How were the Greeks able to get enough food to feed their population?

Answer 1

They farmed the limited agricultural land intensively, fished the rivers and seas, and traded manufactured goods for food imports. As the populations of the city-states exceeded this capacity, they sent out surplus population to seize land around the Mediterranean and Black Seas and form new cities. This way, the Greek world came to stretch from Southern France and northern Africa in the west to southern Russia and Asia Minor in the east, numbering over 2,000 independent city-states. The names of today's cities reflect this spread - Marseilles = Massilia, Tripoli = Tripolis (three cities), Naples = Neapolis (new city) etc.

Answer 2

Greek capabilities as fishermen and trade with grain-producing countries in Anatolia and Egypt helped to provide substantial amounts of food.