From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAgio concerns financial exchange and speculation; agioteur names the speculator.
- In the novelGamelin places agioteurs among the causes of hunger and describes their collusion with foreign enemies.
- In this editionSpeculation and speculator suit the local financial sense, while confiscatory motions preserves the intended means of depressing prices.
- A place to readaux accapareurs et aux agioteurs: actors blamed for shortage.
Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Agio concerns financial exchange and speculation; agioteur names the speculator. The local field includes profits, market prices and political influence, not the ordinary sense of speculative thought. An accusation about speculators’ responsibility must also be distinguished from a narrated account of a particular operation.
Use in the book
Gamelin places agioteurs among the causes of hunger and describes their collusion with foreign enemies. The narrator more concretely says Blaise earns even more from agio than from his print shop. A particular profitable business and the painter’s comprehensive explanation of famine are different kinds of assertion.
The Compagnie des Indes scheme specifies its mechanism. Morhardt’s associates propose depressing share prices through confiscatory motions, buying low and then using reassuring motions to raise prices again. Legislative influence is sought to produce a private market movement, not merely to expose investors to ordinary uncertainty.
Marat is approached as a prospective source of power, but the speculators do not believe him corruptible. They hope vanity, credulity and condescending familiarity will make him serve their interests while believing he serves the public. A direct cash-bribe account would remove the stated mechanism. Rochemaure’s philanthropy language clothes the approach, while his impending assassination frustrates the plan; anticipated dictatorship is their expectation, not an office he is shown holding.
Places to read
- Chapter II, paragraph 18Frenchaux accapareurs et aux agioteurs: actors blamed for shortage. Gamelin supplies the causal and conspiratorial account.
- Chapter III, paragraph 19Frenchl’agio plus encore: Blaise’s profitable financial dealing. The narrator contrasts these returns with the already lucrative shop.
- Chapter VII, paragraph 29FrenchL’homme de l’agio: The master speculator. The narrative’s label for Baron de Batz in this scheme.
- Chapter VII, paragraph 29Frenchspéculer sur les actions: Speculate in shares. The plan names a fall to 650 livres and a subsequent rise to 4,000 or 5,000.
- Chapter VII, paragraph 30Frenchagioteurs contre-révolutionnaires: Counter-revolutionary speculators. Their dealings seek alliance with current power despite their political designation.
- Chapter VII, paragraph 31Frenchne le croyaient pas corruptible: Did not believe him corruptible. Negation rules out reducing their plan to a belief in Marat’s readiness for bribery.
- Chapter VII, paragraph 31Frenchsouffler le froid et le chaud: Blow hot and cold. The metaphor concerns deliberately varying political influence upon securities.
Translation in this edition
Speculation and speculator suit the local financial sense, while confiscatory motions preserves the intended means of depressing prices. The hot-and-cold metaphor concerns calculated political signals to securities markets. These descriptions explain the fictional arrangement, not an independently verified account of every historical person named in it.