisticated (Chapter 1).

Climate rivals relief in its importance as a geographical factor. Since it determines which crops cannot be grown in a particular region, it sets limits to the range of ecological adaptations available to man. How far the influence of climate extends into the spheres of personal character or political organization were matters for debate even in antiquity, but its effects on health, patterns of settlement and life-styles are less obscure. In this chapter only the climate recorded for Sparta will be considered in detail, since it is not greatly different from that recorded for Gytheion, Kythera and Leonidhion. By contrast Messenia (represented by readings taken at Kalamata) lies on the other side of the Taygetos weather-shed, on the wetter, western side of the Greek mainland.

If the arguments of Chapter 1 are cogent, the Spartan climate for most if not all of our special period will not have been very different from that of today, although within this period there will undoubtedly have been fluctuations. Our scanty literary sources tend to support this assumption, apart from their suggestion of heavier forestation, which can be more satisfactorily explained on historical than on climatological grounds (Bintliff 1977, I, chs 3-4). The overall picture of classical Greece they present is of a generally rocky, infertile and poor country (esp. Hdt. 7.102.1), blessed with a few fertile plains, notably those of Lakonia and Messenia (Eur. fr. 1083N). Nothing has changed here. The relative prosperity enjoyed by mainland Greece between c. 700 and 300 was due to a combination of historical variables, not to the fact that its climate was in important respects better than it is now.

Lakonia belongs to the climatic sub-group which embraces Attiki, Corinthia, Argolis and the Kyklades. This does not of course mean that there

Are no divergences within the sub-group: in temperature, for example, Sparta is more continental, Athens more maritime. Indeed, there are divergencies, though insignificant ones, within Lakonia itself. However, the sub-group as a whole is characterized by slight rainfall and marked, prolonged summer drought, thereby possessing to the fullest degree the differentiating qualities of the ‘Mediterranean’ climate and landscape.

The most important climatic factor is warmth. The formula adopted in Greece for calculating mean daily temperature is to divide by four the sum of the temperatures recorded at 0800 and 1400 hours plus twice the temperature recorded at 2100. The mean temperature at Sparta in July is 27°C, which when adjusted to allow for the height of the meteorological station above sea-level (c.200 m.) is the hottest in Greece. The (unadjusted) mean for January is 8.8°C, the range of 18.2°C between January and July being higher than that of Athens (17.8°C). The absolute minimum temperature recorded at Sparta is -6.3°C, the absolute maximum a stifling 43.5°C: again, there is an enormous range here comparable to that recorded for Athens. As far as the effect of temperature on crops is concerned, however, mean monthly values are of little analytical significance (Papadakis 1966, 16f.). What ought to be recorded are the daily maxima and minima, from which the mean monthly maxima and minima may be computed. (The 0800 and 1400 hours recordings are perhaps not far off the daily minimum and maximum, but they are far enough astray to ensure systematic distortion.) Thus a freak reading like the -6.3°C (or the -11°C at Athens) will lose much of its merely apparent significance when it is thrown into the scales with all the other daily minima for that month. In general temperatures do not begin to drop appreciably until December, when the Spartan winter properly speaking starts, and even then there are considerable day-to-day fluctuations. In March the transition to spring is completed, the opening of the ancient campaigning and sailing seasons and a time of hunger (Alkman fr. 20.3-5 Page). By June summer has come round again. The hottest days (‘of the Dog’) occur towards the end of July and beginning of August, in other words during the close season between the cereal-harvest and planting.

Next after warmth in order of importance is rainfall, the ‘key challenge’ (Angel 1972, 88). Merely to state the average annual rainfall at Sparta (81.66 cm.) is to disguise the essential characteristic of all Mediterranean rainfall, its seasonal distribution. What we need to know is for how long and how much rain falls on the days it does fall, on how many days it falls, and in which months. On Kythera, for example, one fifth of the total annual rainfall recorded for one year fell within the space of a few hours. Such rainfall causes severe flooding and extensive soil-removal: with good reason Theophrastos described Lakonia as ‘liable to flooding, rainy and marshy’.

The average annual number of rain-days at Sparta is eighty-seven, about half that of southern England, which receives a comparable quantity of rain per annum. The annual drought at Sparta lasts two months: that is to say, fewer than three centimetres of rain fall on average in July and August together, compared to 1.25 at Gytheion, 1.5 at Leonidhion. As in most other places in Greece, the mean monthly rainfall values show their sharpest rise between September and October, and one third of the total annual rainfall is deposited in November and December. The seasonal distribution does, however, have its compensations. For it makes a harvest of essential cereals possible everywhere in Greece—indeed, two harvests in central Lakonia. But Sparta does not of course receive the same amount of rainfall each year: the lowest annual figure is less than half the annual mean, as it is for Gytheion and Kythera too. What makes the average as high as it is, bearing in mind how far south Sparta lies, is its proximity to Taygetos, which increases the uplift effect on moist airmasses in late autumn and winter.

The key to understanding the Greek climate lies in the study of atmospheric circulation and airflow. We lack direct evidence for Sparta, but the picture obtained by Lehmann (1937) for the plain of Argolis is said to hold good for the east Greek mainland as a whole. From April to June southerly winds prevail, but in all other months winds are mainly northerly, reaching maximum frequency in July and August. Sparta, exceptionally, receives northerly winds throughout the year—an important fact, because it confirms the view that it is not the prevailing northerlies which cause the summer drought; besides, the drought is shorter in Sparta than in many other places. The cool north-easterly summer trade wind, the Meltemi, which often reaches Force 7 or 8 on the Beaufort scale, blows hard until 1700 hours and slows down the rise of air-temperature. On summer evenings katabatic winds gravitate down the slopes of Taygetos to Sparta and accelerate the cooling of the air, which begins in earnest when the sun disappears behind the mountain and suddenly swathes the town in shadow. In winter stormy rain-bearing southerlies alternate with gusty northerlies which bring rain to the eastern side of the Peloponnese and cause snowfalls on the lowlands in December.

As far as thunderstorms are concerned, Parnon acts as a weathershed for the Eurotas valley. One May Philippson observed repeated heavy storms on the west side of Parnon, while on the east there was either no rain or an insignificant amount. His observations are confirmed by the meteorological data. In May and June Sparta has on average twelve thunderstorm days per

1,000, few but over twice as many as Leonidhion. The picture repeats itself in the mean annual figures: 3.5 per 100 at Sparta, only 1.3 at Leonidhion. In July the frequency of thunderstorms declines to 2.3 per 1,000 at Sparta; they are virtually unknown in this month on Kythera.

Hail is not particularly common in Greece, and it was fortunate for the Spartans that the beginning of the growth period for cereals coincides with the lowest average number of hail-days (November). The highest figure is recorded for May, before and during the harvest, but even this is insignificant. In July it declines once more into non-existence. The annual average compares favourably with that of Athens whose higher figure is accounted for by the amount it receives on average in October to December.

Snow is a climatic variable of considerable importance to the organization of daily life. Brought by north-east winds, it falls especially in February on the north and east flanks of mountains. Sparta itself receives snow very rarely: of the more important states of ancient Greece Athens and Sparta occupy opposite ends of the scale in this regard. But the Spartans directly or indirectly experienced the effects of snowfalls. For it remains on Taygetos, in appreciable quantity in some places, until the end of June, and so constituted a most effective obstacle to communication via mountain passes (Chapter 10). On the other hand, as was shown in midwinter 370-69 (Chapter 13), snow could act as a useful protection for Sparta by causing the Eurotas to run high; and in the summer the melting snow refills the mountain streams, which have a particularly beneficial influence on the piedmont at the western edge of the Spartan plain.

The harmful effect of frost on growing crops hardly needs special emphasis. But in view of the undoubted hardiness of a Spartan upbringing it is perhaps significant that between November and April Sparta has on average twice as many frost-days per 100 as Athens. Although white frost is not uncommon in Greece, we have no information for Sparta.

Fog and cloud are negligible climatic factors in Greece and neither appears with sufficient frequency to detract from the famed blueness of the Greek sky, which is due to the dryness of the air. Attempts to classify visibility in terms of distance are of course ludicrous, and there is no better foundation for claims that there is a significant correlation between blueness of sky or clarity of air and traits of character. Sunshine, however, the inverse of cloud and fog, does have therapeutic qualities, and insolation at Sparta is among the highest recorded in Greece. On average Sparta receives 329 sunshine-hours in June, 387 in July and 364 in August. As for relative humidity, another favoured candidate for the role of character-moulder, it reaches its peak at Sparta in December, then declines to its minimum in July, remaining throughout the year higher than that of Athens.

Finally, dew deserves a special mention, for a form of condensation which lies directly on vegetation is very important in a relatively rainless country. (Fog-drip from trees is negligible.) Figures for dew-nights are not available for Sparta, but the ancient evidence for the importance of dew in cult (mainly from Athens) suggests that they will not have been frequent.

To conclude, the climate of Sparta represents, what we might have expected from its location, a compromise between eastern and western Greece. In comparison to its nearest recorded neighbours, Sparta has a somewhat rougher winter climate, akin in soIndexme respects to that of Athens. In summer the differences are much slighter, Sparta being rather hotter, owing to its inland situation. In our brief survey the climates of Athens and Sparta have occasionally been compared. If such a comparison has any historical value, that of Sparta is harsher and more demanding.

Notes on further reading

The standard work of synthesis on the Greek climate is Philippson 1948; but see Lauffer 1950 for many supplements and some corrections. Useful companions are Livathinos and Mariolopoulos 1935 and ESAG. The figures I have cited are based on recordings made between 1900 and 1929. The relevant tables are reproduced in the Admiralty Handbook I, App. 9.

There is much of relevance in Papadakis 1966. He discusses in detail (39ff.) how he would set about making a climatic classification and attacks attempts to base a classification on figures like those used by Philippson. The latter are, however, adequate for our purposes.