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Ex Libris
Thomas Spencer Jerome
DF
277
8669
E5
1828
THE
PUBLIC ECONOMY
OF
ATHENS.
THE
PUBLIC ECONOMY
OF
ATHENS,
IN FOUR BOOKS;
To which is added,
A DISSERTATION
ON THE
SILVER-MINES OF LAURION.
TRANSLATED FROM THE
GERMAN OF AUGUSTUS BOECKH.
VOL. I.
LONDON,
JOHN MURRAY.
1828.
BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.
3
THEN THE CENTER REAL E
*
1439
w!
R
ง
THE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
THE Staatshaushaltung der Athener, of which a
translation is now offered to the public, was pub-
lished at Berlin in the year 1817. It is preceded
by a dedication to Niebuhr, the author of the
Roman History, and a short preface, in which
Mr. Boeckh, after stating that the knowledge of
the ancient history of Greece is still in its infancy,
and lamenting that it has so often fallen into the
hands of mere compilers or verbal grammarians,
considers that it is impossible to gain a complete
knowledge of the whole subject before some sub-
ordinate departments have been fully investigated.
The following work he intends to be a contribution
of this nature upon a subject of ancient history
little understood. If," he continues, “it should
appear to many that the length of this work is
incommensurate with the importance of its object,
66
278593
vi
the author is comforted by the consciousness of
having aimed at brevity as much as clearness of
style would permit, and he is afraid of having erred
rather on the side of conciseness, thus frequently
creating harsh and abrupt transitions, than on that
of prolixity." After a few other remarks he pro-
ceeds to speak of some inscriptions, on which it is
necessary for the translator to say a few words.
The latter half of the second volume of the
original edition of his book is occupied by an Ap-
pendix, which contains twenty-nine Greek inscrip-
tions, illustrating the subjects treated of in the
body of the work. They are accompanied by a
most ample commentary; and some of them were,
upon the appearance of the original work (in 1817),
published for the first time. In this translation
these are omitted, and for the following reasons.
In the first place, the author has now undertaken
to publish a complete collection of ancient Greek
inscriptions, in which edition those which he had
formerly published will all be necessarily included.
Whatever therefore was most important in his
former explanations he has repeated, with such
vii
improvements or additions as the subsequent en-
quiries of himself or others may have suggested.
Secondly, at the time when this work was pub-
lished, the author was compelled to have recourse
to incorrect transcripts made by Fourmont and
others, of inscriptions which are now preserved in
the British Museum, and have lately been copied
with greater accuracy. These reasons have induced
the translator to avoid increasing the bulk of this
work with dissertations on subjects which, even
by the professed classical reader, are frequently
thought of secondary importance.
It now becomes necessary to say something of
the translator's share in the labour. The style of
a translation necessarily depends in a great degree
both on the similarity or dissimilarity in the idioms
of the two languages, and on the style of the
original work. Now it is a singular, but an un-
questionable fact, that the idioms of the German
and English languages are altogether different, and
seldom admit of literal rendering from one to the
other¹; a difficulty which in the present instance
¹ Madame de Stael (Allemagne tom. I. p. 194.) indeed
says, "Les langues Teutoniques se traduisent facilement entre
viii
has been much aggravated by the many peculiari-
ties in the author's style, little suited to the taste of
English readers. To this if we add, the frequent
want of proper terms in English for peculiar insti-
tutions and usages among the Greeks²; an obstacle
which the author could easily overcome in his own
language by coining compound words, faciliore ad
duplicanda verba Germano sermone; and also the
elles; il en est de même des langues Latines;" but no one
who ever attempted to render German into English can doubt
of the truth of what is asserted in the text. The structure of
the sentences and collocation of the words are entirely dif-
ferent. The idiom of French is much nearer that of English,
whatever may be said of the Latin and Teutonic lan-
guages.
2 The original word has frequently been retained for the
sake of avoiding ambiguity or periphrasis. Thus Atimia, Di-
casts, Hoplita, Cleruchia, &c. It is true of most terms such as
these just mentioned, what has been justly observed of words
signifying public offices, that "although the relation denoted
by them be the same in one or several important particulars,
yet it scarcely ever holds throughout; and the most false
notions are in consequence entertained by people of the nature
of these corresponding offices in every country but their own."
The term Liturgy has been used in a sense wholly different
from its received acceptation; but the original word is the
same; as λurovgyía, which originally signified a service for the
public (as igovgyía in Herod. V 83. a sacred service), after-
wards came to mean a service in a church.
ix
unconnected appearance of a narrative compiled of
various facts, and from various authorities; these
grounds may perhaps justify the translator's hopes
that some of those imperfections of style may be
overlooked, which it was so difficult for him to
avoid.
3
In the third book the author, in speaking of the
tenure of land in Attica, has occasion to quote a
proposal or advertisement of a lease, from the ori-
ginal document engraved on stone and still extant.
The inscription is given in the Appendix from a
very incorrect transcript made by Chandler, several
of whose errors are there rectified. It has since
been published in a more correct form by our
author in his collection of inscriptions; but as the
copy which he has used is in many parts very
defective, there still remained some difficulties which
he could not overcome. As the inscription is pre-
served in the British Museum, the translator has
made a more accurate copy of it, and taken the
liberty of arranging the version in the text partly
according to the latest improvements of the author
3 Vol. II.
p.
15. see p. 223.
X
himself, partly according to what appeared on the
inspection of the stone to admit of no doubt.
In one or two instances the author has, in his
later work, seen reason for modifying his first
opinions these corrections have been inserted in
the notes at their proper places.
The author however had not (as far as the trans-
lator is aware) been called upon to retract or defend
his opinions upon any point of importance, before
the publication of his work on inscriptions. The
first number of this collection was reviewed by Pro-
fessor Hermann, in a manner which called forth a
reply from Professor Boeckh. This reply was an-
swered by Mr. Hermann; which answer was in
its turn examined (together with the original re-
view) by Mr. Meier, one of the authors of the
Attische Process. All these several documents were
republished by Mr. Hermann in one volume¹, with
a preface and notes and two appendixes; of which
the second is on the subject of the Logistæ and
Euthuni, the nature of whose offices is one of the
Ueber Herrn Professor Böckhs Behandlung der Griech-
ischen Inschriften von Gottfried Hermann. Leipsig 1826.
-
xi
points in contest between these two professors. This
last Essay contains a criticism upon our author's
discussion of the subject in the present work; and
as it arrives at conclusions diametrically opposed to
the account there given, the translator thought that
the importance of these officers in the Athenian
government might excite the curiosity of some
English readers, and had actually prepared a trans-
lation of Mr. Hermann's treatise. But as the au-
thor has since replied at great length in a literary
journal, and appears to have successfully defended
his former positions, it has been thought preferable
to abstain altogether from the controversy. The
translator has entered at all into this explanation,
only lest he should be thought to have neglected
a subject so much connected with the present
work.
The Dissertation upon the Silver-Mines of Lau-
rion, of which a translation is given in the second
volume, was published separately by Mr. Boeckh
in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy. It is fre-
quently referred to in the notes to his chief work;
The Rheinisches Museum, vol. I.
• See however book II. note 179.
P. 39-107.
xii
and, notwithstanding the abridgment given in the
third book', may be considered as an interesting,
if not necessary, addition to this work. He appears
to have satisfactorily established his main point,
that the mines were public property, and that the
tenures upon which they were held was a perpetual
lease under certain conditions (including the pay-
ment of a rent of a twenty-fourth part of the
gross produce), which was originally obtained by
purchase. The price therefore of the shares or
pits, which varied according to the state of the
market, made up for the apparently small rent
which was subsequently paid. By the oversight
of this circumstance Mr. Mitford is led to accuse
the Athenian State of neglect in the administration
of its finances. Of all charges, perhaps, the govern-
7 Vol. II. p. 18.
This may be a convenient place for mentioning that the
term Fee-farm (Erbpacht), which occurs frequently in the
present translation, is used only to mean a lease in perpetuity
held upon certain conditions; without any farther notion or
limitations which may be annexed to it in the language of
modern lawyers.
9
History of Greece, vol. V. p. 15. The account given
in Walpole's Memoirs relating to European Turkey p. 444.
is however quite correct.
xiii
}
ment of Athens is least open to that of a want of
diligence in exacting the utmost amount of revenue
which its legitimate resources could be made to
afford.
It is often the unpleasant duty of a translator to
give currency to some opinions in which he does
not concur, or which he may more strongly disap-
prove; for it can rarely happen, however great may
be our admiration of any work, that we can assent
to all the doctrines which it contains. Unhappily
the present book furnishes a forcible example of
this mixture of objectionable with useful matter.
It is much to be lamented that the author of this
work, a man profoundly skilled in Grecian antiqui-
ties, and possessing very considerable powers of
reasoning and discrimination, should not have added
to these rich endowments a more ample portion of
modern science: and that in his remarks and dis-
cussions he should exhibit few traces of those
improvements in political philosophy which later
ages have produced. With the exception indeed
of some unimportant observations on a fanciful
theory of Rousseau, and a few remarks suggested
by striking peculiarities in the ancient institutions,
xiv
there is scarcely any thing which a well-educated Gre-
cian of the time of Aristotle might not have written 10;
if we exclude those singular doctrines for the disse-
mination of which the world has since been chiefly
indebted to the mercantile system of commerce.
From the title of our author's work, it would be
natural to infer that he was well versed in that
science of which his subject forms a subordinate
department. A very few pages are however suffi-
cient to convince the reader that such is not the
case. Thus, almost at the very outset of his work,
we find him employing as convertible terms, wealth,
money, and the precious metals", having previously
10 Otfried Müller (Orchomenos und die Minyer p. 13.) in a
review of the modern works on Grecian history gives the
following character of the present book. "Was eine Atthis
seyn würde, nach Art der alten Atthidenschriftsteller, die das
Bedeutendste von dem, was wir politische und heilige Anti-
quitäten nennen, als wesentlichen Theil der Geschichte behan-
delten, und mit neuerweiterter Ansicht und Gelehrsamkeitsfülle
ausgeführt, muss auch blöden Augen, an der Staatsöconomie
Athens, neuerlich zum erstenmal klar geworden seyn." Con-
cerning the newly extended views to be found in Mr. Boeckh's
work, the English reader will form his own opinion: but as
to the profusion of learning displayed in it, it is satisfactory
to have the testimony of one of the most learned writers in
(what is unquestionably) the most learned country of Europe.
"It is perhaps to the author's opinion that these three terms
XV
mistaken the efficacy of money for that of which it
is the medium. Occasionally also he appears to be
led to false conclusions by using the words profit
and interest as synonymous 12; and in one place
there is a serious argument to prove that the rent
of land is regulated by the rate of interest ¹³. The
13
are synonymous that we are indebted for his laborious enume-
ration of all the places of Greece in which the precious metals
were found, and perhaps for his excellent Dissertation on the
Attic Silver-mines, in the beginning of which he appears to
attribute to them an importance and an influence on the pros-
perity of Attica, which they did not in fact possess. See
also vol. I. p. 17. and vol.
17. and vol. II. p. 192.
12 See vol. I. p. 65, 82, 147, 154. See also his bitter
invective against the Athenian bankers and money lenders,
whom he calls "the most infamous of human beings" (p.
171); though in the preceding page he highly praises their
honesty. He also retails, with seeming approbation, the
vulgar declamation of Lysias against the corn dealers (p. 112).
See also vol. I. p. 139. and, above all, his remarks on the
enlightened proposal of Xenophon for a more liberal conduct
towards the aliens of Attica, vol. II. p. 398, 399.
13 Vol. I. p. 168. Sometimes the inconclusiveness of his
reasoning depends upon an ambiguity of terms which disap-
pears in translating. Thus a German word for rent of land is
Landzins, literally land-interest; hence an incitement to a con-
fusion of things really distinct in their nature. This word
Zins is used in German to signify, interest, profit, rent of land,
rent of houses, and tribute. The analogy between the interest
xvi
translator has thought it his duty to state thus
plainly what must of necessity detract in some mea-
sure from the value of the present work: it should
however, in justice to its author, be observed, that
such imperfections may more easily be overlooked
in a person who has made another branch of learn-
ing his peculiar study. And, while we see the appli-
cation of the true principles of political economy to
things under our own eyes and in our own country
so frequently controverted, how much more difficult
is it when we have to deal with ages long past, and
facts either doubtful or incompletely known!
•
Unfortunately however the author's imperfect
acquaintance with the general science of these
matters has not only diminished the value of some
of his arguments, but has also had a marked effect
upon the distribution of his materials. This is more
particularly seen in the parts where he had not, as
in treating of the officers concerned in the manage-
ment of the revenue, or the several items of the
public income and expenditure, an obvious course of
reasoning to follow. Accordingly in his discussions
of money and revenue in general is a copious source of
fallacy to our author.
xvii
on prices, rates of profits, interest, &c., his diligence
has scarcely compensated for the want of theoretical
knowledge; and the value of his first book, either
considered by itself, or as a groundwork for his sub-
sequent enquiries, has thus been much diminished.
A large part of the first book is dedicated to
an enumeration of the various prices of commo-
dities in Attica", by comparing which with the
actual prices of the same commodities, the au-
thor hopes to ascertain the relative wealth of
Attica and modern nations. Now although this
collection is most interesting and valuable, it is
evident that he has much overrated its utility,
and has committed a great though natural error
in supposing that any inference can be drawn
from the similarity or dissimilarity of ancient and
modern prices. The ratio between the value of any
one commodity, and of gold or silver, may be a safe
criterion in the same place, and for short periods of
time; but for distant ages and countries this com-
parison affords absolutely no information.
For a
comparison with prices in other countries at the
VOL. I.
14 Vol. I.
p. 83–147.
b
xviii
same time, and for such a purpose as that to which
the author has well applied it, in examining the
authority of Polybius' statement with respect to the
valuation of Attica, his list of prices may be used
with advantage and security. But whether the
precious metals, or labour, or any other standard, be
adopted as a medium of comparison between the
prices of commodities in ancient Greece and in
modern Europe, the result must be equally fallacious
and nugatory. For these reasons the translator has
omitted to insert, as the author had done, the cor-
responding value of silver estimated in modern coin
after each statement of price 15.
In the same book the author has likewise devoted
a separate chapter16 to the consideration of the vaUTI-
xòç тóxos or interest of money lent on bottomry: and
on account of the large portion of Athenian capital
which was thus employed in foreign commerce, this
question is of considerable importance. From the
instances cited by him, it appears that a very high
premium was not unfrequently obtained upon capital
15 See also vol. I. p. 383. and p. 337.
16 Vol. I. p. 176.
xix
thus invested. But it is evident that no general
conclusion with regard to the rate of interest can be
drawn from these facts (vol. I. p. 81.); for this was
doubtless a most hazardous investment for money,
on account of the imperfect knowledge which the
ancients possessed of astronomy, from their igno-
rance of the compass, and the dangerous navigation
of the narrow and stormy seas of Greece, as well as
from the insecurity of laws and judicatures, demon-
strated by the very institutions themselves which
were meant as correctives of that evil 17.
It has been already mentioned that the author
frequently draws unwarrantable conclusions from
the rate of interest. It may however be fairly
doubted, whether, if the "rate of interest is that
sum which the lender receives and the borrower
pays for the use of a certain amount of monied
capital, without any consideration for trouble in the
collection of the income, or for risk as to the
punctual repayment of the interest or principal at
the stipulated periods 18," there was any thing which
>
17 See what the author himself says, vol. I.
p. 179.
19 Tooke's Considerations on the Currency p. 11.
XX
!
we could justly consider as a general or established
rate of interest at Athens. There were no public
securities nor means of investing money guaranteed
by the national credit; and the insecurity of pro-
perty, both from fear of revolution and foreign
attack, must always have been so great, that it is
difficult to think of any method of lending money
in which there must not have been as to the
punctual repayment of the interest or principal at
the stipulated periods very great, but very vari-
able, risks. With respect to money lent upon
mortgage, which with us approaches next in safety
to the public securities, the land in Attica was held
upon so frail a tenure, on account of the liability to
loss from invasion, that in this case again, a large
yet uncertain indemnification for risk must have
been requisite. In illustration of this it may be
mentioned, that in a lease of some lands situated
within a few miles of Athens, made 345 B. C.,
there is an express stipulation inserted with regard
to the payment of the rent in case of injury from
enemies 19
19 Boeckh. Corp. Inscript. No. 93.
C
xxi
Since Mr. Boeckh's work has appeared the Popula-
tion of Attica has been examined by Mr. Fynes Clin-
ton in the Appendix to his Fasti Hellenici 20; by Mr.
Letronne in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Belles
Lettres 21; and in part by a writer in the Museum
Criticum". The first of these writers coincides very
nearly with Mr. Boeckh, although he does not
appear to have been acquainted with his disserta-
tion; on the two last as their results are somewhat
different, the translator thinks it right to offer a few
remarks.
Mr. Letronne estimates the population of Attica,
between 430 and 340 B. C. as follows:
Athenians of all ages and both sexes 70,000
Resident aliens of all ages and both sexes. 40,000
Slaves of all ages and both sexes
110,000
By comparing this table with the results of Mr.
Boeckh (vol. I. p. 52.), it will be seen that, al-
though Mr. Letronne has made the number of the
20 P. 387 sq. ed. 2.
21 Tom. VI.
22 I. p. 215.
xxii
Athenians and resident aliens lower, the chief differ-
ence is in the slaves, whose number is taken by Mr.
Boeckh at 365,000. The manner in which he arrives
at this conclusion is somewhat singular. In the
first place he assumes that the number of the slaves
ascertained by the census of Demetrius, which has
been preserved by Athenæus, must be exaggerated.
He then turns for some more authentic account to
the Athenian writers: and he conceives that the
true number may be discovered from a proposal of
Xenophon, in his Essay on the Revenues,
"that
the State should purchase slaves, until there were
three to each Athenian (i. e. 60,000);" the meaning
of which is (he states) that the number to be
bought, together with the slaves already in the
country, would make up the ratio of three to one,
"la quantité à acheter, jointe à celle qui existait
dans le pays, doit compléter le rapport de trois à
un dont il parle" (p. 195). This he collects from an
expression which Xenophon afterwards uses,
"that
when the number of the slaves should have been
raised to 10,000, the annual revenue obtained by
letting them would be 100 talents." Hence he
supposes that the utmost number intended by Xe-
nophon was 10,000; and that the other 50,000
xxiii
are male slaves in the vigour of body 25. This
number he doubles for the old-men, women, and
children; and he therefore fixes the total aggregate
of slaves at 110,000 or 120,000.
The meaning of this passage, which Mr. Letronne
seems to have misunderstood, is explained in the
present work; but it may be convenient to point
out the error in his argument at once. Xenophon
proposed to the State of Athens to purchase public
slaves 24, until about 60,000 were procured; and
that they should be let at a certain rate to private
mine-proprietors, for the sake of producing a reve-
nue to the community; that 1200 should be first ob-
tained, and by applying the profit derived from these
23 These 60,000 able-bodied male slaves he disposes of in
the following manner (p. 209)
Slaves in the mines
in the city and its outskirts
in the country
12,000
36,000
12,000
In the fragment of Hyperides quoted by Mr. Clinton (p.
391.) from Suidas in v. åznqiraro, it is stated that the number
of slaves in the mines and in the country was 150,000.
24
a Xenoph. de Vectig. 4.17. οὕτω καὶ ἡ πόλις κτῷτο δημόσια
ἀνδράποδα.
xxiv
to the purchase of fresh slaves, the number might in
five or six years be raised to 6000, who would yield
an income of 60 talents a year, to be employed
partly in the same manner; and when there were
as many as 10,000, the annual receipts would be
100 talents; "but that the mines would afford em-
ployment for many times this number, is evident from
the large sums produced by the duty on slaves
before the occupation of Decelea;" and he adds
other reasons to shew that the mines could not
be overstocked with labourers. As the argument,
founded on the misapprehension here exposed, is
made by Mr. Letronne the basis of his calculation,
it would be unnecessary to add another word.
The object of the writer in the Museum Criticum
is to ascertain the number of persons dwelling in
the city of Athens alone; and he arrives at a result
very different from that obtained by Mr. Boeckh,
who, by estimating eighteen persons to a house,
reckons that the city of Athens with the harbours
contained 180,000 persons 25. He argues as fol-
lows.
25 Vol. I. p. 56.
J
XXV
It is known from Demosthenes that half the
annual importation of corn into Attica amounted
to 400,000 medimni, and from Aristotle that two-
thirds of all imported corn (i. e. in this case
533,333 medimni) were by law to be carried into
the city. Then taking the consumption of a man
at a choenix a day, and that of women, children,
and slaves at two-thirds of a choenix 26, we have
91,428 for the inhabitants of Athens. This, he
observes, is a very rough calculation, but he thinks
that it is likely to come within 10,000 of the real
number.
Now it is manifest that this calculation proceeds
upon two assumptions: first, that all the foreign
26 Mr. Clinton (Fast. Hell. p. 393. ed. 2.) has however
shewn that two-thirds is too small a portion, and that twelve-
thirteenths is more correct. He also observes that "the
author (in the Museum Criticum) has assumed that the inha-
bitants of Athens were exclusively subsisted upon foreign
corn;" and shews upon another consideration that the country
probably furnished 980,000 medimni to the town. This argu-
ment is liable to the additional objection that it supposes the
inhabitants of the country to be at the same time importers
and exporters of corn. Mr. Böckh conceives, apparently with
good reason, that slaves severally consumed a larger quan-
tity of bread than freemen, see vol. I. p. 37.
xxvi
corn carried into the city was consumed there;
and, secondly, that none but foreign corn was con-
sumed in the city. These propositions cannot ap-
parently be true, unless we suppose that Attica pro-
duced a quantity of corn exactly sufficient, with the
addition of a third part of the importation, for the
consumption of the dwellers in the country: for it
cannot be thought that the inhabitants of the country
would send corn to the capital (nearly a seaport town),
while they were themselves subsisting on foreign
corn. Now it appears that it was not an un-
common practice to send barley at least into Athens
from the country 27, a fact which seems utterly
inconsistent with the above-mentioned regulation,
which we have on the unquestionable authority of
Aristotle. Then again it is impossible to suppose
that the seasons were so regular in Attica (to say
nothing of invasion) that the amount of corn re-
quired in the country was invariably a third part of
the total importation. The difficulty seems how-
ever to admit of explanation.
M
27 See vol. II. p. 38. notes 87 and 88. The article chosen
by the honey-smuggler for the purpose of concealment is
barley.
xxvii
JA
The meaning of the regulation with regard to the
two-thirds 28 appears to be, as our author has ex-
plained it, that the harbour-masters (ἐπιμεληταὶ τοῦ
ἐμπορίου) were to compel all merchants touching at
the Piraeus with corn on board to sell two-thirds of
their cargo in Attica, not in Athens as opposed to the
country. Now Demosthenes only states the amount
actually imported, which therefore is independant
of the third of the cargo of such merchants as
wished not to sell the whole; that remaining
part being carried away to other countries. It is
therefore unnecessary to attribute this absurd regu-
lation to the Athenians; which, if its nature had
been as is assumed by the writer in the Museum
Criticum, could never have been put in practice; and
even if it admitted of no satisfactory explanation,
28 It is given by Harpocration apparently in the words of
Aristotle:᾿Επιμελητὴς ἐμπορίου.---᾿Αριστοτέλης· Εμπορίου δ᾽ ἐπιμελητὰς
δέκα κληροῦσιν, τούτοις δὲ προστέτακται τῶν τε ἐμπορίων ἐπιμελεῖσθαι, καὶ
τοῦ σίτου τοῦ καταπλέοντος εἰς τὸ ᾿Αττικὸν ἐμπόριον τὰ δύο μέρη τοὺς
ἐμπόρους ἀναγκάζειν εἰς τὸ ἄστυ κομίζειν. Also Suidas: Επιμεληταὶ
ἐχειροτονοῦντο τῶν χορῶν ὡς μὴ ἀτακτεῖν τοὺς χορευτὰς ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις. ἄλλοι
δὲ λέγουσιν ὅτι ἐμπορίου ἄρχοντες εἰσὶ κληρωτοὶ ἑκάστου ἔτους καθιστάμενοι,
οἷς προσετέτακτο ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τοῦ καταπλέοντος σίτου εἰς τὸ ἐμπόριον τὸ
᾿Αττικὸν καὶ τοὺς ἐμπόρους ἀναγκάζειν εἰς τὸ ἄστυ κομίζειν. Hence
both in the method of their nomination, and the duration of
their office, these were strictly democratical magistrates.
xxviii
ought not to be made the condition of a problem
which requires it not merely to have been a form
of words, but a law constantly enforced and acted
upon 29.
In making the foregoing observations, the trans-
lator is aware that he may be accused of outstepping
his legitimate province, and of passing judgment
upon opinions which he should only have been the
instrument of conveying. On the whole work, it
might perhaps be ascribed to the supposed partiality
of a translator, if he were to express as favourable
an opinion as he really entertains. He cannot
however avoid remarking, that the author has
collected and arranged an immense mass of in-
formation on a most interesting subject; that he
has spared neither time nor research; and that
29 There is also another reason against supposing that the
regulation with regard to the two-thirds had the meaning
given to it by the writer in the Museum Criticum, viz. that
all the corn imported into the Piraeus must, before it went
into the country, have passed through the city. Now there
was no inlet by which much corn passed into Attica, except
Oropus and the Piraeus. The former was chiefly, if not ex-
clusively, used for the Eubœan corn; and we know from
Demosthenes, that at least half of the quantity imported
must have been unshipped in the Piraeus.
xxix
whatever reason the reader may sometimes see to
question his opinions on these very doubtful and
disputable subjects, his accuracy in citation and the
good faith of his statements are implicitly to be
relied upon. In gratitude then for so great toil and
learning, the reader must overlook his occasional
errors, and forgive the omissions and defects in the
remembrance of what has been well and laboriously
done---Τοῖς μὲν παραλελειμμένοις συγγνώμην τοῖς δὲ πεπραγμένοις
πολλὴν χάριν ἔχειν.
For himself the translator asks no other praise
than that of a sincere and earnest desire for the
promotion and diffusion of knowledge on these in-
teresting subjects 30.
(
SINGID
30 The translator has not attempted to follow any uniform
system of orthography for Greek names; it seems indeed that
the forms Solon and Plato, Samos and Cræsus, are as much
established by custom in our language, as those of any words
not in constant use.
THE
PUBLIC ECONOMY
OF
ATHENS.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
Of prices, wages, and interest of money in Attica.
1. Introduction.
2. Contents of this Book. Gold and silver the standard of
prices.
3. Gradual increase of the precious metals.
4. Of silver money, and of the silver talent in particular.
5. Of gold coins, and the gold talent.
6. The price of gold and other metals in comparison with
silver.
7. Population of Attica.
8. Agriculture and native products.
9. Commerce.
10. Cheapness in ancient times.
11. Lands.
Mines.
12. Houses.
13. Slaves.
14. Cattle.
15. Corn and Bread.
16. Wine, oil, salt, wood.
17. Meals; obsonium: meat, birds, fish, vegetables, honey,
&c.
18. Clothes, shoes, ointment.
19. Implements and furniture of various kinds, arms, ships.
20. What sum was necessary for the maintenance of life, and
proportion of the same to the national wealth.
21. Wages of labour.
64 22. Interest of money; money-changers; mortgage of land.
23. Bottomry.
24. Rent of houses, land, &c.
VOL. I.
B
2
BOOK II.
On the administration of finance, and the public expenditure.
1. Whether the system of finance in the ancient states had
the same importance as in modern times.
2. Objects of my enquiries.
3. Supreme authorities for the financial legislation and ad-
ministration. People and Senate. Preparatory offices.
of finance.
4. Apodectæ.
5. Treasurers of the Goddess and of the other Gods.
6. Manager of the public revenue, or treasurer of the admin
istration. Subordinate offices for the administration.
7. Hellenotamiæ, funds for war, funds for the Theorica.
8. Clerks, checking-clerks. System of examining the ac-
counts.
9. Whether a regular estimate and comparison of the
Revenue and Expenditure existed. On the different
branches of Expenditure.
10. Building.
11. Police: Scythians.
12. Celebration of festivals and sacrifices.
13. Donations to the people.
14. Pay of the public assembly and of the senate.
15. Pay of the courts of justice.
16. On some other persons receiving salaries from the public.
17. Maintenance for the poor.
18. Public rewards.
19. Arms, ships, cavalry.
20. Approximate estimate of the regular Expenditure. Of the
extraordinary expences in general.
21. Military force of the Athenians.
22. Pay and provision.
23. Equipment of the fleet, and artillery. Sieges.
24. Calculation of the war-expenditure, with examples.
L
3
BOOK III,
On the regular revenues of the Athenian state.
W
1. Different kinds of public revenues in the Grecian re-
publics.
2. Duties arising from lands, houses, and similar property of
the state, of companies, and temples.
3. Of mines.
4. Of custom-duties; the fiftieth.
5. Conjectures upon harbour-duties and the hundredths.
Market tolls.
6. Twentieths. Tithes: Different sorts of the latter.
7. Poll-taxes, and taxes upon industry: Protection-money,
Tax upon slaves, Tax upon prostitutes, &c.
8. General remarks upon these taxes, particularly upon the
·
method of levying and paying them.
9. Fees in the courts of justice, and fines. Prytaneia, Pa-
rastasis.
10. Appeal-money; Paracatabole; Epobelia.
11. Of the fines (Tara) in general.
12. Examples of the different fines.
13. Of the public debtors.
14. Of the confiscation of property.
15. Tributes of the allies. Origin of the same, and of the
relation which the allies bore to Athens.
Amount of
the tributes before the Anarchy.
16. General survey of the allies with reference to the tribute
before the Anarchy.
17. Of the tributes and the allies after the Anarchy.
18. Of the Cleruchiæ.
19. Total amount of the annual Revenue.
20. History of the public Treasure.
21. Of the Liturgies in general, and of the regular ones in par-
ticular.
22. Choregia.
23. Gymnasiarchy. Feasting of the Tribes or Hestiasis.
1
4
BOOK IV.
Of the extraordinary revenyes of the Athenian state, and the
peculiar financial measures of the Greeks.
1. Contents of this Book. Of the property taxes in ge-
neral.
→
2. Of the sources of prosperity in Attica, and of the public
care for the same.
3. Individual instances of the property of Athenian citizens,
and of the division of the national wealth among the
different classes.
4. Nearer determination of the national wealth of Attica.
5. Of the Valuation. Ancient constitution with reference to
the finances. Valuation of Solon, and the changes in
it before the Archonship of Nausinicus.
6. Register. Register of lands; General register of pro-
perty.
7. Valuation in the Archonship of Nausinicus.
8. What part of the valuation and of the property was
raised as an extraordinary tax, with reference to the pro--
perty tax in the year of Nausinicus.
9. Symmoriæ of the property taxes after the year of Nausi-
nicus. Of the advance of taxes, and of other things
relating to the payment of taxes.
10. Of the taxes and Liturgies of the Resident Aliens.
11. Of the Trierarchy in general.
12. First form of the Trierarchy, or the Trierarchy of Indi-
viduals. Second form of the Trierarchy, or the Trie-
rarchy in part of Individuals and in part of two Syn-
trierarchs, from Olymp. 92. 1. until Olymp. 105. 3.
13. Third form of the Trierarchy. Syntelia and Symmoriæ
from Olymp. 105. 4. until the end of the 109th Olym-
piad.
rarchy.
16. Of the Exchange.
Gay
14. Fourth form. Trierarchy according to the valuation by
the law of Demosthenes after Olymp. 110. 4.
15. General observations upon the expences of the Trie-
1
5
17. Pecuniary difficulties, Subsidies, Plunder, Captures,
forced and voluntary Contributions.
18. Loans.
19. Alterations in the currency.
20. Various other measures.
21. Xenophon's proposals for the advancement of the pros-
perity of Athens.
22. Conclusion.
A Dissertation on the Silver-mines of Laurion.
Index.
THE
PUBLIC ECONOMY
OF
ATHENS.
BOOK I.
(1.) IF the character and importance of a nation were to be
estimated only by the extent of its territory and population,
the Athenian state would rank far below the hordes of
the Huns and Mongols. But mere space and numbers are
of little avail, without the presence of that spirit, by which
alone the great body of a people can be animated and com-
bined. To the operation of this cause must the superiority
of the Athenians be ascribed; by this power their scanty
bands overthrew the countless hosts of the Barbarians at
Marathon, at Salamis, and at Platææ: and hundreds of
subject states submitted to the dominion of one small city,
as large armies obey the commands of one general. Not
that Athens, while thus signalizing herself in the field, was
regardless of the more beneficial pursuits of peace: and
having conceived and executed all that was most beautiful
in art and profound in philosophy, she became the in-
structress of all liberal sciences and arts; the teacher alike
of her own times and of posterity. The intellectual fa-
culties however are not of themselves sufficient: to pro-
duce external action they require the aid of physical
force, the direction and combination of which are wholly
at the disposal of money; that mighty spring by which
8
the whole machinery of human energies is set in mo-
tion. For a state, and for a family, a regular and settled
economy are alike necessary; and as the relations be-
tween the state and its members have in great measure a
mutual dependence upon the regulations of the public eco-
nomy, so it becomes impossible to obtain a correct insight
into the private life of the ancients, without a knowledge
of their finances; nor of their financial system, without a
minute enquiry into the internal organization of both their
public and private economy. For these reasons I have
undertaken to explain, as fully as my abilities and extent
of knowledge will permit, the Public Economy of Athens,
the greatest and most noble among the Grecian states. In
the prosecution of these enquiries, truth has been my only
aim; nor shall I regret, if it be made apparent from my
labours, that the ancients as well as the moderns were not
free from stain in their pecuniary dealings. Or are the
histories of past ages to be written merely for the inspira-
tion of youth; and shall the historian of antiquity conceal,
that in those as well as the present days, nothing among
men was perfect? Let us confess rather, that of the most
excellent men of antiquity, many laboured under the fail-
ings common to the human race; that in their less polished
nature these vices broke out so much the more powerfully,
as their hearts were less awakened to piety by the mildness
and humility of a more benevolent religion; that, lastly,
these faults (so long encouraged and cherished) under-
mined and overthrew the lordly edifice of antiquity itself.
Of the vast range of topics which here come under con-
sideration, few have hitherto been subjected to a compre-
hensive and accurate scrutiny. General views and ingenious
speculations do not supply the place of sound investigation ;
and the more scanty are our sources of information, the
9
more urgent becomes the obligation to use the materials
faithfully, and from them to deduce general conclusions
equally removed from flippant and vague superficiality
on the one hand, and the affectation of learning on the
other, which adorns itself with the specious tinsel of critical
and grammatical display. Every other method either
leaves the reader (as is the custom with most writers on
ancient history) to wander among innumerable and almost
isolated particulars, in appearance only connected together;
or leads him into errors, which captivate and bias the
judgment by their apparent beauty. Thus, for example,
it has been attempted to account for the indifference of
the ancients to productive labour and their inattention to
matters of finance, by the dominion of religion over their
minds; but (not to mention that piety accords better with
a well than an ill regulated economy) the supposition itself
is false; for neither do we find that the ancient states
attached less importance to the public income and expen-
diture, than is attributed to them at the present day; nor
that individuals had a greater disregard for worldly pos-
sessions. If the system of finance in the Grecian states
was ill regulated, the defect must be assigned to other
causes, which are to be sought for in their civil in-
stitutions. With regard to the science of Political Eco-
nomy, it was, I admit, uncultivated among the ancients:
its relations were too simple to be made the subjects
of a scientific analysis; for the ancients until the time
of Aristotle (and he also in some degree), treated the
sciences under very general heads, without allotting a par-
ticular science to each separate department of practical life.
For this reason, Aristotle in his Politics speaks both of
Education and Finance, but only as incidental and subordi-
nate topics in the Economics falsely attributed to this
10
philosopher, Political Economy is treated of scientifically,
and in the manner of Aristotle, but briefly and imperfectly.
Plato's work upon the Republic contains indeed nothing
of a system of finance; for in such ideal states as that of
Plato, a well regulated Economy was no more requisite
than an explicit Code of Laws. The ancients moreover
laid down the limits more strictly between those things
which are capable of scientific investigation, and such
as do not admit of it: but the art of finance, whilst it
rests only on uncertain conditions, teaching us how to
provide for perpetually varying wants from a perpetually
varying revenue, and how to assign to both their due
limits and proportions, in conformity with the powers and
circumstances of the state, seemed to the ancients as not
admitting of a scientific examination. Rules for practice
were not by any means wanting, although they varied
according to time and place, and were brought to unequal
degrees of perfection. Sparta, with her simple form of
government, was unfitted for the adoption of a regular
system of finance; while in Athens the expenditure and
revenue were so considerable, that attention to matters of
finance soon became imperatively necessary. But it was
not until the Persian war, that all the ramifications of her
financial institutions were finally developed; and after the
time of Alexander, they necessarily lost their peculiar cha-
racter with the loss of national independence. To the in-
terval between these two epochs my enquiries will therefore
be confined: subjects both of earlier and later date, as well as
the constitutions of other Grecian states, I only touch upon
incidentally. In Athens however, and within the period
just mentioned, the Public Economy of Greece is seen upon
its largest scale; and all the democratic states of the
Greeks had doubtless nearly similar institutions of finance,
11
with such variations only as were necessarily induced by
the peculiar situation and circumstances of individual
countries. For these reasons therefore we must the more
regret, that writings such as Aristotle's "Constitution of
Athens," and the work of Philochorus, from which de-
tailed explanations of such peculiarities might have been
looked for, have been for ever lost; and that others, as, for
example, Xenophon's Essay upon the Sources of Revenue
(TEgì Tógwv), have yielded an amount of information so
lamentably deficient.
(2.) The amount of money required for the public
Service, and how far the Income received was capable of
providing for it, together with the amount of the Revenue,
and the proportion which it bore to the means of the
People, cannot be ascertained without knowing the Prices
of commodities, the customary Wages of labour, and the
ordinary Profit and Interest of stock. Upon the last of
these subjects it is unnecessary to say much after the
labours of Salmasius: at the same time every indulgence
should be shewn to any one who attempts to give an ac-
count of the prices of commodities: for their necessary
mutability, and the uncertainty of the few sources from
which information can be derived, impede the investiga-
tion at every step; the chief authorities on this subject
being either the incidental statements of Comic poets, or
the assertions of orators, who mould every fact to suit
their particular purpose. Nor have my enquiries been as-
sisted by the labours of any previous writer¹, as Barthé-
•
• Meursius De Fort. Att. cap. IV. or Gillies' Observations upon
the History, Manners, and Character of the Greeks from the
conclusion of the Peloponnesian war until the battle of Cha-
ronea, in the Introduction, and single scattered notices cannot be
considered as forming any exception.
:
!
12
lemy 2 has allowed himself to be deterred by the apparent
difficulty of the task; although not the Roman only, but
even the Hebrew antiquity, has been subjected to such
investigations³. It will be the object therefore of the
first book to ascertain the rates of prices, wages, and
interest.
The precious metals, silver and gold, are the standard of
prices; although it is obvious that silver or gold may be
said with the same propriety, to be dearer or cheaper in
comparison with other commodities, as other commodities
to be cheaper or dearer in comparison with the precious
metals. And in fact, when we hear in ancient times of a
smaller quantity of the precious metals being given in ex-
change for other commodities, it did not arise from the
value of those commodities being less than at present, but
from the value of the metals being greater.
For the ag-
gregate stock of all commodities requisite for the purposes
of life, exclusive of gold and silver, doubtless upon an
average maintained the same proportion to the demand as
in modern times, with the exception only of particular
articles, the use of which is not indispensably necessary for
human existence: while the quantity of the precious metals
has in the course of centuries been augmented by the con-
tinued working of mines, at the same time that their dura-
² See Anacharsis, tom. VII. p. 286. 4ième éd.
3 Hamberger de pretiis rerum apud veteres Romanos dis-
putatio, Gotting. 1754. 4to. Kessenbrink über das Verhältniss
des Werths des Geldes zu den Lebensmitteln seit Constantin dem
Grossen bis zur Theilung des Reichs unter Theodosius dem
Grossen, und über desselben Einfluss. Berlin. 1777, 8vo. Both
these writings received the prize. Michaelis de pretiis rerum
apud Hebræos ante exilium Babylonicum. Comm. Soc. Reg.
Scient. Gotting. tom. III. (1753.) p. 145.
13
bility and value have on most occasions preserved them
from destruction.
(3.) The quantity of the precious metals in Greece, more
particularly that portion of them which was in circulation
as coin, although at first it increased but slowly, afterwards
experienced a more rapid augmentation, when the invasion
of Xerxes had opened the treasures of the East; and prices
rose in the same proportion; so that in the time of Demos-
thenes the value of money appears to have been five times
less than in the age of Solon. Both in Rome and in
Greece at an early period, the quantity of metals, and
particularly of gold, was very inconsiderable: in the time
of Croesus, according to Theopompus, it was not to be
procured in Greece. The Lacedæmonians, wishing to ob-
tain some gold for a sacred offering, purchased it of
Croesus, manifestly because they could not procure it
nearer home¹.
Alcmæon the Athenian laid the foundation
of the wealth of his family, when Croesus permitted him to
take as much gold out of his treasury as he could carry at
once. Even in the seventieth Olympiad gold was still a
rarity. Hiero of Syracuse, wishing to send a statue
of Victory and a tripod of pure gold to the Delphian
Apollo, was unable to procure the requisite quantity of that
metal, until his agents came to Architeles the Corinthian,
who had long bought up and collected gold in small portions,
as the same Theopompus and Phanias of Eresos relate. In
Greece proper there were not many mines of the precious
16 sqq.
47
+ Concerning Rome, see Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXIII, 5 sqq.
On the other points, see Theopomp. ap. Athen.
VI.
cf. p. 230. B. Herod. I. 69.
sqq.
p. 231 sq.
5 Herod. VI. 125.
6 Athen. VI. ubi sup.
14
metals. The most remarkable among these were the Athe-
nian silver mines of Laurion, which at first were very pro-
ductive. Thessaly contained mines of gold, Siphnos both of
silver and gold, and Epirus, which bordered upon Greece,
possessed silver mines; the same metal was also found
in Cyprus. But the mountains of Pangea upon the con-
fines of Thrace and Macedonia contained immense riches;
from them flows the Hebrus, celebrated for its golden
sands. And in addition to the gold and silver mines which
were upon the mountains themselves, the precious metals
were found on both sides of them, to the west as far as the
Strymon and Pæonia, and to the east as far as Scapte
Hyle?. Even in Pæonia, it was said that the husbandman
turned up particles of gold in ploughing 10. On the eastern
side were the important gold mines of Scapte Hyle, and the
precious metals extended across the sea as far as Thasos,
where very considerable and productive workings had been
set on foot by the Phoenicians, who had also first esta-
blished mining in that region upon the main-land, which
was afterwards taken up by the Thasians, until the Athe-
nians obtained possession of these mines ¹¹. Upon the
western side in Macedonia the mines were so productive,
that Alexander the First, the son of Amyntas, in the time
of the Persian war, received from them a talent of silver
11
7 For more on this
der Alten, p. 64 sqq.
8 Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 21. and others.
10 Strab. ut sup.
11 See book III. 3.
subject, see Reitemeier über den Bergbau
Concerning Laurion, see book III. 3.
9 Herod. VII. 112. Strab. VII. p. 228. (ed. 1587.) and else-
where. Xenoph. Hellen. V. 2. 12. Plin. Hist. Nat. VII. 57.
Athen. II. p. 42. B. Lucian. Icaromenip. 18. and the scholiast.
Clemens Alexand. &c.
15
daily 12; but the chief places were Daton and Crenides,
afterwards Philippi, which in the first year of the 105th
Olympiad was taken possession of by the Thasians; sub-
sequently however Philip of Macedon is said to have
worked the mines with so much success, that they yielded
1000 talents a year, although previously they had not been
very productive; and it was in this spot that, according to
the common belief, the gold grew again 13. When there-
fore ancient historians affirm 14 that Philip had a golden
chalice, which he guarded with such anxiety, that he laid
it under his pillow when he went to sleep; and again, that
before the time of Philip a silver vessel was a rarity; it
does not by any means follow that the quantity of precious
metal extracted from the earth was inconsiderable, for
extensive mines had long been worked both in Greece and
the neighbouring regions, and much gold and silver had
been brought over from the east; we can only infer from
these statements, that little gold had been wrought for
private use, and that luxury had not yet attained its
greatest height.
Asia and Africa furnished by far the larger proportion
of the precious metals; some also was supplied from places
which remained for a time in the possession of the Greeks;
thus, for instance, there were gold mines at Astyra, near
Abydos, which were still worked in the time of Xeno-
phon 15, but subsequently were abandoned 16. Not to dwell
upon Egypt and the rest of Africa, or many single spots
12 Herod. V. 17.
13 Strab. ut sup. Diod. XVI. 3, 8. Appian. Bell. Civ. IV. 106.
Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 15. Pseud-Arist. Mirab. Aus. cap. 42.
14 Ap. Athen. VI. ut sup.
15 Xenoph. Hellen. IV. 3. 37.
16 Strab. XIII. p. 407.
16
where the precious metals occurred, I shall only notice
some prominent points: Colchis, Lydia, and Phrygia,
were celebrated as countries rich in gold: from the
gold washings at Colchis arose the fable of the
golden fleece¹7; and who has not heard of Midas and
Gyges, and the riches of Croesus; the gold mines of
Tmolus and Sipylus, and the golden sands of the Pac-
tolus? Pythes, or Pythius, the Lydian, the prince of
Celænæ near the sources of the Mæander, the richest and
most unfortunate man of his time, possessed, according to
report, from his mines and gold washings, 2000 talents of
silver, and 3,993,000 golden darics, which Xerxes in-
creased to 4,000,000 18. If we only take the third part of
this amount as the true sum, what enormous riches are
these for a petty prince. Upon the whole there were
immense sums of money accumulated in Persia, which
prove the abundance of the precious metals, although not
in circulation. Cyrus, according to the account of Pliny 19,
acquired 34,000lbs. of gold by the conquest of Asia,
besides wrought gold and other vessels; and of silver,
which is difficult to believe, 500,000 talents, i. e. probably
Egyptian talents of eighty Roman pounds. Deducting
whatever sums might be levied by the Satraps, or consumed
in the provinces for the uses of the government, in the
time of Darius the son of Hystaspes, there flowed yearly
into the royal treasury 7600 Babylonian talents of silver20,
each of which, according to Herodotus 21, is equal to 70
17 Strab. I. p. 31. XI. p. 343. and the commentators. Plin.
Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 15.
18 Herod. VII. 28. and the commentators.
19 XXXIII. 15.
20 Herod. III, 95.
21 Herod. III. 89.
!
17
Euboic minas, altogether 88663 Euboic talents. In the text
of Herodotus, however, the whole amount is reckoned at
9540, and only one MS. gives 8800, an error which
it is now impossible to rectify. Besides this, the Indians
paid an annual tribute of 360 Euboic talents of fine gold,
which, reckoning the ratio of gold to silver as 13 to 1,
amounts to 4680 talents of silver; so that, according to
the text of the historian, the revenue of the king of Persia
amounted to 14,560, or (if we only reckon what is stated
in Herodotus according to the present reading), to 13,546
Euboic talents. From the productive mines of India, and
from its rivers, of which the sand contained particles of
gold (among which in particular the Ganges may be men-
tioned), arose the fable of the ants which dug up gold 22.
From these annual receipts the treasure of the king was
accumulated, and an immense mass of the precious metals
was thus kept out of circulation: it was obviously their
principle to coin only just so much gold and silver as was
necessary for commerce and the expences of the state 23.
Even in Greece large sums remained out of circulation,
accumulated in the treasuries. 9700 talents of coined
silver were kept in the Acropolis of Athens, besides the gold
and silver vessels. The Delphian Apollo had an immense
collection of the most precious treasures. Gyges sent many
gold and silver offerings to Delphi; among these were six
golden goblets, 30 talents in weight, which were deposited
there in the Corinthian treasury 24. Passing over the
numberless gifts of others, I shall only make mention of
22 Herod. III. 102 sqq. Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 21. and
Strabo in the 15th book in several places.
23 Strab. XV. p. 505.
24 Herod. I. 14.
VOL. I.
C
18
!
the pious munificence of Croesus 25; in addition to the
presents which he made to other temples, he offered up a
large quantity of silver at Delphi, a bowl of this metal
containing 6000 amphoræ, four silver casks, a gold and a
silver cauldron, round silver pateræ, a golden statue, three
cubits high, 117 half ingots of gold, weighing altogether,
according to Herodotus, 232 talents, of which, 4 talents
were of pure gold, and the rest alloyed (Diodorus reckons
inaccurately 120, each at two talents); a golden lion,
weighing ten talents, from which, at the burning of the
temple during the reign of Pisistratus, 3 talents of
pure gold were melted away; a golden bowl, 8 talents and
42 minas in weight; and also, according to Diodorus, 360
golden cups, each of two minas; besides many other
valuable gifts. The cups, the lion, and the female statue,
three ells in height, Diodorus reckons at 30 talents, so that
eight talents remain for the weight of the latter. If the
several items are added together, the sacred offerings of
Croesus, without counting many other precious ornaments,
amounted in gold alone to more than 271 talents, exclusive
of the gifts of which the weight is not mentioned. If we
add the rest of the gold, the account of Diodorus, that
subsequently gold coins were struck from it equal in value
to 4000 talents of silver, does not appear exaggerated.
These accumulated masses of the precious metals were
however gradually dispersed, and chiefly by the effects of
war. When the king of Persia took with him into the field
money and valuables sufficient to load 1200 camels 26, the
misfortunes of his army enriched the Greeks in a correspond-
15 Herod. I. 50 sqq. Diod. XVI. 56. To examine what Wes-
seling says upon the latter passage would lead me too far.
26 Demosth. de Symmor. p. 185.
19
ing proportion; and history has recorded many instances
of persons who in this manner laid the foundation of their
prosperity. The great King and his Satraps were soon
compelled to pay large sums of gold to the Grecian merce-
naries, and to deal out presents and bribes. Sparta alone
received more than 5000 talents from the Persians, for the
purposes of war 27. All the treasures that Athens had
collected were dispersed into many hands by the numerous
buildings undertaken by Pericles, together with the ex-
pences of which he was author, for works of statuary,
for theatrical spectacles, and military expeditions. The
sacrilegious Phocians coined 10,000 talents in gold and
silver from the treasures of Delphi, which were all dissi-
pated by the war 28; and, lastly, Philip of Macedon carried
on his campaigns as much by the power of gold as of
arms. Thus an immense quantity of gold came into cir-
culation between the time of the Persian war and the age
of Demosthenes; and the precious metals must necessarily
have fallen in value, as they did subsequently, when
Constantine the Great caused money to be coined from
the treasures of the Heathen temples 29. How
How great how-
ever must have been the mass of the precious metals which
was carried into the West by Alexander's conquest of
Asia! admitting that the accounts of his historians are
exaggerated, the chief point still remains unquestionable.
Besides what was found in the camp and in Babylon, the
treasures of Susa and Persis are reckoned at forty, or, ac-
27 Isocr. cvμpax. 32.
28 Diod. ut sup. Athen. VI. p. 231. D.
29 Monitio ad Theodos. Aug. de inhibenda largitate Thes.
Ant. Rom. vol. XI. p. 14, 15. according to Taylor's explanation
ad Marm. Sandwic. p. 38.
20
cording to others, at fifty thousand talents 30. The treasure
of Pasargadæ is stated at 6000; of Persepolis at 120,000
talents; and upon the whole, according to the account
preserved in Strabo, 180,000 talents are said to have been
collected from all parts to Ecbatana³¹; 8000, which Darius
had with him, were taken by his murderers. The generosity
and profusion of Alexander are in accordance with such
enormous sums. The daily meals of this sovereign cost 100
minas; he gave great rewards to his soldiers, and paid their
debts amounting to 9870 talents; he offered 100 talents
to Phocion, and presented 2000 to the Thessalians; the
funeral of Hephæstion is said to have cost 12,000 talents,
and Aristotle's researches into natural history 800 32. He
levied in Asia an annual revenue of 30,000 talents, and
only left behind him a treasure of 50,000 33. The riches
of his Satraps were also excessive; Harpalus is said to
have amassed 50,000 talents, although at Athens he only
owned to the possession of 950 34. Alexander's successors
not only accumulated enormous sums, but by means of
their wars set them again in circulation. The plates of
gold and silver in the palace at Ecbatana were mostly
taken away in the time of Alexander: Antigonus and
Seleucus Nicator completed the robbery; notwithstanding
which, Antiochus the Great was able to coin nearly 4000
30 Strab. XV. p. 502. Arrian. III. 3. Justin. XI. 14. Curt.
V. 2. Plutarch. Alex. 36.
31 Strab. ut sup. and others.
32 Concerning the debts of the soldiers and of Phocion, see
Plut. Alex. 70. Phoc. 18. the other statements are well known
from Rambach on Potter. vol. III. p. 186, 187.
33 Justin. XIII. 1. and the commentators.
34 Diod. XVII. 108. Lives of the Ten Orators, p. 264. in the
Tübingen Plutarch.
21
talents from the few ingots of gold which remained, those
of silver being more numerous, together with the gold
obtained from the chasing of the columns of a temple 35
The immense taxes which were raised in the kingdom of
Macedonia, and the unbounded extravagance and libe-
rality of the kings, are a proof that there must have
been an immense mass of money in circulation. The
presents made by the kings of this time to the Rho-
dians, when about the 140th Olympiad their town and
island were laid waste by an earthquake, are almost with-
out example 36. One festival of the Ptolemies did not cost
less than 2239 talents, 50 minas 37. The expence which
they incurred for their naval force and other public objects
was extraordinary. Appian 38 states upon the authority of
official documents, that the treasure of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, the second king after Alexander, amounted to
740,000 talents, either Egyptian talents of 80 Roman
pounds, or the small Ptolemaic 39. If we take the former,
which were about equal to the Attic, it gives, in the money
of the present day, the enormous sum of £178,868,333;
if they were the small talents, it amounts at least to a fourth
part of this number. An account of this kind appears fabu-
lous; but I venture not to call its credibility into question.
Let it be remembered, that a great part of this treasure
was wrought silver and gold 40; that the revenues of the
Ptolemies were excessive, as the countries where their domi-
nion extended were completely drained; the taxes and tri-
35 Polyb. X. 27.
36 Polyb. V. 88, 89.
37 Athen. V. p. 203. B.
38 Hist. Rom. proœm. 10.
39 Upon this point see the commentators of Pollux, IX. 86.
4º Cf. e. g. Callixen. ap. Athen. V. p. 196-203.
22
+
41
butes were collected by the farmers of the revenue, with the
assistance of an armed force, consisting not of regular sol-
diers, but of organized bands of robbers. The revenues of
Colesyria, Phoenicia, and Judæa together with Samaria,
were alone let by Ptolemy Euergetes for 8000 talents; and
if a Jew purchased them, he had to pay a double amount,
and moreover to furnish into the royal treasury ¹¹ the money
required for the redemption of the confiscated goods of
such persons as had not paid their taxes. In short, the
precious metals in the times of the Macedonian Empire
were spread in great abundance over the eastern shore of
the Mediterranean; and if there had not been so much
that was either wrought, or hoarded up in treasuries, their
value must have fallen far lower in comparison with other
commodities, than was actually the case.
The universal dominion of the Romans afterwards trans-
ported some part of the riches of the East to Italy, by which
Greece was impoverished: thither also flowed the silver
and the gold of western Europe. The golden stream-works
and gold mines of Italy were neglected in comparison with
those of France and Spain. The Po, and all the Alpine
torrents, carried down gold: there were extensive gold
mines in the territory of the Salassi, an Alpine nation. Not
far from Aquileia, gold, nearly in a state of purity, was
found at the depth of two feet, of the size of a bean or a
lupine, of which only the eighth part went to dross, toge-
ther with other impurer metal, which was however pro-
vided in plenty by only digging to the depth of fifteen feet,
as Strabo and Polybius relate. The neighbouring coun-
tries were also possessed of gold-washings. In the reign
of Nero, 50lbs. of gold were for a considerable period
4 Joseph. Antiq. Jud. XII. 4.
3
23
extracted daily from the mines of Dalmatia. France
abounded in gold mines, of which some produced only a
thirtieth part of silver: it had also silver mines. The
mountains and rivers of Spain, as for example the Tajo,
contained much precious metal, and had been worked by
the Carthaginians before they fell into the hands of the
Romans. Private individuals gained in plentiful times an
Euboic talent of silver within three days; and the silver
furnaces of New Carthage, which together with the mines
kept 40,000 men in employment, produced to the Roman
people 25,000 denarii per diem, or, as Polybius expresses
himself, 25,000 drachmas. Gallaecia, Lusitania, and espe-
cially Asturia, produced for many years 20,000lbs. of
gold 42. The value of the precious metals did not however
fall in proportion to their increase, as large quantities,
wrought for works of art, were taken out of circulation.
(4.) Coined metal, or money, is, as well as uncoined
metal, a commodity; and it is obvious that in the ancient
days of Greece, as well as in modern times, it would be an
object of trade with the money-changers. If we exclude
the arbitrary value which individual states are able to give
to a particular kind of coin for the use of their own
citizens, the current value of money is determined by the
fineness of the standard: and upon this point, in reference
42 Every thing that is here said may be found in Strabo, in the
third, fourth, and fifth books, in Pliny in the thirteenth, and in
Diodorus in the fifth, particularly in chap. 27, and 36. Who-
ever wishes to obtain more precise information with regard to the
situations of the mines in ancient times, will find a satisfactory
account in Reitemeier's Treatise über den Bergbau der Alten.
I have only here incidentally mentioned the subject. Concerning
the Spanish mines, Bethe, de Hispaniæ antiquæ re metallica, ad
locum Strabonis lib. III. is worth referring to.
24
to the Greeks, and to Athens in particular, I will only say
so much as appears necessary to make what follows intel-
ligible to the reader. In Attica, and in almost all the
Grecian states, and even out of Greece, the talent con-
tained 60 minas, the mina 100 drachmas, the drachma 6
oboli. At Athens the obolus was divided into 8 chalcûs, and
the chalcûs into 7 lepta. As far as the half obolus down-
wards, the Athenian money was generally coined in silver:
the dichalcon, or obolus, either in silver or copper; the
chalcûs, and the smaller coins, only in copper. Upon a
single occasion, in the early times of the Republic, copper
was coined instead of silver, probably oboli, but they did
not long remain in circulation 43. When in later writers, in
Lucian¹¹ for instance, we read of copper oboli, they should
not on any account be considered as ancient Athenian
money. Among the larger silver coins, the tetradrachms
are the most common, called also staters 15. The value of
the Attic silver talent has been differently determined by
different writers, as they set out upon the weight and fine-
ness of different tetradrachms; for all agree that the early
coins are better than the more recent. According to the
enquiries of Barthélemy 16, which seem preferable to those
of Eckhel 47, the ancient tetradrachms, coined in the flou-
rishing times of Athens, weigh 328 Paris grains (nearly
46
43 See chap. 6. near the end.
44 Vol. I. p. 504. ed. Reiz.
45 According to Heron of Alexandria, who has been already
quoted by others. The same is evident from Hesych. in v.
γλαὺξ, cf. in v. γλαῦκες Λαυριωτικαί. Phot. in v. στατὴς, and Lex.
Seg. p. 253. in v. zirgirais, comp. Harpocrat. in the same word,
and lastly Lex. Seg. p. 307. in v. Teтgadgaxμov.
46 Anachars. tom. VII. table XIV.
47 D. N. vol. I. p. xlv sqq.
25
269 Troy grains, i. e. about 674 to a drachma), if we
reckon in four grains, which they might have lost by wear
in the course of so many centuries. The silver is nearly
pure, for Athens did not, like other states, alloy it with
lead or copper, on which account this money was particu-
larly valued, and every where exchanged with profit 48.
It appears however probable, that the average was not so
high as represented by Barthélemy, even without allowing
four grains for wear; and that it is safer to take the Attic
drachma at 65 Troy grains; which, as the shilling con-
tains about 80 grains of pure silver, is nearly equal
to 9 d. of English coinage; whence the mina amounts to
£4 0s. 6d. and the talent to £241 13s. 4d.ª It may
be moreover observed, that as the Romans reckoned in
sesterces, so the Greeks generally reckoned in drachmas;
48 Xenoph. de Vectig. 3. cf. Aristoph. Ran. 730-736. Polyb.
XXII. 15, 26.
G
a The translator has taken the liberty of deviating from the
author in adapting this calculation to English money, and has
preferred the data furnished by Mr. Knight in his Prolegomena
to Homer (§. 56.) to the estimate of Barthélemy, which is fol-
lowed in the original. The statement referred to is this:
"Drachmæ Ægineticæ, quas vidi conservatissimas, tum ipsius
Eginæ tum Thebarum, Tanagræ, Elidis, et Phocidis, granorum
xcv. plus minusve erant singula; et didrachmæ cxc. quum
drachmæ Athenarum et Alexandri Magni lxv.; didrachmæ, quæ
rarissimæ, cxxx. sint." The Æginetan drachma contained ten,
the Attic six, oboli; therefore their values are to one another in
a ratio of 20 to 12; the ratio of their weights (as stated by
Mr. Knight) is 19 to 13. This therefore is an additional reason
for not taking the average Attic drachma at more than 65 grains.
The author at first makes an allowance for seignorage, but after-
wards properly remarks, that we have no reason for supposing
that the Athenians imposed any.
26
A
and where a sum is mentioned in the Attic writers, with-
out any specification of the unit, drachmas are always
meant 49
Before the time of Solon, the weight of the Attic money
was greater than in the standard that was afterwards used.
The weights commonly employed in trade were also in
later times heavier than those by which the money was
measured. Comparing these facts together, it may be
assumed with the greatest probability, that Solon intended
100 drachmas to be coined out of 75, but that the new
money proved in fact rather too much debased, so that
100 new drachmas were only equal to 7233 of the old
coinage; the old weights being however retained for every
thing except money 50. In comparison with the heavy
drachma of Ægina (dgaxµǹ taxɛĩa), the Attic is called the
light drachma (ogaxμn EπT); the former was equal to ten
Attic oboli; so that the Æginetan talent weighed rather
more than 10,000 Attic drachmas 51. The Corinthian
talent was equal to the latter in value 52; the Corinthians
however had staters or decalitras of ten Æginetan oboli in
weight 53, 300 of which were consequently equal to the
Corinthian talent. The computation by litras was trans-
mitted from Corinth to Syracuse; therefore the Sicilian
litra, which was struck in silver, was equal to an Æginetan
49 Thus διακόσιαι, χίλιαι, δισχίλιαι, &c. in the orators and else-
where. See Taylor ad Marm. Sandwic. p. 29, 30.
5º See note (A) at the end of the book.
51 Pollux IX. 76, 86. and the commentators. Hesych. in
v. λεπτὰς and παχείᾳ δραχμῇ.
ห
52 Gell. Noct. Att. I. 8. whether the words ráλavrov are genuine
or interpolated: in the latter case they are a learned interpre-
tation.
53 Pollux IV. 175. IX, 81.
27
obolus, according to the statement of Aristotle 54. Pro-
bably the Sicilian nummus was the same as the litra. The
accounts of Aristotle 55, who only estimates the nummus
at 14 Attic oboli, and of Festus, who, according to the
same proportion, reckons twelve nummi to three denarii
(whereas the litra was equal to 13 Attic oboli), are perhaps
inaccurate, although they may come near the real value
of the coin, if, as is probable, the Syracusan nummi or
litras, of the same weight as the Æginetan oboli, were
struck from less fine silver than the Attic drachmas.
24 nummi of this kind composed, according to Aristotle,
the old, 12 the new Syracusan or Sicilian talent, which
last Festus makes equal to three denarii 56. According to
our supposition therefore, the former was equal to four,
and the latter to two Æginetan drachmas, both doubtless,
like the decalitron, being coined in silver. Why so small
a sum was called a talent, I shall not attempt to decide;
remarking only, that by a similar idiom small golden
drachmas were called talents 57.
+
The ancient writers frequently reckon in Euboic talents,
which appear to have come into use in the Italian colonies
of Magna Græcia, chiefly on account of the spreading of
54 Pollux IV. 174, 175. IX. 80, 81. cf. Salmas. de Modo
Usur. VI. p. 242.
55 Ap. Polluc. IX. 87,
56 Pollux IX. 87. Suidas in v. ráλavrov, where, according to
the correct observation of Scaliger, vouwv should be read instead
of μvav, as well as in the intricate passage of the Scholiast to
Gregor. Naz. which Jungermann quotes at the place in Pollux.
A small talent of this kind, probably only of 12 nummi, is that
which occurs in the account of the Gymnasia of the Tauromenitani
in d'Orville's Siculis, and in Castello the Prince of Torremuzza.
57 See chap. 5.
28
3
the Chalcideans, and which for that reason frequently occur
in the treaties of the Romans with other nations, as well as
in Herodotus, who evidently composed or altered many
parts of his History after his migration to Thurii.
In addition to these values, it would be desirable, for
the sake of many statements of which we must avail our-
selves, to ascertain the amount of the Egyptian and Alex-
andrian talents; but we here meet with obscure and con-
tradictory statements. The chief difficulty would be re-
moved were the difference between the Egyptian and Alex-
andrian talents ascertained. According to Varro 58, the
Egyptian talent was equal to 80 Roman pounds, and
therefore must have been absolutely or nearly identical
with the Attic, as the Attic mina was to the Roman pound
nearly as four to three 59. This must have been totally dif
GOG
58
Ap. Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 15.
59 The Roman senate reckoned the Attic talent, or 60 minas,
as equal to 80 Roman pounds. Liv. XXXVIII. 38. Polyb. XXII.
26. According to the testimonies of the ancients in Eckhel,
D. N. vol. V. part II, p. 6. there were 84 denarii in the Roman
pound, and not till the time of Nero, 96. (see Eisenschmid de
Pond. et Mens. p. 33.) but the old denarius of Augustus was to
the Attic drachma as 8 to 9; consequently 743, or, in round
numbers, 75 drachmas, were equal to a Roman pound. We
sometimes read in ancient writers, that a Roman pound was
equal in weight to 84 drachmas, which is sufficiently accounted
for by the inexactitude of almost all ancient authors, who used
drachmas and denarii, on account of their small difference
(9 and 8) as convertible terms. According to Romé de l'Isle's
accurate researches, founded upon the weighing of golden de-
narii, the Roman pound weighed 6048 Paris grains: hence the
Attic mina must have weighed 8064, whereas, if the tetradrachm
is taken at 328 Paris grains, the mina contained 8200. It must
however be remembered, that it was assumed that the tetra-
1
29
ferent from the talent mentioned by Pollux60, which was
equal to 1500 Attic drachmas, but otherwise, like all
talents, was divided similarly to the Attic. This is cor-
roborated by the statement of Hiero, who only assigns a
fourth part of the value of the Attic talent to the Pto-
lemaic, which appears to have been the same
same as the
small Egyptian talent: the very same authority, however,
reckons the Ptolemaic mina as the fifth part of the Ægi-
netan, which again does not agree; not to mention, that,
in the confusion of language which prevailed at Alexan-
dria in later times, the name of drachma was given to coins
of the value of an Athenian obolus. But, according to
Festus 61, whose text is so corrupt that no reliance can be
placed upon his authority, the Alexandrian talent was
equal to 12,000 denarii. The safest way, in my opinion,
drachm had lost four grains by time, which Romé de l'Isle, in
computing the weight of the denarius, probably did not take into
account; and then it will be found, that the difference nearly
vanishes, and Romé de l'Isle's enquiries concerning the Roman
pound agree tolerably well with the proportion of the latter to the
Attic mina as three to four. It is besides worthy of remark, that
Ideler's accurate determination of the Roman foot tallies remark-
ably with Romé de l'Isle's determination of the pound. See
Memoirs of the Berlin Academy of Sciences for 1812 and 1813.
Thus perhaps the supposition that the tetradrachms had lost four
grains of their weight might be modified (see note a, p. 25.),
and on the other hand, some grains might be added to the
Roman pound over 6048. The supposition of some writers, that
the Romans had two different pounds, is entirely unfounded, at
least as far as money is concerned.
60 IX. 86. where the commentators should be consulted upon
what immediately follows.
61 In v. talentum, which passage however appears very uncer-
tain.
30
is to consider the Alexandrian talent as something less
than the Attic, although there were at Alexandria many
other talents of less amount, which were used at certain
times and for certain purposes. For, according to the
assertion of Appian, the Euboic talent was equal to 7000
Alexandrian drachmas 62; but the Euboic talent, as far as
I am able to discover, was only somewhat greater than the
Attic; consequently the Alexandrian talent appears to
have been to the Attic, nearly as six to seven. As to the
Euboic talent, Herodotus 63, if the present reading is cor-
rect, reckons that the Babylonian talent contained 70 Eu-
boic minas, Pollux 7000 Attic drachmas 64. Here then
the Attic and Euboic talents are considered as equal.
According to Ælian 65 on the contrary, the Babylonian
talent contained 72 Attic minas, a statement which is
evidently of more weight than the uncertain account of
Pollux; and it thence follows, that the Euboic talent was
somewhat greater than the Attic. At the same time this
statement may not be mathematically accurate; for ac-
cording to it the Attic talent is to the Euboic as 72 to
75 (70 to 72), agreeably to Herodotus' computation of the
Babylonian talent in Euboic minas. It is probable how-
ever, that Solon, when he wished so to change the Attic
money, that 100 drachmas should be coined from the same
quantity of silver as had formerly been made into 75, in-
tended to make the Attic silver talent equal to the Eu-
boic, which had been for a long time in general circulation.
According to this supposition, the Euboic talent would,
62 Appian. Hist. Sicil. II. 2.
63 III. 89.
64 Pollux IX. 86.
65 Hist. Var. I. 22.
31
:
before the time of Solon, have been to the Attic talent in
the ratio of 75 to 100. Since however the money of Solon
proved actually to be to the ancient Attic money in the
ratio of 72% to 100, strictly speaking, the new Attic silver
talent must have been to the Euboic as 72% to 75, that is,
as 70 to 72% but as, upon an average, the new Attic
was to the old Attic talent as 73 to 100 6, in the same
manner it might be assumed, that the proportion of the
new Attic to the Euboic was, in round numbers, as 73 to
75, which nearly coincides with the ratio obtained from
Herodotus and Elian, of 72 to 75, or 70 to 72. This
method of viewing the subject agrees so well in all its par-
ticulars, that it relieves me from the trouble of entering
into a more minute investigation of the confused and cor-
rupt passage of Festus upon the Euboic talent 67. On the
other hand, the similarity of the Attic and Euboic talents
66 See note (A) at the end of the book.
stater.
67 Euboicum talentum nummo Græco septem millium et quin-
gentorum cistophororum est, nostro quattuor millia denariorum.
Both statements are false. As to the cistophori, they weigh on
an average 240 Paris grains, consequently they were less than
the Æginetan double-drachmas, and greater than the Corinthian
Nevertheless it seems to me probable, that the cistophori
were regulated according to one of these two coins, a point which
cannot however be explicitly investigated in this place. The
weight of the cistophori stated above is not then perhaps suffici-
ently accurate. I may remark here incidentally, that the ac-
count of the Etymologist in v. Evßöïxòv vóμsoµa, which states it to
have been named from a place in Argos, where Pheidon first
coined gold, is fabulous, for the Euboic standard was too widely
spread to have derived its name from thence; and if Pheidon
had been the author of it, the Eginetan standard could not have
been different from it. That Pheidon coined gold at all is also
unquestionably a fable.
32
seems to be additionally confirmed by the circumstance,
that, in the negociations between the Romans and Anti-
ochus, the calculations were at first made in Euboic, and
afterwards in Attic talents of 80 Roman pounds 68: for it
is probable, that nearly the same standard of money was
retained, as the whole amount might have been diminished,
and was in fact diminished, by demanding a less number of
talents than before.
(5.) The value of gold is more variable than that of
silver, which therefore may be considered as a standard of
price for gold as well as for other commodities 69. In Eu-
ropean Greece there were many gold coins in circulation,
and more especially belonging to foreign states, of which I
will now only mention the most important. Gold, and
probably silver, was first coined in Lydia 70, in which
country Croesus caused the stater called by his name to
be coined, at a time when Greece was extremely poor in
gold. If Polycrates of Samos really deceived the Spartans
with false gold coins about the 60th Olympiad, which He-
rodotus 71 indeed considered an idle tale, the Greeks at
that time could have seen but little coined gold; for
even the Lacedæmonians would not have been deceived
by so clumsy a fraud. Soon after that period, Darius
the son of Hystaspes coined darics of the finest gold 72,
which passed over into the circulation of Greece. Their
68 Compare Polyb. XXI. 14. Liv. XXXVII. 45. with Polyb.
XXII, 26. Liv. XXXVIII. 38.
69 It is upon this notion that Xenophon's encomium upon
silver (de Vectig. 4.) is evidently founded.
70 Herod. I. 94.
71 Herod. III. 56.
72 Herod. IV. 166. It may be also observed, that there were
silver darics. Plutarch. Cim. 10.
33
weight, which Philip of Macedon, Alexander, and Lysi-
machus retained, was equal to two Attic drachmas, both
according to the testimonies of writers who make them the
same as the Attic golden stater, and the ascertained weight
of coins now extant 73; whence their value is fixed by the
grammarians at twenty silver drachmas, and five are rec-
koned to a mina, and 300 to a talent 74, according to the
ratio of gold to silver as 10 to 1. That the Athenian
golden stater also weighed two drachmas, and was esti-
mated at twenty silver drachmas, is proved by good au-
thorities 75: according to this value, 5000 staters are in
the calculation of Conon's property in Lysias computed at
about 100,000 drachmas 76. But as no undoubted Attic
stater has been preserved to our days 77, Eckhel has ques-
tioned the fact of it's ever having been coined 78; not only
however does Pollux 79 enumerate the golden stater among
73 Harpocr. in v. Aaguxòs, and thence Suidas, Schol. Aristoph.
Ecclesiaz. 598. Lex. Seg. p. 237. Comp. Barthélemy Mém. de
l'Académie des Inscript. vol. XLVII. p. 201, 202. Eckhel. D. N.
vol. I. p. XLI.
74 Harpocr. Schol. Aristoph. and Lex. Seg. ut sup. Xenoph.
Anab. I. 8. 14. Harpocration also states in this passage, that
the Attic Chrysus was equal to 20 drachmas.
75 Polemarch. ap. Hesych. Poll. IV. 173.
76 Lysias pro Aristoph. bonis p. 639. ed. Reiske. The pro-
perty of Conon amounted, according to this passage, to about 40
talents; and it consisted of 5000 staters, and three other sums
of 10,000 drachmas, 3 talents, and 17 talents. If the 5000
staters are reckoned at 100,000 drachmas, the sum is equal to
38 talents, which agrees perfectly with the expression, "about
40 talents."
77 See Barthélemy ut sup. p. 206.
78 D. N. vol. I. p. XLI sqq. vol. II. p. 206, 207.
79 Poll. IX. 58. [The following passage of Aristophanes ap-
VOL. I.
D
#
34
coins upon the authority of Eupolis, but we know with cer-
tainty that gold coins were issued at Athens, and more espe-
cially in the Archonship of Antigenes, one year before the
Frogs of Aristophanes (Olymp. 93. 2.) that money was
coined from the golden statues of Victory, which Aristopha-
nes, as they were much debased with copper, calls wretched
pieces of copper 80. The most common golden staters, be-
sides those of Croesus, Attica, and Persia, were the Pho-
caic and Cyzicenic, which have likewise been falsely taken
for imaginary coins by writers on ancient money. The
probable reason why none are extant, is, that the Mace-
donian kings supplanted all the gold coins of the cities by
melting them down, in order that, with the exception of
the darics, there should be no gold coin which did not
bear their image. The Phocaic stater occurs, both in
inscriptions and in writers, as coined money 81; nor can it
می
pears decisive. It is from the Plutus (v. 816.) where Carion is
describing the sudden increase of wealth caused by the arrival of
the god of riches: στατῆρσι δ' οἱ θεράποντες ἀρτιάζομεν χρυσοῖς.]
80 Aristoph. Ran. 731. and the scholiast upon the authority of
Philochorus, and Suidas in v. χαλείον. Suidas in v. γλαυξ ἵπταται,
and Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1091. state, that the Attic gold coins
had the device of the owl. This may be very true; but the
passages can prove nothing, as in the same writer, as well as in
Hesychius in v. Aaigua, the mines of Laurion are taken for gold
mines, and consequently the owls of Laurion for gold coins,
whereas they are silver coins. See my Essay upon the Silver
Mines of Laurion, in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for
1815.
81 Zτarnę Buxarùs Demosth. in Boot. de dote, p. 1019. 15.
Qaxairns Thucyd. IV. 52. Two Phocaic staters as a sacred
offering in Inscript. 150. (t. I. p. 231. ed. Boeckh.) placed toge-
ther with other Phocaic coins, can no more be unstamped or
imaginary coins, than the Æginetan stater in the same Inscrip-
35
be supposed, that silver pieces are meant, as the idea of a
gold coin is inseparably associated with the name of Pho-
caic stater. Its weight is unknown; it passed however as
the least valuable gold coin 82. Also, that the Cyzicenic
staters were coined money, is proved from many passages
of ancient writers. In the oration of Demosthenes against
Lacritus, a hundred Cyzicenic staters are expressly men-
tioned as coined money 83.
money 85. The same orator says of Mei-
dias, that he had stolen more than five talents in Cyzicenic
staters from the funds of the Paralos 84, where it is impos-
sible that he can mean an imaginary coin. Lysias reckons
among his ready money 400 Cyzicenic staters, with 100
darics and three talents of silver; and, according to another
passage in the same orator, 30 Cyzicenic staters were actu-
ally paid down 85. The troops in the Pontus, according to
the account given in the Anabasis of Xenophon, were
sometimes paid in Cyzicenic staters, and at other times in
tion, the false staters in Inscript. 151. (ibid.), and the tetra-
drachm in Inscript. 139.
82 Hesych. in v. Daxais, calls this rò xάxiorov xevolov, whether
staters or parts of staters (perhaps exrai Dwxaïdes, as in Inscript.
150. (ut sup.) are meant. Concerning the Phocaic stater as a
coin, see also Pollux IX. 93.
& P. 935. 13. ὅτι ἑκατὸν στατῆρες Κυζικηνοὶ περιγένοιντο, καὶ τοῦτο
τὸ χρυσίον δεδανεικὼς εἴη, &c. Χρυσίον and ἀργυρίον in the ancient
writers always mean small, that is, coined or wrought, gold and
silver.
rr
84 In Mid. p. 570. 15. ὅτι τῆς μὲν Παράλου ταμιεύσας Κυζικηνῶν
ἥρπασε πλείω ἢ πέντε τάλαντα. [The author corrects himself in the
Addenda, and mentions that the meaning of this passage is not
"that Meidias stole more than five talents in Cyzicenics, but
that he stole more than five talents from the Cyzicenians, as is
properly remarked by Ulpian."]
$5 In Eratosth. p. 391. in Diogit. p. 894 sqq. cf. p. 903.
36
darics; these staters are also mentioned as coins in several
inscriptions. Hesychius, Suidas, and Photius, also describe
the impression of the Cyzicenic stater, which upon one side
was a female figure of the mother of the gods, who was
worshipped at Sipylus, and upon the reverse, the forepart
of a lion; and can it be supposed, that by this any other
Cyzicenic stater than the common gold one is meant?
Lastly, Demosthenes 86 remarks, that 120 Cyzicenic staters
passed in the Bosporus for 3360 Attic drachmas, one
for twenty-eight; probably not because their weight was
greater than two drachmas, but because the value of gold
was then higher in that country, being to silver in the
ratio of 14 to 1. Each gold stater probably weighed about
two drachmas. Lysimachus and others, however, coined
double and quadruple staters 87; and there were also half
pieces of the same coin (xguro)88. Scaliger 89 considers
the Damaretion to have been a half stater, which Damarete,
the wife of Gelon and the daughter of Theron, according
to Diodorus, caused to be coined about the 75th Olym-
piad from the crown of a hundred talents, that the Car-
thaginians presented to her at the conclusion of peace, or,
according to Pollux, from the ornaments of the women,
which they had surrendered to defray the expences of the
war with the Carthaginians 9º. Other learned writers have
expressed their astonishment at this supposition; but Sca-
liger's remark is perfectly accurate; for the Damaretion
86 In Phorm. p. 914. 11. ὁ δὲ Κυζικηνὸς ἐδύνατο ἐκεῖ εἴκοσι καὶ ὀκτὼ
δραχμὰς ᾿Αττικάς: and 13. τῶν μὲν γὰς ἑκατὸν καὶ εἴκοσι στατήρων
γίγνονται τρὶς χίλιαι τριακόσιαι ἑξήκοντα.
87 Eckhel D. N. vol. I. p.
88 Poll. VI. 161. IX. 59.
L.
89 De re numm. p. 13, 17.
9º Diod. XI. 26. Poll. IX. 85. Schol. Pind. Olymp. II. 29.
37
was equal in. value to ten Attic drachmas, and was thus
only half the common stater. The Sicilians called this
gold coin Pentecontalitron, from its weight 91, as Diodorus
asserts. Since however 50 Sicilian litras were equal to 13
drachmas 5 oboli of the Attic standard, it is evident that
the weight in gold of the Damaretion cannot be meant
(which could only be a drachma), but the weight of silver
which in Sicily was equal in value to the Damaretion.
The Damaretion being equal to 10 Attic drachmas ac-
cording to the decuple proportion of gold to silver, the
Sicilians, among whom gold was probably higher, made it
equal to 50 silver litras, at the ratio of 13% to 1. Golden
Æginetan staters likewise occur92, but nothing is known of
their weight.
The meaning of the terms talent and mina, when applied
to gold, has been frequently a subject of enquiry. Ac-
cording to Pollux95, the gold stater was equal in value to a
a mina; a statement which seems wholly inexplicable, unless,
with Rambach 94, we understand gold coins of eight or ten
drachmas in weight, which would certainly agree with the
value of a silver mina. But Pollux is speaking with parti-
cular reference to the common gold stater of two drachmas
in weight; unless then he confuses the entire question, ac-
cording to some method or other of computing, a weight of
two drachmas of gold must have been called a mina. That
however, in speaking of gold, an entirely different language
must have existed, is probable from the circumstance that
the same grammarian in two other places 95 calls three
οι ᾿Απὸ τοῦ σταθμοῦ.
⁹ See Inscript. 150. §. 43. tom. I. p. 231. ed. Boeckh.
93 IX. 57.
⁹4 On Potter vol. III. p. 169.
95 IV. 173. IX. 53, 54.
38
Attic gold staters, or a chrysûs, a talent of gold. The
reason which prevents me from receiving the emendation
proposed by Salmasius 96 is, that Pollux repeats the same
statement twice. I am therefore inclined to follow the
opinion of J. F. Gronov 97, that a weight of six drachmas
of gold was called a talent, according to an idiom customary
upon certain occasions, perhaps, as it has been conjectured,
because this was the value of a talent of copper, the ratio
of gold to copper being as 1000 to 1. This small gold
talent could only have contained three minas, each two
drachmas in weight. This supposition is completely esta-
blished by the fact of the talent of Thyateira being equal to
three gold staters 98; and Eustathius even calls two chrysûs,
and Hero of Alexandria one chrysûs, a talent. Probably
the goldsmiths reckoned by these small talents; and when
we read of golden crowns of many talents in weight, this
smaller kind is doubtless intended. Who can believe that
the Carthaginians presented to Damarete a crown of a
hundred talents of gold 99, if a talent of gold were the
usual weight of the silver talent, or even only a portion of
gold equal in weight to the value of a silver talent? Are
we to suppose, that the inhabitants of the Chersonese
would have given a crown of 60 talents to the senate and
96 Instead of reus xęvrouc (r′) he writes reianorious or T', as 300
chrysûs, according to the decuple proportion of gold to silver,
are equal to a talent of silver. If the text is to be altered,
τρισχιλίους might be written for τρεῖς, from which the compendium
of the former word is not very different; 3000 gold staters are
equal in weight to a talent.
97 De Pec. Vet. III. 7.
98 Lex. Seg. p. 306.
99 Diod. XI. 26.
>
39
people of the Athenians 100, if the silver and gold talents
were of the same weight? and how vast must the size of
such crowns have been? And even if we suppose that 100
talents of gold were equal to 600 gold drachmas, and 60
talents of gold to 360 drachmas, these crowns still remain
of considerable weight. Excepting the crown of Jupiter
at Tarracona, 15lbs. in weight, and that which the Car-
thaginians sent to the Capitoline Jupiter in the year of the
city 412, of 25lbs. of gold (1875 Attic drachmas), and the
immense one in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, of
10,000 gold staters (which, at a festival in the time of that
king, was laid upon the throne of Ptolemy Soter), together
with another, 80 cubits in length, of gold and precious
stones, I find no example of such large crowns as those
two were, even if they only weighed 600 and 360 drachmas.
In the Acropolis of Athens there were golden crowns of 17,
181, of 20, and 25 drachmas or rather more; also another
of 26; four of which the joint weight was 135 drachmas;
one of 29, others of 33, 59, and 85 drachmas. A crown,
which the celebrated Lysander sent as a sacred offering to
the Parthenon of Athens, weighed 66 drachmas 5 oboli.
Two crowns, honorary gifts to Minerva of the Acropolis,
weighed, the one 245 drachmas 14 oboli, the other 272
drachmas 3 oboli. Another for the same goddess weighed
232 drachmas 5 oboli. A crown, dedicated to the Delphian
Apollo at the great festival which was celebrated every
fourth year, cost only 1500 drachmas of silver; and con-
sequently, if the workmanship is estimated at the lowest
100 Demosth. de Corona p. 256. 25. Concerning the crown
at Tarracona, see Suetonius in the Life of Galba cap. 12. the
gift of the Carthaginians to the Capitoline Jupiter Liv. VII. 38.
Concerning the crown of Ptolemy see Athen. V. p. 202. B. D.
40
possible rate, can hardly have weighed a hundred drachmas
of gold 101. According to these facts then, the talents in
which the weight of the Carthaginian and Chersonetan
crowns is stated, must have been small talents of six
drachmas of gold. Yet there can be no question but that
as much gold as was equal to the value of a silver talent, is
often called a talent of gold; as also that a quantity of
gold weighing 6000 drachmas was known by the same
name; which therefore in this case is manifestly inde-
pendent of any relation to the value of silver 102.
(6.) The usual price of gold can be as well determined
from the data already cited, as from other authorities.
The most frequent proportion in ancient times appears to
have been that of ten to one, as follows from what has been
said concerning the stater which weighed two drachmas ;
and although the lowness of this ratio does at first sight
appear surprising, when we consider the scarcity of gold
in early times, it must be remembered that the quantity
of silver in circulation was very inconsiderable 103. The
101 Inscript. 150. §. 13. 141. §. 11. and 139. 1. 20. 141. §. 15,
20. 150. §. 16. 141. §. 10. 139. 1. 21, 22. 150. §. 14, 15, 12.
also 150. §. 40, 10. 151. 1. 28, 29. and 145. ed. Boeckh.
102 Herod. III. 95. Menand. ap. Poll. VI. 76. Polyb. XXII.
15. the latter concerning the mina. The confused passage of
Suidas in v. ßoλòs, and of Photius, quoted there by Küster,
cannot be taken into consideration in reference to the value of
the gold talent.
103 Compare also, on the subject of this proportion, J. F.
Gronov. de Pec. Vet. II. 8. the same proportion is given by
Hesychius in v. deuxμn xęvolov, according to the correct emenda-
tion proposed in the notes, and Suidas in v. deaxen. In some
regions of the East, gold was certainly cheaper: thus Strabo, in
the 16th book, speaks of a country near the Sabai, where gold had
only twice the value of silver, and three times the value of brass.
41
price of gold however gradually rose, partly on account of
the proportionally greater increase of silver, until it arrived
at ratios similar to those of modern Europe (from 13½ to 1
to 15 to 1), although these experienced occasional variations.
When we find so late as in Menander
104 a talent of gold
reckoned only equal to ten talents of silver, the price of
gold at Athens must either have been depressed at that
time by Alexander's campaigns in Asia, which opened
the treasures of Persia to the Greeks, or Menander follows
the original proportion, which remained in his memory
after it had ceased to be actually in force, as it afforded
a particularly easy calculation. In the Dialogue upon
the desire of gain 105, which formerly, under the name
of Hipparchus, passed for the production of Plato, and
which certainly belongs to the age of Socrates and Plato,
the value of gold is stated at twelve times that of sil-
ver; Herodotus however reckons the proportion as thir-
teen to one 106; according to the former the chrysûs was
equal to 24, according to the latter to 26, drachmas of
silver. To conclude from the value of the Damaretion,
the proportion of gold to silver in Sicily had risen to 138,
although Diodorus, following the ancient custom, esti-
mates the silver value of the Damaretion at the ratio of
ten to one. There cannot therefore be much risk of error
in assuming that the Cyzicenic stater only weighed two
drachmas of gold, but that at a certain period during the
life of Demosthenes, it passed in the Bosporus for 28
drachmas of silver, the value of gold in comparison with
silver having risen to 14. The price of gold at Rome
104 Ap. Poll. VI. 76.
105 P. 40 of my edition.
106 III. 95.
42
I
was still more variable. At the payment of the Ætolians
in the year of the city 564, when they were allowed, if
they wished it, to pay a third part in gold, the proportion
between the two metals was prescribed to them (mani-
festly to their great disadvantage) at ten to one 107. In
the year of Rome 547, the ratio of gold to silver was as
17 to 1, afterwards as 13 to 1. In the time of Cæsar,
on account of the great influx of gold out of Gaul, it fell
as low as 814; as at a former period, according to the account
of Polybius, its price had fallen for a time in Italy a third
part, in consequence of the rapid increase in the quantity
of gold from the mines of Aquileia 108. We also find the
ratio of 11 to 1; and in the 422d year of the Christian
era, the ratio of gold to silver had risen to 18 109
The rise in the price of gold in Greece may have been
owing to other causes than the increase in the quantity of
silver in circulation. The increasing consumption of gold for
ornaments, utensils, and works of art, especially for sacred
offerings, would also have contributed to produce that
effect. The greater activity of commerce must also have
forced up the price of gold; for, from the want of bills of
exchange, much ready money was necessarily carried from
one place to another, for which purpose gold was the most
convenient. The pay of the troops was given out in gold.
The military chests therefore required a considerable store,
and the demand for gold must have been very considerable
during the continual wars. Probably much coined gold
passed out of circulation by being accumulated in public
107 Polyb. XXII. 15. Liv. XXXVIII. 11.
108 Sueton. Cæs. 54. Polyb. XXXIV. 10.
109 Upon the price of gold at Rome, see Hamberger de pretiis
rerum p. sqq.
43
and private treasuries. Sparta, during a period of several
generations, swallowed up large quantities of the precious
metals, as in Æsop's fable the footsteps of the animals
which went in were to be seen, but never of those which
came out 110. The principal cause of this stagnation pro-
bably was, that the State kept the gold and silver in store,
and only reissued them for war and foreign enterprizes 111;
although there were instances of private individuals, who
amassed treasure contrary to the law. Lysander sent
home a thousand, or, according to Diodorus, 1500 talents,
470 at one time 112. Must we not then suppose that the
Spartans stored up large quantities of gold, especially as
it was generally used for the payment of the soldiers 113?
Besides the pure silver and gold, many Grecian States
had a coinage, which in other countries was either wholly
or nearly devoid of value, and was only destined for the
110 Plat. Alcib. 2. p. 122. ad fin.
111 See book IV. 19.
112 Plutarch. in Nic. 28. Lysand. 16-18. Diod. XIII. 106.
who however probably exaggerates, if we are to suppose that this
whole sum was sent at once to Sparta after the conquest of
Sestos. For the latter fact of the 470 talents, see Xenoph.
Hellen. III. 2. 6.
113 According to Plutarch, most of what Lysander sent was
stamped with the device of an owl; he then adds as a conjec-
tural reason, that most money had the Attic device. On the
other hand, Corsini Fast. Att. vol. II. 235.
p.
be consulted:
may
only Plutarch's words are not to be altered, but his state-
ment is either false, or the money which Lysander brought
home had not been raised from Athens, but from other States,
where Athenian coins were in circulation. Upon the whole,
most of the silver which was in circulation had been probably
issued from the Athenian mint; and this perhaps is what Plu-
tarch means to say.
→
རྟ་
44
internal circulation (vóμioμa Exgiov). Of this description
were all copper and iron coins, the current value of which
was raised by public ordinance far above its proper amount.
In Athens, with the exception of the smallest coins, no
money of this description was ever used, excepting that in
the Archonship of Callias (Olymp. 93. 3.) a copper coinage
was issued, which was afterwards recalled 114, and some
other instances occurred in the times of the Roman em-
perors. Concerning the prices of copper, tin, and iron in
Greece, I have been unable to find any definite statement.
With regard to lead, the author of the second book of the
Economics ascribed to Aristotle, relates that it was gene-
rally sold for two drachmas, but that Pythocles counselled
the State to obtain the monopoly of this native product of
the mines of Laurion, and to sell it for six drachmas.
The weight is not mentioned, but the commercial talent
(TáλavтOV Éμπogixòv) is doubtless intended. If we assume
that the commercial talent is the talent that was in use
before the time of Solon, it is equal in weight to 8280
drachmas of the silver standard, about 93lbs. troy; which
therefore commonly sold for nearly 1s. 6d. and after the
proposal of Pythocles for about 4s. 5d. In Rome a hun-
dred lbs. of common lead, which were only equal to 7500
drachmas, sold for seven denarii115; consequently the price
was higher than the rate demanded by the Athenian State.
(7.) Next to the quantity of money in circulation, prices
depend upon the demand in comparison with the supply;
and as the demand is determined by the number of the
114 See book IV. 19.
115 Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXIV. 48. I have said, that the lead
of Attica came from the mines of Laurion; the proof of this
assertion is given in my Essay upon these mines, in the Trans-
actions of the Berl. Acad. of Sciences.
45
#
people, it will be necessary to treat of the population.
The area of Attica is not easily determined, for only the
coasts have been laid down, and not even these with per-
fect accuracy. According to the map of Barbié du Bocage,
which is attached to the Travels of Anacharsis 116, Attica
contains 36½, Salamis 148, Helena German geographical
square miles, i. e. respectively 579%, 21%, and 5, together
nearly 606, English geographical square miles. According
to the map since published by the same person in 1811 ¹¹7,
which is hitherto the most accurate, Attica contains 39,
Salamis 19, and Helena, square miles, or in English miles,
625, 26, and 5, amounting altogether to 656. If then we
take the English geographical mile to the statute mile as
4 to 3, the area of Attica and the two islands would upon
this computation be about 874 square miles.
117
To ascertain how this small space was peopled, has en-
gaged the attention of many writers. The early scholars
not only assert in general terms that Attica was the most
populous of all the Grecian States 118, but they also have
given definite accounts which establish the same result. The
credibility of these statements has been indeed called into
question by Montesquieu 119, Hume 120, and other English
and French writers, but has been not unsuccessfully de-
116 L'Attique, la Mégaride, et partie de l'Isle d'Eubée, 1785.
117 Carte génerale de la Grèce et d'une grande partie de ses
colonies tant en Europe qu'en Asie, pour le voyage du jeune
Anacharse, par J. D. Barbié du Bocage commencée en 1798.
terminée en 1809. Paris 1811. The calculation of the area
after this map has been made for me with great accuracy by
Mr. Kloeden, who is well known as skilled in this point.
118 Meursius de F. A. IV. p. 24.
119 Esprit des Lois XXXIII. 7.
120 Essay upon the Populousness of Ancient Nations p. 237 sqq.
46
fended by others. Of the latter I will mention only
Ste. Croix; who with the assistance of his predecessors
has treated last and the most at large of this important
subject 121, and has also taken into consideration the cir-
cumstances which at certain periods produced an in-
crease or diminution in the population; to these how-
ever in the following enquiry I shall pay no attention,
partly on account of the want of adequate authorities,
partly because the object of this work does not admit of
my enquiries going so far into details; nor will I animad-
vert upon the unimportant errors of this learned writer,
which have no influence upon the main point. I pass over
all attempts to determine the population of Athens from
its military force, since the data, which in this case it
would be necessary to consider, are in a great measure too
general, without any exact distinction between the classes
of the citizens, slaves, and resident aliens, and also because
in every State the persons incapable of bearing arms form
a considerable number; on which account the native mili-
tary force can only prove that a nation had not fewer
inhabitants than this or that definite number, but not
accurately how great the whole amount was.
The whole population of Attica would be known, if we
could separately ascertain the number of the Citizens,
Resident Aliens, and Slaves, together with their wives and
children. The largest part of the accounts extant are of
the number of the citizens; but they differ widely accord-
ing to the difference of the periods, and the greater or less
accuracy of the statements; but that their number was
considerable, may be collected from Xenophon 122, who states
121 Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions tom. XLVIII,
122 Mem. Socrat. III. 5. 2.
*
47
that the Athenians were equal in number to all the Boo-
tians; that is, the citizens of the one country to the citizens
of the other. All particular statements, with the excep-
tion of one only, which belongs to the most ancient times,
vary between twenty and thirty thousand. Philochorus 123
indeed related, that even in the reign of Cecrops 20,000
men had been enumerated, by which the writer probably
meant citizens; but this however is manifestly a fabulous
tradition, which probably belongs to a later census of the
citizens. The following account of Pollux 124 is more worthy
of attention. He states that each of the 360 old families,
which were included before the time of Cleisthenes in the
four ancient tribes, contained 30 persons, whence the fami-
lies were called τgianάdes; from which it results that the
number of citizens was 10,800. If to this it is objected
that a determinate number is in such a case impossible, it
may be fairly answered, that at some one period, when
the constitution of the tribes was regulated, this number
was taken as an average, although it did not remain so.
In the same manner that the Romans called the captain a
centurion, even if he commanded 60 men, a family might
have been called a rgiaxás, although it contained 50 or
more persons. That the number of the citizens amounted
to 30,000, was a customary assumption from the time of
the Persian to the end of the Peloponnesian war. Hero-
dotus supposes Aristagoras of Miletus to speak of 30,000
Athenians who had the right of voting 125. Aristophanes
:
123 Ap. Schol. Pind. Olymp. IX. 68. where the words Tv Tv
᾿Αθηναίων δῆμον καὶ τὸ πλῆθος are not opposed to one another, but
πλños (whole number of the people) is a more accurate expression.
124 VIII. 111.
125 V.97.
.4
48
in the Ecclesiazusæ 126, which was written after the Anar-
chy, speaks even of more than 30,000; and the author of
the Axiochus 127 states that the assembly in which the gene-
rals were condemned after the victory of Arginusæ, was
attended by a greater number than that just mentioned :
these accounts however are manifestly over-rated. Arista-
goras, to express himself with effect, would not fail to select
the highest number; nor need the words of a comic poet be
taken so exactly; and the author of the Axiochus probably
had seen no accurate returns of the population, which, after
the great defeats in Sicily, and a war carried on so long
with alternate success, would doubtless have shewn a very
different number. Even if we were to assume that in the
above enumerations of citizens who voted in the assembly,
many were comprised who had not properly any right of
voting, but who assumed that privilege unlawfully, still
we should never arrive at so high a number as 30,000,
especially since all the citizens, even on the most important
affairs, never attended the assembly. The accounts which
are founded
upon real enumerations are of a very different
character. On an occasion of a distribution of corn,
which, like all other distributions, was made according to
the registers of the lexiarchs among the adult citizens of
18 years of age and upwards,
and upwards, a scrutiny was instituted
in the Archonship of Lysimachides (Olymp. 83. 4.) into
the genuineness of their birth (yosóτns). There were
then found, according to Philochorus, only 14,240 genuine
Athenians; and 4760, who had assumed the rights of citi-
zenship unjustly, were in consequence sold as slaves. Pre-
viously therefore there were 19,000 persons who passed for
citizens. The amount is perhaps stated in too round a
126 Vs. 1124.
127 Cap. 12.
•
49
number to be considered as completely exact. Plutarch,
who probably only follows Philochorus, gives 14,040 as
genuine, assuming that 5000 were rejected 128. At the
breaking out of the Peloponnesian war, besides 13,000
Hoplitæ appointed for service in the field, there were also
16,000 others in Athens, who consisted of the oldest and
youngest citizens and a certain number of resident
aliens 129; the number of citizens must therefore at that
time have been higher. Whatever vacancies were caused
by war and not replaced by a fresh growth, were filled
up by the occasional creation of new citizens, as was
the case for example during the Archonship of Euclid
(Olymp. 94. 2.). Thus in the first speech of Demo-
sthenes against Aristogeiton 130, we find the number of
citizens reckoned as nearly 20,000. Plato, in the Critias,
assumes the same amount for the most ancient times of
128 Philochorus ap. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 716. Plutarch.
Pericl. 37. [The word in Plutarch is gálncav, for which Mr.
ἐπράθησαν,
Clinton (F. H. p. 52, 390.) reads ænλάbov; and in addition
to the authorities which he quotes, see Photius in v. Qeris, Bekk.
Anecd. p. 201. 17. and p. 439. 32. It appears that each borough
enquired into the genuineness of its own members; and that those
who were rejected by the votes of the burghers (ἀποψηφισθέντες)
lost the rights of citizenship. If they then appealed to the de-
cision of a court of justice, and were a second time rejected, their
persons were sold, and their property confiscated.]
129 Thucyd. II. 13.
•
130 P. 785. 24. The spuriousness of the second speech is ac-
knowledged by both ancients and moderns. Dionysius doubts
whether the first was the production of Demosthenes; and in
Harpocration (in v. tagis) it is quoted with a suspicion of its
authenticity. I leave this point undecided, but it certainly
belongs to that period. For the usage of μov in the passage
referred to, see Hesych. Suid. Harpocr. and Phot. in v. ¡µoũ.
VOL. I.
E
50
Athens, in which he has doubtless transferred the number
that was commonly computed in his own time to the
earliest periods of the State; and the modern Grecian
writers, as Libanius for instance, follow the same state-
ment 131. An occurrence of the same period exactly coin-
cides with the statement in the speech of Demosthenes.
When Lycurgus divided the property of Diphilus amount-
ing to 160 talents, each citizen received 50 drachmas,
which gives 19,200 for their whole number. The assertion
that in the reign of Antipater (Olymp. 114. 2.) Athens
contained 21,000 citizens 133, is inadmissible, as being taken
from a later enumeration; and Diodorus 134 even goes so
far as to suppose that there were 31,000, reckoning
23,000, instead of 12,000 as in Plutarch, who were de-
prived of the rights of citizenship, and he assumes 9000
as the surplus, agreeing in the latter point with Plutarch.
These 12,000 rejected citizens, some of whom had left the
country, were restored to their rights in Olymp. 115. 3.135
Soon after this an enumeration of the people occurs, which
is the very one to which the number mentioned in Plutarch
of the citizens who remained and were disfranchised in
131 See Meursius de F. A. IV. According to the interpreta-
tion of the Scholiast, the same number of citizens may be in-
ferred from Aristoph. Vesp. 707. it is not however distinctly
expressed in the words of Aristophanes.
132 Lives of the Ten Orators near the end of the Life of Ly-
curgus. The addition, й és tives µvõv, does not deserve any atten-
"
tion.
133 Plutarch. Phoc. 28.
134 XVIII. 18. It appears to me that the passage ought by
no means to be altered, as Diodorus so frequently exaggerates
numbers.
135 Diod. XVIII. 66.
51
the reign of Antipater, was adapted. It was carried on
by Demetrius Phalereus when Archon in Olymp. 117.
4.136 and yielded, according to Ctesicles 137, 21,000 citizens,
10,000 resident aliens, and 400,000 slaves. From this
very important statement the whole number of the popula-
tion of Attica has been variously determined. According
to the usual rule of Statistics, the adults have been
generally taken as a fourth part of the population. This
gave for the citizens 84,000, and for the aliens 40,000. But
when they came to the slaves, these calculators fell into an
embarrassment; for, according to the same or a somewhat
lower proportion, their number came out far above what
could be deemed probable. Hume, wishing to shew
that the population of ancient times has been greatly over-
rated, contends with many reasons against this number
of slaves, and ends by substituting 40,000 in the place of
400,000, whom he considers as the adults, to which it
would be then necessary to add the women and children.
But his arguments are partly inconclusive, and partly
founded upon false suppositions. Thus all that he says.
concerning the national wealth of Attica, that it was only
equal to 6000 talents, is completely false; and, in the next
place, slaves were not computed by adults or fathers of fa-
milies, which is a term wholly inapplicable to slaves; but
they were counted, like sheep or cattle, by the head, and
were regarded in the same light with property, as Gillies 138
136 This is the right date which Ste. Croix has given, p. 64.
137 Ap. Athen. VI. p. 272. B.
138 Essays on the History, Customs, and Character of the
Greeks, p. 15. of the German translation of Macher. This
translation exceeds its original, which is really difficult, in mean-
ness and vulgarity.
52
#
has already observed, for they were in the strictest sense a
personal possession. 400,000 is therefore the sum total of
the slaves; and the population of Attica would amount,
on this supposition, to 524,000 souls. Wallace's com-
putation is higher, for he makes the whole population
amount to more than 580,000, and Sainte Croix goes as far
as 639,500. The latter writer erroneously adds 100,000
children to the number of slaves, and likewise 4 and not 4
for every male adult or father of a family, so that the free
as well as the slave population is made more numerous. As
however this proportion appears to be more correct for
southern countries, the citizens with their families may be
fairly taken at 94,500, and the resident aliens at 45,000.
In order however not to proceed solely upon the period of
Demetrius, but upon the mean average of 20,000 citizens,
I reckon only 90,000 free inhabitants, and 45,000 resident
aliens. With regard to the total amount of slaves, it is
stated too much in round numbers for perfect accuracy; the
historian doubtless added whatever was wanting to com-
plete the last hundred thousand, although the correct
number might not have been so great by several thousands.
It will be sufficient to reckon 365,000 slaves together with
women and children, which latter however were propor-
tionally few. Adding to these 135,000 free inhabitants, we
may take as a mean average of the population 500,000
in round numbers; of whom the larger proportion were
men, since fewer female than male slaves were kept, and
not many slaves were married.
The proportion of the free inhabitants to the slaves can
be consequently taken as 27 to 100, or nearly as one to
four. In the American sugar plantations it was as much
as one to six.
This number of slaves cannot appear too
large, if the political circumstances of Attica are taken
53
into consideration. Even the poorer citizens used to have
a slave 139 for the care of their household affairs. In every
moderate establishment many were employed for all pos-
sible occupations, such as grinders, bakers, cooks, tailors,
errand-boys, or to accompany the master and mistress,
who seldom went out without an attendant. Any one
who was expensive and wished to attract attention, took
perhaps three attendants with him 140. We even hear of
philosophers who kept ten slaves 141. Slaves were also let
out as hired servants; they performed all the labour con-
nected with the care of cattle, and agriculture; they were
employed in the working of the mines and furnaces; all
manual labour and the lower branches of trade were
in a great measure carried on by them; large gangs
laboured in the numerous workshops, for which Athens
was celebrated; and a considerable number were em-
ployed in the merchant vessels and the fleet. Not to
enumerate many instances of persons who had a smaller
number of slaves, Timarchus kept in his workshop eleven
or twelve 142; Demosthenes' father 52 or 53, besides the
female slaves in his house 143; Lysias and Polemarchus
120 144. Plato expressly remarks that the free inhabit-
ants had frequently 50 slaves, and the rich even more 145;
Philemonides had 300, Hipponicus 600, Nicias 1000 slaves
139 See for example the beginning of the Plutus of Aristo-
phanes.
140 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 958. 14.
141 Ste. Croix, p. 172.
142 Æschin. in Timarch. p. 118.
143 Demosth. in Aphob. A. p. 816. cf. p. 828. 1.
144 Lysias in Eratosth. p. 395.
145 De Republ. IX. p. 578. D. E.
54
in the mines alone 146. These facts prove the existence of
an immense number of slaves. But Hume raises an objec-
tion out of Xenophon. Xenophon 147 proposed to the State
to buy public slaves for the mines, and particularly men-
tions how large a revenue the State would receive from them,
if it had 10,000 to begin with, remarking at the same time,
"that the mines are able to receive many times this num-
ber, every body will allow, who remembers how much the
slave-duty produced before the occurrences at Decelea."
From this statement Hume infers that the number cannot
have been so excessive, for that the diminution by the war
of Decelea only amounted to 20,000148, and the increase
of 10,000 does not stand in any considerable proportion to
so large a number as 400,000. It must however be con-
sidered that after the war of Decelea the Athenians pro-
bably ceased to keep many slaves on account of the facility
of escape, and that a still greater number than ran away,
may have been dismissed. Xenophon himself says that
the number had been very great formerly, and he means
that their numbers before the war of Decelea prove that
the mines, of which alone he is speaking, could afford
employment to many times 10,000. At the same time I
will not deny that the passage has a very strange appear-
ance, and is obscured by manifold difficulties; but this is
the very reason why we should avoid founding any argu-
ment upon it. There are two other statements, equally
146 Xenoph. de Vectig. 4.
117 Ut sup.
148 Thucyd. VII. 27.
An important statement contained in a fragment of Hy-
perides with regard to the slave-population, which has been
overlooked by the author, is quoted by Mr. Clinton from Suidas
in v. exspicato (F. H. p. 391.); where it is mentioned that the
55
called into question by Hume, which are far more in-
comprehensible, viz. of Timæus, that Corinth once had
possessed 460,000, and of Aristotle, that Ægina had
contained 470,000 slaves 149. Nevertheless the numbers
do not appear to be corrupt. That the Corinthians kept
a very large number of slaves is proved by the expression
Chanix-measurers (xowixoμérgai) by which they were dis-
tinguished, nor is it possible that Ægina before and during
the Persian war up to the time of its decline could have
been a great commercial town, and have had an extensive
naval force, without a large population, and above all
many slaves. Its naval dominion, and its powerful resist-
ance against Athens are incompatible with a small popula-
tion. Why then may we not suppose that 470,000 slaves ©
slaves employed in the silver mines and in country labour were
more than 150,000.
149 Athen. VI. p. 272. B. D. Schol. Pind. Olymp. VIII. 30.
• The size of Ægina which is supposed in the text, was
estimated according to the deceitful representation which is given
of it in the common maps of Greece. In the mean time a
learned pupil of the author, who is at present occupied about
a history of that island, has more accurately determined the
area from Gell's map of Argolis at nearly two square miles
(forty-two square miles English), whence the possibility of a
large population is increased, and the number of slaves is less.
striking; especially if we assume, as is probable, that Ægina
had possessions in early times upon the coast of Argolis.
The person alluded to in this note, which is given from the
Addenda, is the celebrated C. O. Müller, who published his
Æginetica in 1817, from which work the following words are
extracted (p. 5. note). "Sed major fides deberi videtur de-
scriptioni Gellii Angli Argol. Ib. 28. ubi ambitus xweis rou xarα-
xoλica: ducentorum et decem stadiorum est, spatium vero, quod
complectitur, exacte computatum, stadiorum quadratorum 3164.”
See also pp. 128, 129.
56
+.
lived upon this small district, being only a German square
mile; there still remained sufficient space, as slaves never
occupied much room. Ægina received supplies from the
countries upon the Black Sea, as well as the Peloponnese 150,
and particularly from Corinth. In the mean time it is
hardly necessary to remark that this large population of
Corinth and Ægina must only be understood of the early
times, before Athens had obtained possession of the com-
merce of Greece and the sovereignty of the sea.
In what manner this population of 500,000 souls in
Attica was distributed, cannot be accurately determined.
Athens itself contained above 10,000 houses. In general
only one family lived in a house, and fourteen free in-
habitants were at that time a large number for one house
or for one family 151. Lodging houses (σvvoixías) were how-
ever inhabited by several families, and manufactories con-
tained many hundreds of slaves. The district of the
mines must also have been very thickly peopled. The
circumference of the city together with the sea-ports was
equal to 200 stadii. The mines were in a space 60 stadii
in width: the other dimension is not known. If 180,000
persons are reckoned for the city and harbours, and
20,000 for the mines, and the space for both taken at
32 square miles English, the number assumed would
not be too high. There then remain 300,000 souls for the
other 608 square miles, which gives something less than
493 to a square mile, which with the number of small
towns or market-places, villages, and farms that were in
Attica, is not to be wondered at. Now this population
necessarily required a large supply of provisions. It should
:
150 Herod. VII. 147. and thence Polyænus in the Strategics.
151 Xenoph. Soc. Mem. II. 7. 2.
57
however be borne in mind, that slaves were badly fed,
and above all, that corn alone was requisite for their
sustenance. How large a quantity of corn was required,
and how the necessary supplies could be procured, I shall
endeavour to determine presently.
(8.) All commodities which are necessary for the pur-
poses of life, are procured either by the domestic produc-
tion and manufacture of the raw material, or by foreign
commerce. Attica was not so unsuited for agriculture as
is often supposed. The soil was indeed stony and uneven
in many places; a great part was bare rock, where nothing
could be sown; the less fertile soil however produced bar-
ley 152 and wheat, the latter indeed with greater difficulty;
and the mildness of the climate allowed all the more valuable
products of the earth to ripen the earliest, and to go out of
season the latest 153. Every sort of plant and animal
thrived in spite of the poverty of the soil 154. Art also
undoubtedly performed its share; for the ancients in all
concerns of common life were possessed of sound principles
founded on experience; and at so early a period as the time
of Socrates, writings were extant upon agriculture 155.
Agriculture was in as great estimation among the Athe-
nians as with the Romans, if we may judge from the
high encomiums of Xenophon and Aristotle 156. The latter
152 Thucyd. I. 2. where the commentators quote other passages
upon the sterility of the soil. See more particularly the Intro-
duction to Xenophon's Treatise on the Revenues.
153 Xenoph. ibid.
154 Plat. Crit. p. 110. E.
155 See my Preface to the Dialogues of Simon the Socratic
Philosopher, p. XIX.
156 Xenoph. Econ. 4 sqq. Aristot. Polit. VI. 4. and the first
book of the Economics attributed to Aristotle, which at least
contains the principles of that philosopher.
58
.
calls an agricultural people the most just; agriculture is
represented as that species of industry, which is most just
and conformable to nature; the most just because it does
not gain from men, either according to their wills, as in
paid labour and commerce, or against their wills, as in
war; the most agreeable to nature, because every thing
receives nourishment from its mother, and the earth is the
mother of men. The ancients also esteemed agriculture,
because it made their bodies and minds strong and active,
and trained them for service in the field, whereas most
kinds of manufactures and commerce weakened and ener-
vated both. The opulent, however, only occupied themselves
with the superintendence; and most of the manual labour
fell upon the slaves, who were servants, and frequently also
stewards, and who unquestionably lessened the expences of
cultivation, whatever the moderns may advance against the
cheapness of slave labour. Thus the cultivator derived
sufficient support from his own farm, and in dear times the
agriculturists even grew unduly rich 157. The most con-
siderable produce was of wine, olives, figs, and honey;
wine was probably better in other places; but the oil and
honey were particularly excellent 158, the latter especially
in the district of the mines 159, and upon mount Hymettus.
The figs likewise were very much esteemed. Even now
the keeping of the bees is carried on to a considerable ex-
tent in Attica. The olive-trees make regular woods, and
the wine is considered wholesome 160. For the protection of
this branch of industry, laws were enacted that these pro-
157 Orat. in Phænipp. p. 1045. 12.
158 Pseud-Eschin. Epist. 5.
159 Strab. IX. p. 275.
160 See Wheler, Chandler, and other travellers. Concerning
comp. Meursius Fort. Att. chap. X.
oil
ì
59
ducts should not be diminished, and that one person should
not be injured by another in raising them; hence the ordi-
nances of Solon with regard to the keeping of bees 161;
hence no olive-tree could be rooted up, excepting that each
proprietor was allowed to destroy two in each year for pub-
lic festivals, or for his own use in the case of a death 162.
Many of these products of the soil were exported, although,
according to Plutarch 163, Solon prohibited all export of pro-
visions, as might be seen from the first Table of the Laws
of Solon; but fortunately this writer afterwards contradicts
himself, when in another place he mentions the famous
prohibition to export figs as no more than probable 164. The
exportation of oil alone is said to have been permitted by
Solon, as Plutarch also remarks, and in this point his
testimony is confirmed by examples 165. As to the pro-
hibition of the export of figs, I am entirely convinced that
it did not exist in the times of which we have any certain
knowledge. All that occurs in ancient writers upon this
subject, only serves to explain the meaning of the term
sycophant. Plutarch himself ventures to adopt it at the
most for the very early times. If however the ancients
had possessed any account of such a law, that could be at
all depended upon, they would not speak in so vague and
indefinite a manner concerning the origin of this appella-
161 Petit Leg. Att. V. 1. 6.
162 Demosth. in Macart. p. 1074.
163 Solon. 24.
164 De Curiositate, ad fin.
165 Plutarch Solon. 2. where Plato is said to carry on a trade in
oil; and although it refers to later times, the law of Solon may
still have been in force in reference to such cases. Petit Leg.
Att. V. 5. 1. absurdly limits the permission to export oil to the
cruise filled with oil given to the victors in the Panathenaic games.
60
tion. If a prohibition ever did exist, it certainly was not
caused by the reason which is jocularly mentioned by
Hume 166, that the Athenians thought their figs too ex-
pensive for foreign palates, although Athenæus 167 nearly
uses the same expression; but the object of the measure
must have been to increase the quantity of figs in the
country, while they were as yet very scarce in the most
ancient times. This view of the case may be formed from
the scholiast upon Plato 168, who dates the origin of the
name of sycophant at a period when this fruit was first
discovered in Attica, and did not grow in any other country.
But the account is far more probable which states that
the sacred fig-trees were robbed of their fruit during a
famine, and that the wrath of the gods being felt in con-
sequence of this sacrilege, accusations were brought against
the suspected 169. In the same manner persons who in-
jured the sacred olive-trees might be subjected to heavy
penalties, of which Lysias in his defence concerning the
sacred olive-trees affords a remarkable instance. Here
then it would be impossible to understand a prohibition
of exportation, which can only exist with regard to articles
necessary for the consumption of the community, such for
example as corn. The keeping of cattle unquestionably
existed to a considerable extent: sheep and goats were the
most numerous. From the latter animal one of the four
166 Ut sup. p. 81.
p.
167 III.
74. E. where see Casaubon. The same writer treats
of the Sycophants ad Theophrast. Char. 23. cf. Ast ad Plat. de
Repub. p. 361. ed. 2. Petit Leg. Att. V. 5. 2. does not give any
clear account of this point. To the passages quoted by earlier
writers Lex. Seg. p. 304. may also be added.
168 P. 147. Ruhnk. cf. Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 874.
169 Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 31.
61
ancient tribes, Ægicoreis, took its name; which from the
time of Cleisthenes remained only a borough; of the former
there were many different breeds, and particularly of the
finest kinds 170. In order to encourage the keeping of sheep,
it was forbidden in a law of extreme antiquity, to kill them
before they had lambed or been shorn 171: but this and
similar regulations had been long abolished in the time of
Solon. Pigs were also kept, and of larger cattle, asses
and mules in tolerable quantities. Horses and horned
cattle were evidently scarce in early times. Philochorus 172
mentions a very ancient law which prohibited the killing
of horned cattle; and the scarcity of horses is manifest
from the early insignificance of the Athenian cavalry, which,
after the establishment of the Naucrarias, only amounted
to 96 or 100 men, and was not even in existence at the
time of the battle of Marathon. Subsequently horses
and oxen were kept in sufficient quantities, for which
the pastures of Euboea afforded great facilities. The
woodlands for the most part only supplied firewood;
the ship-building was carried on with imported timber.
The fisheries were productive; the mines, in addition
to silver, yielded lead, metallic colours, coloured earths,
perhaps also copper; and the products of the Athe-
nian foundaries were particularly esteemed. The quarries
of Pentelus and Hymettus furnished the most beautiful
170 Demosth. in Euerg. et Mnesib. p. 1155. 3. or whoever is
the author of this speech, which is called in question by the
ancients (see Harpocrat. in v. névny), Athen. XII. p. 540. D.
171 Androt. ap. Athen. IX. p. 375. C. Philochorus ibid. I.
p. 9. C. Other ancient laws to the same effect have been col-
lected by Petit V. 3.
172 Ap. Athen. IX. p. 375. C.
W
62
kinds of marble, which were much exported to foreign
parts 173. Commercial occupations were never in great
esteem among the ancient Greeks. No person of ancient
nobility ever condescended to them, although conversely a
manufacturer might raise himself to the head of public
affairs, such as Cleon, Hyperbolus, and others. The
early statesmen however encouraged industry, especially
Solon, Themistocles, and Pericles, partly with the intention
of improving the condition of the lower classes, and partly
of increasing the population of the city; as well as of advanc-
ing the cause of commerce, and of manning the numerous
fleets, by which, after the time of Themistocles, the
Athenians held the mastery of the sea 174. And it was
this circumstance that rendered the resident aliens indis-
pensable for Athens 175, who carried on manufactures and
*
173 Cf. Xenoph. de Vectig. 1.
174 Proofs of this occur every where. Diodorus (XI. 43.) in
particular expresses himself very clearly with regard to Themis-
tocles.
175 Xenophon de Rep. Ath. I. 12. The genuineness of this
Essay stands and falls with the other Treatise on the State of
the Lacedæmonians, which Demetrius the Magnesian (ap. Diog.
Laërt. II. 57.) abjudged from Xenophon. But the Essay upon
the Revenues of Athens is so similar to those two in style, that
it must be included in their condemnation; and it is cer-
tainly possible to raise doubts against the latter writing, which
however I consider as futile. The predilection for Sparta which
predominates in the two first writings, is very like Xenophon,
who even in his history is the constant eulogist of the Spartans,
and frequently allows his predilections to give a colour to real
facts. A certain irony in the tone, which occurs in the Pamphlet
upon the State of Athens, is not very much in Xenophon's
manner, but it might have been easily produced by particular
circumstances and by the nature of his subject. It should be ob-
•
63
commerce to a great extent, and were bound to serve
in the fleet. It even appears that the useful arts were
encouraged by honorary rewards 176; though even by
these means they could not gain in the public estimation.
There were prizes for the common people, for which the
higher ranks did not compete with them. At the same
time the respectable citizens, who had none of the high
aristocratical notions, like Pericles, Alcibiades, or Callias
the son of Hipponicus, whose pride yielded in nothing to
the haughtiness of the modern nobility, were not ashamed
of superintending extensive manufactories worked at their
own expence. The inferior citizens were as much reduced
to the necessity of manual labour as the poor aliens and
slaves. It was not until after the balance had been turned
served, that contradictions may be discovered between this writ-
ing and the other upon the Revenues; thus in Rep. Ath. 1. 10.
the freedom of the aliens is found fault with, whereas in the
Treatise on the Revenues (chap. 2.) he recommends favouring
them, and lightening their burdens, together with other dis-
crepancies of the same kind: but the difference of the times, ob-
jects, and circumstances must be taken into consideration, from
which these contradictions are easily accounted for, if Xenophon
wrote on the State of Athens during his exile, and on the Revenues
after his recal, a short time, as it is asserted, before his death took
place at Corinth. The arguments also learnedly brought forward
by Schneider concerning the date of his writing, which tend to
prove it not to be the production of Xenophon, are not entirely
tenable, as I have shewn in book III. 5. At the same time I
am willing to allow that the genuineness of this and other short
writings of Xenophon is not sufficiently established, and that the
Essay on the State of Athens may easily have been written by
another author. All I wish to assert is, that the arguments
which have as yet been brought against their authenticity, are
not sufficient, and that a farther investigation is necessary.
176 Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 775.
?
•
64
in favour of the aristocracy, that measures of severity were
brought forward; as for example, Diophantus proposed
that all the manual labourers should be made public
slaves 177. There was again another reason why no restriction
should have been imposed upon the freedom of industry,
viz. the little importance that was attached to it; an alien
was allowed to carry on any trade, although he was pro-
hibited from holding any property in land; with regard
indeed to the sale in the market, strangers were on a less
advantageous footing than natives, as they were obliged to
pay a duty for permission to expose their goods there.
The law of Solon that men should not deal in oint-
ments 178 was only founded on principles of education, in
order to withdraw men from womanish labours; subse-
quently however it became a dead letter, for Æschines the
philosopher had a manufactory of ointments. With this
entire freedom of industry, with the numbers of aliens and
slaves, and the possibility of an extensive market by means
of foreign commerce, and with the magnitude of the internal
demand, which was increased by the resident foreigners,
all branches of industry flourished, and Athens contained
a large number of manufactories, which employed a
corresponding quantity of labourers. Athenian arms and
other metallic fabrics, implements and materials for dress
and furniture, were in great request; tanners, arm-smiths,
lamp-makers, cloth-weavers, even millers and bakers, who
understood their art well, lived in abundance 179. With
regard to the prices of commodities, it would be natural to
177 Petit V. 6. 1.
178 Petit V. 6. 3.
179 Only to quote one passage, see Xenoph. Mem. Socr. II. 7.
3-6. With regard to the exportation of manufactured goods,
see Wolf ad Leptin. p. 252.
65
suppose that they must have been proportionally low, as
all the labourers, and part even of the overseers were
slaves; as the rate of wages was moderate, and there existed
a complete freedom of industry; but to counterbalance
these causes there was the extensive exportation, which
together with the high rate of interest, and the proportion-
ally high profits, that the manufacturers and merchants
took, operated to force up the prices of commodities. At
the same time many articles, such as bread and clothing,
were prepared in most families at home, and not purchased
from tradespeople.
(9.) The commodities which Attica did not produce
within her own territory, were obtained by foreign com-
merce, and unless the importation was prevented by some
extraordinary obstacle, such for example as war, there could
be no danger of a scarcity, even in the case of a failure of
the crops, because it consumed the surplus produce of
other countries 180. Although not an island, yet it pos-
sessed all the advantages of insular position, that is, excel-
lent harbours conveniently situated, in which it received
supplies during all winds; in addition to which it had suf-
ficient facilities for inland traffic: the intercourse with other
countries was promoted by the purity of the coin, as the
merchant, not being obliged to take a return freight, had
the option of carrying out bullion, although Athens abounded
in commodities which would meet with a ready sale 181. For
prohibitions to export money were unknown in ancient
times, and are only compatible with the use of bills of ex-
change. If a stagnation in trade was not produced by war
or piracy, all the products of foreign countries came to
180 Cf. Xenoph. de Repub. Ath. 2. 6.
181 Xenoph. de Vectig. 1. 7. 3, 2.
VOL. I.
F
66
Athens; and articles which in other places could hardly be
obtained singly, were collected together at the Piraeus 182.
Besides the corn, the costly wines, iron, brass, and other
objects of commerce which came from all the regions of the
Mediterranean, they imported from the coasts of the Black
Sea, slaves, timber for ship building, salt-fish, honey, wax,
tar, wool, rigging, leather, goat-skins, &c.; from Byzantium,
Thrace, and Macedonia, timber, slaves, and salt-fish; also
slaves from Thessaly, whither they came from the interior;
and carpets and fine wool from Phrygia and Miletus 183
"All the finest products," says Xenophon 184," of Sicily,
of Italy, Cyprus, Lydia, the Pontus, and the Peloponnese,
Athens, by her empire of the sea, is able to collect into
one spot:" to this far extended intercourse the same
author attributes the mixture of all dialects which pre-
vailed at Athens, and the admission of barbarous words
into the language of common life. On the other hand,
Athens conveyed to different regions the products of her
own soil and labour; in addition to which the Athenian
merchants trafficked in commodities which they collected
in other countries. Thus they took up wine from the
islands and shores of the Ægæan Sea, at Peparethos, Cos,
Thasos, Mende, Scione, and elsewhere, and transported it
to the Pontus 185. The trade in books appears alone to
have made but small advances in Greece, a branch of
industry which was more widely extended in the Roman
empire after the reign of Augustus. There was, it is true,
182 Thucyd. II. 38. Isocrat. Paneg. p. 34. ed. Hall.
183 Upon most of these points see Barthélemy Anachars. tom.
IV. chap. 55. Wolf ad Leptin. p. 252.
184 De Rep. Ath. 2. 7.
185 Demosth. in Lacrit. p. 935, 6.
67
a book market (rà ßißλa) 186 at Athens, and books were
exported to the Pontus and to Thrace 187; but there can
be no doubt that the books meant were merely blank
volumes. The trade in manuscripts was in the time of
Plato so little common, that Hermodorus, who sold the
books of this writer in Sicily, gave occasion to a proverb,
"Hermodorus carries on trade with writings 188." at a
subsequent period, while Zeno the Stoic was still a youth,
dealers in manuscripts are mentioned as having been at
Athens 189. The merchant-vessels appear to have been
of considerable size; not to quote an extraordinary in-
stance, we find in Demosthenes 190 a vessel of this kind,
which besides the cargo, the slaves, and the ship's-crew,
carried 300 free inhabitants.
Athens had many regulations for the protection of trade,
and for the maintenance of the commercial police. Among
the officers belonging to this branch of the public service
we may mention the Overseers of the Harbour (μλyτai
Tоũ μπogíov), ten men annually appointed by lot 191; the
Agoranomi, five in the city and as many in the Piraeus 192;
the Metronomi, who had the inspection of the measures,
ten in the city and five in the Piraeus 193; and the Pro-
186 Poll. IX. 47. and the commentators.
187 Xenoph. Cyr. Exped. VII. 5. 14. and the commentators.
188 Cicer. Epist. ad Attic. XIII. 21. Zenob. and Suid. in v.
λόγοισιν Ἑρμόδωρος ἐμπορεύεται.
189 Diog. Laërt. in Vit. Zenonis.
190 In Phorm. p. 910. 12.
191 Demosth. in Lacrit. p. 941. 15. Orat. in Theocrin. p. 1324.
10. Dinarch. in Aristog. p. 81, 82. Lex. Seg. p. 255. and what
Sigonius IV. 3. has upon the Constitution of Athens.
192 Aristot. ap. Harpocrat. in v. ȧyogaróμo, &c.
193 The passage in Harpocration is as follows: oav dè ròv
ἀριθμὸν πεντεκαίδεκα, εἰς μὲν τὸν Πειραῖα δέκα, πέντε δ' εἰς ἄστυ. I read
68
metretæ, probably subordinate to the latter officers, who
measured corn and other grain for hire 194. Upon the
whole there was sufficient attention paid to weights and
measures; as may in part be seen from a valuable frag-
ment of a decree upon this subject, which has fortunately
come down to our days 195. Credit was at a low ebb in
Greece, although we find that there were large firms in all
the different Grecian states, which were possessed of ex-
tensive credit, and were able to raise money on the single
security of their name 196. Merchants belonging to par-
ticular cities, as the Phaselitans for example, were in bad
repute on account of their want of honesty. The absence
-
it the contrary way, εἰς μὲν τὸν Πειραῖα πέντε, δέκα δ᾽ εἰς ἄστυ. The
same correction should be made in Suidas in v. pergovóμos and in
Photius. For what Meursius and Küster say upon the passage in
Suidas is highly absurd. There were therefore ten Sitophylaces
in the city and five in the Piraeus: see below chap. 15. Both
divisions must necessarily have been closely connected, and for
this reason the similarity of the number is also probable.
In
addition to this, the merchants were obliged to bring two thirds of
the corn from the harbour into the city, which fact agrees com-
pletely with my emendation. The Lex.. Seg. p. 278. certainly
has in v. μετρονόμοι, δέκα τὸν ἀριθμὸν, ὧν πέντε μὲν ἦσαν ἐν τῷ Πειραιεῖ,
Tévre d'iv äotel, together with Photius in the first article. But
although it might appear more natural that their number should
agree with that of the Agoranomi, and seem singular that there
should have been ten in the city and five in the Piraeus, this
very circumstance makes it more credible that my hypothesis is
true, and that the statement in the Lex. Seg. is the arbitrary
alteration of a grammarian according to what appeared to him
the most natural. A different account is given by Kühn ad Poll.
IV. 167.
194 Harpocrat. in v. goμerental, Lex. Seg. p. 290. &c.
195 See Inscript. 123. tom. I. p. 164. ed. Boeckh.
196 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1224. 3.
pang
69
of credit was supplied by security or bail 197; which, ac-
cording to the laws of Athens, was in force for one year 198.
The severity of the laws relating to debtors contributed
materially to the support of credit, for the Athenians knew
well how important these laws were to commerce and
industry 199. "In the Athenian laws," says Demosthenes,
"there are many excellent protections for the creditor;
for commerce proceeds not from the borrower but from
the lender; without whose assistance no vessel, no
captain, no passenger can stir." Even a citizen, who in
the capacity of a merchant, withdrew from a creditor
a pledge for a sum vested in bottomry, could be punished
with loss of life 200. No less severe were the regulations
against false accusers of merchants and captains of
vessels 201. Their disputes were heard before the com-
mercial court of the Nautodica, where the Thesmothetæ
introduced the causes 202; in law-suits between citizens of
different nations, by virtue of a particular agreement there
existed an appeal from one state to the other 203. As
early as in the time of Lysias, the Nautodicæ, having been
appointed to their office by lot, assembled in the month
197 Demosth. in Lacrit. init.
198 Demosth. in Apatur. p. 901. 7.
199 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 958.
200 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 922. Dilatory debtors were also
liable to imprisonment, only however in commercial cases.
Hudtwalker von den Diäteten, p. 152 sq.
See
201 Orat. in Theocrin. p. 1324, 1325. cf. inf. III. 10.
202 For the sake of brevity I refer to Sigonius R. A. IV. 3.
Petit V. 5.9. Matthiä Misc. Philol. vol. I. p. 247. The Lex.
Seg. also has an article upon this subject, as well as Photius
p. 212. It is worthy of remark that the yeapǹ Ževías could also
be brought before this court.
203 These are the δίκαι ἀπὸ συμβόλων.
70
Gamelion, in order to sit during the winter, when naviga-
tion ceased 204, that the merchants and captains of vessels
might not be impeded in the pursuit of their business.
Advantageous as this regulation was, it did not obviate all
the inconveniences to which traders were liable; for if the
cause was not decided in the course of the winter, either
the parties were obliged to prosecute it in summer to the
prejudice of their business, or the case stood over till the
following winter, and was heard before other judges.
For this reason Xenophon proposed to establish a prize
for the officer of the harbour who should pronounce the
most rapid and just decisions of commercial causes 205;
and in fact soon afterwards in the time of Philip 206 this
evil was checked by the introduction of the monthly suits
(μunvor díxai), to which all causes concerning trade, Eranus,
dowries, and mines belonged 207. These were heard in
the six winter months, so that the merchants might quickly
obtain their rights and set sail 208; and a cause could not,
as some have supposed, be protracted through this whole
time, but it was necessary that it should be decided within
the term of a month 209. Lastly, the Greeks tolerated a
species of consul in the person of the Proxenus of each
state, who was considered as the representative of his
204 Lysias περὶ δημοσ. ἀδικ. p. 593.
205 De Vectig. 3.
206 Vid. Orat. de Haloneso. p. 79. 18. sqq.
207 Poll. VIII. 63, 101. Suidas in v. éµpenvoi díxa from Har-
pocr. in the same word, Lex. Seg. p. 237. That this is true of
causes relating to mines. I have shewn in my Essay upon the
silver mines of Laurion.
208 Demosth. in Apatur. p. 900. 3. cf. p. 966. 17. Petit V. 5. 9.
209 Vid. Orat. de Haloneso, Lex. Seg. and Petit. ut sup.
Salmas. de M. U. XVI. p. 691.
71
L
country, and was bound to receive the citizens who traded
at the place. If for example an inhabitant of Heraclea
died at any place, the Proxenus of Heraclea was by virtue
of his office obliged to give information concerning the
property which he left behind him 210. If an inhabitant
of Heraclea died at Argos, the Proxenus of Heraclea
received his property211.
Among the many proposals for the advancement of
commerce which Xenophon makes in his Treatise upon the
Revenues, there is no where an exhortation to restore the
freedom of trade: either this was not one of the points
which lay within the knowledge of antiquity; or it must
have existed without any limit. The latter supposition is
nearly maintained by Heeren 212: "they were ignorant,"
says he, "of a balance of trade, and thus all the violent
measures that flow from it naturally remained unknown.
They had custom-duties as well as ourselves; but their
only object was to increase the revenues of the state, and
not as with modern nations, by prohibiting this or that
article to give a particular direction to the course of
industry. You will find no prohibition to export raw
produce, no encouragement of manufactures at the cost of
the agricultural classes. In this sense then there was a
complete freedom of industry, of commerce, and of inter-
course. And this was not the result of accident, but was
founded upon principle. At the same time, where every
thing was determined according to circumstances, not
according to theory, persons may find individual excep-
tions, perhaps discover particular cases in which the
210 Demosth. in Callipp. p. 1237. 16.
211 Ibid. p. 1238. 27.
212 Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der
Alten Welt, vol. III. p. 283.
72
state may for a time have assumed to itself a monopoly.
But yet what a wide difference is there between this and
our mercantile and compulsory system." I am ready to
acknowledge that there is a great deal of truth in these
remarks; but the other side of the question must also be
considered. According to the principles of the ancients,
which were not merely scientific, but were recognised by
the whole of the people, and deeply rooted in the nature
of the Greeks, the state embraced and governed all
dealings between man and man. Not in Crete and
Lacedæmon alone, two states completely closed up and
from their position unsusceptible of free trade, but gene-
rally throughout the whole of Greece, and even under the
free and republican government of Athens, the poorest as
well as the richest citizen was convinced that the state had
the right of claiming the whole property of every indi-
vidual any restriction in the transfer of this property,
regulated according to circumstances, was looked upon as
just; nor could it properly be considered an infringement
of justice, before the security of persons and property was
held to be the sole object of government; a light under
which it never was viewed by any of the ancients. On
the contrary, all intercourse and commerce were considered
as being under the direction of the community, inasmuch
as they originally owed their existence to the establishment
of a regular political union: and upon the same basis was
founded the right of the state to regulate trade, or even to
participate in the profits of it. Any person who dissented
from these principles was not a member of the state, and
would by the bare avowal be considered as detaching
himself from it. It was upon the same principle that the
national monopolies were founded, which do not appear to
have been unfrequent in Greece, although of short
:
73
duration; their productiveness had been tried in the
cases of private individuals who had obtained them by
engrossing particular articles 213. It can however be
safely asserted, that no republic ever demanded of its
citizens that they should furnish commodities to the state in
specified quantities and at prices arbitrarily fixed at a low
rate, with a view to secure to itself a monopoly; such a
demand could only have been enforced in countries under
the government of a tyrant. The monopoly of lead, which
Pythocles proposed to the Athenians, injured no proprietor
of mines, provided it was exported: the producers were to
receive the same price from the state, at which they had
before sold it 214. Equally innocent was the banking
monopoly which the Byzantians in a pecuniary embarrass-
ment sold to a private individual 215. The proceeding of
the Selymbriani in a similar difficulty was probably less
defensible, who seized the whole stock of corn at a fixed
price, with the exception of a quantity sufficient for the
yearly consumption of each individual, and then sold it at
a higher price with permission to export, which before had
not been granted 216. Yet after all how many kinds of
monopolies may there have been in Greece! Probably it
was then a principle in politics, that states should avail
themselves of these aids when under the pressure of
pecuniary distresses 217. In addition to this there are
abundant proofs that the exportation and importation
were regulated according to the exigencies and interests of
213 Cf. Arist. Pol. I. 7.
214 See above, chap. 6.
215 See the second book of the Economics attributed to Aris-
totle.
216 Ibid.
217 Cf. Arist. Pol. I. 11.
1
74
the state; which is by no means consistent with perfect
freedom of trade. Aristotle 218 lays down five principles
of policy as the most important, viz. finance, peace and
war, the safeguard of the country, importation and export-
ation, and legislation; mentioning at the same time that
"with regard to importation and exportation, it is neces-
sary to know how large a supply of provisions the state
requires, and what proportion of them can be produced in
the country and what imported, and what imports and
exports are necessary for the state, in order that com-
mercial treaties and agreements may be concluded with
those of whom the state must make use for this purpose."
Trade was thus an object of national policy; whence
various restrictions or preferences must necessarily have
arisen. Solon is related by Plutarch to have laid the
exportation of all products of the soil except oil, under a
malediction, which the Archon was obliged to pronounce
or to pay a fine of a hundred drachmas 219: although the
law was not in my opinion so general as here stated 220
, yet
the main fact is unquestionable; and, considering the
liberal disposition of Solon, is the more remarkable. The
export of corn was always prohibited in Attica 221. Similar
laws doubtless existed in other states; for example the
Selymbriani prohibited the exportation of corn, if not
always, at least in time of scarcity 222. There were also at
Athens many commodities of which the exportation was
prohibited (άπóggnτa), such as timber, tar, wax, rigging,
218 Rhetor. I. 4.
219 Plutarch. Sol. 24.
220 See above, chap. 8.
221 Ulpian. ad Demosth. in Timocr. p. 822.
22 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. II. 17.
**
97
75
<
and leathern bottles, articles which were particularly im-
portant for the building and equipment of the fleet 223.
It may indeed be supposed that this prohibition only
existed against the Peloponnesians during the continuance
of war 224; but how often did Greece enjoy the blessings
of peace? and even in the time of Theophrastus, the ex-
portation of timber, i. e. of timber for ship-building, was
still prohibited, being only allowed to particular individuals
free of duty 225. It is obvious that war was necessarily
attended with certain restrictions and limitations; for ex-
ample the manufactories of arms at Athens supplied the
consumption of many nations; it was natural therefore
that laws should be directed against those who provided
the enemy with arms; thus Timarchus decreed, that who-
ever furnished Philip either with arms or tackle for ships
should be punished with death 226. But in addition to
these restrictions, even the importation of some commodities
was occasionally prohibited in time of war; as for example
of Boeotian lamp-wicks, of which the real reason is not,
as Casaubon concluded from the jokes of Aristophanes 227,
that the Athenians were afraid of these lamp-wicks causing
a conflagration, but that all commodities imported from
!
223 Upon this point see Aristoph. Ran. 365. 367. and the
Scholiast, Spanheim upon this passage, and Casaubon ad Theo-
phrast. Char. 23. Concerning the leathern bottles (¿oxáμara)
comp. besides the Scholiast of Aristophanes, the Etymologist,
Suidas, and Thomas Magister in v. úλaxos.
224 Which one should also be led to suppose from Aristophanes
and his Scholiast ut sup. and from Aristoph. Eq. 278.
225 Theophrast. Char. 23.
226 Demosth. de fals. Leg. p. 433. 4. See the note to Petit's
Leg. Att. p. 517. ed. Wessel.
227
Aristoph. Acharn. 916. and the Scholiast, Casaubon ut sup.
76
Boeotia were excluded, for the purpose of harassing this
country by a stoppage of all intercourse, as indeed may be
seen from another passage in the play just alluded to 228.
In like manner Pericles, according to the Acharnenses of
the same poet 229, and the testimonies of many other
writers, had excluded the Megarians from all intercourse
with Attica, in order to oppress them. Upon the whole,
war was as much carried on by impeding commerce as by
force of arms, and by her dominion of the sea Athens ob-
tained the means of exercising a continual despotism over
trade."No state," observes Xenophon, "can ever export
any thing, if it is not submissive to the masters of the sea;
upon them depends all the exportation of the surplus pro-
duce of other nations 230." They laid an embargo upon all
vessels, seized, and detained or captured merchant-vessels,
even such as the State had no right to interfere with; and
to recover by a decree of the court of captures the goods
which had been unlawfully lost, was a matter of extreme
"
228 Acharn. 860 sqq.
229 See more particularly the argument to this Play, Thucyd.
I. 139. Plutarch. Pericl. 30. Diod. XII. 39 sqq.
'
Ħ
230 Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. II. 3. 11, 12. The words πρὸς δὲ
τούτοις ἄλλοσε ἄγειν οὐκ ἐάσουσιν, οἵτινες ἀντίπαλοι ἡμῖν εἰσὶν, ἢ οὐ
χρήσονται τῇ θαλάττῃ, are extremely difficult to understand, and
certainly have not been understood by the commentators; but
yet they do not appear corrupt. The sense is, "The States,
from which we receive imports, will not permit our adversaries
to export for their own use the materials necessary for ship build-
ing, or they will lose by that means the use of the sea." The
subject to ξάσουσιν and χρήσονται is ἐκεῖνοι, which refers to the pre-
ceding παρὰ μὲν τοῦ, παρὰ δὲ τοῦ. The words οἵτινες ἀντίπαλοι ἡμῖν
siriv are to be taken instead of the accusative to ayaw, just as if
it stood πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἐκεῖνοι οὐκ ἐάσουσιν ἄλλοσε ἄγειν τοὺς ἡμῖν ἀντι-
πάλους, ἢ οὐ χρήσονται τῇ θαλάττῃ.
รา
५
77
difficulty. That these measures of the Athenians produced
the greatest hatred against them, cannot excite surprize.
Even the Spartans made a protest against the Megarian
decree; its non-repeal was the immediate pretext of the
Peloponnesian war. These examples, although not ap-
plicable to a state of peace, prove at least, that the
Athenians did not avoid any restriction of commerce, so
long as it appeared profitable to them; and from this it
may be fairly concluded that at times when there was a
cessation from war, they provided for their real or supposed
interests by various regulations which were inconsistent
with freedom of trade. Their object was to frame
compulsory laws for the purpose of forcing the supply of
those commodities which were necessary for the consump-
tion of the country; or which should be brought to the
market in the port of Athens, in order to be there sold,
that by these means Athens might become a general
emporium. Some of these regulations are extraordinarily
No inhabitant was allowed to carry corn any
where but to the harbour of Athens; those who violated
this law were subject to a Phasis or an Eisangelia 231. In the
same manner it was fixed what portion of the corn of each
cargo which had arrived in harbour, should be retained in
the city of Athens, as will be presently shewn. There was
also an exceedingly oppressive regulation, that no Athenian
or alien resident in Attica should lend money upon a vessel
which did not return to Athens with a cargo of corn or
other commodities 232. If indeed we listen to Salma-
severe.
231 See chap. 15.
232 Demosth. in Lacrit. p. 941. 9-20. from the Law, 'Agrigion
δὲ μὴ ἐξεῖναι ἐκδοῦναι ᾿Αθηναίων καὶ τῶν μετοίκων τῶν ᾿Αθήνησι μετοικούντων
μηδενὶ, μηδὲ ὧν οὗτοι κύριοί εἰσιν, εἰς ναῦν ἥτις ἂν μὴ μέλλῃ ἄξειν σῖτον
78
sius 233, this law refers only to the corn trade, and means
no more than that it was not permitted to lend money for
the purpose of buying corn in other countries, except upon
the condition that the corn should be imported into
Athens: this supposition is however manifestly devoid of
foundation. The meaning of the law is, that money could
not be lent upon any ship which did not return to Athens
with corn; but if these were all the provisions of the law,
no money could have been vested in bottomry at all, ex-
cept upon vessels employed in the corn trade. Since then
this supposition leads to an absurdity, it is manifest that
we do not possess the law in a complete state. And this
in fact is sufficiently pointed out in the speech of Demo-
sthenes against Lacritus; and corn, as being the most
important article, was only first and expressly named.
In several places it is distinctly stated, that it was not
lawful to lend money which was to be sent to any foreign
port, without corn being particularly specified 234. In the
agreement of bottomry given in the speech of Demosthenes
against Lacritus (to which case the law exactly applies),
it is not fixed that either corn or any thing else should be
᾿Αθήναζε, καὶ τἄλλα τὰ γεγραμμένα περὶ ἑκάστου αὐτῶν.
The last words shew that many other specific provisions followed
which the Orator omits, and in these no doubt the other com-
modities were either individually or generally stated.
233 De M. U. V. p. 193 sqq.
10
R
934 In Lacrit. ut sup. καὶ δίκη αὐτῷ μὴ ἔστω περὶ τοῦ ἀργυρίου, ö
àv indậ äλaoré ny 'Abúvale. Demosth. in Dionysodor. p. 1284. 15.
»
ὅτι οὐκ ἂν δανείσαιμεν εἰς ἕτερον ἐμπόριον οὐδὲν ἀλλ᾽ ἢ εἰς ᾿Αθήνας. The
passage in the speech against Lacritus p. 941. 15. iàv de tig indậ
παρὰ ταῦτ᾽, εἶναι τὴν φάσιν καὶ τὴν ἀπογραφὴν τοῦ ἀργυρίου πρὸς τοὺς
ἐπιμελητὰς, καθὰ περὶ τῆς νεὼς καὶ τοῦ σίτου εἴρηται, κατὰ ταῦτα,
proves nothing against my assertion for many reasons.
79
taken as a return-cargo; and the debtor himself affirmed
that he had intended to return to Athens with a cargo of
salt meat and Coan wine 235; nor in any similar document
is the species of the commodities ever fixed which are to
be taken as a return-cargo, but the only stipulations we
find are with regard to the security, and that the return-
cargo should be of equal value with the original freight:
Lastly, how could it have been possible to specify the
goods, which were to be taken up as a return-cargo, since
the merchant would necessarily be guided in his selection
by the state of the market, and no certain calculation
could be made beforehand? We must therefore allow, that,
in general, money could not be lent at Athens upon any
ship or upon its cargo, except on the condition of its return-
ing to that city, in order that no Athenian property might
be employed to the profit of a foreign trading-town. This
is not inconsistent with the permission to lend money only
for the time requisite for the voyage to a particular place,
without including the return (éregónλous). If the master
of a vessel had borrowed money for the time of his voyage
from Athens to Rhodes, and instead of not paying the
money till he returned to Athens, if he was obliged to
repay it immediately upon his arrival at Rhodes, it does
not follow from this that he was not compelled to return;
by law he was bound to do so, just as much as if the money
had been lent him until his return to Athens. The sole
difference is, that in the former case the creditor was only
exposed to the risk of the passage outwards, in the latter
of the passage inwards as well236. Money too could only
235 P. 933. 15.
236 To this view of the subject the passage in Demosth. in
Dionysod. p. 1284. 8-20. cannot be opposed, for if rightly
80
1
be lent for the time of the passage outwards, upon the
condition of the vessel returning to Athens: it was only
absolutely prohibited, when the ship was not to return.
It should also be remembered, that heavy punishments were
laid upon the violation of this law. As to the laws re-
lating to money lent out on other kinds of security, no com-
plaint could be made. Those who failed to pay could be
prosecuted by a Phasis 237; and the borrower, if he did not
return, could be punished with loss of life 238. If the Athe-
nians imposed such restrictions upon trade, it may be con-
ceived how the laws of other states were constituted. In
Ægina and Argos Athenian manufactures appear to have
been in early times prohibited, although upon a pretended
religious motive, and on the immediate occasion for sacred
purposes 239. In the inland traffic too there was not by any
means unrestricted freedom; nor indeed could it exist under
the established principles of the ancients, among whom the
police mixed itself with every thing, although the mode
understood it completely agrees with it. Dionysodorus and Par-
meniscus wish to borrow money for the voyage from Athens to
Egypt, and from thence to Rhodes; it is therefore a irigóλous
without any obligation to return, to which the lenders naturally
would not consent. Compare also upon the questions relating
to this subject book I. chap. 23. The space does not permit me
to be more explicit upon this question, nor will persons ac-
quainted with such subjects desire more: but to satisfy a certain
class of readers, who expect every thing to be related ab ovo,
and to be supported with passages explained at full length, is no
easy matter, as we must not suppose that they have any previous
knowledge of the question.
237 Demosth. in Lacrit. ut sup.
238 Demosth. in Dionysod. p. 1295. 8 sqq. as the context
shews.
259 Herod. V. 88.
81
of its interference differed from that which now prevails in
modern States. Assize-regulations were not unknown. In
the time of Aristophanes the government of Athens on one
occasion reduced the price of salt to a fixed rate; which
however was not long retained, probably because it caused
a deficiency in the supply of that article 240. In corn we
certainly find a great freedom of prices. Yet the ruinous
operation of engrossing was restrained within certain limits.
Retail-dealing in the market was originally interdicted to
foreigners according to the rigour of the law; instances
however occur of its being permitted upon the payment of
a duty, which is different from the protection-money of
the resident aliens 241. What is here said must not
however be referred to the wholesale trade in the harbour;
this in a great measure owed its existence to foreigners,
who exposed samples of their goods at a particular place
called Deigma 242, for the convenience of the buyers who
came there from all regions to purchase commodities.
The prices of commodities could not however have been
much enhanced by these restrictions, especially as the
custom-duties were very moderate; but they were raised
by the great profit which the merchants took. That the
rate of profits was high, is sufficiently proved by the
high rate of interest on money lent upon bottomry (fenus
240 Aristoph. Eccl. 809. and the Scholiast.
241 Demosth. in Eubulid. p. 1308. 9. p. 1309. 5. where this
is called and reλetv.
242 Lysias Fragm. p. 31. Aristoph. Eq. 975. and Schol. De-
mosth. in Lacrit. p. 932. 20. in Polycl. p. 1214. 18. Harpoc. in
v. duyμa, Poll. IX. 34. and there Jungermann. cf. Casaub. ad
Theoph. Char. 23. also Lex. Seg. p. 237. The Deigma at
Rhodes is mentioned by Polybius V. 69. The specimens them-
selves were also called Deigma, Plutarch. Demosth. 23.
VOL. I.
G
82
nauticum), in which 30 per cent for one summer was not
unfrequently paid. Hume's remark 243, that a high rate
of interest and profit is an infallible sign, that industry
and trade are still in their infancy, applies with the
greatest force to the ancient times of the Grecian nations,
and in some measure to that of Pericles, and the period
immediately succeeding. A Samian ship, which, as Hero-
dotus 244 relates, had by accident made its way from
Egypt to Tartessus in Iberia, at a time when no Grecians,
not even the Phocæans, traded there, gained upon one
cargo 60 talents; since the tithe to the goddess Juno
amounted to six talents: probably it had received silver at
a low rate in exchange for the goods carried out 245. Greek
merchants had never made a greater profit, with the
exception only of Sostratus of Ægina, with whom no one
could in this respect enter into comparison. With regard
however to the value of the cargo of the Samian ship, it is
clear that it cannot now be ascertained, as the quantity of
goods on board different vessels was very various; we
find instances of cargoes which did not exceed two talents
in value; but larger sums are met with, as for example, a
ship of Naucratis mentioned in Demosthenes was valued at
nine and a half talents 246. In the time of Lysias also, an
Athenian vessel is said to have paid so large an interest
upon a sum of two talents, that it doubled the principal 247.
It is of course evident that the retail-traders (xάπηλ01)
obtained likewise a very large profit on the goods which
243 Essays, p. 222.
244 Herod. IV. 152.
245 Compare what Diodorus V. 35. says of the Phoenicians.
246 Demosth. in Timocr. p. 696. and passim.
247 Lysias in Diogit. p. 908.
83
they sold, if we take into consideration the high rate of
interest.
(10.) If allowance is made for accidental variation in
different places, it may be stated that in the ancient world
the necessaries of life were upon the whole cheaper than at
the present time, but in individual cases examples enough
of the contrary occur. The chief reasons of the former
phenomenon are the smaller quantity of money in circula-
tion, the unusual fruitfulness of the southern regions in
which the Greeks either dwelt or traded-regions, which
although now neglected, were at that period in a state of
the highest cultivation-and the impossibility of export-
ation to distant lands, which had little or no intercourse
with the countries upon the Mediterranean. The latter is
in particular the cause of the great cheapness of wine.
The abundant quantity of this article which was produced
in almost all the southern regions, was not distributed
over so large a space of the earth as is the case at present.
It is to be observed however, that in considering the general
scale of prices in ancient States, the difference of time and
place must be well weighed. In Rome and in Athens, at
the most flourishing periods of these States, commodities
were not so cheap as in upper Italy and Lusitania. In
upper Italy, even in the time of Polybius 248, the Sicilian
medimnus of wheat, which was the same as the Attic,
being somewhat less than 1 English bushels, frequently
sold for only four oboli (eight asses), i. e. about sixpence,
the medimnus of barley for half this sum, the metretes of
248 Polyb. I. 15. Polybius has changed the asses into oboli,
reckoning two asses to an obolus, and the denarius equal to the
drachma. He thus takes the Roman coins a small fraction too
high.
|?
84
wine, about ten wine-gallons, for the same price as the
barley! Travellers used not, as in other places, to agree
with the innkeepers for the price of each article, but only
stipulated how much they should give in the gross for the
whole consumption of an individual, and the sum demanded
was generally a half as or quarter obolus, and seldom
exceeded this rate. In Lusitania, according to the same
historian 249, the Sicilian medimnus of barley cost a
drachma, of wheat nine Alexandrian oboli, which appear
to have been something less than the Attic 250; the
metretes of wine the same as the barley; a kid of mode-
rate size an obolus, a hare the same, a lamb three and four
oboli, a fat pig, weighing a hundred minas, five oboli, a
sheep two, a draught ox ten, a calf five drachmas, a talent
of figs, about 56lbs, three oboli; game had hardly any
value, but was included gratis in other bargains. Such
low prices as these do not apply to Athens after the
Persian war. In the time of Solon, indeed, an ox cost only
five drachmas, a sheep one drachma, and a medimnus of
corn the same sum: but prices gradually rose to five
times, in many things to as much as ten or twenty times,
their former amount, which after the examples of more
recent times does not seem surprising. The quantity of
money in use was not only increased, but through a rising
population and an extended intercourse its circulation was
accelerated. Thus Athens, as early as in the age of So-
crates, was considered an expensive place of residence 251.
Upon the whole, the cheapness of commodities in ancient
249 XXXIV. 8. 7. Concerning the reading see Schweighæuser
in the Lexicon Polyb. p. 555.
250 See above, chap. 4.
251 Plutarch. de Anim. Tranquill. 10.
85
times has been exaggerated by some writers, who thought
that the nearest approach would be made to the truth by
assuming that prices were on an average ten times lower
than in the eighteenth century 252; whereas the prices of
corn, by which many other prices are necessarily regulated,
prove the contrary. But that a more determinate judg
ment may be passed upon this subject, I will explicitly
treat of each in their order of the prices of immoveables;
of slaves, of cattle, corn, bread, wine, oil, and other
necessaries of life, and also of wood, clothing, and the
different sorts of implements and furniture, as far as I have
been able to find information upon these points.
(11.) The value of the cultivated land in Attica was
naturally very different according to its situation and
goodness. The estates in the vicinity of the city bore a
much higher price than those at a distance 253; the wooded
land (yй TεQUTEUμévn) must have been dearer than the bare
or unplanted land (yñ λǹ) as it was called, the rich and
good than the poor soils. Among the many passages
upon the value of land one alone contains an approximate
statement of the area, and this without any particulars as
to situation and quality. Aristophanes, according to the
account of Lysias 254, had bought a house for five minas
and 300 plethra of land, both together cost him more than
five talents. If we assume that it cost him five talents and
twenty minas, and subtract from this sum the value of the
house, there remain for the land 27,000 drachmas, which
252 Gillies ut sup. p. 19. Wolf makes the same supposition
with regard to a charitable institution of Trajan, p. 6.
255 Xenoph. de Vectig. 4.
254 Orat. pro Aristoph. bonis p. 633. and p. 642. where for
οὐσίαν read with Markland οἰκίαν.
86
gives 90 drachmas for one plethron. Now the plethron
was equal to 10,000 feet of Greek square measure, 9620
Rheinland, or 9900 English feet, according to Ideler's
researches. The English acre of 43,560 square feet would
thus have cost 396 drachmas; which does not by any
means agree with the exaggerated notion above alluded to,
that prices were ten times lower in ancient than in modern
times. It is however by no means improbable that much
land bore a lower value; but 50 drachmas may be fairly
assumed as the average price of the plethron, without
taking into consideration accidental circumstances by which
the value of the land might be lowered. It should also be
mentioned that in Attica the land was probably divided
into portions of no very great extent. Alcibiades' paternal
inheritance did not amount to more than the estate pur-
chased by Aristophanes, although his was one of the most
distinguished families. It was not until the time of
Demosthenes that individuals purchased much landed
property. The most extensive possessions were those
which commonly went by the name of boundary-estates
(xariai), which were situated at a distance either upon
the seashore or at the foot of the mountains 255. Thus
the boundary-estate of Timarchus in Sphettus is stated to
have been extensive, but it had run wild through his
neglect 256. The estate belonging to Phænippus in Cy-
255 Harpoc. in v. irxarıd. Schol. ad Eschin. in Timarch.
p. 736, 737. ed. Reisk. Lex. Seg. p. 256. and the Commentators
upon Æschines and Demosthenes in the passages to be quoted.
Herodotus also (VI. 127.) calls distant estates irxarial. The
supposition that the estates on the boundaries of the boroughs
were so called is undoubtedly false, not to mention that many
boroughs were bounded by the sea and by mountains.
256 Æschin. in Timarch. p. 117, 119.
F
87
theron contained more than 40 stadii or 1440 plethra 257.
Of other estates I have noted down the following prices.
An estate situated in Sphettus is mentioned in Lysias as
being worth five minas; another occurs in Isæus worth
above ten minas, and in the former orator an estate in
Cicynna is estimated by the creditor at ten minas 258. In
like manner in Terence 259, an estate is stated to be mort-
gaged for the latter sum. Timarchus sold an estate in Alo-
pecæ, distant eleven or twelve stadii from the walls, under
its value for 20 minas 260, Again, an estate is mentioned in
Prospalta, which was hardly worth 30 minas 261, and one
in Enoë for 50 minas 262. An estate of Ciron's was,
according to the expression of Isæus, well worth a talent:
whence we may conclude that an estate no larger than this
was thought a considerable possession; an estate of the
same value occurs in Demosthenes, which appears to have
contained vineyards 263. The following sums are still
more considerable, viz. 70 minas, and 75 minas for an
estate in Athmonon, two talents for a property in Eleusis,
and two and half talents for the same in Thria 264. Con-
cerning other kinds of landed property I have been unable
to obtain any information, except that mine-shares were
257 Orat. in Phænipp. p. 1040. 15.
258 Lysias Tegì dnpoo. ådíx. p. 594. cf. p. 593, 595. Isæus de
Menecl. Hered. p. 221. ed. Orell.
259 Phorm. IV. 3. 56.
260 Esch. in Timarch. p. 119.
261 Isæus de Hagn. Hered. p. 298.
262 Is. ut sup. p. 294.
263 Is. de Ciron. Hered. p. 218. Demosth. in Onet. I. p. 872.
ad fin. II. p. 876. 10. cf. I. p. 871.22.
264 Isæus de Menecl. Hered. p. 220, 221. ed. Orell. de Phi-
loctem. Hered. p. 140. de Hagn. Hered. p. 292 sqq.
88
sold for a talent and 90 minas, although their price was at
times enhanced by particular circumstances 265.
(C
(12.) With regard to houses, we know that Athens
contained above 10,000 266; which probably does not
include the public edifices and the buildings without the
walls; the city and the harbour being nearly 200 stadii in
circumference, there were many places within so large an
area upon which no buildings were erected 267. The
houses were for the most part small and mean in appear-
ance, the streets crooked and narrow; a stranger," says
Dicæarchus," might doubt upon a sudden view whether
this were really the city of Athens ;" the Piraeus alone had
been laid out according to rule, in the time of Themistocles,
by the architect Hippodamus 268. The upper stories often
projected over the streets; staircases, balustrades, and
doors opening outwards, obstructed and narrowed the
way. Themistocles and Aristides, with the entire co-
operation of the Areopagus, gained nothing more by their
endeavours than that a stop was put to any farther
narrowing of the streets by building, a measure which was
adhered to in later times 269. The plan of Hippias and
Iphicrates for breaking down every thing that projected
into the public streets 270 was not carried into execution,
because their object was not the embellishment of the city,
but to obtain money by fraudulent means. With the ex-
265 See my Essay upon the Silver-mines of Laurion.
266 Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. III. 6. 14. To this Xenoph. Econ.
8. 22. is also referred; but not with any certainty.
267 Xenoph. de Vectig. 2.
268 Dicæarchus p. 8. and Aristot. Polit. VI. 2. VII. 11. and the
Commentators.
269 Heraclid. Pont. and Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 3.
270 See Meursius F. A. p. 20.
89
ception of the magnificent public edifices, they did not
begin to build good houses until the time of Demosthenes.
"Formerly," says this orator 271, "no individual raised
himself above the multitude. If any one of us could now
see the houses of Themistocles, Aristides, Miltiades,
Cimon, or the famous men of those days, he would perceive
that they were not more magnificent than the houses of
ordinary persons; while the buildings of the State are of
such number and magnitude that they cannot be sur-
passed:" and afterwards he complains that the statesmen
of his time constructed houses which exceeded the public
buildings in magnificence. Meidias built a house in Eleusis
larger than any in that place 272. The greater number of
houses were however even at this time badly built, as
Photion's 273, for example; and, like those of Pompeii and
Herculaneum, they occupied only a limited space, for
which reason their price could not have been high.
Labour was cheap, there was stone in plenty, and wood
could be easily brought to the place of building; and
another circumstance which diminished the price of houses
was, that they were for the most part either built with a
frame-work, or of unburnt bricks dried in the open air,
which latter mode of building, as being more durable than
with soft stones, was sometimes employed in splendid and
costly edifices 274. An advantageous situation and the
271 Demosth. in Aristocrat. p. 689. 11-24. Olynth. III. p. 35.
14–24. p. 36. 20. from both of which the passage in the Oration
Tigi cuvτážews p. 174-5. is composed. For the whole speech has
been correctly abjudged from Demosthenes.
272 Demosth. in Mid. p. 565. 24.
275 Plut. Phoc. 18.
27 That the private buildings of the Athenians were con-
structed of bricks of unburnt clay is in part proved by Demo-
90
customary high rate of house-rent, might however raise the
value of houses. It was also of course possible for large
sums of money to be expended by foolish and extravagant
speculations upon an useless house 275. It should be ob-
served that the Attic language distinguishes between
dwelling-houses (oixía), and lodging-houses (σuvoixíai);
accidentally indeed a dwelling-house might be let out for
lodgings, and a lodging-house have been inhabited by the
proprietor himself; which will explain how learned writers
could fall into the error of supposing that the latter word
(ouvoixía), frequently means a house in general without any
addition of the idea of letting; whereas the derivation of
the word plainly shews that it expresses a dwelling to-
gether of several families, of whom either some or all are
lodgers.
The prices of houses, which are mentioned in the ancient
writers, vary from three minas to 120, according to their
size, situation, and condition. The data are as follows;
a small house estimated by Isæus at less than three minas,
though he probably depreciates its value; a house at
Eleusis worth five minas, mentioned by the same orator276;
a very small house near the temple of Hermes Psithyristes
at Athens, sold for seven minas, according to another
orator 277; another house which was pledged for ten
minas, according to Demosthenes, a possession belonging
to poor people, as is evident from their inconsiderable
sthenes ap. Plutarch. in Vit. Demosth. 11.
Hirt Baukunst der Alten p. 143.
275 Xenoph. Econ. 3. 1.
276 Isæus de Menecl. Hered. p. 221. ed. Orell. de Hagn. Hered.
For the rest see
p. 293.
277 Orat. in Neær. p. 1358. 6–9.
91
dowry of 40 minas, and from other circumstances 278; to
these may be added a house noticed in Terence which is
mortgaged for the same sum, a poet who generally repre-
sents the usages and customs of Athens 279; a dwelling-
house in the city, worth 20 minas, mentioned by Isæus 280;
a lodging-house in the country mortgaged for sixteen
minas, in Demosthenes 281; a house in the city that had
been let, worth 20 minas, in Isæus 282, and several houses
of the same value in Demosthenes and Æschines 283, one
of them behind the Acropolis; a house sold for thirty
minas, and another of the same value in Isæus and
Demosthenes 284, the former in Melite; a lodging-house in
the Cerameicus, worth 40 minas, given as a dowry, in
Isæus; another in the city transferred for the sum of 44
minas, in the same orator 285; likewise one for 50 minas
in Isæus and Lysias 286; a lodging-house belonging to the
rich merchant Pasion, valued at a hundred minas 287; and,
lastly, in Plautus a house purchased for two talents, having
two wooden columns connected with it, valued, exclusively
278 Demosth. in Spud. p. 1029. 20. cf. p. 1032. 21. p.
26.
1033.
279 Phorm. IV. 3. 58.
280 De Ciron. Hered. p. 219.
281 In Nicostrat. p. 1250. 18.
282 Ut sup.
283 Demosth. in Onetor. II. p. 876. 9. and passim. Esch. in
Timarch. p 119.
284 Isæus de Hagn. Hered. p. 293. Demosth. in Aphob. I.
p. 816. 21.
285 De Dicæog. Hered. p. 104. de Philoctem. Hered. p. 140.
286 Is. de Dicæog. Hered. p. 105. Lys. pro Aristoph. bonis
p. 633.
287 Demosth. in Stephan. 1. p.
1110. 8.
92
of the cost of the carriage, at three minas 288. To these
may be added 30 minas, the value of a bathing house at
Serangium in the Piraeus 289; and another of which the
value may be fairly estimated at 40 minas, as the person,
who was cast in a law-suit on the occasion, was compelled
to pay that sum for it 290.
(13.) The market-price of slaves, exclusively of the
variations caused by the greater or less demand and
supply 291, was very different according to their age,
health, strength, beauty, natural abilities, mechanical
ingenuity, and moral qualities. Some slaves, says Xe-
nophon 292, are well worth two minas, others hardly
half a mina; many sold for five or ten minas, and Nicias
the son of Niceratus is stated to have given no less
than a talent for an overseer in the mines. The slaves
employed in the mills and mines were undoubtedly the
lowest. Lucian, in the ludicrous valuation of the philoso-
phers 293, estimates Socrates at two talents, a Peripatetic
at twenty, Chrysippus at twelve, a Pythagorean at ten,
and Dion of Syracuse at two minas, and, to omit the
value of Diogenes, reckons Philon the Sceptic at a mina,
remarking at the same time that he was destined for the
288 Mostell. III. 1. 113 sqq. III. 2. 138. I omit other passages
which do not refer to Athens, such as that in the spurious
Epistle of Æschines, 9.
289 Is. de Philoct. Sorte, p. 140. Compare also Harpocration
in v. Σηράγγιον.
290 Isæus de Dicæog. Hered. p. 101.
291 Such for example, as those paid for the Carthaginian sol-
diers, according to Liv. XXI. 41.
292 Mem. Socrat. II. 3. 2.
295 Βίων πρᾶσις 27.
93
mill; the latter therefore is evidently the price of a slave
employed in the mills. "Assuming," observes Xenophon,
"that the Athenian State 294 purchases 1200 slaves, and
lets them out on hire into the mines for a daily payment
of one obolus a head, and that the whole revenue accruing
from this source is annually applied to the purchase of
fresh slaves, who should again be let out at a like profit,
which receipts should be applied as before, and so on
for ever, the State would by means of these successive
returns have 6000 slaves in five or six years." If, as I
believe, the original 1200 are comprehended in this number,
the price is here taken at from 125 to 150 drachmas; if
they are not comprised in the estimate, which appears to
me improbable, a slave in the mines would be only reckoned
at from 100 to 125 drachmas. According to the account
of Demosthenes 295, 105 minas were lent upon the security
of a mine, and 30 slaves employed in working it; this was
arranged by a fictitious purchase made by two creditors,
one of whom, Nicobulus, gave 40 minas, the other, Euergus,
a talent; the latter held the mine, the former the slaves as
a pledge, which they were to cede as soon as the contract
of purchase ceased to be in force 296; consequently each
slave was in this case estimated at 150 drachmas: nor could
a slave of this description in general have been worth
more, although the antagonists of Demosthenes' client main-
tain that the mines and slaves together were worth a much
larger sum 297. The statement of Barthélemy 298, who
294 De Vectig. 4. 23.
295 In Pantænet. p. 967.
296 See
p. 967. 18. and p. 972. 21.
297 For the sake of brevity I refer the reader to my Essay on
the Silver-mines of Laurion.
299 Anachars. tom. V. p. 35.
2
94
supposes that the value of the mine-slaves varied from 300
to 600 drachmas, rests upon an erroneous assumption.
Ordinary house-slaves, both male and female, could not
have been worth much more than those just mentioned 299.
The valuation of two slaves, each at two and a half minas,
is considered in the works of Demosthenes 300 as high; in
the same author we read of a slave who was sold for two
minas 301. Demosthenes' father was possessed of workers
of iron or sword-cutlers, some of whom were worth five,
some six, and the lowest more than three minas, and
twenty chair-makers, together worth 40 minas. The
chair-makers with the 32 or 33 sword-makers, including a
capital of a talent, are stated at four talents 50 minas 302,
But when in another place the same orator reckons 14
sword-cutlers (although they might have been of advanced
age), together with 30 minas, at only 70 minas 303, and con-
sequently each at 71 drachmas, he is manifestly guilty of an
intentional falsehood. How great an influence a knowledge
of any art had upon the value of the slave is shewn by this
I
299 Upon this point compare the unsatisfactory statements in
Aristoph. Plut. 147. Isæus de Ciron. Hered. p. 218–220.
300 In Nicost. p. 1246. 7. The author afterwards states in
the Addenda, that "he had considered the estimate of two slaves
at 24 minas as high, because from the words rò μsysbos rũs åño-
reapus he assumed a high valuation; and that therefore the
words of the Orator must be interpreted as if each of the two
slaves was estimated at that sum; but that since myelos might
also be understood of a less amount, and as the context, although
very obscure, seems to require this meaning, it might be pre-
ferable to suppose that the two slaves were together valued at
2 minas."
301 In Spud. p. 1030. 8.
302 Demosth. in Aphob. I. p. 816. 5.
303 Cf. Demosth. in Aphob. p. 815. p. 817. 23. and p. 821,
95
example of the sword-cutlers; for the higher profit they
afforded the greater was their value. While a slave in the
mines only yielded a profit of an obolus a day, a worker in
leather produced two, and the master of the workshop
three oboli 304; from whence it can be judged how large
may have been the profit which the manufacturers of fine
ornamental goods, such as head-nets (σaxxupávтai) or of
stuffs of Amorgus and variegated clothes (Total), yielded
to their possessors 305. Five minas, which we found above
to have been given for slaves skilled in some art, appear
moreover not to have been at all uncommon 306, as is
shewn by an account in Diogenes 307. The Roman sol-
diers whom Hannibal had sold in Achaia, were ransomed
304 Eschin. in Timarch. p. 118.
305 Concerning the caxxvpávraι see Demosth. in Olympiod.
p. 1170. 27. Pollux X. 192. The interpretation given in Lex.
Seg. p. 302. is incorrect. For the other points cf. Æsch. ut sup.
Concerning the ποικιλτὴς, afterwards called πλουμάριος (plumarius,
see Muratori Inscript. vol. II. p. DCCCCVI. 13. and again
p. DCCCCXXIV. 11. together with his Dissertation de Textrina
in the Ant. Ital.), Poll. VII. 34, 35. and the Commentators,
Schol. Esch. p. 730. ed. Reiske, and Lex. Seg. p. 295.
306 It might also be supposed that the price of five minas for
slaves at the oars (xwπs) was mentioned in Andocides de suo
Reditu p. 81. if in that passage we write vs μvv for æévre deax-
pewv: for what Reiske (Ind. Andoc. Orat. Att. tom. VIII. p. 503.)
infers from this passage, Remigis erat ingens pretium quinque
drachmæ, will not mislead any reader. Kwaùs however does not
mean a rower, but a piece of wood for an oar, as may be easily seen
by a comparison of the passages, where it was supposed to mean
Of these is the passage in Andocides, where the con-
text clearly shews, that pieces of wood for oars, and not slaves
for the oars, are intended: and a piece of wood of this description
was probably well paid for at five drachmas.
a rower.
307 Vol. II. in the Life of Aristippus.
96
at a compensation of five minas each, the price having been
fixed by the Achæans themselves, and the State paid it to
their respective possessors 308. These statements agree
for the most part with the prices which were paid for
some slaves sold to the Delphian Apollo, upon the condi-
tion that the individuals who thus became sacred property
should in all other respects be free, and ever after be
exempt from serving any person as slaves. In instruments
of sale belonging to this kind of transfer we find four minas
paid for a male, from three to five for a female309; yet in
a sale which took place at Amphissa to the temple of
Apollo not less than 1000 drachmas are given for a male
slave. Plautus appears, as is frequently the case with the
comic poets, to make a high estimate, when he values a
strong useful slave at twenty minas, and supposes a child
to be sold for six minas 310. The father of Theocrines was
condemned to pay to the State a fine of 500 drachmas for
having attempted to emancipate a female slave of Cephiso-
dorus. The sum paid to the State for an offence of this
nature was, according to law, the half of the complete fine,
308 1200 cost the State a hundred talents according to Po-
lybius, Liv. XXXIV, 50. This was in Olymp. 146. 1. in the
year of the city 558.
309 Chandler Inscript. II. 154. cf. Muratori p. DXCIII, also
Chandler II. 150, 151, 152, 153, 155. and Chandler Marm.
Oxon. II. XXIX. 2. The sacred slaves, igédouλo, were of this
description, as e. g. the Venerii at Eryx in Sicily, the female
servants of Venus at Corinth, the Hieroduli of Comana upon the
Pontus, which the priests could no more sell to another person,
than the Thessalian could sell their bondsmen the Penestæ, or
the Spartans their Helots out of the country. Cf. Strab. XII.
p. 384.
310 Captiv. II. 2, 103. V. 2, 21. 4, 15.
T
97
the other half went to the injured master; and it is probable
that this was a simple compensation for the loss sustained,
so that the female slave appears to have been valued at
five minas 311. For women who prostituted their persons,
and female players on the cithara, 20 or 30 minas occur
as common prices 12. Neæra was sold for 30 minas 313.
A negro-woman and an old eunuch are sold in a play of
Terence for 20 minas 314. Even these prices were still
farther enhanced by luxury; and although at Athens an
excellent slave could be bought for ten minas, the price
at Rome in the time of Columella exceeded even this
amount 15, in the same manner that the value of negro-slaves
has at the present day considerably increased: as early as
in the age of the first Ptolemies, an Alexandrian talent was
the price given for the males and females who attended at
court 316. The ransom-money for captives was only in
part regulated by the price of slaves. This may be seen
from the fact that the Chalcideans, who before the Persian
war remained prisoners in Athens, were ransomed at two
minas a head 317; at which sum subsequently the indigent
311 Orat. in Theocrin. p. 1327. 1328. see book III. 12.
312 Terent. Adelph. II. 1. 37. 2. 15. IV. 7. 24. and elsewhere,
Plaut. Mostellar. in several places, Curcul. I. 1. 63. II. 3, 65.
and passim, Terent. Phorm III. 3. 24. Isocrat. megi avridórews
p. 124. ed. Orell.
313 Orat. in Neær. p. 1354. 16.
314 Terent. Eunuch. I. 2. 89. In V. 5. 13. he inaccurately
says that the eunuch cost the same sum. The negress appears
to have been worth but little, cf. III. 2. 18.
315 Hamberger de pretiis rerum, p. 32. Cf. Jugler de Nundin.
Serv. 7. p. 85 sqq.
516 Joseph. Antiq. Jud. XII. 4.
317 Herod. V. 77.
VOL. I.
H
98
citizens of Potidæa were valued, and paid taxes for it as for
property of the same amount. Again, Dionysius the elder,
after he had conquered the Rhegini, first compelled them
to make good the expences of the war, and then demanded
for each man a ransom of three minas, or, according to
Diodorus, one mina 318; Hannibal also agreed to ransom
the Roman prisoners at three minas a head; and finally, in
the time of Philip, when there were many Athenian
prisoners in Macedonia, the customary ransom varied from
three to five minas 319. But since it frequently happened
that not only the respectability and character of a man, but
also his wealth and importance, were taken into considera-
tion, a higher rate of ransom was in such cases arbitrarily
fixed. Nicostratus, as appears in a speech attributed to
Demosthenes 320, was forced to ransom himself for 26
minas; Plato was freed from captivity by Anniceris for 20
or 30 minas; with which sum, the friends of the Philoso-
pher having raised the money for the ransom and given it
to Anniceris, the latter purchased him a garden adjoining
the Academy 321. Philip affirms in his Epistle to the
Athenians 322 that the Attic general Diopeithes had refused
to ransom Amphilochus, a man of consideration, who was
employed upon embassies, for less than fifteen talents.
318 The former according to the second book of the Economics
attributed to Aristotle, from which the account of Diodorus
XIV. 111. disagrees in several points. The date of this occur-
rence is Olymp. 98. 2.
319 Polyb. VI. 56. Demosth. de fals. Leg. p. 394. 13.
320 In Nicostrat. p. 1248. 23.
321 Diog. Laert. III. 21. Plutarch. de Exilio 10. Seneca Epist.
74. Macrob. Sat. 1. 11. The account of Diodorus XV. 7. is, as
usual, confused.
522 Demosth. p. 159, 15.
99
Hence in order to prevent any arbitrary proceedings,
Demetrius Poliorcetes concluded an agreement with the
Rhodians that the free inhabitants should be ransomed for
ten and the slaves for five minas 323. The rights of pos-
session with regard to slaves in no way differed from any
other property; they could be given or taken as pledges 324,
They laboured either on their master's account or their
own, in consideration of a certain sum to be paid to the
master, or they were let out on hire either for the mines, or
any other kinds of labour, and even for other persons'
workshops, or as hired servants for wages (anopogá) 325: a
similar payment was also exacted by the masters from
their slaves serving in the fleet. The profits derived from
the slaves must necessarily have been very great; for the
possessor must have replaced his outlay of capital and
ensured the usual high rate of interest, exactly in the
same manner as if it had been vested in cattle, since
the value of slaves was destroyed by age, and at their
death the money vested in them was lost. To this
must be added the great danger of their elopement, espe-
cially when there was war in the country, and they were
with the armies 326; it then became necessary to pursue
them, and offer rewards publicly for their recapture (σã-
323 Diod. XX. 84.
324 Demosth. in Pantænet. p. 967. in Aphob. p. 821. 12.
p. 822. in Onetor. I. p. 871. 11.
325 Demosth. in Nicostrat. p. 1253. 1, 11. in Aphob. I. p. 819.
26. Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 1. in several places, particularly in
chap. 11. which passage (as corrected by Heindorf) appears
chiefly to refer to the pay of the sailors; Theoph. Char. 22.
Andoc. de Myst. p. 19.
326 Thucyd. VII. 27. and VII. 13.
100
Orga) 327. The idea of an institution for the insurance
of slaves first occurred to a Macedonian grandee, Anti-
genes of Rhodes, who undertook for a yearly contribu-
tion of eight drachmas for each slave that was in the
army, to make good his price, as estimated by the owner at
the time of elopement; which he was easily able to do, by
compelling the governors either to return the slaves who had
fled into their provinces, or to pay for them 328. It cannot
however be determined with any accuracy how high was
the rate of profit which a slave returned. The thirty-two
or thirty-three iron-workers or sword-cutlers belonging to
Demosthenes, annually produced a net profit of 30, and
the twenty chair-makers of 12 minas; the value of the
former being 190, of the latter 40 minas 329, the latter
produced 30, the former only 1515 per cent, a disparity
sufficiently remarkable. It is however to be mentioned,
that the master furnished the raw materials for manufac-
turing, and perhaps we ought to consider what he gained
upon the raw materials as constituting a part of the whole
profit. The leather-workers of Timarchus produced to
their master two, the overseer three oboli a day, but
probably this return is not to be considered as arising only
from the capital vested in the slaves, as it must have also
included the profit which the master derived from the
supply of the raw materials. Hence it may be concluded
that when mine-slaves let out to a tenant yielded to their
master a profit of an obolus a day, which, reckoning 350
working days and an average value of 140 drachmas,
327 Plat. Protag. init. Xenoph. Mem. Socr. II. 10. 2.
328 See Pseud-Arist. ŒEcon. II. 2. 34. Antigenes for Antimenes
is a correction of Niebuhr.
329 Demosth. in Aphob. I. p. 816.
101
gives 474 per cent, the rent thus paid extended not only
to the slaves, but also to the mines let out with them; an
inference which I have supported with other arguments
elsewhere 330,
(14.) Among domestic animals, horses were in Attica
sold for comparatively high prices, not only on account of
their utility and the difficulty of keeping them, but from
the disposition of the Athenians to extravagance and dis-
play: while the knights kept expensive horses for military
service and processions at the festivals, and while men
of ambition and high rank trained them for the games
and races, there arose, particularly among the young
men, an excessive passion for horses; of which Aristophanes
gives an example in the Clouds, and which is recorded by
several ancient writers 331; so that many were impoverished
by keeping horses, although it is true that others were
enriched by the same means 332. In early times also
technical principles had been laid down concerning the
management of horses, and rules of this kind had been
published before the time of Xenophon by Simon a cele-
brated rider 333. The price of a common horse, such as a
countryman used, was three minas. "By keeping horses,"
says the client of Isæus 334, "you have not squandered
your property, for never were you in possession of a horse
which was worth more than three minas." But a good
saddle-horse, or a horse for running in chariot-races, ac-
350 Essay on the Mines of Laurion.
331 Cf. Xenoph. de re Equestri, I. 12. Terent. Andr. I. 1.
Bach ad Xenoph. Econ. 2. 6. &c.
352 Xenoph. Econ. 3. 8. Many ancient writers speak of
καθιπποτροφεῖν.
333 Xenoph. de re Equestri, and see Schneider's note.
331 De Dicæog. Hered. p. 116.
102
cording to Aristophanes, cost twelve minas; and since
this sum is lent upon a horse in pawn, it must have been
a common price 335. But fashion or fancy for horses
raised their price beyond all limits. Thus thirteen talents
were given for Bucephalus 336. A yoke of mules, probably
two animals, and not particularly good ones, but only
destined for the ordinary purposes of country work, were
sold for five and a half and also for eight minas 337. Asses
were probably much cheaper in proportion; yet besides
the ludicrous story of Lucian 338 that the ass Lucius, when
no purchaser could be found for him, was at last disposed
of to an itinerary priest of the Syrian goddess for the sum
of 30 drachmas, I have been unable to meet with any thing
upon this point in reference to Greece, and even this
passage proves nothing with respect to the usual price in
ancient times, and particularly in Attica. With regard to
the prices of cattle, I am at a loss to guess whence an
English writer could have derived the statement that an
ox in the time of Socrates cost eight shillings; an assertion
which is contradicted by the concurrent testimony of all
writers who mention the subject. If indeed two drachmas
were paid for an ox at the Delian Theoria 339, I will
not deny that in the most ancient times this price may
have existed; but of later times it is inconceivable, and
the most that can be allowed is, that in the distribution of
the prizes, which were merely a matter of honour, this
primitive standard may have been retained. In Athens,
Aristoph. Nub. 20, 1226. Lysias xaτny. xaxoλ. p. 306 sq.
336 Chares ap. Gell. Noct. Att. V. 2.
337 Isæus de Philoct. Hered. p. 140.
338 Asin. 35.
339 Pollux IX. 61. where the Commentators question the fact.
103
at the time of Solon, an ox, probably one selected as a
victim, was sold for five drachmas, five times as much as a
sheep 340; in Lusitania, according to Polybius, for ten
drachmas, and a sheep in like manner a fifth of this sum;
in Rome the price of an ox was ten times that of a
sheep 341. If therefore in the flourishing times of Athens
a sheep, as will be presently shewn, cost from ten to twenty
drachmas, according to its age, breed, and the variation in
the market price, an ox may be reckoned at from 50 to 100
drachmas. In Olymp. 92. 3. 5114 drachmas were paid for
a hecatomb, and if we suppose that nearly 100 oxen were
purchased for it, the price of an ox amounted to about 51
drachmas. But in Olymp. 101. 3. a hecatomb of 109
oxen cost 8419 drachmas, that is 77 drachmas a head; in
both cases oxen selected for victims are meant 342. Pro-
bably also in other countries except Athens, prices were
not much lower at this period; in Sicily, which abounded
with cattle, in the time of Epicharmus the price was the
same as at Athens in the days of Solon. For a fine calf,
according to that comic poet, was sold for ten nummi 343,
or two drachmas 43 oboli of Attic money 344; and since
it may be inferred from the analogy of the prices in
Lusitania, that the value of a full-grown ox was double,
it is probable that at that time in Sicily, an ox of similar
340 Plutarch. Solon. 23, from Demetrius Phalereus.
341 Hamberger in the Treatise above quoted, Taylor ad Marm.
Sandw.
p.
37.
342 See the second Prytaneia of the Choiseuil Inscription, and
Barthélemy in the Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, vol. XLVIII.
p. 355. also Inscript. 158. tom. I. p. 252. ed. Boeckh. cf. Taylor.
ad Marm. Sandw. p. 36.
Ap. Poll. IX. 80.
344 According to the assumption in chap. 4.
343
104
quality might have sold for twenty nummi, or five drach-
mas 3 oboli of Attic money. A sucking pig was sold at
Athens in the Peloponnesian war for three drachmas 345.
A small sheep for a sacrifice, picked out for the use of the
temple, is estimated in Menander at ten drachmas 346. In
the time of Lysias the prices cannot have been at all lower,
otherwise the dishonest guardian mentioned in this orator
could not have set down sixteen drachmas for a lamb at
the Dionysia, whatever might have been his eagerness to
overrate the charges in his accounts 347. A remarkable
but rather indeterminate statement is supplied by the
oration against Euergus and Mnesibulus. The person for
whom this speech was written had been robbed by Theo-
phemus of fifty fine sheep together with the shepherd, and
also a slave with a valuable water-pitcher and some shep-
herd's implements 348. But the injured party was indebted
to Theophemus for a fine, which together with Epobelia
and Prytaneia amounted to 1313 drachmas and two
oboli 349; and he maintains that the stolen sheep together
with the shepherd were worth more than the fine 350. If
we reckon the shepherd at a very high rate, viz. at more
than three minas, it results that fifty sheep were worth
1000 drachmas; according to this the price of a fine full-
grown sheep was at the least twenty drachmas. Concerning
the value of goats, which were very plentiful in Attica, I
have been able to obtain no information, except that in
345 Aristoph. Pac, 373.
346
Ap. Athen. IV. p. 146. E. VIII. p. 364. D.
347 Lysias in Diogit. p. 906.
348 See p. 1155. These sheep are called rgóßara paλará.
349 See p. 1158. 24. p. 1162.20. p. 1164. 10.
550 P. 1156. 15, 23. cf. p. 1164. 5.
105
Isæus 351, a hundred goats, together with sixty sheep, a
horse, and some implements, are valued at thirty minas.
As an example of luxury it may be worth mentioning, that
Alcibiades gave seventy minas for a dog, which he shortly
afterwards deprived of its chief beauty 352.
(15.) On the subject of corn it will be necessary to enter
into a more detailed examination. The consumption of Attica
required a very considerable supply of corn.
"No state,"
asserts Demosthenes, "consumes so large a quantity 353."
The Athenian ambassadors in Livy 354 boast of having
supplied 100,000 measures, although their state was obliged
even to import corn for the use of the countrymen. But
the main points to which we must direct our attention are,
in the first place, what quantity of corn did Attica require?
secondly, how much of this was it able to produce at
home? and, thirdly, what quantity was it compelled to
procure by importation? To answer these questions, the
knowledge of which the Athenians considered necessary in
a statesman 355, is far more difficult for us moderns, and
yet is indispensable for an accurate insight into the political
and statistical relations of Attica. I now undertake the
solution of these problems, without presuming to maintain
that I may not fall into error. According to the investiga-
tion in a former part of this book, Attica may be assumed
to have contained a population of 135,000 free inhabitants
and 365,000 slaves. An adult slave received, according to
351 De Hagn. Hered. p. 293. The passage in the Speech de
Philoct. Hered. p. 140. is still more indefinite.
352 Plutarch. Alc. 9. Poll. V. 44.
353 Demosth. de Corona p. 254. 21. and in Leptin. ut inf.
354 XLIII. 6.
355
Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. III. 6. 13. cf. Aristot. Rhet. I. 4.
106
accounts which can be fully depended upon, a chonix or the
48th part of an Attic medimnus per diem, and consequently
consumed in a common year of 354 days 79 medimni. The
Roman soldiers, according to Polybius, received about the
same quantity, that is to say, at the most of a medimnus
of wheat per month. If we assume that among the slaves
there were 25,000 children, the 340,000 adults would then
consume 2,507,500 medimni a year. And if four medimni
a year are reckoned for a slave child, the total slave popula-
tion would have consumed 2,607,500 medimni. Among
the free inhabitants one half must be reckoned as children;
but the adults also, as they were better fed than the slaves,
probably did not consume so much corn. It will be
enough to reckon two medimni for a child and four for an
adult, altogether 450,000 medimni for 135,000 souls.
cording to this the whole consumption of a common year
would amount to 3,012,500 medimni, or since an exact
calculation is impossible, in round numbers three millions,
exclusively of the seed corn, which is more difficult to
determine. If again it should be alleged that a larger
quantity than this must have been required for the supply
of the foreigners serving in the navy and the army, it
should be remembered that the absence of a large number of
soldiers and sailors from Athens would rather have had the
effect of lessening the consumption, as the army was mostly
supplied from abroad. On the other hand it can certainly
be conceded that the necessity of supplying their country
with imported provisions, increased the difficulty to the
Athenians of employing many mercenaries, who were also
to be provided with corn 356. Now that Attica did not
produce these three million medimni, we know for certain;
356 Xenoph. Hellen. VI. 1. 4.
1
107
and corn was brought from all quarters into the market of
the Piraeus, from the Pontus, Thrace, Syria, Egypt, Libya,
and Sicily 357. It is well known that the imports of corn
from the Pontus were very considerable, which was the cause
that Byzantium was of so great importance to the Athe-
nians, and partly for that very reason Philip of Macedon
endeavoured to obtain possession of this town 358. In the
time of Lysias private individuals imported corn from
the Thracian Chersonese, probably from the Athenian
Cleruchiæ 359. Some corn was brought from other countries
by the Athenian merchants, and part was supplied by
Cyprus and Rhodes through the medium of a carrying
trade. From the former island there came to Athens in
the time of Andocides corn-vessels in considerable numbers;
of the latter, which was itself obliged to import corn, and
according to Polybius subsequently obtained it from Sicily,
we find an account in Lycurgus 360. In addition to this,
Euboea, which was colonized with Cleruchi in the time of
Pericles and Alcibiades, supplied corn and other products,
which, before the occupation of Decelea by the Spartans,
were imported over Oropus, but it subsequently became
necessary to carry them in ships round Cape Sunium, which
was fortified on this account 361. A very large quantity of
corn must consequently have been imported, although it was
not all for the internal consumption of the country, but some
357 Theophrast. de Plantis VIII. 4. see Anachars. tom. IV.
chap. 55. Wolf ad Lept. p. 253. Meursius F. A. chap. IV.
and many scattered passages in the Orators.
358 Demosth. de Corona ut sup.
359 Cf. Lys. in Diogit. p. 902.
360 Andocid. de suo reditu p. 85, 86. Lycurg. in Leocr. p. 149.
Polyb. XXVIII. 2.
361 Thucyd. VII. 28. ef. VIII. 4.
108
;
to be sold in the Piraeus to foreigners. This makes the
statement of Demosthenes appear the more unintelligible 362,
that the imports from the Pontus, which did not amount
to more than 400,000 medimni, might be taken as nearly
equal to the whole importation from other countries; so
that the total of the imports would have been little more
than 800,000 medimni, exclusively of that which was never
unshipped, but was transferred in the port of the Piraeus
to other countries. Demosthenes appeals to the books of
the Sitophylaces; but must we suppose that they agreed
exactly with his words? All the Athenian orators, and
even the noblest among them, Demosthenes, distorted the
truth without the least hesitation, whenever it suited their
own purposes. The total of the imports may be fairly
taken upon an average in round numbers at a million
medimni: but in particularly bad years, when even the
fertile Boeotia (at least after two successive years of deficient
harvests) required imported supplies 363, a much larger
quantity was doubtless necessary for the consumption of
Attica. If we compare this sum with the average number
before assumed, it follows that Attica must have produced
two million medimni, which in my opinion was not impos-
sible. The country, it is true, is mountainous; but the
height of the mountains is not so considerable as to have
made them necessarily barren; the naked rock, which was
not indeed uncommon in Attica, composed but a small
362 In Lept. 466, 467. The words πgòs roívvv äπavta tòv ix tãv
ἄλλων ἐμπορίων ἀφικνούμενον ὁ ἐκ τοῦ Πόντου σῖτος εἰσπλέων ἐστὶν, do not
signify an equality, but only an approximation in the quantity
of the corn from the Pontus to the supplies received from other
places, of which there is an evident proof in Herod. VIII, 44.
cf. 48.
365 Xenoph. Hellen. V. 4. 54.
109
portion of the area, and where the stony bottom was
mixed with a little earth, barley could be cultivated: and
art performed its share. What portion of the area of
Attica (amounting to 64,000 stadii or 2,304,000 plethra)
was corn-land, it is impossible for me to ascertain; but
that it was possible for as much land to be under the
plough as was sufficient to produce two million medimni,
cannot easily be denied. In the territory of the Leontini
in Sicily 364, the Roman jugerum, about 23 plethra, was
sown with a medimnus of corn; that is, about a bushel and
a half of seed was reckoned for an acre and a quarter, the
jugerum being equal to 28,800 Roman or 25,532 Rheinland,
i. e. 34,468 English, feet. The fertile land yielded in
good years eightfold, in the best tenfold. If we assume,
as may
be fairly done, the same measure of seed-corn for
Attica, and the increase on account of the inferior pro-
ductiveness of the soil as only sixfold (and even at the
present day, when agriculture has undoubtedly fallen off,
the multiplication of grain in Attica, according to Hob-
house 365, is five and six for one and never more than ten),
a plethron of land in Attica produced 24 medimni, and to
produce two million medimni 888,890 plethra of land were
requisite, and again for replacing the seed-corn 66,000
plethra besides. According to these suppositions the land
in corn must have amounted to 955,500 plethra; the rest
remained for fallow, plantations, vines (which were how-
ever frequently cultivated together with barley, the branches
of the vines being attached to the trees), leguminous plants,
gardens, pasture-grounds, bog, water, waste-land, roads,
**
364 Cic. Verr. II. 3. 47.
365 A Journey through Albania and other Provinces of Turkey
in Europe and Asia, to Constantinople, during the years 1809
and 1810. By J. C. Hobhouse, London, 1813. vol. I. p. 411.
110
and dwellings. How little exaggerated this supposition is;
appears also to be proved from the fact, that the property
of Phænippus containing 1440 plethra of land, although it
was a boundary-estate with woods, produced yearly more
than 1000 medimni of corn, and more than 800 metretæ of
wine 366. To general principles of political arithmetic I
have intentionally paid no regard, because, when applied
to ancient times, they usually yield doubtful and uncertain
conclusions; and still less will I institute a comparison
with the produce of Lacedæmon, since the estimate which
has been attempted to be made from Plutarch 367 is
founded upon false assumptions.
With an importation equal to a third part of the con-
sumption, and in times of failure of the crops even this
being insufficient, a great scarcity must necessarily have
arisen 368, if judicious arrangements had not been devised
in order to prevent the occurrence of such an event. The
arrangements for the supply of corn were therefore con-
ducted upon a large scale; Sunium was fortified, as has
been remarked, in order to secure the sailing of the corn
vessels round the promontory, armed ships convoyed the
fleets laden with corn, as for example that from the
Pontus 369; when Pollis the Spartan remained near Ceos,
366 Orat. in Phænipp. p. 1045. 5.
367 Lycurg. 8. There were in Laconia altogether 39,000
estates, of which 9000 were Spartan: one of these estates
brought the proprietor a return of 82 medimni of barley, from
which the whole produce has been calculated. It was not how-
ever perceived that these 82 medimni were only the tribute or
rent of the Helots; nor is it certain whether the passage is to be
understood of the Spartan estates alone, or of the Lacedæmonian
also.
368 Cf. e. g. Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918. 8. in Leptin. p. 467.
369 Demosth. de Corona p. 250, 251. in Polycl. p. 1211. 25.
111
Ægina, and Andros with sixty ships, Chabrias offered him
battle, in order that the corn from Geræstus in Euboea
might reach the Piraeus 370. The exportation of all grain
was unconditionally prohibited: of the corn which arrived
from foreign parts in the harbour of Athens the law re-
quired that two-thirds should be brought into the city,
and compliance with this regulation was enforced by the
Overseers of the Harbour 371; that is to say, only one third
could be carried away to other countries from the port of
the Piraeus. In order to prevent as much as possible the
accumulation and keeping back of corn 372, engrossing was
very much restricted; it was not permitted to buy at one
time more than fifty such loads as a man could carry
(pogμol) 373. The violation of this law was punished with
death. The corn-dealers or the engrossers of corn were
370 Xenoph. Hellen. V. 4. 61. Diod. XV. 34.
371 Harpocr. in v. queλnths quoglou, from Aristotle, and Lex.
Seg. p. 255. where 'ATTIòv should be written instead of dorixov,
and the rest of the article restored from Harpocration.
372 Cf. Plutarch. de Curiosit. ad fin.
373 Doguòs, from Pigw, generally means a platted basket, in
which corn was probably carried. Taylor upon Lysias compares
with it the cumeras or cumera of the Romans, of which there
were two kinds, a greater and a less; the latter contained five
or six modii, i. e. about an Attic medimnus. See Acron ad Horat.
Serm. I. 1. 53. Probably at Athens the phormus was not very
different from the medimnus: a medimnus of wheat weighed
from about eighty to ninety pounds, and may therefore be fairly
taken for a man's load: thus the army of Lucullus, according to
Plutarch, was followed by 30,000 Galatæ, who carried 30,000
medimni of corn. The explanations of the grammarians afford
no information as to the size, but the notion of Petit that Pogròs
is the same as xóQwvos ( of the Attic medimnus) is absurd.
Vid. Leg. Att. V. 5. 7.
112
also compelled to sell the medimnus for only one obolus
more than the price they themselves had given. Notwith-
standing which regulations, these men, who were for the
most part aliens, raised the price of corn by competition in
bad times, and often sold it upon the same day a drachma
higher 374. Lysias cannot say enough of the villany of
these usurers, who were then just as much detested as they
are in modern times. They bought up corn under the
pretence of providing for the interest of the people, or of
having an order from the proper authorities; but if a
war-tax was imposed, their momentary public spirit had
altogether vanished. The public loss was their gain; and
so much did they rejoice at the occurrence of any national
calamity, that they never failed to have the first intelligence
of it; or else they fabricated some disastrous news, such
as that the ships in the Pontus had been taken or destroyed,
that the trading-places were closed up, or the treaties were
in danger of being broken off: even when external enemies
were at rest, they annoyed the citizens by buying up the
corn, and refusing to sell when it was most wanted, in
order that people might not contend with them about the
price, but be content to take it on their terms 375. Nor did
even the merchants make any profit by it, a circumstance
upon which much stress is laid by the modern teachers
of political economy in favour of engrossing: on the con-
trary they suffered severe injury from the combinations
of the corn-dealers and their continual persecution 376.
"If they were not menaced with the punishment of death,”
·
374 See the Speech of Lysias against the Corndealers, more
particularly p. 715, 718, 720.
375 Ibid. pp. 720, 721 sqq.
37 Ibid. pp. 726, 727.
113
says Lysias 377, "they would be scarcely endurable." Whilst
therefore the sale of all other commodities was under the
inspection of the Agoranomi, the State, in order to control
the engrossing of corn, had set over this one branch of
trade the separate office of the Sitophylaces 378, which
originally consisted of three persons, afterwards of ten in
the city and five in the Piraeus, probably because their
duties had increased. These officers kept accounts of the
imported corn, and it was also a part of their duties to
inspect the meal and bread, and to take care that it was
sold at the legal weight and price 379. But even the Sito-
phylaces could not at times control the importunate
competition on the part of the engrossers, who were
377 P. 725.
378 Ibid. p. 722.
379 Lysias ut sup. p. 717. mentions three Sitophylaces. The
other statement rests upon the authority of Aristotle's State of
Athens ap. Harpocrat. in v. roQuλaxis, where Valesius correctly
reads ἦσαν δὲ τὸν ἀριθμὸν πεντεκαίδεκα· δέκα μὲν ἐν ἄστει, &c. Si-
gonius R. A. IV. 3. silently follows the first account; Petit V.
5. 7. perceived the truth, but his emendation is false with
regard to the position of the words, and dexa is only to be re-
peated. Photius (in whose article for giro read gro) has the
same error; he moreover states that in later times there were
thirty (x') in the city and five in the Piraeus. All this is with-
out doubt to be attributed solely to confusion, errors of the
transcriber, and the false emendation of previously existing
mistakes. The original passage, from which the different ac-
counts were derived, was probably as follows: ἦσαν δὲ τὸν ἀριθμὸν
πάλαι μὲν τρεῖς, ὕστερον δὲ πεντεκαίδεκα, δέκα μὲν ἐν ἄστει, πέντε δὲ ἐν
Пga. Their duties may be seen from Demosth. in Lept. ubi
Πειραιεῖ.
sup. Harpocrat. and Lex. Seg. p. 300. The inspection of bread
and prepared corn, particularly of barley meal (λqitα), occurs as
early as in the age of Pericles. See the ancient comic poet ap.
Plutarch. Præc. Polit. 15.
VOL. I.
I
114
Nokia
punished with the greatest severity, and at times condemned
to death 380; where we are as much astonished at the ir-
regularity of the corn-police, as at the formidable adminis-
tration of justice. A still greater loss to the state was
caused by the speculations of the merchants, who, as
Xenophon remarks 381, carried corn about to different parts,
and did not sell it at the first place they arrived at, but
where they had ascertained the price to be highest.
Andocides 382 gives an account of a plot for turning the
corn-fleet from Cyprus, which was bound for Athens, in
another direction; but he compelled the contrivers to
relinquish their plans. No one with regard to corn did
Athens and the other Grecian states so much injury as
Cleomenes of Alexandria, Alexander's Satrap in Egypt,
who accumulated large stores of corn, fixed the prices
arbitrarily, and on account of the number of servants whom
he had engaged in the corn-trade, was enabled every where
to ascertain the state of the market with accuracy. He
employed three descriptions of persons, some who de-
spatched the corn, the attendants of the latter, and others,
who received it and unshipped on the spot: accordingly
he did not allow his corn-vessels to touch at any com-
mercial town before his assistants in that place had given
information with regard to the state of the prices; if they
were high, the corn was landed and sold, and if not, the
vessel proceeded to some other place. By these means
Lysias ut sup. pp. 718, 723, 725. extr. 726. init, Perhaps
Demosth. in Timocrat. p. 743. 4. also refers to this subject,
according to whom persons who acted fraudulently in dealings
relating to corn were sentenced to imprisonment.
381 Econ. 20, 27.
382 De suo reditu pp. 85, 86. It is almost unnecessary to
mention that Andocides was a merchant.
115
the corn at Athens rose considerably, until the importation
from Sicily produced a relief 383. Of the contrivances of
this obnoxious corn-dealer the author of the second book
of the Economics attributed to Aristotle gives some other
examples. At a dear time when the medimnus sold for
ten drachmas, he convened the sellers for the purpose of
ascertaining from them at what price they would transfer
their corn to him: upon their agreeing to sell it to him
cheaper than to the retail-dealers, he gave them the same
price, but afterwards fixed the medimnus at 32 drachmas !
Upon the occasion of a great scarcity in foreign countries,
and even in Egypt to a certain degree, he prohibited that
any corn should be exported; upon the representation of
the Nomarchs, that the taxes could not be paid if the ex-
portation was not made free, he permitted it, but at so
high a duty, that the exports were very limited, which the
Nomarchs were deprived of their pretext for not paying
the taxes, and moreover a large sum was raised from the
export duty.
The Athenians endeavoured by various measures to
ensure or to increase the importation of corn. Of these
was the general law that no money should be lent upon
any vessel which did not bring to Athens a return-cargo
of goods, among which corn was expressly specified 384 ;
and also the more important law, which provided that no
person dwelling in Attica, should import corn to any other
place than into the port of Athens; the transgressor was
subject to a Phasis, and also to an Eisangelia according to
Lycurgus, and consequently to the punishment of death 385.
383 Demosth. in Dionysod. p. 1285.
384 See above chap. 9.
385 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918. 5. in Lacrit. p. 941. 4, Lycurg.
116
Theophilus 386 asserts, that the corn-dealers at Athens
had enjoyed a freedom from taxes; which evidently cannot
be understood of the times of its independence, unless it
was a transitory indulgence, or to a very limited extent.
For the term Ateleia has several significations; it is either a
general immunity (átéλeα áñávтwv), or a particular exemption
from the liturgies, or from certain custom-duties and other
taxes 387. For example, the Athenians gave the universal
exemption from taxes to the Byzantian and Thracian re-
fugees, who were resident at Athens in the time of Thrasy-
bulus 388; and to Leucon the ruler of the Bosporus,
who, together with his sons, had an exemption from
custom-duties, as is particularly remarked 389. In this
in Leocr. p. 156. and the speech against Theocrines. That the
Phasis might be instituted in such a case is certain from the last-
mentioned oration, from which (p. 1325. 28.) it is to be parti-
cularly remarked that the informer received half the forfeited
commodities. Concerning the Phasis against this offence see
also the Commentators of Pollux VIII. 47. and Lex. Seg. p. 313.
in v. φαίνειν, where the words ἢ ἔμπορον ἀλλαχόθι ἐργαζόμενον can
only be referred to this practice. Concerning the Eisangelia
against this offence see Matthiä Miscell. Philog. tom. I. p.
231.
386 Theophil. I. 2. according to the emendation of Salmasius
de M. U. V. p. 195. upon the authority of MSS.
357 See Wolf ad Lept. p. LXXI sqq.
388 Demosth. in Lept. pp. 474, 475.
389 Demosth. in Lept. pp. 466–468. That he was free from
custom-duties is evident from the comparison of the Ateleia given
to him and to his sons with that granted by him to all the
Athenians, p. 466. 29. This complete exemption appears to
have been once given to the Thebans and Olynthians (Harpocrat.
in v. 'Iσoreλns), unless it only means an exemption from pro-
tection-money and liturgies, in case they should come as denizens
to Athens, in the same manner that the Byzantians, in addition
✡
117
general Ateleia was comprised the exemption from custom-
duties, and from the liturgies (with the exception of the
trierarchy, which was only disallowed under certain con-
ditions regulated by law), and for aliens from the protection-
money, and in particular cases from property-taxes; per-
haps also the exemption from providing sacrifices (άtéλeia
ieguv"), concerning which very little is known. That the
corn-merchants could not have enjoyed this universal im-
munity is alone evident from the fact of their not having
possessed several of the individual exemptions. For, to say
nothing of the general immunity, they must in the first
place have had an exemption from the import-duties upon
corn; now in Athens, the corn-duty was let out in farm 390,
and it must therefore have entirely disappeared, if all
corn-merchants had been allowed by law to import corn
free of duty; the assertion in question does not therefore
require any refutation. It is still less conceivable that
they should have had permission to import or export other
goods free of duty, although individuals were allowed this
privilege for all or certain articles 391. Were they however
to the rights of citizenship, gave an exemption of liturgies to all
Athenians going to Byzantium. See the decree ap. Demosth. de
Corona p. 256. and compare the decree of the Arcadians in
Crete in Chishull's Ant. Asiat. p. 119.
Mox vectigalia sacris faciundis a Plothensibus pendenda
memorantur: a quibus ut immunitatem habeant, ex publico
solvuntur ea vectigalia. Hinc vides quæ sit áréλα iɛgãv, quam
memorat Demosth. adv. Lept. §. 105. ed. F. A. Wolfii, in qua
jure hæsit editor Proleg. p. LXXI." Boeckh. ad Inscript. 82.
tom. I. p. 122.
590 See the Speech against Neæra, p. 1353. 23.
391 An instance of free exportation, particularly of wood, which
is undoubtedly to be referred to Athens, is given by Theophrastus
Char. 23.
118
exempted from the regular liturgies? Unquestionably not;
since, according to Demosthenes, so small a number either
of the citizens or resident aliens were exempted from
them 392. Moreover this orator would not have omitted
to point out the prejudicial effects which the abolition of
the immunity of the corn-merchants would have had upon
the importation of corn, if any thing of the kind had
existed; for in the speech against Leptines he searches for
every argument against this abolition, and particularly in
speaking of Leucon's Ateleia, he mentions the dangerous
effect which the abolition of this exemption might have
upon the free exportation from the Bosporus. Hence it
may be concluded either that the immunity of the corn-
merchants had no real existence, or that at any rate it
amounted to a very trifling exemption. At the most it
might be possible that the resident aliens who imported
corn, were exempted from certain degrading liturgies,
such as the Scaphephoria and the like, or from the pro-
tection-money 393. Nor moreover is the least credit due
to the absurd assertion of the scholiast to Aristophanes 394,
that in Athens, the merchants had an immunity from all
property-taxes. They were not even excepted from the
liturgies, an exemption, which, it may be observed, would
have been extremely unfair; Andocides, notwithstanding
that he was a merchant, performed liturgies, though he
was not appointed upon his own offer 395. The statement
of the Scholiast is either an erroneous inference from the
words of the poet, or a misconception of the account of
392 See book III. 21.
395 Concerning the latter see book III. 7.
394 Plut. 905. cf. Eccles. 1019.
395 Andocid. de Myst. p. 65. cf. Inscript. ap. Chandler II. 6.
p. 48. Vit. X. Orat. p. 229.
119
Euphronius, upon whose authority he relies. The truth
is, that those who traded by sea had an exemption from
serving in war, although this privilege was probably cir-
cumscribed within narrow limits 396. Now since the
exemption from military service is also called Ateleia 397,
it seems to me most probable, that when Theophilus speaks.
of the immunity of the corn-merchants, he means nothing
more than this exemption, which was granted alike to all
merchants. It may be also observed, that Athens had
public warehouses for corn in the Odeum, the Pompeum,
the long Porch, and at the naval storehouse near the sea,
where corn, bread, &c. were sold to the people 398. It is
not however quite clear, whether this magazine was used
exclusively for corn which belonged to the State, or whether
grain was there measured out which was the property of
private merchants. There are some grounds for considering
the latter notion as the more probable 399. It is however
certain that considerable stores were brought to Athens at
the expence of the State, which must have been kept in
this warehouse. This corn was in part purchased with the
public money, and partly by voluntary contributions: a
396 This is stated by the Scholiast and Suidas in v. ἔμπορός εἰμι
σκηπτόμενος.
397 Vid. Orat. in Neær. ubi sup. Whether however the im-
munity from military service was comprised under the άriλua
άæávтæv, may be fairly doubted, although military service was
included among the rλn; at least I do not venture to assume it
without express testimony to the point.
398 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918. Concerning the public sale
of corn see also Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 103. concerning the Odeum
see Lex. Seg. p. 318. and upon the magazines of corn Poll. IX.
45, with the Commentators.
399 From Demosth, ut sup. p. 918. 24—26.
120
merchant named Chrysippus boasted of having given a
talent for that purpose; Demosthenes also presented an
equal sum 400. Certain persons named Sitonæ were ap-
pointed to superintend the sale, whose office was not con-
sidered unimportant, as it implied the entire confidence of
the people; there were also Apodectæ, whose duty it was
to receive the corn and to measure it out. The former
situation was once filled by Demosthenes; and it was
perhaps at that time that he gave the voluntary contribu-
tion already mentioned 401. It was doubtless sold to the
people at a very low price, as otherwise these donations of
money would have been unnecessary; perhaps too the
corn brought to Athens was at times distributed gratis.
The want however of adequate information renders it
impossible to form any certain conclusion; for even when
the reader hopes that he has at length met with a
statement which may be depended upon, the ambiguity
of the expression and the difficulty of interpretation
oppose insuperable difficulties in his way. Thus De-
mosthenes, in the speech against Leptines, relates that
two years before, during a scarcity of corn, Leucon
had sent so large a quantity and at so cheap a rate, that
fifteen talents, of which Callisthenes had the management,
remained as an overplus. It may however be doubted
whether a clear surplus actually remained, in the sense in
which the commentators understand it, viz. that these
fifteen talents formed a portion of the money set apart for
the purchase of corn, which had not been entirely con-
400 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918. 27. Attic Decree at the end
of the Lives of the Ten Orators in Plutarch I. Theophrast.
Char. 23. does not appear to refer to this point.
401 Poll. VIII. 114. Demosth. de Corona p. 310. 1.
121
sumed; or whether we are not rather to understand that
as the corn had been bought up at so low a price, this
sum remained as a net surplus profit to the State, after
the corn had been sold to the people 402. To this donation
of corn an account of Strabo has been with much apparent
probability referred 403; for the context shews that he
must allude to some particular distribution of corn, inas-
much as he states expressly that Leucon had sent
2,100,000 medimni to the Athenians from Theudosia;
and it is possible that this took place within the space of
one year. For since Attica consumed 3,000,000 medimni,
of which in the regular course of things it was required to
produce 2,000,000, a failure of the crops might easily for
once have caused the produce of the country to fall off to
half the usual amount; and while the other countries, which
also felt the effects of the general scarcity, were unable to
furnish any supplies, Leucon alone made up the deficiency.
On particular occasions free distributions of corn took
place at Athens (σirodoσía), such as were very frequent in
402 The passage is as follows (p. 467. 14—17.): 'Aarà œgo-
πέρυσι σιτοδείας παρὰ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις γενομένης οὐ μόνον ὑμῖν ἱκανὸν σῖτον
ἀπέστειλεν, ἀλλὰ τοσοῦτον ὥστε πεντεκαίδεκα ἀργυρίου τάλαντα, ἃ
Καλλισθένης διώκησε, προσπεριγενέσθαι. Τοσούτου should evi-
dently be written with Hier. Wolf, and compare the note of
F. A. Wolf ad Lept. pp. 257, 258. The date of the occurrence
is about Olymp. 105. 4. The chief ambiguity lies in the word
προσπεριγενέσθαι. It might be said that if Demosthenes had only
wished to signify the residue of the money appointed for purchas-
ing corn, he would have said περιγένεσθαι; and that προσπεριγένεσθαι
shews that the excess was gained, viz. by the sale of corn to the
citizens; but I do not venture to found any arguments upon this
supposition. It must not on any account be supposed that the
corn was sold abroad.
403 VII.
p. 215.
122
Rome; the object of them being in both places to pacify
the people 404. The presents in particular, which were at
times made to the people from foreign parts, were dis-
tributed gratis. Thus Demetrius Poliorcetes, in Olymp.
118. 2. promised to the Athenians 150,000 medimni of
corn as a present from his father. Thus Spartocus, the
son of Eumelus, king in the Bosporus, who reigned twenty
years from Olymp. 119. 1., sent 10,000 medimni to the
people of Athens 405. So again in Olymp. 83. 4. in the
Archonship of Lysimachides, the Athenians during a
scarcity of corn received from an Egyptian of the name of
Psammetichus, who was not known to them, 40,000 me-
dimni of wheat, which were distributed among the genuine
citizens 406. With this distribution the Scholiast to Aris-
tophanes 407 confounds another, in which each citizen
404 Aristoph. Vesp. 714. The word arodoria occurs in Pollux
VIII. 103. who observes from Andocides that checking-clerks
(avriygaQuis) were employed for some purposes connected with it.
405 Plutarch. Demetr. 10. Diod. XX. 46. Attic Decree in
Chandler Inscript. II. 12. Concerning the time of Spartocus,
or, as Diodorus incorrectly calls him, Spartacus, see Diod. XX.
100. The same person occurs in two inscriptions found at Pha-
nagoria. Another more ancient Spartocus occurs in Diod. XII.
31, 36. (where see the Commentators), also king of the Cim-
merian Bosporus, another in XIV. 93. and again another as
king in the Pontus in Diod. XVI. 52. who was succeeded by his
brother Pairisades. A Spartocus, father of Pairisades, perhaps
the same with the son of Eumelus, is mentioned in an inscription.
More however of these well known princes elsewhere. It may
be observed that by Bosporus and Pontus the same kingdom is
signified.
406 Philochorus ap. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 716. where μv-
giadas should be written from Plutarch. Pericl. 37. Concerning
the number of the citizens comp. above chap. 7.
107 Ubi sup.
123
received five medimni of barley, although he himself
perceives that from 40,000 medimni 14,240 citizens could
not have each received five medimni. The donation of
which Aristophanes speaks, took place in Olymp. 89. 1.
one year before the Wasps of the same poet, when, in the
Archonship of Isarchus, an expedition was undertaken
against Euboea. At that time it was probably expected
that large supplies would be derived from this island, and
fifteen medimni of corn had therefore been promised to
each citizen, a new scrutiny being also instituted into the
genuineness of their births; after all however they only
received five medimni 408. The division of the lands in
Euboea, which Aristophanes expressly distinguishes from
this donation of corn, was perhaps promised at the same
time. The donation of corn made by Atticus to the
people, at the time of their severe distress, is also a well-
known circumstance 409,
Before I attempt to ascertain the prices of corn, some-
thing must be said upon the measures by which it was sold.
The Attic corn-medimnus (uédiuvos σingos) contained, ac-
cording to the division commonly used in trade, six sextarii
(EXTEïç) or forty-eight chonices, or 192 cotylas (xoTÚλαI):
this last occurs both as dry and liquid measure 410.
409 Aristophanes in the text, where the words evias Qúywv allude
to the examinations into the legal claims of the citizens, which
were made with great strictness upon these occasions. Con-
cerning the Archon, under whom the expedition was undertaken,
see Palmer Exercit. in Auct. Græc. p. 738. Compare also the
Fragments of Philochorus in the edition of Lenz and Siebelis
pp. 51, 52.
409 Nepos Att. 2.
410 Pollux X. 113. IV. 168. VII. 195. cf. Athen. XI. p.
479. F.
124
Pollux in the fourth book reckons three cotylas instead of
four to a choenix, which belongs to some other mode of
computing than that in use among the Athenians. A
choenix was the common daily allowance of food (nμegnola
Tgoon) 411, particularly for slaves, from which circumstance
the Corinthians, who had a great number of slaves, are
said to have been called choenix-measurers by the Pythian
priestess 412. An athlete indeed was able, according to
Theophrastus, to consume two and half Attic chonices a
day; and if Aglais required for one meal twelve minas of
meat and a chus of wine, it is natural that she should eat
four chonices of maize-bread. This woman was a player
on the trumpet of great celebrity; Herodorus of Megara,
also a famous trumpeter, consumed six chonices of maize-
bread each day, eight minas of meat, or according to
another authority twenty minas, and drank twice as much
as the former person 413; not to mention many other
gluttons, whose names may be found in Athenæus. The
Spartans also, who lived upon little food, appear to have
eaten much bread; each person was therefore bound to
furnish monthly a medimnus of barley-meal to the public
entertainment, together with a scanty portion of other provi-
sions. The Athenian prisoners in the quarries of Syracuse
only received half a chœnix, i. e. two cotylas of barley and one
411 Cf. Herod. VII. 187. from which it might indeed be in-
ferred that a choenix was but a small quantity; but it must be
remembered that he is speaking of soldiers, who would naturally
consume a large quantity, and that there were also many persons
of distinction. Suidas in v. Πυθαγόρα τὰ σύμβολος ἦν τάδε, Athen.
p. 98. E.
III.
412 Athen. VI. p. 272. B.
413 Elian. Hist. Var. I. 26. Poll. IV. 89. Athen. X. p. 415. F.
λίτρα in Athenæus is the same as μνᾶ.
125
cotyla of water, which allowance was continued for eight
months 414. That with this scanty food many of them
perished in the first sixty days from hunger and thirst is
not to be wondered at, particularly as barley contains but
little nourishment 415. The size of these several measures
immediately follows from the determination of the me-
dimnus. Without paying any regard to the false state-
ments of Eisenschmid and Romé de l'Isle, or to the
ambiguous calculation of Rambach, I follow the account
given by Ideler, which can alone be depended upon. The
Athenian medimnus then, like the Sicilian, contained six
Roman modii 416; but the modius, according to a decree of
the people preserved in Festus, contained 16, the amphora
48 sextarii; consequently the Athenian medimnus con-
tained about two amphora, which is also shewn by the
testimony of Rhemnius Fannius 417, But the amphora
or quadrantal was the Roman cubic foot, which as the
Roman foot of long measure is nearly equal to 131 Paris
414 Concerning the Spartans see Plutarch. Lycurg. 12. Of
the prisoners in Syracuse, Thuc. VII. 87. Plutarch. Nic. 29.
cf. Eustath. ad Il. x. p. 1282. 15. Diod. XIII. 33. asserts that
the proposal of Diocles was accepted, that the captive Athenians,
Sicilians, and Italians should work in prison, and receive two
choenices a day (XIII. 19.); but although he here speaks of a
different period, viz. when they were brought out of the stone-
quarries, and separated from the other prisoners, Diodorus does
not deserve the least credit, and he has probably confounded two
cotylas with two chonices. It is unnecessary to adduce any
proof of the assertion that Diodorus is a wretched historian.
415 Athen. III. p. 115.
416 Nepos Att. 2. Cic. Verr. Frument. 46, 49. Suidas in v.
pédievov, from which passage correct Zonaras in the same word.
417 Hujus (amphora) dimidium fert urna, ut et ipsa medimni
amphora, terque capit modium.
126
lines, contained 1301 Paris cubic inches. The medimnus
was therefore about equal to 2602 French or 3150.059
English cubic inches (for it can hardly be supposed that
the ratio of the modius to the medimnus was precisely as
6 to 1); and the English pint of dry measure containing
33.6 cubic inches, the medimnus of 3150 cubic inches is
equal to 93.75 pints, or 1 bushel 3 gallons 5.75 pints, i. e.
nearly a bushel and a half. Of other corn measures, con-
sistently with my plan, I shall only touch upon the artabe
and the Boeotian cophinus. The former was a Persian
measure, and contained, according to Herodotus 418, an
Attic medimnus and three chonices. Others fix it at an
approximate valuation as equal to the Attic medimnus 419.
It was also in use in Egypt, where there was besides a
smaller artabe, which only contained 33 Roman modii or
263 Athenian chonices 420. If the capacity of this measure
is doubled, it gives 533 Athenian choenices, which differs
so little from the value of the greater artabe in Herodotus
(51 chœnices), that, as it appears, we may fairly assume
the smaller artabe to have been exactly half the greater, and
either that the statement of Herodotus is too low, or that
the valuation of the smaller artabe at 3 Roman modii is
somewhat too high, or, lastly, that the ratio of the Athenian
medimnus to the Roman modius has been estimated a
fraction too low. The Boeotian cophinus, which was used
both as a wet and dry measure, contained two 421 choëis,
i. e. a quarter metretes, or 36 cotylas, since the metretes
contained 144 cotylas, which is equivalent to nine chœnices,
or medimnus of Athenian measure.
16
418 I. 192.
419 Suidas, Hesychius, Polyæn. IV. 3.32. Epiphanius Ponder. 24.
420 Wesseling ad Diod. XX. 96.
421 Poll. IV. 169. Hesych. in xópios.
127
The prices of different kinds of corn were, as may be
supposed, very different. In Sicily and upper Italy the
price of barley was only half that of maize, in Athens
probably, as in Lusitania, it amounted to two thirds of the
price of the latter 422; but where the price of corn is men-
tioned, the particular description of grain is not always
specified. It may be seen from examples, that the prices
from the time of Solon to that of Demosthenes were con-
tinually rising; yet again there frequently existed at the
same period a great fluctuation, according to the greater
or less productiveness of the years, the increase or diminu-
tion in the imports, the prejudicial effects of the engrossers
both in and out of Attica, or the imposition of high
custom-duties in foreign parts, or the accidental remittance
of them to the Athenians; thus for example Leucon and
Pairisades, kings of the Bosporus, the former of whom
used to levy a duty of a thirtieth upon all exported corn,
granted to the Athenian people an exemption from this
tax 423. Prices at Athens were never again so low as in
the time of Solon, when the medimnus was sold for a
drachma 424. Barley-mcal (λpira) was sold in the age of
Socrates at two drachmas the medimnus, and at an obolus
for four chonices 425; by which however we are not to
understand meal prepared after the modern way. Diogenes
the Cynic reckons, that in his age the choenix of barley-
422 Concerning Upper Italy and Lusitania see above chap. 10.
I will presently speak of Sicily and Athens.
423 Demosth. in Lept. p. 467. in Phorm. p. 917. 25.
424 Plutarch. Solon. 23. Petit. Leg. Att. I. 1. 3. wishes to
read ten drachmas for one, which really almost borders on madness.
425 Plutarch. de Animi Tranquillitate 10. Stob. Serm. XCV.
p. 521. Comp. Barthél. in the Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions,
tom. XLVIII. p. 394. concerning the price of corn.
128
meal sold at two chalcûs, and consequently the medimnus
at two drachmas 426: but this can only refer to the
cheapest years, for at a former period the common price
at Athens had been much higher. In a play of Aristo-
phanes 427 a man declares that he has lost a hecteus of
maize, by not having gone to the assembly, and conse-
quently not receiving his three oboli, whence it may be
concluded that about the 96th and 97th Olympiads, the
medimnus of maize sold for three drachmas, which agrees
very well with the price of barley just quoted. But in
the time of Demosthenes, and even after Alexander's ex-
pedition against Thebes, five drachmas were a moderate
price, at which during a scarcity some of the more liberal
corn-dealers sold their maize: thus Chrysippus sold 10,000
medimni at this price 428. According to the speech against
Phænippus 429, even barley must have been at six drachmas
for a long time, as eighteen drachmas are stated to be three
times the former price. The prices in other Grecian
States were not very different. In the second book of the
Economics attributed to Aristotle, it is stated that the
price of barley-meal at Lampsacus was four drachmas, but
that the State once fixed it upon a particular occasion at
six drachmas, in order to obtain a profit of the difference.
When Sicily came under the Roman dominion, the latter
people fixed for supplies the Frumentum Decumanum
Alterum at three sesterces for each modius, the Imperatum
and Estimatum of maize at four and of barley at two
sesterces the modius; a price which must at that time
have been moderate, as the Romans would doubtless have
426 Diog. Laert. VI. in Vit. Diog.
127 Eccles. 543.
428 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918.
429 P. 1048. 24.
!
129
fixed a low rate, although according to the statement of
Cicero, it was not insupportable to the cultivators. Con-
sequently the medimnus of the Decumanum Alterum cost
at that time four drachmas the medimnus, of the Impe-
ratum and Estimatum of barley four drachmas four
oboli, and of maize five drachmas two oboli of Attic
money. If the lowness of these prices should seem start-
ling, we must remember how dense was the population of
this country and how large the exportation. In earlier
times however corn, as may be inferred from the price of
cattle 430, must have been much cheaper in Sicily; and
subsequently, as for example in the time of Verres, prices
did not attain even this height, on account of the decreasing
population of the cities; the medimnus of maize was
commonly sold at that time for twelve sesterces, or two
drachmas four oboli, and never rose to more than fifteen
sesterces, or three drachmas four oboli 431. It is also to
be observed that in the prices of the supplies of Sicilian
corn, as the Romans had fixed them, the cost of transport
to each separate place of destination was likewise included.
Such prices as the following are extraordinary, viz. when
corn rose at Athens to sixteen and barley to eighteen drach-
mas; also at Rome in the year of the city 544, the Sicilian
medimnus of corn was sold, according to Polybius, at
fifteen drachmas, or rather denarii; and in Dollabella's
army, from which the supplies by way of Laodicea were
cut off, the medimnus of maize was sold for twelve
drachmas 432. From a very corrupt passage of Strattis
430 See above chap. 14.
451 Cic. Verr. Frument. 74, 75, 81, 84.
132
Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918. Orat. in Phænipp. p. 1045. 4.
Polyb. IX. 44. Cic. ad Fam. XII. 13.
VOL. I.
K
130
preserved in Pollux 433, so much at least may be gathered,
that a slave, to the great astonishment of his master, pre-
tends to have bought a Boeotian cophinus of barley-meal
for about four drachmas, which gives for the medimnus
21 drachmas two oboli; and it may be inferred from the
same grammarian that another writer spoke of maize being
sold for 32 drachmas, without doubt referring to the
usurious practices of Cleomenes, which I have already
noticed 434; not to mention that at Athens during the
siege of Sulla, the medimnus of maize rose to a thousand
drachmas, the inhabitants being reduced to feed even on
shoes and leathern bottles; and in like manner at Casili-
num, where the Prænestini were besieged by Hannibal,
the same measure was sold for 200 drachmas 435.
433 Pollux IV. 169. Petit ut sup. reckons from this passage
the medimnus at 128 drachmas.
434 Pollux IV. 165. where there stood formerly the word
τριος
xovτadideαxμíπvgyo, an uncouth form, which Petitus alone re-
tained, and proposed to change to τριακονταδιδραχμόπυργοι. The
reading of Voss's manuscript, τριακονταδίδραχμοι πυροὶ, is evidently
the right one, and consequently the price of maize is meant;
manifestly that which was fixed by Cleomenes. The present
reading in the text, dideaxua, is entirely without foundation, as
well as Kühn's conjecture, τριακαιδεκάδραχμοι: τρικοντάδραχμοι,
the correction of Jungermann, has indeed some probability;
however I consider the reading of Voss's manuscript to be correct
for this reason, that the use of the singular compound relaxovra-
δίδραχμοι instead of δυσκαιτριακοντάδραχμοι appears to be the very
reason why Pollux quotes the word.
435 See Plutarch. Sulla 13. and Strabo V. p. 164. where in
the account of Casilinum the medimnus is mentioned alone,
without the thing measured, which ought never to have appeared
surprising to so excellent a scholar as Casaubon, as it so frequently
occurs. Pliny, Frontinus, and Valerius Maximus substitute
indeed a mouse in the place of this measure, but Strabo had too
1
131
The varieties of bread were extremely numerous in
Greece, and particularly at Athens, and the invention of
the Athenians was directed with great success to this
department of the culinary art 436. Athenæus and Pollux
will supply the amateur of the arts of cookery and baking
with sufficient materials for enquiries, which we neither
feel disposed nor entitled to enter upon. The most com-
mon distinction is between maize-bread (agros) and barley-
bread (µága): λpra sometimes means barley-meal itself,
and sometimes a bread made of barley-meal, of a very fine
quality, and adapted for cookery 437. I have not however
been able to meet with any clear statement in reference to
the price of bread, but it was probably high in proportion
to that of corn; for, if we may judge from the rate of
interest, a great profit must have been obtained upon the
capital employed in the preparation of bread. At Athens
four large and eight small loaves used to be baked out of a
choenix of corn; consequently one large or two small
loaves out of a cotyla 438; in dear times, when for example
corn was at sixteen drachmas, a loaf of maize-bread of
this kind, probably a large one of a cotyla, might have
sold for an obolus: to which may be referred the fact,
that at the very same time maize-bread was sold in the
much judgment to say, as the Commentators impute to him,
that two hundred drachmas were given for a mouse, and that
the sellers died, but that the buyers saved their lives. We must
indeed, if this story be true, suppose that great events spring
from little causes.
436 Athen. III. p. 112. C. &c.
437 Omitting other passages, I only refer to Xenoph. Econ.
8. 9. Plat. Rep. II. p. 372. B. Poll. VI. 78. Concerning the
word μa see below chap. 23.
438 Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 438. Lysistrat. 1208.
132
Piraeus in loaves of an obolus 439. At Alexandria the
ἄρτος ὀβελίας or ὀβελίτης was sold for an obolus 440, and
probably the same was the case at Athens 441, which how-
ever gives no information with regard to the price, as the
size is unknown; and this Alexandrian bread was not of the
ordinary kind, but something more costly, which is opposed
to the common maize-bread 442. There were also loaves
of a much larger size, for instance of three chonices 443;
and at the Dionysia they carried around in honour of the
divine inventor, loaves of from one to three medimni,
which were likewise called ἄρτοι ὀβελίαι 444.
(16.) The common measure for liquids was the metretes,
which contained twelve choeis or 144 cotylas, and to which
the common vessel (ἀμφορεὺς, κάδος, κεράμιον) was adapted.
The Roman amphora, or the solid foot, was according to
439 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 918.
440 Concerning which bread and its price see Pollux I. 248.
and in other places, Athen. III. p. 111. B. who has been tran-
scribed by Eustath. ad II. N. p. 930. ad Odyss. A. p. 39. 38.
"1
441 If the interpretation of ßoxías grovs in Aristophanes given
in Lex. Seg. p. 111. is correct.
442 Pherecrates ap. Athen. ubi sup. and Nicochares the comic
poet ibid. XIV. p. 645. C. It may be observed that the supposition,
which is mentioned in Athenæus, and thence in Eustathius, and
which occurred to Seber ad Poll. I. 248. that this bread received
its name from the price, is extremely improbable, although åßeλòs
and ¿ßoλòs are the same word, and originally meant a fork or
spit, and afterwards the coin so called. Cf. Plutarch. Lysand.
17. Poll. IX. 77. and the Commentators, Etymol. in ßenixos,
also the Commentators upon Athenæus ubi sup. and Taylor ad
Marm. Sandw. p. 49. It was no doubt so called from the forks
or long pieces of wood upon which it was baked in the ashes.
See Athen. III. ubi sup. and the Commentators, Photius
p. 229.
443 Xenoph. Anab. VII. 3. 23.
414 Poll. VI. 75. cf. Eustath.
133
4
3
the testimony of Rhemnius Fannius 3 of the Attic metretes:
but the Attic medimnus is the double of the amphora;
consequently the metretes was of the Attic medimnus,
which is also evident from its being equal to 144 cotylas.
The contents of the medimnus were in a former place
ascertained to have been 2602 Paris inches, and therefore
the metretes is equal to 2362.5 English cubic inches, or
81.818 pints, i. e. 10 gallons 1 pints of wine measure.
Who then is not astonished at the extraordinary cheapness
of wine in ancient times, upon reading of such prices, as
have been already quoted with regard to Lusitania, at
which more than ten gallons of unmixed wine sold for 3d.?
And since the ancients allowed one part of wine to two of
water, without intending to dilute it much, ten gallons of
such liquor were sold for a penny. The common wine
must therefore have been looked upon as the cheapest of
all necessaries, the causes of which phenomenon have been
already stated. In Lusitania the metretes of wine appears
to have been equal in price to the medimnus of barley, but
at Athens it seems to have been even cheaper than barley;
for according to the speech against Phænippus, when
prices were three times higher than usual, barley was sold
at eighteen and the native Athenian wine at twelve drach-
mas 445. Therefore, according to the usual price, the
metretes of wine was sold for four drachmas: even this
rate however, as well as six drachmas for a medimnus of
barley, must have been considered dear; there would be
no danger of exaggeration, if the half of this price were
assumed as an average for cheaper times. In an agreement
in Demosthenes 446 300 casks (xepάuia) of Mendæan wine are
estimated at 600 drachmas, that is, the cask or the metretes
445 Orat. in Phænipp. p. 1048. 24.
446 In Lacrit. p. 928. extr.
134
came to two drachmas, although Mendæan wine was used
even at the most sumptuous entertainments of the 'Macedo-
nians 447. It is mentioned by Polybius 448 that the Rhodians
bought from the Sinopians, when the latter were invaded by
Mithridates in Olymp. 179. 4., for the sum of 140,000
drachmas 10,000 casks of wine, 300 talents of prepared
hair, a hundred talents of prepared strings, a thousand
complete suits of armour, four catapults with darts and
attendants, and 3000 gold coins. Whence it is easy to
perceive that this could only have been possible in case the
price of wine did not exceed that which has been above
mentioned. According to the grammarians a tricotylus of
wine, i. e. three cotylas, was sold at an obolus 449; which
gives for the metretes eight drachmas. This therefore
was either of a superior sort, or it only appears dearer
because the retail-dealers (xáяnλ) who sold it by the
obolus, added considerably to the price. On the other
hand there were also very costly wines; for example the
Chian wine, as early as in the time of Socrates, sold for a
mina the metretes 450. Oil, although it was produced in
large quantities in Attica, Asia Minor, and the islands,
appears to have maintained a higher price on account of
the great demand for it in ancient times, for the purposes
447 Athen. IV. p. 129. D. to omit other passages concerning
the goodness of this wine.
448 1V. 56.
τρι
449 Schol. Aristoph. Thesmoph. 750. and Hesych. in v. τęɩ-
xérvλos. J. Capellus de Mensur. II. 43. finds a still higher price
in Pollux IV. 169. according to which three choeis cost four
drachmas, and consequently the metretes sixteen drachmas; but
his supposition rests upon an alteration in the text, which cannot
be assumed.
450 Plutarch. de Anim. Tranquil. 10.
135
of light, for dressing meat, and for the gymnasia; yet as
regards the Greeks I have only been able to find a single
statement of its price, and this is given in the second book
of the Economics attributed to Aristotle 451, where it is
stated that the chus of oil was sold at Lampsacus for three
drachmas, and afterwards that a duty was laid upon it
equal to half its price, which raised it to four and half
drachmas; consequently the metretes without the duty
was at 36 drachmas; which indeed as compared with
modern prices is a low rate. Salt, which was measured
by phormi, or by medimni and chœnices 452, was easily
imported into Athens on account of her dominion of the
sea; and as long as Nisæa in Megaris was in the hands
of the Athenians, it was brought over from thence with
the greatest facility 453. Besides this there were salt springs
in Attica itself, opposite Gephyra on the other side of the
Cephisus, and salt-works upon the seashore 454; I have not
however found any thing with regard to the price of salt,
451 II. 2.7. The duty was laid upon wine, corn, and other
commodities at half their price; but in the part where the duty
upon oil should be stated there is an hiatus in the text. It is
evident that the chus of oil, after the addition of the duty, was
sold for 4 drachmas: but that the duty upon the chus was only
three oboli, as Camerarius gives it in his translation, is an
arbitrary assumption. The whole context confirms the supposi-
tion, that a duty equal to half the former price was also laid
upon oil. I therefore restore καὶ τοῦ ἐλαίου, τὸν χοῦ ὄντα δραχμῶν
τρίων πωλεῖν τεττάρων καὶ τριωβόλου, and the price in the text
is given according to this hypothesis.
452 Poll. X. 169. from the Demioprata, Aristoph. Acharn. 814.
(See also Aristot. H. A. VIII. 10. Eudem. Eth. VIII. 2.)
453
Aristoph. Acharn. 760. with the Scholiast and Commenta-
tors.
454 See the Piræean Inscription in Chandler II. 110.
136
except that the Athenians once endeavoured to lower it
by a decree of the people 455. As to the supply of
wood, we may observe that the Athenians were forced
to import large quantities of timber, particularly for the
uses of shipbuilding, from distant countries, especially from
Macedonia 456; even palisades and props for the mines
were brought by sea 457; small wood for burning they had
in plenty, particularly beech-wood, from which charcoal was
made, a business in which the Acharnians were chiefly
engaged 458. Charcoal, firewood, and faggots were brought
into the city in baskets, carried either by men or on
asses 459; thus Phænippus sent to Athens every day from
his boundary-estate in Cytheron six asses laden with wood,
which produced each day twelve drachmas 460, whence an
ass's load may be estimated at two drachmas.
(17.) The meals of the Athenians, which were called
μingoτgánεlo, were for the most part scanty, and had little
that was agreeable 461. But although the ordinary fare
was not very expensive, the great banquets with ointments,
female players upon the flute and cithara, Thasian wine,
eels, cheese, honey, &c. were by no means cheap; "they
cost at least," says Menander, "a small talent." In the
Flatterers of Eupolis a repast of this kind is reckoned at
455 Aristoph. Eccles. 809. and Scholiast.
456
Thucyd. IV. 108. Xenoph. Hell. VI. 1. 4. Demosth. in
Alexand. gì œuvênxãv p. 219. 4. cf. in Timoth. p. 1192, 1.
p. 1195. 1.
457 Demosth. in Mid. p. 568.
458 Aristoph. Acharn.
459 Poll. VI. 111. VII. 109.
460 Orat. in Phænipp. p. 1041. 3.
461 See the comic poet Antiphanes ap. Athen, IV. p. 131. E.
Lynceus ibid. F. Alexis ibid. p. 137. D.
137
a hundred drachmas, and the wine at the same sum 462;
an expence sufficiently great for Athens, though little in
comparison with the extravagance and debauchery of the
kings. Alexander's table for sixty or seventy persons cost
a hundred minas a day 463. Every thing eaten, with the
exception of what was prepared from corn, was originally
comprehended under the name of Opson (pov, óþúviov):
Plato expressly comprises under it salt, olives, cheese,
onions, cabbage, figs, myrtle-berries, walnuts, and pulse 464;
and it is evident that roots such as radishes, turnips, &c.
and all preparations of meat and fish, were also included;
but by degrees the usage of this word was changed, so
that at length it signified only fish, the favourite food of
the Athenian epicures 465. The slave in Terence buys
cabbage and little fish for an old man's meal at an obolus 466,
but according to Theophrastus 467 a miser would have
been disgraced by allowing his wife only three chalcûs for
opson; three oboli appear to have been sufficient for a few
moderate persons to buy the opson uncooked 468; hence
Lysias 469 thinks that a guardian's charge of five oboli for
the opson of two boys and a little girl was excessive.
Three oboli were not sufficient to procure opson for so
expensive a person as Aristippus 470, and ten drachmas
462 Poll. IX. 59.
463 Athen. IV. p. 146. C.
464 Athen. VII. p. 277. A. Plat. de Rep. II. p. 372. C. cf.
Xenoph. Econ. 8. 9.
465 Athen. VII. p. 276. E.
466 And. II. 2. 32.
467 Char. 28.
468 Thugenides (not Thucydides) ap. Poll. VI. 88.
469 In Diogit. p. 905.
470 Diog. Laert. in Vit. Aristipp.
138
71
!
appear to the slave in Terence 471 to be very inadequate
for a marriage-feast. The following are particular state-
ments of prices, of which however some are inaccurate.
Four small pieces of dressed meat cost an obolus ac-
cording to Antiphanes; a piece of meat, as it was pre-
pared for eating, probably of a tolerable size, half an obolus
according to Aristophanes 472. In the Comic Poet Aris-
tophon 473 a landlord appears to receive five chalcus for
some small livers and an intestine, probably a sausage;
perhaps the same sum from several persons who dined
together. A partridge, for which any other person would
have given an obolus, Aristippus is said to have bought
for 50 drachmas 474; one extreme is as incredible as the
other. A dish of Boeotian fieldfares for a festival is sold
for a drachma in Aristophanes; seven maize-thiefs, birds
which in places where they are abundant are usually very
cheap, were not considered dear at an obolus 475; and I
may also mention, that in the Athenian bird-market, a
jackdaw was sold for one obolus and a crow for three 476.
Of fish Athens had a superabundance, and the smaller
varieties, which are nearly worthless in all countries that
are copiously supplied with fish, bore, as may be sup-
posed, a very low price. A species of small fish called
membrades may be bought for four chalcus, but not
eels or thunny-fish, says the comic poet Timocles 477 ;
of aphuas (άpúα), which, according to Lucian, were ex-
471 Andr. II. 6. 20.
472
Antiphanes ap. Athen. IV. p. 431. E. Aristoph. Ran, 562.
473 Pollux IV. 70.
474 Diog. Laert. ubi sup.
475 Aristoph. Acharn. 960. Av. 1079. with the Scholiast.
476 Aristoph. Av. 18.
477 Ap. Athen. VI, p.
241. A.
139
ceedingly small and light, a large quantity could be bought
for an obolus; their cheapness is particularly mentioned.
The sausage-seller in Aristophanes promises to offer up a
thousand goats to Artemis Agrotera (outbidding in jest
the offering of thanks for the battle of Marathon), when-
ever a hundred trichides, likewise a small kind of fish, are
sold for an obolus 478, which was therefore an impossibility.
Larger and better fish bore a higher price, and the fish-
mongers were decried as a shameless and avaricious race;
for a sea-polype they asked four oboli, for a cestra (pro-
bably a kind of pike) eight oboli, for two cestreis (mugiles)
ten oboli, for which eight were offered; for a sea-wolf
(λáßgat) a fishmonger asked ten oboli, without fixing in
what currency; but when it comes to paying, says Diphilus,
he had meant Æginetan oboli 479. A dish of echini cost
when dressed eight oboli, according to the comic poet
Lynceus 480. Eels, particularly those that came from the
lake Copais, were a favourite dish of the Athenians, and
as well as poultry and birds, were brought from Boeotia 481.
A Copaic eel cost three drachmas in the time of Aris-
tophanes 482. Salted or pickled provisions (rágxos) par-
ticularly fish, were brought from the Pontus, Phrygia,
Egypt, Sardinia, and Cadiz 483, and were very abundant at
Athens, in different degrees of goodness; the common sorts
were considered as inferior to meat, and were the food of
the lower classes and of the country people, according to
478 Lucian. Piscat. 48. Aristoph. Eq. 646, 660.
479 Athen. VI. p. 224. C. to p. 227. B.
480 Ap. Athen. IV. p. 132. B.
481 Aristoph. Pac. 1005. and the Scholiast; also Schol. Lysist
703. Poll. VI. 63. Aristophanes in the Acharnenses.
482 Aristoph. Acharn. 961.
483 Poll. VI. 48.
140
Demosthenes and Aristophanes-as the proverb says, the
pickle often cost one obolus, but the sauce two 484. The
comic poet Philippides 485 reckons a dish of pickles for one
person at two or three oboli, and the capers for it in a
separate vessel at three chalcus. It is hardly worth men-
tioning that vegetables, such as cabbages, &c. were sold at
a cheap rate; of leguminous plants the same may be
concluded from an expression of Demosthenes 486, who, in
order to point out the great increase of prices, says, "you
know that even vetches were dear.” Beans, which were
eaten out of the shells as a remedy against drunkenness,
were, according to the statement of Timocles, who perhaps
exaggerates in joke, so dear that eight pods were sold for
an obolus, although they always used to be sold by the
choenix 187. A choenix of olives in the time of Socrates
sold for two chalcus, the cotyla of Attic, that is of the
best honey, cost five drachmas 488. The warm beverage,
which the ancients drank instead of tea, cost a chalcûs
according to Philemon 489,
11
484 Οβολοῦ τάριχος, δι᾿ ὀβολῶν τἀρτύματα, Michael Apostol.
XIV. 9.
485
Ap. Athen. VI. p. 230. A. At Rome in the time of Cato
the elder, a hundred denarii, or, as Polybius usually says,
drachmas, were given for a cask of pickles from the Pontus. See
Polyb. XXXI. 24.
486 In Androt. p. 598. 4.
487 Timocles ap. Athen. VI. p. 240. E. Concerning their use
see Alexis ap. Poll. VI. 45. and the Commentators; and for
their measure see Inscript. 123. tom. I. p. 164. ed. Boeckh.
488 Plutarch. de Animi Tranquil. 10. The expression of Aris-
tophanes (Pac. 253.) that the Attic honey was worth four oboli,
must be understood proverbially to mean something expensive
and costly. See Schol. and Suid. in v. τετρώβολον and τεττάρων
ößoλav. Küster has misunderstood both passages.
489 Ap. Poll. IX. 67. who (cap. 70.) correctly infers from the
141
(18.) The clothing of the Athenians varied considerably
in materials, colour, and make, according to the time of
year as well as the age, family, rank, property, taste, and
object of the wearers; and fashion, although not so all-
powerful as in modern days, had also its influence at that
time. Woollen garments were the most common; although
linen ones were worn, especially by women, and were at a
low price, with the exception of the finest kinds 190. The
Amorgian stuffs were an expensive material, which were
finer than Byssus and Carpasus, almost transparent, and
sometimes dyed; they are said to have derived their name
from the island Amorgus, where they were best manufac-
tured; although others derive it from the dye or the plant
(aμógyn), from which latter word the island itself probably
received its name 491. Even woollen garments, if the
material and wearing were of superior quality, as the
Persian Caunace for example 192, were sold at a high price.
The prices which I have met with are as follows: Socrates,
as stated by Plutarch 493, considers an Exomis (a dress
worn by the common people) to be cheap when sold at
Athens for ten drachmas. This was a garment with one
sleeve, the other arm being left bare. A Chlamys, the
lowness of the price that water for drinking and not for bathing
is meant. The words of Philemon are, χαλκοῦ θερμὸν ἦν, in the
reckoning of a guest with his landlord. The preceding words in
this corrupt passage, καὶ μάλα τριημιωβολιαῖ, ἐστὶ, refer to the
other articles furnished to the guest.
490 Vid. Pseudo-Plat. Epist. XIII. p. 363. A.
491 They were called ἀμοργίδια, ἀμοργίδες, χιτῶνες ἀμόργινοι. See
concerning these Aristoph. Lysistrat. 150. and Schol. Lysistrat.
736. Schol. Æschin. p. 737. Reiske, Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg.
Poll. VII. 57. 74. Harpocrat. Hesych. Suid. Etymol.
192 Aristoph. Vesp. 1132, 1140.
493 Ubi sup.
142
usual dress of the knights and young men, of Macedonian
and Thessalian origin 194, is called rgiσráτngos in Pollux 495,
by which doubtless the weight is not meant, but that its
value amounted to three silver staters, or twelve drachmas.
A citizen in the Ecclesiazusæ of Aristophanes 196, who
appears without any upper garment, his wife having al-
ready gone with it to the assembly, declares, that since the
preservation of the State is to be the subject of debate,
he himself is in want of a preservation of four staters
(σωτηρίας τετραστατήρου); in this instance no one can doubt
with Pollux 497 whether the coin or the weight is meant, as it
is evident that sixteen drachmas, the price of the upper gar-
ment, are alluded to. When the young man in the Plutus 498
requires twenty drachmas from his aged mistress for an
upper garment, it is possible that he intended to make her
pay for an expensive one. Socrates mentions that purple
was sold for three minas, quoting it as an example of the
increased dearness of articles of luxury at Athens 499; it
may be doubted whether by this he means a garment or a
certain measure of dyed cloth; in my opinion the former
is the right supposition: it is well known that the gar-
ments made of the Byssus which grew in Achaia were
weighed against gold 500. In the article of shoes great
luxury was displayed; Laconian, which were the dress
494 Poll. VII. 46. X. 124. and the note of Hemsterhusius, also
X. 164. Ammonius in v. xhaµùs and Strabo ubi sup. Dorvill. ad
Charit. p. 433. ed. Leips.
495 VI. 165.
496 Vs. 413.
497 IX. 58.
498 Vs. 883.
499 Ap. Plutarch. ubi sup.
500 Plin. Hist. Nat. XIX. 4.
143
shoes of men, Sicyonic, Persian, Tyrrhenian, Scythian,
Argive, Rhodian, Amyclæan, Thessalian, and Thracian
shoes, with several others, occur in the different provinces
of Greece; and like our fashion of calling trifling things
after celebrated names 501, so they had various kinds of shoes
named after distinguished persons, such as Alcibiadean,
Iphicratean, &c. 502 A pair of Sicyonic woman's shoes cost
two drachmas according to Lucian 503; for a pair of man's
shoes the above-mentioned youth in the Plutus of Aristo-
phanes 504 requires eight drachmas, which is comparatively
high, and either too high a price is supposed to be given,
or it was for some very expensive and ornamented kind.
Ointment is among the dearest articles of ancient times.
A cotyla of fine ointment, probably from the East, cost at
Athens, according to Hipparchus and Menander 505,
505 from
five to ten minas. The interlocutor in the comic poet.
Antiphanes is not satisfied with moist ointment at two
minas the cotyla 506. It is manifest that the Athenians,
although they were much addicted to the use of ointments,
and every thing contributing to the refined enjoyments of
life, could not have easily afforded to pay so high a price.
It is therefore probable that for the most part they made
use of inferior sorts; of such ointment perhaps as occurs
501 Aristophanes passim, and particularly Pollux VII. 85-89.
502 ᾿Αλκιβιάδεια or ᾿Αλκιβίαδες (ὑπόδημα), Ιφικρατίδες, Δεινιάδες,
Σμινδυρίδεια, Μυνάκια. See Pollux ubi sup. with his Com-
mentators, Athen. XII. p. 534. C. Schol. Lucian. Dial. Meretr.
The Iphicratean were not however a mere variety of fashion, but
an improved kind of shoes for the soldiers.
503 Dial. Meretr. 14.
504 Vs. 984.
505
506
Ap. Athen. XV.
Ap. Athen. ibid.
p. 691. C.
144
in Lucian, a small alabaster-box of which, brought from
Phoenicia, was sold for two drachmas 507.
(19.) A knowledge of the prices of different kinds
of furniture, implements, arms, and ships, would not be
unimportant for the determination of many questions.
The ancient writers however afford but few data, and of
those which we have some are too high, to be looked upon
as the customary prices, although it is probable that,
notwithstanding the low rate of wages and the existence
of slavery, the manufacturers on account of the high rate
of interest obtained a large profit, which raised the price
of certain commodities. Passing over the works of art,
the value of which was only determined by the taste of
the purchaser, I adduce the following examples. A little
cart for a child's plaything, cost an obolus according to
Aristophanes, and a small oil-flask (λnxúbiov) the same sum,
an earthen cask three drachmas 508; a sideboard (éyyubńxn)
(ἐγγυθήκη)
decorated with brazen figures of satyrs and heads of
oxen 509, not particularly well executed, thirty drachmas;
a small two-wheeled chariot for racing, probably with
many ornaments of ivory, brass, silver, &c. in the same
manner that the ancients used them upon beds and other
kinds of furniture 510, together with the wheels, cost two
minas 511. The price of a
The price of a scythe or sickle (dgéπavov) in
time of peace is evidently exaggerated in joke by Aris-
tophanes 512, who supposes fifty drachmas to be given for
507 Ubi sup.
508 Aristoph. Nub. 861. Ran. 1267. Pac. 1201.
509 Lysias Fragm. p. 15.
510 Plutarch. de vitando ære alieno 2, 3.
511 Aristoph. Nub. 31.
512 Pac. 1200.
145
it. A private key together with the ring cost in the same
age three oboli, a magic ring a drachma 513. A small
book for an agreement (ygaµμatídiov), i. e. a small ordinary
wooden diptychon with two wax tablets, Demosthenes
values at two chalcus 514. It is well known that the assize
price of a rope, even if a man used it for hanging himself,
was an obolus 515. Arms and armour cannot have been
cheap; in the time of war when the demand was con-
siderable, ten minas were, according to Aristophanes (who
probably mentions the highest rate), the price of a coat
of mail of good workmanship and fastened with metal
chains (dλvoidwrós); one mina, as it appears, for a helmet ;
and sixty drachmas for a war-trumpet 516. For determining
the expences of the marine it would be particularly de-
sirable to know the prices of articles employed in ship-
building, but very little definite information can be gathered
from the passages of ancient writers. A piece of wood
for making an oar (xweùs) cost, according to Andocides 517,
five drachmas; Lucian, who both from the lateness of the
period at which he lived and the bent of his writings
cannot be sufficient evidence, supposes the fraudulent god
Mercury in a reckoning with Charon to ask five drachmas
for an anchor for Charon's boat, which to the covetous
ferryman appears a large sum; for the thong with which
the oar was fastened on (τgоng), two oboli; for a needle
Aristoph. Thesm. 432. Plut. 885.
514 Demosth. in Dionysod. p. 1283. 4. cf. Salmas. de M. U. X.
p. 403.
515 Lucian. Timon. 20.
516 Aristoph. Pac. 1223. and the Schol. 1250. and 1240.
517 De suo Reditu p. 81. Reiske (Ind. Andoc.) falsely under-
stood xareus to mean a rower. The next passage is Lucian.
Dial. Mort. 4.
VOL. I.
513
L
146
to sew together the sail cloth, five oboli; for pitching-wax,
nails, and cords for the sail-yard, altogether two drachmas.
The cost of a whole ship as compared with its size it is
not now possible to ascertain. In a bond of bottomry in
Demosthenes 518, three thousand drachmas are lent upon a
merchant-vessel, by which however we are not justified in
assuming that the ship had not a greater value, as at
Athens a double pledge was not unfrequently given in
case of bottomry, and therefore its real value might have
been as much as a talent. Nor could the cost of a trireme
or the common ship of war, without its furniture, have
been much greater, as labour could be procured at a low
rate, and ships were easily built; for which reason they
did not last long, but were frequently wrecked when out
at sea, and were shattered to pieces in battle. A cal-
culation has been made from accounts of the expences of
the trierarchy, that it cost a talent to build the hull of a
trireme, but it is founded upon an erroneous supposition;
another means of determining the price might have been
derived from the account of Themistocles having built
100 or 200 triremes from the annual proceeds of the mines;
but neither can the annual returns of the mines nor the
number of years be ascertained with certainty: the state-
ment of Polyænus that a ship was built for every talent
which was allowed, is after all the most probable 519; but it
was perhaps only a contribution granted to the trierarchs,
who according to the most ancient form of the trierarchy
were obliged to supply all the furniture of the vessel, and
518 In Dionysod. p. 1283. 18.
519 See my Memoir upon the Mines of Laurion. According
to Diodorus (see below II. 20.) there were perhaps twenty tri-
remes built every year.
་
3
147
were only indemnified for the building of the hull. Sub-
sequently however, on account of the general rise of prices,
a trireme may have stood a little higher: would that
instead of the fictitious sale of the triremes for fifty drach-
mas, at which the Corinthians once furnished some vessels
to the Athenians 520, we had a statement of their real
value!
(20.) From the preceding particulars, it is possible
very nearly to determine the sum which was requisite for
the maintenance of a respectable person in the best times
of Athens. The most moderate person required every day
for opson one obolus, for a choenix of corn, according to
the price of barley in the age of Socrates, a quarter obolus,
making altogether in a year of 360 days, 75 drachmas ;
and for clothes and shoes at least 15 drachmas; a family
of four adults must therefore at the lowest have required
360 drachmas for the specified necessaries; which sum
for the age of Demosthenes, when the price of corn was
five drachmas, must be increased by about 224 drachmas -
for each person, and for four persons by about 90: to
this the expence of house-room is to be added, which, if
we reckon the value of a house at the lowest at three
minas, taking the ordinary rate of interest of twelve per
cent, gives an outlay of thirty-six drachmas; so that the
poorest family of four free adults spent upon an average
from 390 to 400 drachmas a year, if they did not live upon
bread and water. Socrates had two wives, not indeed at
the same time, as has been fabulously reported, but one
after the other; the first was Myrto, whom he married
poor, and probably without a dowry; the second Xan-
thippe; he had three children, of whom Lamprocles at
520 Herod. VI. 89.
-
148
the death of his father had reached the age of manhood,
while Sophroniscus and Menexenus were minors 521; for
himself, after having sacrificed his youth to unceasing
endeavours after knowledge, he followed no profession,
and his teaching did not produce any pecuniary return.
According to Xenophon 522, he lived upon his own pro-
perty, which if it had found a good purchaser (wynτns),
would together with the house, have readily produced
five minas; and he only required a small contribution
from his friends: whence it has been inferred that prices
were most extraordinarily low at Athens. It is however
evident that Socrates and his family could not have lived
upon the proceeds of so small a property; for, however
miserable his house may have been, it cannot be estimated
at less than three minas, so that even if the furniture is
not taken into consideration, the rest of his effects only
amounted to two minas, and the income from them ac-
cording to the ordinary rate of interest to only 24 drach-
mas, from which he could not have provided barley for
himself and his wife, not to mention the other necessaries
of life and the maintenance of his children. Shall we then
understand the expression "purchaser (wyrǹs)” of a lessee
of his property, and five minas as the annual rent? This
way of avoiding the difficulty would be the easiest; but the
ancients, as far as I am aware, only use the word " to buy
(wveïσbai)” instead of “to let," as applied to the public re-
venues, the letting of which was a real sale of the dues be-
longing to the State; for a lease of the lands or the whole
521 Plat. Apol. 23. and there Fischer.
522 Econ. 2. According to Meursius, who has been tran-
scribed by later writers, he lived upon it very respectably (per-
honeste)! See Fort. Att. IV. p. 30.
"
149
property (oixos) of an individual to a tenant, the expression
μobov is used; and, moreover, a lease of the whole property
never occurs, as far as I am aware, except in the case of the
estates of orphans. In addition to this, the fortune of Cri-
tobulus is valued at more than 500 minas, in the same sense
as that of Socrates is at five, with the remark that it came
to the same thing, as he supplied great sacrifices, enter-
tained guests, feasted and maintained many citizens, kept
horses, performed public liturgies, and subjected himself to
other expences besides the maintenance of his wife, things
which, with an income of 8 talents, he would have been
undoubtedly able to afford, but not with only a property of
that amount. We must therefore believe that Xenophon
stated the whole property of Socrates at only five minas,
but we have equal right to reject as to receive this testi-
mony; for the history of the ancient philosophers is so cor-
rupted and mixed with fables, and the circumstances of
their lives have been so differently represented even by con-
temporary writers, that one seldom treads upon firm ground.
Thus in the Apology of Plato, Socrates is represented as
saying that he need not have given more than a mina of silver
for his release; in which account Eubulides also agreed:
according to others he estimated the whole cause at 25
drachmas; and in the Apology for Socrates attributed to
Xenophon, it is related that he had neither valued his law-
suit himself, nor would allow it to be valued by his friends 523!
Thus the well-informed Demetrius of Phalerum maintained,
in opposition to Xenophon, that Socrates had, besides his
house, seventy minas lent out to Criton upon interest;
and Libanius relates that he had lost eighty minas, which
were left him by his father, through a friend who had
523 Plat. Apol. 28. Diog. Laert. II. 41. Xenoph. Apol. 23,
A
150
failed in his business, whom we can by no means suppose
with Schneider to have been the wealthy Crito 524. But
assuming Xenophon's account to be entirely correct, it
must be thought that the mother of the young sons main-
tained herself and two children either by her labour or out
of her dowry, while Lamprocles supported himself, and
that the domestic economy for which Socrates was so
celebrated, consisted in keeping his family at work. He
may in that case, indeed, have lived upon his 24 drachmas,
together with some additional contributions from his
friends; for his necessary expences were exceedingly small.
It is true that he is related to have often sacrificed at home
and upon the public altars525, but doubtless only baked
animals, according to the custom of the poor, together
with loaves of bread, which were mostly consumed with the
meat, and to which his family also contributed; he lived in
the strictest sense upon bread and water, except when he
was entertained by his friends; and therefore he may have
been much rejoiced, as he is said to have been, at barley being
sold at the low price of a quarter obolus the choenix 526: he
wore no under-garment; and his upper-garment was slight,
the same for summer and winter; he generally went bare-
footed, and his dress-shoes which he sometimes wore, pro-
bably lasted him his whole life. A walk before his house
served him instead of opson for meals; in short no slave
lived so poorly as he did 527. His greatest expence was
524 Demetrius ap. Plutarch. Aristid. I. where rèv oixíar should
resume its place in the text for Reiske's yuv oixɛlav; Liban. Apol.
vol. III. p. 7. Schneider ad Xenoph. ubi sup.
525 Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. init.
526 See Plutarch and Stobæus in the passages quoted in chap.
15.
527 Xenoph. ut sup. I. 5. 2. Plat. Conviv. p. 174. A. Athen.
151
unquestionably the drachma which he gave to Prodicus;
and without disparaging the greatness of his intellectual
powers, it may be boldly asserted, that as far as his
miserable condition and a certain resemblance to the habits
of the Cynic philosophers are concerned, the representa-
tion of Aristophanes is not only not exaggerated, but is
faithfully copied after the life.
If in the time of Socrates four persons could live upon
440 drachmas, they must have passed a very wretched
existence, and to live respectably it was necessary even
then, and still more in the time of Demosthenes, to be pos-
sessed of a larger income. According to the speech against
Phænippus, the plaintiff and his brother inherited from their
father 45 minas, upon which the orator says it was not
easy to live 528, that is upon the interest, which according
to the common rate, amounts to 540 drachmas. Isæus in
his speech upon the estate of Hagnias 529 relates, that
Stratocles and his brother had inherited an estate from
their father, which was indeed too inconsiderable to oblige
them to the performance of liturgies, but sufficient for
their maintenance: now since the property of Stratocles
amounted at his death to five and a half talents, besides
IV. p. 157. E. Many persons used to go barefooted, even the
wealthy and distinguished Lycurgus (see Lives of the Ten
Orators).
528 P. 1045. 17.
529 P. 292. where read εἶναι μὲν ἱκανὰ, λειτουργεῖν δὲ μὴ ἄξια, as
Reiske proposed, with the addition however of another unhappy
conjecture. Ovx ixavà is manifestly corrupt, in the first place
because it ought to be μ, and not oỷ, and in the second, because
it would be absurd to remark, that his property was indeed not
sufficient to live upon, but too inconsiderable for the performance
of liturgies.
152
his wife's dowry of twenty minas, which cannot be reckoned
into his legacy, and since out of this sum he had acquired
either by subsequent inheritance or his own exertions the
sum of four talents 44 minas, his patrimony amounted to
46 minas, which according to the ordinary rate of interest
afforded an income of five minas 52 drachmas a year, and
at the rate of eighteen per cent at which he lent it out,
eight minas 28 drachmas, and with the interest of the
dowry reckoned at twelve per cent, ten minas 68 drachmas,
an income which was amply sufficient to maintain him.
Mantitheus, in a speech of Demosthenes 530, asserts that
he had been supported and educated from the interest of
his mother's dowry, which amounted to a talent, conse-
quently according to the customary rate of interest, from
720 drachmas. The expences of Demosthenes himself
when a youth, of his young sister and of his mother,
amounted to seven minas a year, exclusively of the cost of
house-rent, as they lived in their own house: but the cost
of Demosthenes' education was not paid out of this sum,
as it remained owing by the guardians 531. After Lysias
has finished speaking of the fraudulent account rendered
by the guardian of Diodotus' children (who for example
had charged more than a talent for clothes, shoes, and
hair-cutting within eight years, and more than 4000 drach-
mas for sacrifices and festivals, and at the termination of his
office would only surrender three minas of silver and 30
Cyzicenic staters) 532, he remarks533, that "if he charges
more than any person in the city ever did, for two boys and
D.
530 In Boot. de Dote p. 1009. 28. p. 1023. 6.
531 Demosth. in Aphob. I. p. 824, 26 sqq. p. 825. 5.
532 In Diogit. p. 903. cf. p. 897. and p. 905.
533 Ibid. p. 910.
153
a girl, a nurse and female servant, he could not reckon more
than 1000 drachmas a year;" which would give not much
less than three drachmas a day. This is equal to about
two shillings and three pence in our money, a sum which
certainly must appear too large for three children and
two female slaves in the time of Lysias. In the age of
Solon an obolus must have gone very far, for that legislator
prohibited any woman from carrying with her upon any
procession or journey more than would buy thus much of
food, together with a basket which was more than an
ell long 534: and the Trozenians appear to have made a
liberal donation, when, according to Plutarch 535, they
decreed to allow two oboli to every one of the old-men,
women, and children, who had fled from Athens at the
time of the invasion of Xerxes. But in the flourishing
times of the State, one person could live but moderately
upon two or even three oboli a day 536; upon the whole how-
ever the cheapness and facility of living were considerable.
From the piety of the Greeks towards the dead, the death
of a man, with his funeral and monument, often cost more
than many years of his life, for we find that private in-
dividuals frequently spent for that purpose as much as
three, ten, fifteen, or even 120 minas 537.
534 Plutarch. Solon. 21.
535 Themistocl. 10.
536 Lucian (Epist. Saturn. 21.) says, that in order to satiate
one's self with maize or barley bread, together with a few cresses,
some thyme, or a few onions, four oboli were wanting; which is
the very sum that a miserly father gives to his son who has
reached his eighteenth year, for his daily sustenance, in another
place in the same author (Dial. Mort. 7.). This however cannot
be applied to Athens and to ancient times.
537
Lysias in Philon. p. 884. Pseudo-Plat. Epist. XIII. p.
361.
154
The national wealth of the Athenians, exclusive of the
public property and the mines 538, I have estimated in a
succeeding part of this work according to a probable
calculation, at from 30 to 40 thousand talents; if of this
only 20,000 talents are reckoned as property paying
interest, each of the 20,000 citizens would have had the
interest of a talent, or according to the ordinary rate of
interest, an annual income of 720 drachmas, if property
had been equally divided, which the ancient philosophers
and statesmen always considered as the greatest good
fortune of a State; and with the addition of the produce
of their labour, they might have been all able to live
comfortably. But a considerable number of the citizens
were poor; while others were possessed of great riches,
who from the lowness of prices and the high rate of
interest were able not only to live luxuriously, but at
the same time to accumulate additional wealth, as capital
increased with extreme rapidity. This inequality de-
stroyed the State and the morals of the inhabitants. The
most natural consequence of it was the servility of the
poor towards the rich, although they thought that they
had the same pretensions as their superiors in wealth; and
the wealthy citizens practised the same canvassing for
popular favour, as was the custom at Rome, with different
degrees of utility, or rather of hurtfulness. A citizen
might perhaps adopt beneficial means for obtaining his
end, as Cimon for example, the first man of his age,
who, besides his great mental qualities, imitated Pisi-
stratus in leaving his lands and gardens without any
1
E. Demosth. in Boot. de Dote p. 1023. 22. Lysias in Diogit.
p. 905. Demosth. in Stephan. I. p. 1124. 15.
539 IV. 4.
155
keepers, and thus the produce of his farms and his house
became almost the property of the public; he used also to
provide cheap entertainments for the poor, to bury the
indigent, to distribute small pieces of money when he
went out, and to cause his attendants to change clothes
with decayed citizens 539. Yet these were the very means
by which the sovereign citizens were reduced to a miserable
state of beggary and dependance. Even this however
might have been tolerable; but as every statesman had not
the means of making such large outlays from his private
fortune, and liberality to the people being necessary to
purchase their favour, the distribution of money at the
festivals, the payment of the soldiers, the Ecclesiasts,
Dicasts, and senators, the costly sacrifices, and the Cleru-
chiæ, were introduced by the demagogues: the allies were
compelled to try their causes at Athens, among other
reasons for producing more fees to the Dicasts, and em-
ployment for the other citizens 540: of every oppressive act
committed against the allies, public crimes were the con-
sequence, which the demagogues pretended that they were
driven to by the poverty of the people 541. And when the
necessary consequence and punishment of their tyranny
arrived in the defection of the allies, the helpless condition
of the State had increased; for the multitude had forgotten
their former activity, and been gradually accustomed to
ease and refinement; no course therefore remained but to
struggle to regain their former ascendancy. Add to this
the envy which the poor entertained against the rich, and
559 Theopomp. ap. Athen. XII. p. 533. A. Plutarch. Cimon.
10. partly from Aristotle, and Pericl. 9.
540 Xenoph. de Rep. Athen.
541 Xenoph. de Vectig. init.
156
the joy and readiness with which they divided their pos-
sessions, upon which, after bribery had been tried in vain,
the whole rage of the multitude vented itself. Xenophon,
in his treatise upon the Revenues, understood perfectly that
it was necessary to promote the welfare of individuals:
but, leaving out of the question the insufficiency of his
proposals, Athens, even if her power in foreign parts could
have been restored, was lost beyond all hope of recovery,
as the minds of her citizens could not be so easily recalled
to a state consistent with her desired prosperity.
(21.) From the extreme cheapness of the necessaries of
life, the wages of labour must have been at a low rate in
ancient times; and the number of competitors in the
market for labour, among whom, besides the Thetes and the
resident aliens, a large portion of slaves should be reckoned,
must have contributed to produce a farther diminution 542.
In addition to the effect of competition, the gangs of
slaves maintained by the wealthy essentially injured the
profits of the poorer classes of citizens.
And it was
with justice that the Phocians, who are said to have
subsequently prohibited the keeping of slaves, upbraided
Mnason, who possessed more than a thousand, with keeping
an equal number of citizens out of employment 543. After
the Peloponnesian war, even citizens who had been accus-
tomed to live in a better condition of life-the struggle
which it produced had been so great-maintained them-
selves by working for daily wages at any manual labour,
as they had lost their foreign estates, rents had fallen as
well from the scarcity of money, as from the decrease of
the population, and loans were not to be procured 544. I
542 Cf. Xenoph. de Vectig. 4.
543 Athen. VI. p. 264. C. cf. p. 272. B.
544 Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. II. 7, 8.
157
have been able to find but few exact statements of the
amount of wages of labour: Lucian states that in the age
of Timon (provided he does not refer to earlier what
really belongs to later times) four oboli were the daily
wages for garden or field-labour upon a distant estate 545;
this same sum occurs as a porter's wages in Aristophanes,
and of a common labourer who carried manure 546. When
Ptolemy sent 100 masons and 350 labourers to the Rho-
dians, in order to repair the damage caused by the earth-
quake, he gave them fourteen talents a year for opson,
that is, three oboli apiece 547; which, if they were slaves,
was the expence of their maintenance, if free labourers, only
a part of their wages, as a man required other things besides
opson. The philosophers Menedemus and Asclepiades
must have been powerful labourers in their youth, if they
earned two drachmas a night for grinding in a corn-mill 548.
Particular services, which require a certain degree of com-
pliance on the part of the labourers, received a higher
recompense at Athens, as in all other great cities. Bacchus,
in the Frogs of Aristophanes 549, wishes to have his bundle
carried by a porter, who asks two drachmas for his
trouble; but when the god offers the departed shade nine
oboli, he declares that "rather than do this he would re-
turn to life again." If this dialogue in the region of shades
is not a scene of real life, it has no point: a living porter
at Athens was perhaps equally exorbitant in his de-
mands, and if less was offered him, he might naturally
answer that he would sooner die than do it. The fare
545 Lucian. Timon. 6. 12.
546
Aristoph. ap. Poll. VII. 133. and Eccles. 310.
547 Polyb. V. 88.
548 Phanodemus and Philochorus ap. Athen. IV. p. 168. A.-
549 Vs. 172 sqq.
158
paid for passages by sea was extremely moderate, parti-
cularly for long voyages; it cost two oboli to go from Ægina
to the Piraeus; that is, for more than twenty-one miles;
the fare from Egypt or the Pontus to the same port, more
than 600 miles, for a man with his family and baggage, was
at most two drachmas in the age of Plato; a proof that
commerce was very profitable, so that it was not found
necessary to require much from passengers. In the time
of Lucian the fare from Athens to Ægina was four
oboli 550. The freight of timber appears to have been
more considerable in a case mentioned by Demosthenes 551,
in which 1750 drachmas were paid for a cargo from
Macedonia to Athens: the immense corn vessel the Isis,
which, in the time of the emperors, brought so much corn
from Egypt to Italy, that it was asserted that one cargo
would be sufficient for a year's consumption of all Attica,
produced at the least twelve talents of freightage per
annum 552. The fulling of an upper garment cost three
oboli 553. Thirty drachmas were paid for engraving a decree
of moderate size, if we may judge from the fragment that
remains; 50 drachmas were assigned for engraving all the
decrees of Lycurgus in the Archonship of Anaxicrates
(Olymp. 118. 2.) 554, which can only be explained by sup-
posing that the writing was for the most part very small.
550 Plat. Gorg. §. 143. ed. Heindorf. Lucian. vol. III. p. 258.
ed. Reiz.
551 In Timoth. p. 1192. That only one cargo is meant is
evident from the mention of only one captain, ibid. 1. 24.
552 Lucian. ut sup. p. 256.
555 Aristoph. Vesp. 1123. cf. 1122.
554 Marm. Oxon. XXIV. ed. Chandl. and in some unpublished
inscriptions; third decree at the end of the Lives of the Ten
Orators.
159
The great inscription which was first published by Bar-
thelemy 555, is only 3′ 8″ 4″ Paris measure high, 6″ 6″″
thick, the upper part, which contains an image in high
relief, is 1' 11", the lower part upon which the writing is
engraved, 2′ 4″ 6″ wide. The whole inscription consists
of only forty rows of letters, which are 34 lines high, with
spaces between the rows of two lines in height; so that the
whole height of the inscription itself is 1' 6" 4". In addi-
tion to this we may notice the payments at the baths,
which, according to Lucian, amounted to two oboli, although
they cannot be considered solely as the wages of labour 556.
For the labour of plucking out the hair with pitch, in order
to make the skin resemble that of a woman, a person is
represented in Philemon as paying four men six chalcûs
apiece, as it appears from a passage in Pollux 557. It may
be also observed the rich had private, and the people of
Athens public baths 558,
The pay of the soldiers was different according to
times and circumstances, and varied between two oboli,
and two drachmas, the latter including the provision-
money for an Hoplites and his attendant; the cavalry
received from two to four times, officers generally twice,
and generals only four times that amount: the provision-
money was usually equal to the pay. A soldier could
maintain himself sufficiently well for two or three oboli,
especially as in many places living was much cheaper than
at Athens; out of his pay he was to provide clothes and
arms, after which a certain overplus remained, which, with
555 The Choiseul inscription.
556 Lexiphanes 2.
557 IX. 66. and there Hemsterhuis.
Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 2. 10. see Barthél. Anach. tom. II.
chap. 20.
160
the addition of plunder, might enable him to amass a decent
fortune. This explains the meaning of the comic poet
Theopompus 559, who says, that with a pay of two oboli
a soldier could maintain a wife, and with four oboli his
fortune was complete; where he means the pay alone with-
out the provision. The pay of the Dicasts and Ecclesiasts
amounted in its increased state to three oboli, and like the
Theorica, only served as a contribution to the support of
the citizens: the Heliast in the Wasps of Aristophanes 560
clearly shews the difficulty which there was in procuring
bread, opson, and wood for three persons out of this
allowance: clothes and house-room he does not reckon, as
these he provided from his private property. The salaries
of the senators and ambassadors were more considerable;
the liberal arts and sciences were the most abundantly
paid, although the rewards of those who administered to
unlawful pleasure were scarcely inferior. The ancient
states maintained physicians who were paid at the public
cost 561; thus, for example, Hippocrates is said to have
been public physician at Athens: these again had attend-
ants, for the most part slaves, who exercised their calling
among people of low condition 562. The celebrated phy-
sician Democedes of Croto received about the sixtieth
559 Ap. Poll. IX. 64. where read with Kühn,
καίτοι τίς οὐκ ἂν εἰκὸς εὖ πράττοι τετρωβολίζων,
εἰ νῦν γε διώβολον φέρων ἀνὴς τρέφει γυναῖκα.
S
[Porson Præf. Hec. p. 43.
διώβολον φέρει τρέφειν γυναῖκα.
νῦν γ᾽ ἀνὴρ διώβολον φέρων τρέφει γυναῖκα.]
560 Vesp. 299. cf. 699.
561 Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. IV. 2. 5. Plat. Gorg. §. 23. Con-
cerning the pay see Strab. IV. p. 125. Diod. XII. 13.
562 Plat. Leg.
writes the last line, si vovy ave
The correct reading probably is, εἰ
P
161
Olympiad, notwithstanding the small quantity of money
then in circulation, the large salary of thirty-six Æginetan
minas or of one Attic talent of silver: being invited to
Athens, he received a hundred minas, until Polycrates of
Samos gave him two talents 563. It cannot be doubted
that many artists of a different description were paid in a
similar manner by the State, such as the head-architect at
Rhodes and Cyzicus, and doubtless at every place of im-
portance. The pay of musicians and actors was very
considerable. Amoebeus, a singer in ancient Athens, re-
ceived an Attic talent for each time that he appeared 564;
it is well known that the flute-players were very highly
paid. In a Corcyræan inscription 565 of no great antiquity,
50 Corinthian or 83 Attic minas, are fixed as the pay for
three auletæ, three tragic, and three comic actors for a
festivity, besides the large expences of their maintenance.
Distinguished actors were not less highly paid, although
they made considerable gains by travelling from place to
place, when they were not employed at Athens 566; thus, for
example, Polus or Aristodemus is said to have gained a
talent in two days, or even in one 567. In like manner
common strolling players, jugglers, conjurors, fortune-
563 Herod. III. 131.
561 Aristeas ap. Athen. XV. p. 623. D.
565 Inscript. 150. tom. I. p. 231. ed. Boeckh.
566 Cf. Demosth. de fals. Leg. and the second argument to
this oration.
567 Vit. X. Orat. p. 268. ed. Tübing. Gell. XI. 9. 10. Con-
cerning the pay of the common actors at Rome, see Lipsius Exc.
N. ad Tacit. Annal. I. It is difficult to believe that Demo-
sthenes gave 10,000 drachmas to the actor Neoptolemus for
teaching him to speak with long breath, as is stated in the Lives
of the Ten Orators, p. 260.
VOL. I.
M
162
tellers, &c. gained a competence by their callings, although
the sum which one person paid was inconsiderable, for ex-
ample, a chalcûs, an obolus, or sometimes a drachma 568;
apprentices' fees for instruction in trades and arts, including
even that of medicine, had been introduced in the time of
Socrates 569. The tribes at Athens were bound to provide
for a part of the instruction in music and gymnastic
exercises, and they had their own teachers, by whom the
youth of the whole tribe were instructed 570; in the other
schools each person paid, but how much we are not in-
formed 571: an exception was made to this rule by some
enactments of Charondas, who is said to have appointed
salaries for the grammarians, if the laws, from which
Diodorus 572 took his account, are not fabrications. The
teachers of philosophy and rhetoric, or the sophists, were
not paid by the State till later times; at first however they
obtained large sums from their scholars, the worthy suc-
cessors of the mercenary lyric poets, whose inspiration was
frequently the result of gold 573. Protagoras of Abdera is
568 Casaub. ad Theophrast. Char. 6. Lucian gives a good
deal of information with regard to the fortune-tellers: the most
remarkable instance of growing rich by this art occurs in Isocrat.
Æginet.
569 Plat. Menon. p. 90. B. sqq.
570 Demosth. in Boot. de Nom. p. 1001. 19.
571 Demosth. in Aphob. I. p. 828.
572 Diod. XII. 13. Although their spuriousness has been
proved, yet every thing that occurs in them cannot be rejected as
forged: the latter law however gives strong grounds for suspect-
ing that it is later than the Alexandrian age.
573 Many persons have treated of the pay of learned men. The
most important particulars have been collected by Wolf (Ver-
mischte Schriften p. 42 sqq.) without any parade of quotations.
163
said to have been the first who taught for money; and he
received from his pupils a hundred minas for their com-
plete education 574: Gorgias 575 required the same sum,
notwithstanding which he only left at his death a thousand
staters 576: together with Zeno of Elea 577, who was other-
wise unlike the sophists. Instruction being obtained at so
high a price, it is natural that competition should have
arisen, and endeavours to agree for moderate terms; at which
we who carry on the same trade with books, as they with
their oral instruction, should be the last to be astonished.
Hippias, while still a young man, together with Protagoras,
earned in Sicily in a very short space of time a hundred and
fifty minas, of which more than twenty minas came from one
small town; and not as it appears by any long course of
education 578. By degrees however the number of teachers
brought about a reduction of the price: Euenus of Paros,
as early as in the time of Socrates, exposed himself to the
ridicule of the multitude by taking only ten minas 579, for
which sum also Isocrates taught the whole art of rhetoric 580;
574 Quintil. Inst. Orat. III. 1. Gell. V. 10. Diog. IX. 52. and
there Menage.
575 Suidas, and Diod. XII. 53.
576 Isocrat. de Antidosi p. 84. ed. Orell.
577 Plat. Alcib. I. p. 119. A. The Scholiast of Aristophanes
(Nub. 873.) states that the teachers would not have readily
taken less than a talent: if any reliance is to be placed on this
account, which is hardly necessary, it must be referred to the
time of Socrates alone.
578 Plat. Hipp. §. 5. For farther information concerning Hip-
pias, see Suidas, Philostr. Vit. Soph. I. 1. 11. Apulej. Florid.
p. 346. ed. Elm.
579 Plat. Apol. Socrat. p. 20. B.
580 Demosth. in Lacrit. p. 938. 17. Plutarch. in Vit. Demosth.
and Vit. X. Orat. in Vit. Isocrat.
164
and this in the time of Lycurgus was considered as the
common remuneration of a teacher of eloquence 581. At
last even the followers of Socrates were content to teach
for money, Aristippus having, as it is said, been the first to
set the example 582. It may be also mentioned, that they
used to receive money from each pupil for private lectures;
thus Prodicus, for example, received from one, two, and
four, to fifty drachmas 583. Antiphon was the first person
who wrote speeches for money, and he was paid highly for
them 584. I am almost ashamed to speak of the prices of
intercourse with persons of both sexes, which, according to
Suidas and Zonaras 585, were fixed by law: three chalcûs,
one and two oboli, a drachma 586; a stater with women of
middling condition 587, but the price of a Lais was 10,000
drachmas for a night 588. Other prices may be seen in
Lysias 589, and the author of the epistles of Eschines 590,
(22.) The rate of interest in Greece was expressed
either by the number of oboli or drachmas which were
581 Vit. Dec. Orat. in Vit. Lycurg.
582 Diog. 11. 65. and there Menage, cf. 72, 74. He is said
to have taken from 1500 to 100 drachmas, although others refer
these accounts to Isocrates.
583 Plat. Cratyl. init. Aristot. Rhet. III. 14. Philost. ut sup.
12. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 360. Suidas in v. Igodixov, Eudoc.
Πρόδικον,
p. 365.
Ion.
584 Van Spaan (Ruhnken) de Antiph. p. 809. tom. VII. of
Reiske's Orators.
585 In v. διάγραμμα.
586 Hesych. in v. Telavтoróg, Athen. VI. p. 241. E. Aristoph.
Thesm. 1207. The diobolares are well known.
587 Theopompus the Comic poet ap. Poll. IX. 59.
588 Sotion ap. Gell. I. 8. 8.
589 In Simon. pp. 147, 148.
390 Pseud-Eschin. Epist. 7.
165
paid by the month for each mina that was borrowed, or by
the part of the principal that was paid as interest either
annually, or for the whole time of the loan. According to
the first method of speaking, interest of ten per cent per
annum, is called at five oboli (πì névte ỏßoroïs), of twelve
per cent at a drachma (ì dgax), of sixteen per cent at
eight oboli (π' ỏxtw ỏßoλoïs), of eighteen per cent at nine
oboli (éπ' évvéa ¿ßoλoïs), and of 24 or 36 per cent at two or
three drachmas (ἐπὶ δυσὶ, τρισὶ δραχμαῖς): according to the
other method, the rates of the third, fifth, sixth, eighth,
and tenth parts of the principal, either annually or for any
specified term, are 33, 20, 163, 121, and ten per cent
(τόκοι ἐπίτριτοι, ἐπίπεμτοι, ἔφεκτοι, ἐπόγδοοι, ἐπιδέκατοι) 591.
Passages in the ancient writers leave no room for doubt
that the expressions above-cited have the sense assigned to
theaf; and in the first method of expression, the specified
number of oboli and drachmas, was the amount of interest
to be paid by the month, and in the other the portion of
the principal was interest to be paid either annually, or in
cases of bottomry for the time of the ship's passage spe-
cified in the agreement: some earlier writers however,
whom Salmasius has already refuted with too great minute-
ness, have maintained the absurd notion, that the tenth,
eighth, sixth, fifth, and third parts of the loan were interest
to be paid monthly, or in agreements of bottomry even
daily; nor can we feel otherwise than astonished to find Bar-
591 The words ixitgitos, iπITÉTagtos, &c. in the mathematical
and musical writings of the ancients, signify 14, 14, &c. as the
beginner may learn from my Memoir über die Bildung der
Weltseele im Timäos des Platon, Studien 1817. part I. p. 50. that
in the reckoning of interest they mean, &c. has been already
remarked by Salmasius de M. U. I. cf. Schneider ad Xenoph.
de Vectig. p. 183.
166
thélemy 592, in contradiction to Petit, considering sixteen per
cent as monthly interest. The main source of this error
lies in the supposition, that all interest was paid by the
month, which without doubt was frequently the case 593: but
not only is it impossible that in bonds of bottomry, the
interest could have been paid monthly, as the borrower
was neither able nor obliged to pay it until after his
return; but even in debts of mortgage, the annual pay-
ment of interest was not uncommon 594: nor if in ancient
Greece, at all times, and in all places, interest had been
paid by the month, would it follow from the names of the
interest of the third, fifth, sixth, and eighth parts, that
those portions of the principal were paid monthly, any
more than at present, when it is paid quarterly or half
yearly, it follows from the expression that a sum of money
is lent at five per cent, that five per cent is to be paid every
quarter or half year. We may also remark, omitting the
agreements of bottomry, which did not exactly run a year,
that the interest of the tenth part (τóxoi éπidéxaтo) is the
same as the interest of five oboli, of the eighth part (124
per cent) nearly the same as the interest of one drachma
(12 per cent), of the sixth part (163 per cent) nearly the
same as the rate at eight oboli (16 per cent), of the fifth part
(20 per cent) nearly the same as the rate at nine oboli
592 Anachars. tom. IV. p. 372.
593 Aristoph. Nub. init. and 751 sqq.
594 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1225. 15. Inscript. ap. Montfaucon
Diar. Ital. p. 412. Even when the rate of interest was fixed by
the month, it might be paid by the year, as is evident from the
above-quoted inscription. In the Orchomenian Inscription
(Rose p. 263.) the rate of interest is also fixed by the month, but
it did not necessarily follow that the money should therefore be
paid every month.
167
(18 per cent), and of the third part (334) as the rate of
three drachmas (36 per cent): but the examples which will
be presently quoted prove that they are not therefore to
be taken as identical; and each expression must be under-
stood precisely in its strict meaning as it stands, since the
lenders would never have made use of indefinite expres-
sions. It was not until the age of Justinian that the
Centesima, which is exactly equal to the interest at a
drachma, was identified with the interest of the eighth
part (τóxos éπóydoos) or 123 per cent, as Salmasius correctly
remarks; although he himself, in speaking of more ancient
times, does not always accurately distinguish between the
rates of interest which I have mentioned as only slightly
differing.
From the preceding investigation into the method of
expressing the rate of interest, it follows that in Greece
interest was not so low as in modern States, and at Rome
in the age of Cicero: the lowest rate at Athens appears.
to have been ten per cent, the highest thirty-six per cent;
the latter is not exceeded by any examples of interest
received upon bottomry, although these were in fact higher
than they appear, since the time of a ship's voyage for which
the money was generally lent, was shorter than a year. I can
find no authority for the statement of Casaubon 595, that
they sometimes obtained an interest of four drachmas a
month, although usurers took without reserve as much
as they could extort. Interest equal to half the principal
(μiódios tóxos), first occurs a considerable time after the
Christian era in a case of a loan of products of the soil to
be repaid in kind 596. The cause of the high rate of
595 Ad Theophrast. Char. 6.
596 Salmas. de M. U. VIII.
168
interest can only be that it was then more difficult than
now to procure a loan of money, or what is equivalent,
that there was a greater demand for money to be borrowed,
and a smaller quantity to be lent. But that in general, this
circumstance was not owing to the insufficient quantity of
money in circulation, appears to be evident from this, that
in the case of the metallic circulation being too contracted,
the demand for money would necessarily be diminished,
on account of the fall in the prices of other commodities,
and also from the fact, that landed estates bore a rent
equal to eight per cent of their value, and even more
than twelve per cent for the lease of the whole property 597;
so that the rate of interest does not appear to depend upon
the quantity of money in circulation, but to have a com-
mon origin with rent. The chief reasons therefore why
money was not willingly lent out at a low interest, appear
to be, that any person who wished to carry on business
with it himself, might obtain a high profit by employing it
in commerce or manufactures 598, in the same way that any
one who managed his own property himself, on account of the
smaller expence of slave-labour, would necessarily have made
a greater net profit than at the present time under a different
combination of circumstances. Add to this that credit
was at a low ebb, which was occasioned by the want of
moral principles, and the imperfection of the civil con-
stitutions and jurisdiction of the different States, and
especially by the difficulty of obtaining restitution for
injuries in a foreign country. Even the legislation of
Solon, by which the rights of individuals were more
accurately defined, struck at the root of the security of the
597 See below chap. 24.
598 See above chap. 9.
169
creditor, by taking away his right over the body of the
debtor; and it was shewn by the measure called the Seisach-
theia, how little respect the State had for the security of
property, whether by this ordinanve merely the value of
the currency was depreciated, or the rate of interest also was
diminished, or whether, in certain cases at least, a complete
annihilation of all claims of debt was effected by it 599;
nor was the severity of the laws upon debt sufficient to
produce any great security in the lending of money, as
the administration of them was entrusted to ill-regulated
courts of justice, and the fraudulent debtor had at his
command every species of subterfuge and dishonest con-
trivance against the creditor. The business of the bank-
ers 600 might lastly have contributed to raise the rate of
interest, as these usurers took money at a moderate
premium from persons who would not occupy themselves
with the management of their own property 601, in order
to lend it with profit to others, and thus to a certain de-
gree obtained possession of a monopoly. Trading with
borrowed money composed the chief part of the business
of the bankers 602, although they sometimes employed
capital of their own in that manner; the exchange of
money at an agio 603 was by no means their exclusive
employment. Although they were generally of a low
mg
599 See Plut. Solon. 14.
600 Concerning which see particularly Salmasius de Fenore
Trapezitico and de Usuris, and the acute Heraldus, Animadv. in
Salmas. Obs. II. 24, 25.
601 Thus e. g. Demosthenes' father kept a part of his capital in
the hands of bankers, Dem. in Aphob. I. p. 816.
602 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 948. sup.
603 Isocrat. Trapez. 21. Demosth. de fals. Leg. p. 376. 2. in
Polycl. p. 1216. 18. Poll. III. 84. VII. 170.
170
w
origin, freedmen, aliens, or persons who had been admitted
as citizens, they aimed less at connecting themselves with
good families, than at pecuniary gain 604; but they became
possessed of great credit, which existed among the prin-
cipal houses through the whole of Greece, and were thus
effectively supported in their business 605; they even
maintained such a reputation, that not only were they
considered as secure merely by virtue of their calling, but
such confidence was placed in them, that business was
transacted with them without witnesses 606, and as is now
done in courts of justice, money and contracts of debt were
deposited with them, and agreements were concluded or
cancelled in their presence 607. The importance of their
business is shewn by the great wealth of Pasion, whose
bank annually produced a net profit of a hundred minas 608;
there are however instances of their failing and losing
every thing 609. It is scarcely necessary to shew that
they took a high rate of interest; their loans on the de-
posit of goods are without other testimony sufficient to prove
it 610. The Athenian bankers obtained thirty-six per cent,
a rate which hardly occurs among honest people, except
in the case of bottomry. The common usurers (ToxoyλÚÇOI,
toculliones, pegodaveirai), who made a profit of the neces-
sities of the poor or the extravagance of the young, de-
manded, according to the faithful description of Theo-
604 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 953.
605 Cf. Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 958. sup. in Polycl. p. 1224. 3.
606 Isocrat. Trapezit. 2.
607 Demosth. in Callip. p. 1243. 8. in Dionysod. p. 1287. 20.
608 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 946. 25.
609 Dem. pro Phorm. p. 959. in Stephan. J. p. 1120. 20 sqq.
Ulpian ad Demosth. in Timocrat.
610 Demosth. in Nicostrat. p. 1249. 10.
171
phrastus 611, as much as an obolus and a half a day for
each drachma; and the practice which was prevalent in the
times of Plutarch, of immediately subtracting the interest
from the sum borrowed, and again lending it out upon
interest 612, had probably arisen in the flourishing times
of Athens. On account of this high rate of interest,
and the severity with which they enforced the payment of
it, frequently seizing the houses and property of their
debtors, and as lenity was foreign to their character or
indeed any other consideration but that of their own gain,
the bankers, and money-lenders, like the Jews in modern
times, drew upon themselves the merited hatred of all, as
being the most infamous of human beings 613.
Money was lent without interest from motives of friend-
ship or kindness, even without a written bond and any
security or pledge, either with or without witnesses
(χειρόδοτον, ἀσύγγραφον) 614; sometimes with an acknow-
ledgment (xegóvgapov), which was usually written upon
papyrus; or with a formal and solemn instrument (σvy-
ygaon), which was written by a third person in a diptychon
of waxen tablets, signed by witnesses, and given in charge
to a banker 615. The security was either made over to the
creditor or not; in the latter case it was security in a more
611 Char. 6. and there Casaubon; cf. Herald. Anim. in Salmas.
Obs. ad I. A. et R. II. 21.
612 Plutarch. de vitando ære alieno 4.
613 Demosth. in Stephan. I. p. 1122. extr. and p. 1123. sup.
in Pantæn. pp. 981, 982. Antiphanes the Comic poet in the
Mironovngos ap. Athen. VI. p. 226. E. cf. Herald. ut sup. II. 24.
1, 2.
614 Demosth. in Timoth. p. 1185. 12. Salmas. de M. U. X,
p. 381.
615 Salmas. ibid.
172
limited sense, in the former it was the pledge (véxugov) 616: the
security in the more confined signification was generally of
immoveable property, but sometimes of moveables, for in-
stance, slaves, and especially in cases of bottomry, the goods,
the ship, and the outstanding freightage-money; although
the pledges were generally of moveable property, we
sometimes find that immoveables, such as houses and lands,
were given in pledge, and indeed, on account of their safety,
were common for dowries and leases of orphans' property.
To lend upon a person's own body (davelleiv éπì cúμari) was
prohibited in Athens from the time of Solon 617, in imita-
tion, as Diodorus supposes, of the Egyptian law; in other
States this cruel and barbarous custom remained in force,
although it was not allowed to take even agricultural imple-
ments in pawn 618. Arms could neither be taken or given in
pawn at Athens 619. There were also public books of debts in
Greece, like the German registers of mortgages; but they
are not mentioned as having existed at Athens. On the
contrary, mortgaged lands were distinguished by stone
tablets or pillars, upon which the debt and the creditor's
name were inscribed (go) 620: a custom of extreme
616 Salmas. ut sup. XI.
617 Diog. Laërt. and Plutarch in the Life of Solon, also the
latter in his Essay de vitando ære alieno 4.
618 Salmas. ut sup. XVII. p. 749.
619 Petit Leg. Att. VIII. 1. 6.
</
620 Demosthenes in many passages, which have been collected
by Reiske in the Index p. 544. Poll. III. 85. IX. 9. Etymol, and
Harpocrat. in vv. ärTixtov and %gos, Hesych. in vv. ögos and wgioµévn,
Lex. Seg. p. 285. Photius in gos in several articles. Cf. Salmas.
ut sup. XV. They were orλa, stone tablets or pillars; the Ro-
mans (see Vales. upon Maussac's notes to Harpocration) likewise
used tabulæ of the same nature: at Athens however they appear
not to have been of wood, although the Etymologist and Lex.
173
:
I
antiquity, which existed before the time of Solon, and of
itself proves that by his constitution the stones which had
been before standing upon all estates were removed,
when he by some method or other released or relieved the
debtors.
If the principal together with the security was not
exposed to destruction, and the creditor according to his
contract liable to no loss, the interest at least was certain,
and was called land-interest or mortgage (róxos y or
ἔγγειοι)
yys) 621. Neither the interest of money lent upon mort-
gage, of which I shall next speak, nor upon bottomry, were
fixed by law; and even, if we suppose it to be true, as
was affirmed by Androtion, that Solon lowered the interest
of all debts which existed before his time, yet he permitted
every person afterwards to lend his money at whatever
rate he could obtain 622; and only in the single instance of
a man's separating from his lawful wife, and not returning
her dowry, the rate of nine oboli (18 per cent) was fixed by
law, probably because this was the ordinary rate at the
Seg. p. 192. 5. p. 285. 12. call them cavides according to a later
custom, perhaps from a misapprehension of a passage in the first
speech against Aristogeiton p. 791. 11. It should be observed,
however, that it was by no means necessary to set up these stones,
see Herald. Anim. in Salmas. Obser. ad I. A. and R. IV. 3. 8.
(See a paper by the Author on this subject reprinted in the Mu-
seum Criticum, No. VIII. p. 622 sq.)
621 See Salmas. ut sup. III. The manuscripts sometimes give
the former word, which Salmasius declares to be the correct
form, and sometimes the latter: both appear to have been in use,
but where either is more correctly used, is not easy to determine.
622 Τὸ ἀργύριον στάσιμον εἶναι ἐφ᾽ ὁπόσῳ ἂν βούληται ὁ δανείζων. Lex
ap. Lys. in Theomnest. p. 360. Erra then had the meaning of
daviîrai, from the money being weighed when it was lent; thence
also the word ὀβολοστάτης. Orus ap. Etymol. in v. ὀβελίσκος.
-
qu
174
time when this regulation was made 623. Even in the age
of Lysias and Isæus, this high interest was not usurious;
the latter orator 624 relates it as an ordinary occurrence,
that a person had lent forty minas at nine oboli, and had
received from them a return of 720 drachmas a year; and
Timarchus borrowed upon the very same terms 625.
The
interest of eight oboli (16 per cent) occurs in Demos-
thenes 626; the interest of a drachma (12 per cent), which
is at the present day the common rate in the Levant, was
frequent in the age of Demosthenes, but it was, as appears
from the orator's own words, considered low, although a
talent lent out at this rate would have produced an
annual return of 720 drachmas, upon which a small
family could live 627. The interest
The interest of five oboli, or
of the tenth part, was chiefly in use among friends 628,
and is opposed to the interest of the third part; in a
story related in Aristotle's Rhetoric of Morocles, who
lived in the age of Demosthenes, it is considered as
moderate 629. From 12 to 18 per cent, appear then to
623 Orat. in Neær. p. 1362. 9. Demosth. in Aphob. I.
27. Cf. Salmas. de M. U. IV. p.
159.
624 De Hagn. Hered. p. 293.
625 Æsch. in Timarch. p. 127.
626 In Nicostrat. p.`1250. 18.
p. 818.
627 Demosth. in Aphob. I. p. 816. 11. p. 820. 20. p. 824. 22.
II. p. 839. 24. Æschin. in Ctesiph. p. 497. Comp. Niebuhr Hist.
Rom. vol. II. p. 436. In an inscription in Muratori vol. II.
p. DLXXVIII. 1. inatoσtiałos tóxos is mentioned, evidently trans-
lated from usuræ centesimæ, and thus furnishes a means of de-
termining the age of the inscription.
628 Demosth. in Onetor. I. p. 866. 9.
629 Aristot. Rhet. III.
sius de M. U. II. p. 41.
stotle 2, 3. ed. Schneid.
10. with the slight alteration of Salma-
also in the spurious Economics of Ari-
dinatoi tóxoi occur on the occasion of
175
1
have been the commonest rates of interest at Athens; the
only manner in which I can explain why Salmasius 630
considered the interest of the sixth part, or 163 per cent, as
the most usual at Athens, is, that he confuses this rate of
interest with others of similar amount. Several examples of
higher rates of interest occur. Demus, the son of the
celebrated Pyrilampes, who had been sent as ambassador
to Persia, offered to pawn a golden cup to Aristophanes
for sixteen minas, which he had received from the king of
Persia, and to redeem it in a short time for twenty 631.
Eschines, the Socratic philosopher, wishing to set up a
manufactory of ointments, borrowed money of a banker at
three drachmas (36 per cent), whereby he lost, until he
procured the same sum from another person at nine
oboli 632. The rate of interest in other Grecian States was
regulated in a similar manner. The Clazomenians paid the
commanders of their mercenary troops four talents a
year, as the interest of a debt of twenty talents at the
rate of the fifth part (τóxos éπíжEμπтos) 633. The rate of
mortgage in the Bosporus was sometimes the sixth part
(Tóxos PEXTOS), at which Phormion, as mentioned in Demos-
thenes 634, pretended to have paid 560 drachmas for 120
a sequestration imposed by the Byzantines upon all vessels,
which however must be not considered as a common occurrence.
630 Ut sup. I. p. 10.
651 Lys. pro Aristoph. bonis p. 629 sqq.
632 Lys. Fragm. p. 4.
633 See the Economics attributed to Aristotle.
634 In Phorm. p. 914. 10. Concerning the Oxtos Toxos comp.
also Harpocration, Suidas, Photius, and Zonaras in v. Qezros
τόχος. The account given by Photius in v. ἐφεκτοὺς τόκους, and by
Lex. Seg. p. 257. is entirely devoid of sense, and is founded upon
a false derivation, and a false accentuation, viz. Qaxτós.
ย
་
176
Cyzicenic staters, each reckoned at 28 Attic drachmas, at
163 per cent. In Orchomenus in Boeotia, interest occurs
of several drachmas for a month; and in a Corcyræan
decree it is ordered that certain monies shall not be lent
out either at a higher or lower rate than at two drachmas
a month (24 per cent) 635, where bottomry cannot possibly
be meant. The Epobelia of Plato in his Treatise upon
Laws 636 (according to which the taking of usury was to
have been entirely forbidden in the second ideal State) is
not a rate of interest, as some have supposed, but a fine,
such as the Athenian epobelia, 'to be fixed like interest by
the month; that is to say, if a person neglected to pay the
wages of any servant for the space of a year, he was, as a
punishment for his dilatory conduct, to pay the epobelia,
or an obolus to every drachma, for each month of the time.
(23.) A still higher profit was obtained by capitalists,
allowance being made for accidents, by sea-security (Tóxos
vautixòs, exdoσis) 637 or bottomry, in which, according to the
ναυτικὸς, ἔκδοσις)
Grecian custom, the ship, the cargo, or the money received
for passengers and freightage, were answerable for the
principal. The loan appears to have been most frequently
made upon the goods (ἐπὶ τοῖς φορτίοις, ἐπὶ τοῖς χρήμασιν, ἐπὶ τῇ
ἐμπορίᾳ), more rarely upon the vessel (ἐπὶ τῇ νηὶ, ἐπὶ τῷ πλοίῳ),
and the money received for passengers and for freight-
age (iπì Tử vaúλw) 638; in a case mentioned by Demo-
1
635 See the inscriptions quoted in note 594.
636 XI.
p. 921. C. cf. V. p. 742. C. Salmas. de M. U. I. p. 12.
Schneider ad Xenoph. de Vectig. p. 182.
637 See Salmas. V. p. 19. Schneider ut sup. p. 181.
638 Concerning the expressions in use see Schneider ut sup.
p. 180. An instance of money being borrowed upon the freight-
age and the vessel occurs in Demosth. in Lacrit: p. 933. 22.
and upon the freightage, as it appears, Diphilus in the passage
177
sthenes 639, in which a trierarch borrowed money upon a ship
that belonged to the State, and to the command of which he
expected a successor, it is probable that the only secu-
rity given was the ship's furniture, which was the private
property of the trierarch. This species of interest, which
was so odious at Rome, does not appear to have given
offence in Greece, and at Athens in particular as being a
commercial town; it was however exposed to much risk,
as the loss of the security also brought with it the loss of
both principal and interest: agreements of bottomry, in
which the creditor did not undergo the risk, were pro-
hibited by the laws of Rhodes, that is, nobody could take
such high interest as was customary in bottomry, without
exposing himself to the danger of the loss: but since by
the Athenian law, every person could take as high interest
as he could obtain, this restriction was not met with at
Athens; and such contracts as the Rhodian law pro-
hibited, have no connexion with agreements of bottomry,
as there would in those cases be either no security on one
which was not at sea 640. Agreements of bottomry were
rendered binding by means of an instrument styled a
quoted below; and of money lent upon the vessel, Demosth. ibid.
and in Dionysod. p. 1283. 18. comp. the argument p. 1282. 4.
What proofs Hudtwalcker (von den Diäteten p. 140.) can bring
in favour of his assertion, that at Athens, in cases of Fenus
nauticum, the ship was always pledged, I am unable to guess.
The contrary is indeed evident from the passages quoted by
Schneider and myself.
639 In Polycl. p. 1212 sup.
640 Concerning the meaning of the Rhodian law, which Sal-
masius had not perceived, see Hudtwalcker de Fenore Nautico
Romano p. 7.
VOL. I.
N
!
178
nautical contract (vauTix σuyygaon) 641, which was de-
(ναυτικὴ συγγραφὴ)
posited in the hands of a banker 642. A document of this
kind is preserved entire in the speech of Demosthenes
against the Paragraphe of Lacritus, and part of another
in the speech against Dionysodorus. The money was
lent for a fixed time and for the voyage to a particular
place or country, and the debtor was bound to go to the
place pointed out in the agreement, subject to a heavy
punishment for the violation 643. If it was only lent for
the voyage outwards (éregóπλous), the principal and interest
were to be paid at the place of destination, either
to the creditor himself if he went the voyage, or to some
other person commissioned to receive it; of this latter
description was the Cermacoluthus, who was frequently
sent with the ship 644; if the contract was for the voyage
both inwards and outwards (aμpoτegóπλous), the payment
was made after the return. In these agreements there
was generally a double security, the debtor being bound
in goods to twice the amount of the loan, without being
able to raise other money upon them 645; and in agree-
ments for voyages both inwards and outwards, if the goods
given in security were sold, fresh commodities of equal
value were to be reladen 646. The severity of the laws
against those who withdrew the security from a creditor,
has been already remarked; but it was usual for a fine to
:
641 Demosth. in Lacrit. p. 932. 3. cf. Lex. Seg. p. 283. and
others.
642 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 908. 20.
643 Demosth. in Dionysod. p. 1286 sup.
644 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 909. 24. p. 914. 28.
645 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 908 sqq. in Lacrit. pp. 925–928.
646 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 909. 26.
179
be also fixed in the agreements, if the debtor should not
surrender the whole security, or act otherwise contrary to
the conditions; for example, of twice the amount of the
principal, or of 5000 drachmas in a loan of 2000 647.
Until the time of repayment the creditor was bound to
leave the security untouched, if it was saved: and some-
times for greater security, even the whole property of the
debtor was made answerable by a particular stipulation 648.
The money of orphans could not according to law be
vested in bottomry, although this regulation was often
violated 649. As the hazard varied materially according to
the length of the time, the distance of the voyage, the
danger to which the vessels was exposed from storms, rocks,
hostile fleets, pirates, or licensed privateers, it is less easy
to conceive that there should have been an usual rate of
interest in Greece for bottomry, than for the mortgage of
land; and the assertion of Salmasius 650, that the rate of
interest of the fifth part (20 per cent) was the most com-
mon at Athens, is entirely devoid of foundation. The
interest upon money lent only for the voyage outwards,
must moreover have been less than that for the two voyages
inwards and outwards, particularly since passengers who
accompanied the master of a vessel, carrying at the same
time sums of money with them, would naturally be the
more ready to lend it to the captain, as they must have
647 Demosth. in Dionysod. p. 1294. 12. in Phorm. p. 915. 1.
p. 916. 27.
648 Deed in the Oration against Lacritus.
649 Lys. Fragm. p. 37. Also the case in Lys. in Diogit.
p. 908.
650 De M. U. I. p. 10. V. p. 209. where his reference to
Xenophon proves nothing.
E
180
still incurred nearly the same risk that arose from bottomry,
if they took it with them without interest. The 10 or 12 per
cent interest upon money lent in bottomry mentioned by Di-
philus 651 must undoubtedly be understood only of the pas-
sage outwards; as also the interest of the 8th part (12% per
cent) in Demosthenes 652, which the trierarch Apollodorus
65 In the passage which Salmasius quotes p. 35.
εἰς δέκ᾽ ἐπὶ τῇ μνᾷ γενονέναι καὶ δώδεκα,
λαβὼν τὰ ναῦλα καὶ δάνει᾽ ἐφυγγάνων.
654 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1211. extr. Εἰσαγγελθέντων δὲ ὅτι
Βυζάντιοι . . . ἀναγκάζουσι τὸν σῖτον ἐξαιρεῖσθαι, δανεισάμενος ἐγὼ ἀργύριον
παρὰ Χαιρεδήμου μὲν τοῦ ᾿Αναφλυστίου πεντεκαίδεκα μνᾶς ἐπὶ τόκον,
ἑπτακοσίας δὲ δραχμὰς παρὰ Νικίππου τοῦ ναυκλήρου ναυτικὸν ἀνειλόμην,
ὃς ἔτυχεν ὢν ἐν Σηστῷ, ἐπόγδοον, καὶ πέμψας Εὐκτήμονα . . . ἐκέλευσά
μοι αὐτὸν ναύτας μισθώσασθαι . . . This is the old reading, except
that I have restored uras for deaxuas from the manuscripts with
Salmasius de M. U. V. p. 2]9. and Reiske; whether ᾿Αρχεδήμου,
the reading of some manuscripts, and ὀκτακοσίας, which is ap-
proved of by Salmasius, should also be replaced, I leave unde-
cided. ᾿Ανειλόμην is put by Anacoluthon for ἀνελόμενος, which is
seldom used with μ and de: an instance however occurs in
Herod. VI. 13. ορέοντες ἅμα μὲν ἐοῦσαν ἀταξίην πολλὴν ἐκ τῶν Ιώνων
ἐδέχοντο τοὺς λόγους, ἅμα δὲ κατεφαίνετό σφι εἶναι ἀδύνατα τὰ
βασιλέος πρήγματα ὑπερβαλέσθαι, εὖ τε ἐπιστάμεναι . . . which is pre-
cisely similar to the passage of Demosthenes; and as κατεφαίνετο
might have been omitted in the former, so might aveλóun in the
latter sentence. VI. 19. ἐχρήσθη ἐπίκοινον χρηστήριον, τὸ μὲν ἐς αὐτοὺς
τοὺς ᾿Αργείους φέρον, τὴν δὲ παρενθήκην ἔχρησε ἐς Μιλησίους. Also VI.
25. ad fin. Similarly also in Herod. VIII. 69. πρὸς μὲν Εὐβοίῃ
σφέας ἐθελοκακέειν, ὡς οὐ παρεόντος αὐτοῦ, τότε δὲ αὐτὸς παρεσκεύαστο
θεήσασθαι ναυμαχέοντας, the transition from the indirect infinitive to
the indicative. There are also other difficulties in this passage,
which Salmasius and Reiske have been quite unable to clear up.
The notes of the latter commentator are mere trifling, as he had
throughout no distinct notion of the Greek system of interest.
5
$
181
lent to the ship-captain Nicippus, for the passage from Sestos
to Athens, but upon the condition that the trireme should
first go to Hierum to convoy vessels laden with corn, and
that the principal and interest should be paid at Athens,
รา
'ETi Toxo, for which Hier. Wolf wishes to substitute the more
convenient expression of xì roxo, was thought too indefinite.
Salmasius corrects ἐγγύῳ, and Reiske ἐγγείου τόμου, οι ἐγγείων
roxav; if however these words refer at all to the rate of interest,
one should rather expect some particular percentage than the
generic term. Ὃς ἔτυχεν ὢν ἐν Σηστῷ cannot be referred to ναυτικὸν,
the latter word being in the neuter gender, as in the parallel
passage of Xenophon quoted below, Demosth. in Aphob. I.
p. 816. 26. vautixà ¿ßdoµńxovta µvãs, and elsewhere. But Salma-
sius' improbable conjectures, and , are the less admissible,
because it cannot be supposed that there was some one rate of
interest in general use at Sestos, without any distinction of the
risk. Reiske, without the slightest authority, has placed the
words ὃς ἔτυχεν ὢν ἐν Σηστῷ ἐπόγδοον after ἐπὶ τόκον: but the safest
way is to suppose that iziydoor means the interest of money lent
out in bottomry, as it is explained in Lex. Seg. p. 252. referring
however falsely to a pledge of goods: for it may be seen, by
comparing Harpocration in v. óydoov, that the gloss refers to
this passage. My opinion is shortly this: izì réxov is added in
order to remove any doubt that Chæredemus did not lend the
money to Apollodorus, as being his friend and countryman, with-
out interest, but, as is stated, iπì tóxov, for interest. The amount
of this it was not necessary to state, and it was perhaps omitted
as it would not have been pleasant to Chæredemus to have it
mentioned. The words ὃς ἔτυχεν ὢν ἐν Σηστῷ can only be referred
to Nicippus by a very forced construction. Most probably they
belong to Χαιρεδήμου μὲν τοῦ ᾿Αναφλυστίου ; for since it might appear
strange that the Anaphlystian should be mentioned as being at
Sestos, it was natural to add that he had been there acci-
dentally.
182
in case that the ship returned safely to port. The amount
of this interest of the eighth part, Harpocration correctly
estimates at three oboli to the tetradrachm. Higher interest
in loans upon bottomry frequently occurs; Xenophon in his
Treatise upon the Revenues 653 proposes to erect public
buildings for the convenience of merchants, as a means
of procuring a profitable return to the citizens, and he
supposes that the necessary sum could be collected by
contributions of different magnitude, but that each sub-
scriber would obtain an equal return of three oboli daily :
he then proceeds to remark, that those who put in ten
minas, would receive nearly the interest of the fifth part,
the rate which was commonly given in bottomry (vautixòv
oxedòv étíteµπtov), and those who put in five minas, more
than the interest of the third part; that the greater
number, who subscribed a less sum, would obtain an
annual income of more than the capital which they con-
tributed, for example, for one mina nearly two. The in-
terest of the fifth and third parts are evidently here con-
sidered as common in cases of bottomry; the danger con-
nected with this method of investing money, is alluded to
by Xenophon, when he states it as an advantage to be
expected from his proposals, that "the profits would arise
in the State itself, which appears to be the most secure
and lasting source of revenue." It is also manifest that the
interest of the fifth part is here precisely 20 per cent,
and of the third part 33 per cent, which latter Harpocra-
653 3.7-14. The whole of this short sketch of Xenophon's,
and of the errors committed in the explanation of it, is illus-
trated in book IV. 21. here I only remark, that Salmasius de
M. U. I. himself considers in p. 192. the false emendation pro-
posed in p. 25. as superfluous.
183
tion 654 correctly fixes at eight oboli for the tetradrachm,
and that the former ought not to be confounded with the
interest of nine oboli, nor the latter with that at three
drachmas (18 and 36 per cent). For the year being
reckoned with Xenophon at 360 days, three oboli a day
give an annual income of 180 drachmas, which for ten
minas are 18, and for five minas 36 per cent: the former
the author calls nearly the interest of the fifth part, the
latter more than that of the third part. Other statements
of the rate of interest likewise occur in Demosthenes.
Phormion had lent twenty minas for a voyage inwards and
outwards to the Pontus, at an interest of six minas, that is
at 30 per cent 655. In the carelessly written instrument
in the speech against Lacritus, 3000 drachmas are lent
upon Mendæan wine, for a voyage from Athens to Mende
or Scione, and from thence to the Bosporus, the borrower
being at liberty, if he prefers it, to sail on to the left along
the coast of the Black Sea as far as the Borysthenes, at the
rate of 225 for 1000 drachmas for the whole time of
absence. In this however it is supposed that the bor-
rowers, Phaselitans by birth, are to commence their voyage
back from the Pontus before the early rising of Arcturus,
in the month Boëdromion, about the twentieth of Sep-
tember, as the autumn (pivóπwgov) and with it the dangers
of navigation then commenced: instead of the interest of
-
654 In v. šmirgitas, referring to a passage in Isæus against
Calliphon, where without doubt the orator was speaking of an
agreement of bottomry. Proceeding upon the example given by
Harpocration of the method of reckoning, viz. oboli for the tetra-
drachm, the ignorant compiler of the Lexicon Seguer. p. 253.
confounds the interest of the third part with the rate of eight
oboli.
655 Demosth. in Phorm. p. 914. 6.
184
22 per cent, the higher rate of 30 per cent or 300 for
a thousand was however to be paid, if the voyage back
from the Pontus to Hierum upon the mouth of the Bos-
porus should be undertaken, as it sometimes was, after the
rising of Arcturus 656. Since the agreement extends to
different places, and liberty is allowed to the borrower to
sail into the Pontus or not as he prefers, there is at the
end a farther limitation added, in the event of the vessel not
running into the Pontus. For in that case, in order to
avoid the tempests of the dog-days, the vessel was to remain
in the Hellespont, at the end of July, ten days from the early
rising of the dog-star (êπì xuvì), with which the latter part
of the summer (orúga) begins, for the purpose of unlading
their cargo in a secure place, and then to return to Athens;
where they have to pay the interest fixed in the preceding
year. The addition of the words " in the preceding year” is
superfluous, but correct: the instrument was signed early
656 See Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1212. 14-24. The situation
of Hierum is in Bithynia, close to the Thracian Bosporus; see
Harpocration and Suidas in v. ¿Q''Iɛgòv, and passages referred to
by Wolf ad Leptin. p. 259. It was an emporium, where the
masters of vessels returning from the Pontus put in. The
observations of Petit upon this agreement are beneath all cri-
ticism. Salmasius de M. U. V. p. 209 sqq. explains it at full
length, but he has entirely lost sight of truth in the interpreta-
tion of the third clause, and by this means vitiates his whole
account. Heraldus Anim. in Salmas. Obs. ad I. A. et R. II.
20. takes up some of these errors, adding at the same time some
of his own. The words ἐὰν δὲ μὴ εἰσβάλωσι, after which a comma
should be placed, cannot, as Salmasius imagines, be referred to
the passage out of the Hellespont into the Ægæan sea, but only,
as is evident from the whole agreement, to the voyage into the
Pontus.
185
in the year, at the time when navigation commenced; now
the year ended and began about the middle of summer,
about the time of the summer solstice, and consequently the
early rising of the dog-star fell in the following year. In
this last-mentioned stipulation, the lower rate of interest is
meant; for the higher rate was only to be paid if the
return from the Pontus took place after the rising of Arc-
turus, and thus if the ship did not run into the Pontus,
it did not apply at all. On the other hand a new risk
might in this case arise, which would not exist if the vessel
entered the Pontus; the borrowers might return from the
Hellespont during the storms of the dog-days, which in
case of a voyage in the Pontus could not have taken place
on account of the greater distance; it is therefore fixed,
that in the former case, the vessel should remain in the
Hellespont. With regard to the security of the place where
the goods were to be disembarked, it is stipulated that no
part of the cargo should be discharged at any port where
the Athenians had the right of reprisal (ὅπου ἂν μὴ σῦλαι
wow 'Anvalois): one should rather have expected this con-
dition to have been made with respect to places where this
right had been granted against Athenians (xar'’Alnvaíwv):
for the creditors, of whom one is an Athenian, could not
be afraid of the Athenians; neither could the borrowers,
since they traded at Athens, have had any thing to appre-
hend from the Athenians. This difficulty however is easily
removed: for (not to mention that the trierarchs at this
precise period made reprisals upon the property of persons
whom the State had given them no authority to plunder,
and consequently, that both Athenian and Phaselitan
property might easily have been captured by them), it is
evident that the moment any property passed either from
or to any place, against which the Athenians had given
186
permission to make reprisals, it became necessary to pro-
hibit by a clause in the agreement, the unlading of the
goods at any such place, as Athenian property, and conse-
quently the security on which the money was lent, would
there be seized as an act of retaliation, by those whom
the Athenians had plundered. It is to be remarked
that these commercial agreements were in general made
only for the time of a ship's voyage from the spring, till
late in the year, and sometimes for a still shorter time,
in the case of a voyage which might be soon ended:
a term was commonly appointed for payment after the
return of the vessel, as for example, in the agreement
in the speech against Lacritus, the principal and in-
terest were to be paid within twenty days after the vessel
returned to Athens, with the exception of what might be
thrown overboard by the common consent of all in the
ship, or be taken away by the enemy. But the interest in
bottomry was often for a longer period. Thus, according
to the statement of Demosthenes, an individual borrowed
a sum of money in the month Metageitnion, in the middle
of summer, and was only bound to repay it in the same
year, that is before the beginning of the next summer 657.
In this case a proportionally higher rate of interest
was doubtless given: as it was higher on account of the
greater length of the voyage 658. In most cases however,
the creditor withdrew his capital in the winter for his
own use.
(24.) Upon the rate of interest the amount of rent and
leases, especially of houses and of other kinds of landed
property, and in short of every species of property, neces-
657 Demosth. in Dionysod. p. 1283. 19. p. 1284. 10.
658 Ibid. p. 1286. extr.
187
sarily depended.
All the foreigners and resident aliens,
(the latter of whom were estimated with their families at
45,000 persons), together with a small proportion of slaves,
lived at Athens in hired lodgings. For it is evident that
foreigners were not entitled to the possession of houses:
if then they were at Athens for the sake of trade, or for the
purpose of conducting their law-suits, which often detained
them for a whole year 659, they dwelled in hired lodgings,
excepting those individuals who were entertained as guests
by their friends. But the resident aliens lived almost with-
out exception in the city or in the sea-port towns, as they
composed the larger portion of the industrious classes; that
they could not possess any houses is in part evident
from the statement of Xenophon 660, and partly from the
fact that no resident alien could safely lend out money
upon houses or other landed property, a privilege which
was confined to the citizens 661. Since then the resident
alien had not the right of possessing land, landed property
was not a valid security for him, as he could never come
into possession of it. Thus at Byzantium the resident
aliens could not obtain the landed estates which were
mortgaged to them, because they had not the right of
possessing landed property, until the State gave them
permission to hold their mortgaged lands, though not with-
out their consenting to make a considerable deduction from
the principal 662. The same practice prevailed in all Grecian
States; if then a foreigner was created either a citizen or
Proxenus, the right of possessing landed property was
659 Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 1. cf. 3. init.
660 De Vectig. 2. 6.
661 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 946.
662 See Pseud-Aristot. Econ. II. 2. 3.
على
188
expressly granted in the instrument 663; the Isoteles how-
ever were entitled to the possession of houses, which we learn
from the fact that Lysias and Polemarchus had three
houses in Athens 664; with which their right of working
mines coincides. The letting of houses at Athens was
therefore an important branch of business; some built
lodging-houses (συνοικίαι), and speculators (ναύκληροι, σταθ-
μoũxo) rented whole houses in order to let them again to
under-tenants 665. House-rent, like interest, was paid or
calculated by the month, and the payment was generally
claimed by means of a slave 666. The assertion of the
grammarians 667 that it was paid by Prytaneias, is in this
general sense absurd, though if only understood of the
houses which belonged to the State, is unquestionably
correct. Xenophon remarks that house-building, if under-
taken prudently, was profitable, and might enrich the
speculator 668; but the amount of house-rent in proportion
to the cost of building and to the value of the house must
have been very different according to the situation, and
663 See the Arcadico-Cretan Decree in Chishull's Ant. Asiat.
p. 119. the Byzantine Decree in Demosthenes de Corona, and
the examples there quoted by Taylor, and the Decree of the
Chaleians in Boeotia in Chandler's Marm. Oxon. II. XXIX. 1.
also another Byzantine Decree in Gruter p. CCCCXIX. 2, and
the Decree of the Thebans, Pococke p. 50. Rose p. 310.
664
Lys. in Eratosth. p. 395. Comp. also the passage in
Plato, although it is not quite decisive, de Rep. I. p. 328. B.
665 Ammonius, Harpocration, Photius, and Hesychius in v.
vauxλngos, together with the Commentators, also Kühn ad Poll.
I. 74.
666 Casaub. ad Theophrast. Char. 10.
667 Ammonius and Thomas M. in v. πgutavetov.
668 Econ. 3. 1.
189
have varied with the increase or diminution in the popula-
tion; after the Anarchy, the disturbances which then took
place having much diminished the numbers of the people,
many houses produced no rent 669. The only exact state-
ment which we possess on the subject of house-rent, occurs
in Isæus 670; according to whom a house at Melite worth
thirty minas, and another at Eleusis worth five minas,
together produced three minas a year, that is 8 per cent;
which is low as compared with the rate of interest, and per-
haps ought not to be taken as the general average, as
Salmasius supposed 671. The rent of land must be less
than the interest of the capital vested in it, if this were
lent out; it is also expressly remarked, that in the good
old times lands were let to the poor at a moderate rent672 :
according to Isæus 673, an estate in Thria, worth 150
minas, was let for twelve minas, i. e. at only eight per cent.
Of the letting of slaves, especially together with the
mines, I have treated above; the exact percentage cannot
however be determined; for although in the speech of
Demosthenes against Pantænetus 674, a mine purchased for
sixty minas with thirty slaves, reckoned at 105 minas, was
let for 105 drachmas a month, yet nothing can be con-
cluded from this fact, as the agreement of rent was only a
form, and in reality the tenant was the proprietor, and the
rent twelve per cent interest for money lent upon the mine
and slaves. The account that Phormion paid 160 minas
669 Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. II. 7. 2.
670 De Hagn. Hered. p. 293.
671 De M. U. XIX. p. 848.
672 Isocrat. Areopag. 12.
673 Ibid.
674 P. 967.
190
a year for the rent of Pasion's banking-shop, besides the
tenant having to maintain two children of the proprietor's
who were left behind, is most unintelligible 675; who, says
Apollodorus, would give so much for the wooden furniture,
the space, and the books? Pasion himself only made a hun-
dred minas a year by his banking-shop. This assertion in-
deed occurs in the lease 676, although this document is not
sufficiently authenticated: if the rent was so considerable,
we must suppose with Apollodorus, that Pasion at the same
time transferred to Phormion some money, which was vested
in the concern. Afterwards the banking-shop without the
money employed in it was let for a talent 677, in which
case the tenant must have still obtained a high profit by
trading with borrowed money, which was lent to Pasion's
house on account of the credit which it possessed. A con-
siderable profit was obtained by the proprietor, if we may
credit Demosthenes, by the lease of the house (μlotwors
oixov), that is, of the whole property 678, which produced
much more than twelve per cent, and by which families
worth two or three talents often doubled or trebled their
means. Thus for example, the property of Antidorus, which
had been let to one Theogenes, rose in six years from
three and a half to six talents 679. In this manner the
Archon Eponymus, in conjunction with the guardians,
was bound to let the property of orphans, or a Phasis
་
675 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 956. 6. p. 960. 10.
676 Demosth. in Steph. I. p. 1111. and concerning the suspi-
ciousness of the document p. 1110. 18.
677 Demosth. pro Phorm. p. 956. 10. p. 948. 15.
678 Concerning the meaning of the word oixos see Xenoph. c.
I. 4. 5.
679 Demosth. in Aphob. I. 831. 26 sqq. p. 833. 22 sqq. in
Aphob. Yevdouagr. p. 862. 21.
191
could be instituted against him; and for the sake of
security, the tenant was obliged to give a pledge
(ἀποτίμημα) 680.
680 Lys. in Diogit. p. 906. extr. Isæus de Philoctem. Hered.
p. 141. Demosth. in Aphob. in the above-quoted passages, Har-
pocration in v. άontal, and his Commentators; Hesychius in
V. άπoriμńμata, Poll. VIII. 142. and 89. with the Commentators.
Cf. Herald. Animad. in Salmas. Obs. ad I. A. et R. III. 6.
5 sqq. Concerning the Phasis see Poll. VIII. 47. the Epitome
of Harpocration, Etymol. Phot. Suid. and Lex. Seg. pp. 313,
315.
Note [A], pp. 26, 31.
In the 50th and 66th notes to the first book, the Author
refers to his Commentary on an inscription published in the
Appendix to the original edition, and since repeated in his
Collection of Inscriptions (I. p. 164.); where he has added
only a short abstract of his former explanation, and there-
fore it appeared desirable to give in this place a translation
of the passage referred to.
The following extract from the inscription is all that is
required.
e
᾿Αγέτω δὲ καὶ ἡ μνᾶ ἡ ἐ[μ]πορ[κ]ή Στε[φανηφόρου δραχ]μὰς ἑκατὸν
τριάκοντα κ[αὶ] ὀκτὼ πρὸ[ς] τὰ στάθμια τὰ [ἐ]ν τῷ ἀργυροκοπ[είῳ,
α]αὶ [ἐχέτω ῥοπὴ]ν [Στε]φανηφόρου δραχμὰς δέκα δύο, καὶ πωλε[ίτζωσαν
πάντες τἄλλα [π]άντα ταύ[τῃ] τῇ μνᾷ, [πλὴν] ὅσα πρὸς ἀργύριον διαρ-
ρήδην εἴρηται π[ω]λεῖν, ἱστάντες τὸν πῆγεν τοῦ ζυγ[οῦ ἰσός]ςοπον, ἄγοντα
τὰς ἑκατὸν πεντήκοντα δ[ς]αχ[μὰ]ς τοῦ Σ[τεφανηφ]όρου. τὸ δὲ πεντάμνουν
{τὸ ἐμπ]ορικὸν ἐχέτ[ω ῥοπ]ὴν ἐμπορικὴν μνᾶ[ν], ὅ[π]ως ἰσορρόπου τοῦ
πήχεως γινομένου ἄχῃ ἐμπορ[ικὰς μ]νᾶς ἕξ. τὸ δὲ τάλαντον τὸ ἐ[μ]πορικὸν
[ἐχέτ]ω ῥοπ[ὴν μ]ν[ᾶς] ἐμπ[ο]ρικὰς πέντε, ὅπως καὶ τοῦ[το ἰσ]οςρέπου
τοῦ π[ήχ]εως γινομένου ἄγῃ ἐ[μ]πο[ςιε]ὸν τά[λαντον καὶ μ]νᾶς ἐμπορικὰς
πέντε.
"In this clause it is ordered that the commercial weight
should be greater than the common weight; and that the com-
mercial mina should in the first place be equal to one hundred
and thirty-eight drachmas τοῦ στεφανηφόρου, according to the
weights in the silver mint (ἀργυροκοπεῖον, Pollux VII. 103.
Harpocration, Suidas, and other grammarians), and secondly,
that it should contain twelve additional drachmas τοῦ στεφαν-
ηφόρου, so that the whole would amount to one hundred and
fifty drachmas. Here we are met with questions which do
VOL. I.
0
U
194
not admit of an easy solution. In the first place, what is
Στεφανηφόρος? Στεφανηφόρος was a hero at Athens, and had a
neov, but the grammarians have not themselves any accurate
knowledge concerning him. See Harpocration, Photius, and
Suidas in EreQavnpógos, Lex. Seg. p. 301. Meurs. Lect. Att.
IV. 10. Compare Sturz Fragment. Hellan. p. 59. The gov
was doubtless the same as the house which was called
Στεφανηφόρου (not Στεφανηφόρος), although the gloss of Hesy-
chius is rather obscure: Στέφανον φορέοντα· ἀπ᾿ οἴκου τινὸς καλου-
μένου στεφανηφόρου. The contrary opinion of Meursius on this
point must be attributed to mere inadvertency. This gov
was mentioned by Antiphon against Nicocles quoted in Har-
pocration, Photius, and Suidas: Στεφανηφόρος ᾿Αντιφῶν ἐν τῷ
πρὸς Νικοκλέα· Στεφανηφόρου ἡρῷον, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἦν ἐν ταῖς ᾿Αθήναις.
Now in the same speech the silver-mint was mentioned, ac-
cording to Harpocration: ᾿Αργυροκοπεῖον· ᾿Αντιφῶν ἐν τῷ πρὸς
Nixoxλix, &c. Can it be doubted that in Antiphon, as well as
in the present inscription, Stephanephorus occurred in con-
nection with the silver-mint? I conjecture therefore that at
Athens the mint was combined with a chapel of this hero, as
in Rome with the temple of Juno Moneta; that the standard
weights for coin were kept in this sanctuary, which belonged
to the chief mint, as at Rome they were preserved in the
temple of Juno Moneta; and that from this circumstance the
drachmas of the weight used for silver were called drachmas
τοῦ Στεφανηφόρου.
073
As however it is fixed that the commercial mina should
contain one hundred and thirty-eight drachmas τοῦ Στεφανηφόρου,
to which were to be farther added twelve drachmas of the
same weight, it is at once evident, from the adoption of so
irregular a number as one hundred and thirty-eight, that this
could not have been a new or arbitrary arrangement, but that
it must have proceeded upon some ancient regulations with
regard to the common and the mint weights. Our object is
now to ascertain in what this dissimilarity consisted. It is
195
well known that Solon wished to diminish the weight of the
coin; his intention being to favour the debtors, by enabling
them to repay their debts in a debased currency. The mina,
as well before as after the time of Solon, manifestly contained
one hundred drachmas: but one hundred drachmas, before
Solon interfered with the currency, were heavier than after.
Plutarch affirms that Solon increased the measures at the
same time that he diminished the weight of the coin: this
however is absurd; for by this means the proprietors of mort-
gaged land would have received no possible benefit; they
would rather have experienced a loss, if they exchanged a
larger measure of products of the soil against a smaller weight
of coin; nor can Solon be well supposed to have had any
other motive than this in increasing the measures.
If there
is any meaning in Plutarch's statement, he can only wish to
express a proportional increase in the weights, i. e. that while
the weight for money was reduced, the weights for commodities
remained the same. This view of the subject is peculiarly
fitted to explain the present inscription. The weight uni-
versally used in Athens before the time of Solon, as well
for silver as for other commodities, was such, that 138
of the new drachmas were equal to a mina. Solon al-
lowed this weight to remain for all uses of trade, but made
the coin so much lighter, that the mina of silver was to the
commercial mina as 100 to 138. It is now easy to perceive
why recent writers, being deceived by this ratio, supposed
the weight to have been increased; for after this change
the commercial mina weighed 138 drachmas, having before
only weighed 100: but it was only in comparison with silver,
and not absolutely, that it had sustained an increase. Upon
this supposition the new silver mina of Solon was equal to
7233 ancient drachmas; for 100 : 138 :: 728: 100. It is
not however possible that Solon could have purposely intro-
duced such a proportion; probably he had intended to dimi-
nish the weight of the coin by a fourth part, so that 75 old
196
ང
drachmas were to be coined into 100 new: the money how-
ever (for at that time coined money was doubtless in use)
proved in fact to be not sufficiently heavy; and it was
observed that 100 of the new drachmas were only equal to
72% of the old; or, what is the same thing, 100 of the old to
138 of the new; accordingly the ratio between the commercial
mina and the new silver mina was fixed at 138 to 100, not,
as it would have been according to the ratio originally in-
tended, at 133 to 100.
W
ade
Thus far every thing appears to be a mere assumption,
made for the purpose of explaining the mode of fixing the
commercial mina made use of in the present decree; but the
following testimony gives it the authority of an historical
fact. Plutarch (Solon. 15.) informs us that Solon made the
mina of 100 drachmas, whereas it had previously contained
73, by which change the value of money was diminished;
ἑκατὸν γὰρ ἐποίησε δραχμῶν τὴν μνᾶν, πρότερον ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ τριῶν
οὖσαν, ὥστ᾽ ἀριθμῷ μὲν ἴσον, δυνάμει δ᾽ ἔλαττον ἀποδιδόντων ὠφελεῖσθαι
μὲν τοὺς ἐκτίνοντας μεγάλα, μηδὲν δὲ βλάπτεσθαι τοὺς κομιζομένους. It
may be at the same time remarked, that Plutarch here ex-
presses himself ambiguously. What relief could it have
been to debtors who owed several minas, that the division of
the mina was altered, and the drachma diminished, while the
mina itself remained the same? And again, can it be believed
that the mina contained 73 drachmas, a prime number, not
divisible without a remainder? Plutarch follows Androtion,
who had doubtless stated that a weight of silver, which before
Solon had only been equal to 73 drachmas, Solon had made
into a mina, or 100 drachmas. This statement so nearly
agrees with the view before taken, that the coincidence
cannot be the result of chance. Both statements differ only
by the fraction of a drachma; the number obtained from the
decree is however doubtless the more correct, and the other
is only an approximation. The following circumstance should
also be observed. The Euboic talent was to the Attic talent
197
of Soíon as 72 to 70, which is the same as 75 to 72. If we
assume that this ratio is not strictly accurate, but that the
correct one is 75 to 7233, or, what is the same, 72% to 70,
the ancient Attic talent, before the change of Solon, was to
the Euboic as 100 to 75, and Solon, in his diminution of the
weight for silver, intended to introduce the Euboic standard,
without however entirely accomplishing his object."
THE
PUBLIC ECONOMY
OF
ATHENS.
BOOK II.
(1.) HAVING by the preceding enquiries cleared the way
for the pursuance of the main subject of this work, the
Public Economy of Athens, the first question which arrests
our attention is, whether in ancient times the operation of
the financial system was of the same general and pre-
dominant importance, and exercised that influence upon
the welfare and decline of nations, which it is found to
possess in modern days. Hegewisch¹ first expressed his
astonishment that in the states of antiquity, revolutions
had been so seldom caused by taxation and financial regu-
lations; which have been the chief sources of disturbance
among modern nations. A later writer has accounted for
this difference by stating that in ancient times the civil
and judicial constitution was the principal cause of revolu-
tions, whereas in modern times these have resulted chiefly
from the system of finance 2. It cannot indeed be denied
1 Historische Versuch über die Römischen Finanzen p. 44
sqq.
2 Wagemann de quibusdam causis, ex quibus .tum in vete-
ribus tum in recentiorum civitatibus turbæ ortæ sunt, aut status
200
that in the democracies of antiquity a revolution could not
well have arisen from a refusal to pay taxes; and in the
States of Greece, at its most flourishing period, democracy
was the prevailing form of government. In this form of
polity, the imposers and payers of taxes are in fact the
same persons; whence then was there a possibility of
dissension between the two classes? Besides, in a demo-
cracy the people never apply the public money to objects
which are opposed either to their real or apparent in-
terests, which is not unlikely to happen under an aristo-
cratic or despotic form of government. If then discontent
was at any time excited amongst particular individuals
by the financial measures of the State, the majority of
the citizens concurred in and supported them, they them-
selves having been the very persons with whom they ori-
ginated. That an insurrection should arise from this
cause was consequently as improbable as that popular
commotions should be caused at Athens by a summons
to war. The chief sources of disturbance must have
been created by encroachments upon the rights of the
citizens, especially with respect to their share in the
governing power; whereas in the monarchies of modern
times, the people being for the most part indifferent as to
who fills the office of king, only feel themselves oppressed
by those who obstruct them in the enjoyment of their
property, and diminish their means of subsistence by the
imposition of taxes and by other compulsory measures;
excepting that at particular periods, when the sense of the
nation has been more generally excited, the people have
reipublicæ immutatus est, Heidelberg. 1810. 4to. [Aristotle
however (Pol. II. 4.) says distinctly, doxe Ti Tò mεgi Tàs ovcías
εἶναι μέγιστον τετάχθαι καλῶς· περὶ γὰρ τούτων ποιεῖσθαί φασι τὰς στάσεις
πάντας.]
201
pressed for an ampler recognition of their rights. In those
ancient states which were not democracies, the govern-
ment, especially that of tyrants, was indeed generally
odious from the burthens with which it oppressed the
people, but still more so on account of the loss of freedom.
These two causes together produced numberless revolu-
tions. It should also be borne in mind, that in the re-
publican States, the attention paid to the public finances
was by no means so inconsiderable as some writers have
imagined: wealth was not less an object of desire at that
than at the present time; the exigencies of the State
were not fewer than in modern Europe, and least of all as
far as Athens is concerned; although the objects to which
the expenditure was directed, and the means of extricating
the State from an unforeseen pressure, differed in many
points with the difference in the political circumstances,
from the corresponding practices in modern days. The
ancients, for reasons which we shall afterwards explain,
had no artificial public system of finance; but the exi-
gencies of the State were not on that account less pressing
upon individuals. If at the present day any additional
taxes were required for the purpose of paying off the
national debt, the payers of taxes would not be called
upon at a period of urgent necessity; and the sum, which
at the precise moment of need could only be raised in
full to the great inconvenience of the taxed, would with
moderate interest be paid off in a series of years. Whereas
according to the usual practice in ancient times, the ex-
pences of the commonwealth were immediately defrayed by
the payers of taxes, and a part of their capital was sacri-
ficed, which might have been turned with, profit to fresh
production. So that the want of a public system of
finance was rather injurious than otherwise to the citizens
j
202
of the ancient States, and the administration of finance
more oppressive. Nor can it be inferred that this branch
of the administration was held in low esteem, from the
circumstance that no Archon was placed at the head of it;
for the influence of the Archons even in early times had
become very inconsiderable. But in every nation the
finances were in the hands of the sovereign power; and at
Athens the legislation on financial matters belonged to the
people, the administration of them to the supreme council.
Then, as well as now, the administration of the finances was
considered one of the most important branches of public
affairs; and the statesman, who like Aristides and Lycur-
gus, succeeded in placing them in a flourishing condition,
gained the goodwill of the people and the admiration of
posterity. Some statesmen in the ancient days of Greece
even occupied themselves exclusively with this branch of
the administration³; and all the great demagogues endea-
voured to obtain over it either a direct or an indirect
influence, since the management of the public money
afforded both the most effectual means of advancing them-
selves into favour with the people and of maintaining that
position. Thus Eubulus of Anaphlystus*, who applied
himself in particular to financial affairs, obtained a lasting
popularity, although it was chiefly acquired by flattering
the avarice of an indolent people, through the distribution
and lavish expenditure of the public money. In Athens,
the ministers of finance would have been held in as high
esteem as in modern States, if all measures of general
policy had not been deliberated on and decided by the
3 Aristot. Polit. 1. 7. (11.)
4 Plutarch. Præc. Reip. Ger. 15. Cf. Æschin. in Ctesiph.
p. 417.
203
mass of the people; notwithstanding which the chief
manager of the public revenue was always looked up to as
one of the most important officers of State. In the pro-
gress of time the faulty management of the finances of
Athens essentially contributed to the destruction of the
State, more especially from the period when she was forced
to defend herself from foreign attack. If the powers of
the government are misdirected, the moral condition of
a State cannot alone preserve it. Immoderate exertions
and excesses equally render a State and an individual
incapable of performing their proper functions. Now
Athens overstrained both her mental and physical powers
(of which the power arising from wealth is not the least),
partly in great and noble exertions, partly in vain and
profligate waste; after which she naturally fell into such a
state of weakness and inactivity, as to be unable to resist
the first violent pressure to which she might be exposed.
Can it then be maintained, that financial regulations were
of less importance in ancient than in modern times, or that
they had less influence upon the public welfare? Un-
questionably not; provided that the comparison is correctly
instituted, and that the distinction is kept in view which
is caused by the wide dissimilarity between the size of the
most remarkable and important States of antiquity, and
those of modern Europe.
J. J. Rousseau 5 maintains, that a government becomes
more dependent on its finance in proportion as the other
energies of the people decline, and that a State may be
considered as having arrived at the last stage of corruption,
when it has no other power than that which is derived
5 Discours sur l'origine et les fondemens de l'inégalité parmi
les hommes, p. 314. Geneva 1782, vol. I. of his works.
204
from its wealth. In this manner, he thinks, all govern-
ments tend incessantly to decay, and consequently that no
State can endure, if its revenues are not perpetually in-
creasing. Although these remarks may not be wholly
correct in the extended sense in which he applies them,
they are still supported by a large majority of facts; and
it is certain that as long as the early vigour of the human
mind is still unimpaired, the State is far less in need of
those artificial arrangements which are necessary for the
levying of money from the people. For as soon as the
pressure of any immediate and urgent necessity excites the
citizens, they spare no sacrifice nor exertion to satisfy the
exigency. This was the case with respect to Athens
before the administration of Pericles, and particularly
before the Peloponnesian war, at which time the change in
the Athenian character took place. Their oppression of
the allies and of the mercenaries connected with them,
taught the Athenians to place greater reliance upon the
assistance of foreigners, than upon their own exertions;
the poison however operated slowly, because the feelings
of honour with which the overthrow of the barbarians and
the liberation of their common country had inspired them,
were not as yet obliterated; while ambition still in some
degree supplied the place of purer motives, and the fear of
a momentary sacrifice was overcome by the hope of the
rich compensation which would probably follow in the
train of victory. It is certain however that after the age
of Pericles, the administration of the finances became of
greater importance, and that the expences of the State
increased, as public principle declined: Athens however
by the augmentation of the tribute received from her
allies, as well as by the imposition of customs and other
duties, found the means of increasing her revenues. By
205
these means she succeeded in maintaining herself, notwith-
standing her many reverses and defeats, until not only her
moral strength had almost expired, but her revenues also
had greatly diminished. Thus it was that she became
powerless and lost her independence. Rousseau infers
from the principles above laid down, that the first maxim
of financial administration is to restrain as much as possible
the tendency to expence, and to exert the utmost vigilance
in order to anticipate the appearance of any want.
In
spite of every care, he thinks, the remedy will always be
too late for the disease, and the State will thus be left in a
suffering condition; that at the moment when one expence
is about to be retrenched, another arises; that additional
resources are themselves productive of new difficulties, the
people become oppressed, the government loses all its
strength, and, notwithstanding its great expenditure, is
able to effect little. Rousseau is of opinion that by these
principles we may account for the almost miraculous
phenomenon of the ancient governments having been
enabled to effect more with their frugality than modern
States can perform with all their riches. I quote this
remark with a view to caution the reader against applying
it to Athens, where after the time of Pericles expence was
heaped upon expence, the administration of finance became
continually of more importance, and the difficulty continually
greater. It also throws a strong light upon the different
public salaries at Athens, although these resulted in part
from other circumstances, such as the poverty of the
citizens, and the pretensions which the State would not
consent to abandon, though unable to satisfy them from
its own resources. This increase in the expences of the
community far above the measure of its strength, rendered
206
an attention to the affairs of finance more necessary to the
Athenians than to any other Grecian State.
(2.) To obtain a knowledge of the financial system of
Athens in its whole extent, we must consider how it was
administered, what were the exigencies of the State, and
what revenues there were to meet them, and whether the
latter were in general sufficient, or whether at times they
produced a surplus, and what extraordinary resources were
available on the appearance of difficulties. We here limit
ourselves to the economy of the State alone, excluding
subordinate companies and corporations; although, as
Athens was both a city and a State, many things must be
included in the public finances, which in larger nations
would only belong to corporate bodies; and again, many
parts of the finances of subordinate communities were so
intimately connected with the State, that on that account
they ought not to be passed over. The expences of the
temples and sacred corporations were partly defrayed from
revenues of their own, which were independent of the
State, and thus far they will not be treated of in this
book; but in so far as the State advanced contributions, or
availed itself of the sacred revenues and treasures in pecu-
niary difficulties, upon the condition of restoring them,
the finances of the State and of the sacred institutions
are linked together, and the latter therefore deserve at
least an occasional consideration.
(3.) The legislative authority in matters of finance as in
all other things belonged to the People, as being supreme
ruler and sovereign (xúgios). All the regular expences and
revenues were determined by the laws which it enacted,
" Cf. e. g. Thucyd. II. 13. VI. 8.
207
and every extraordinary measure received its authority by
a decree of the people. But the administration was en-
trusted to the Senate of 500, as the agents of the com-
munity, who were responsible to the people: this council
prepared questions in debate for the popular assembly, and
had the different branches of the public economy under
its superintendence. That the power of the senate with
reference to matters of finance was as extensive as here
represented, is evident from the following examples. Ac-
cording to Xenophon's Treatise upon the Athenian Repub-
lic 7, the Senate was occupied with providing money, with
receiving the tribute, and with the management of naval
affairs and of the temples. The letting of the duties was
under its superintendence. Those who had received sacred
or public monies from the State were bound to pay them
to the senate, or it enforced the payment of them accord-
ing to the laws relating to the farming of duties: it had
therefore the right of sending the farmers or their se-
curities to prison in case of non-payment. The Apodectæ
delivered to this assembly an account of the monies re-
ceived and still remaining due; in the presence of this
council the treasurers of the goddess transferred and ac-
cepted the treasures, and received the fines. The senate
arranged also the application of the public money even in
trifling matters, such for example as the salary of the poets :
the superintendence of the cavalry maintained by the
State, and the examination of the infirm (adúvaтo) sup-
ported at the public cost, are particularly mentioned
among its duties: the public debts were also paid under
73. 2. Cf. Petit. Leg. Att. II. 1. 1.
s Demosth. in Timocr. p. 730.
9 See the Oath in Petit III. 12. 2. cf. 10.
208
its direction 10. From this enumeration we are justified in
inferring that all questions of finance were confided to its
supreme direction. In early times it is possible that the
Areopagus, which was of so great importance before its
power was diminished by Ephialtes, also exercised some
authority in affairs of finance. For in the Persian war
this tribunal once directed that every person bearing arms
or serving in the fleet should receive eight drachmas from
the Areopagites 11 (although it has been said that the
Athenians had no public money at that time), whence it
might be concluded, that the authority of this supreme
office of government extended to financial matters.
The boards and officers subordinate to the senate, by
whom the machinery of finance was worked, may be
classed under three heads: in the first place, those who
made the arrangements and preparations necessary for the
collection of the revenue, or collected it themselves; se-
condly, the treasurers of the offices into which the revenues
were paid, in which they were kept, and where they were
again disbursed; and thirdly, those whose duty it was to
discharge the accounts. Concerning the first division it will
be unnecessary to say much, as in treating of the revenue
the method of its collection must be in part considered.
All regular duties were let to farmers (Teλ@vα¡); for these
imposts therefore no particular places of payment were
necessary, except for receiving the money from the farmers;
an office was however probably required to arrange the
10 Inscript. 76. I. p. 116. ed. Boeckh. The senate also is
mentioned in connection with the sacred money in another in-
scription (n. 80. p. 119. ibid.), but in what particular relation is
not stated.
11 Plutarch. Themist. 10. from Aristotle.
209
letting, or as the ancients term it the sale of the duties.
Now every thing that the State sold or let out to farm,
taxes, lands, mines, confiscated property (including the
property of public debtors after the expiration of their
last term), the persons of resident aliens who had not paid
their protection-money, and foreigners who had been guilty
of illegally assuming the rights of citizenship or of the
offence of Apostasion; all these duties were left to the care
of the ten Poletæ, a board (agx), to which each tribe
contributed one member; and which met at a place called
Poleterion 12. Among them was a Prytaneus, who presided;
for the sale of the duties, they were allowed the assistance
of the directors of the Theoricon 13; but they managed
every thing in the name and under the authority of the
senate alone, for which reason in the sale of the 50th and
of the tax upon prostitutes we read of the co-operation of
the Senate 14. The property of the temples was however
let by the directors of sacred possessions, as may be inferred
from the Sandwich inscription, in which the Amphictyons
of Delos render an account of the leases; the property of
the tribes and boroughs was let by themselves through
their own agent or manager, to whom the payments were
also made 15. Another class of the public revenues con-
12 Aristot. de Rep. Athen. ap. Harpocr. in v. wλntal, Suidas
in vv. πωληταὶ and πωλητής, Phot. in v. πωληταὶ (twice), Hesych.
and Lex. Seg. p. 291. Pollux VIII. 99. Harpocr. in v. proixion,
μετοίκιον,
Demosth. in Aristogit. I. p. 787. Cf. Petit. II. 5. 2. The ex-
planation in Lex. Seg. p. 192. 21. is incorrect.
13 Poll. VIII. 99.
14 See Book III. 4. and 7.
15 See Inscript. 158. p. 252. n. 103. p. 144. n. 104. p. 142.
Boeckh. book III. 2. Demosth. in Eubulid. p. 1318. 18.
VOL. I.
P
210
sisted of the justice-fees and fines; these were paid in by the
presidents of the court of justice which had decided the
cause, when the part that accrued to the State was trans-
ferred to the officers named Exactors (gáxтoges), and the
portion which was allotted to any god was placed in the
hands of the treasurers of the proper temple; who either
received the money or annulled the verdict 16. Certain fines
were registered by the king-Archon 17, doubtless in his
capacity of head of the court of justice. When the pay-
ment had been made, the names were erased by the officers
whose duty it was to exact the money, for example the
Practores, together with the senate 18. The tributes of the
allies were probably paid without the immediate interference
of the Athenian State; yet in this case also it was some-
times necessary to appoint certain temporary authorities,
such as the officers who fixed the sum to be paid by the
subject State (πygapɛîs)19, and others who collected the
tribute, if it had fallen into arrear (exλoyɛïç); the latter
however were chosen from among the rich, nor can their's
be considered as a permanent situation more than the
former, as they are only mentioned in a fragment of
Lysias væg To σrgariátov p. 323, 324. Demosth. in
Macart. p. 1074 sqq. Andoc. de Myst. p. 36. Eschin. in Timarch.
p. 62, 63. Orat. in Theocrin. p. 1327. 29. p. 1336. 26. Demosth.
in Aristog. I. p. 778. 18. [The authors of the Attische Process
p. 32. observe, that "this last assertion must be limited to the fines
summarily imposed by the magistrates (ßohai); for that no
public officer had power either to mitigate or remit a penalty
decreed by a court of justice."]
17 Andoc. de Myst. p. 37.
18 Andoc. ut sup. p. 38.
19 See note 23.
16
211
Antiphon concerning the tribute of the Samothracians 20,
As the Spartans had their Harmosts, so had the Athenians
officers named Episcopi (ἐπίσκοποι, φύλακες) as inspectors in
the tributary States; Antiphon had mentioned them in his
oration concerning the tribute of the Lindians 21, but we
are not informed whether they were in any way concerned
with the collection of the tributes. Each tribe was bound
to take care that the regular public services (Tougyías)
were correctly performed by the citizens: which inspection
therefore fell within the department of the head managers of
the tribes (Tipsλntai tãv quλãv), to whom this duty, as well as
that of administering the funds of the tribes, is attributed
by ancient writers 22. The superintendence and allotment
of the trierarchy was divided between certain authorities,
who will be pointed out in a subsequent part of this work,
and the chief managers of the companies appointed for its
direction, who in ancient times were doubtless the Nau-
crari, and subsequently the managers of the Symmoriæ
(ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν συμμοριῶν). For the extraordinary property
tax (sio poga), certain persons were nominated in order to
determine the amount of the contributions, who, as well as
the officers who fixed the rate of the tributes of the allies,
were called ἐπιγραφεῖς οι διαγραφεῖς, and were probably ten
in number; these officers also prosecuted those who were in
arrear 23. Besides these authorities the directors of the
20 In Harpocr. and Suidas. Whether these are the same as
the exλoys appointed by lot like the Practores, who are men-
tioned in Lex. Seg. p. 190. 26. or different officers are meant, is
not certain: probably the passage in this Lexicon refers to all
ἐκλογεῖς.
ἐπίσκοποι.
21 Cf. Schol. Arist. Av. 1023. Harpocr. in v. ixirxoTTOI,
22 See Sigon. de Rep. Athen. IV. 2.
Harpocrat. in vv. ἐπιγραφεῖς, διάγραμμα, Suidas in different
212
Symmoriæ, from the time that this establishment was
connected with the property taxes, must have had the
chief management of the distribution. Certain persons
were also employed as collectors 24. Lastly, the Demarchs
must have been highly serviceable in all affairs connected
with these taxes, as, before the institution of their office, were
the Naucrari, since they were able to afford the best inform-
ation concerning the property of the inhabitants 25. We
are indeed told that the Demarchs collected public money
from the citizens 26, which can only mean that they enforced
the claims which a borough in its corporate capacity had
upon its members or upon a tenant renting some of its
property: it may however be safely allowed that they
were employed for various debts and dues claimed by the
State 27. The senate and the people on particular occa-
sions appointed certain persons for the collection of the
outstanding property-taxes, a duty for which Androtion
and nine others were once selected 28. In like manner the
Syndics (σúvdixo), who were introduced after the dominion
of the thirty tyrants, were authorities nominated for the
moment, being revenue law-officers of the State, who de-
cided upon confiscated property29; the σuλλoyɛïs, who made
places, in vv. ἐπιγραφεῖς, διαγραφεῖς, διάγραμμα, and ἐπιγνώμονες,
Etymol. in vv. zygapes and imiyvμoves. Lex. Seg. p. 254. Poll.
VIII. 103. Isocr. Trapez. 21. Cf. Sigon. R. A. IV. 3.
24 Suid. in v. ixλoys. These are the officers which are alluded
to in Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1209. 9.
25 Cf. Poll. VIII. 108.
26 Demosth. in Eubul. ut sup. Concerning the Naucrari in
this point of view, see book III. 2.
27 An example, although not satisfactory, may be seen in In-
script. 80. 1. p. 119. ed. Boeckh.
28 Demosth. in Androt.
29 Sigon. R. A. IV. 4. Petit. III. 2. 31. where Wesseling
213
a list of the property of the Oligarchs previously to its con-
fiscation 30; the ττaì, a revenue-board which was at times
suppressed, whose duty it was to ascertain who were indebted
to the public, particularly with regard to fraud and con-
cealment 31. The same name however was applied also to
persons who were entrusted by the State on certain occa-
sions with the discovery of other offences 32. These and the
Practores are reckoned by Pollux 33 among the inferior
officers (úπngetαí); but it is more probable that this was an
office of government, (agx) which citizens of high rank
were not ashamed to accept.
(4.) All the revenues under the care of the preparatory
quotes from Valesius upon Harpocration, in v. ruvdixo, the de-
cisive passages of Lysias (pro Mantith. p. 574. gì dnu. àdix.
p. 597. in Poliuch. p. 613. pro Aristoph. bonis p. 635.). Photius
also has transcribed the article of Harpocration in v. ruvdixo.
σύνδικοι.
Cf. Herald. Animadv. in Salmas. Observ. III. 10. 13.
30 Vid. ad Inscript. 157. p. 250.
31 Sigon. R. A. IV. 3. Hudtwalcker von den Diäteten p. 58.
and also Demosth. in Timocrat. p. 696. 9. Lex. Seg. p. 261.
Both the latter passages are given by Sluiter Lect. Andocid.
p. 55. Cf. Phot. in v. Carrús. At Pellene they were called
άorgo; the word parrйges occurred in Hyperides. See Harpocr.
Lex. Seg. p. 279. Suid. Phot. in vv. parruges and párrugs. Ac-
cording to the Lex. Seg. and Photius in the first article, it was
their duty to search for confiscated property, and they were
therefore nearly allied to the ovaλoys. I should observe that
Hudtwalcker (p. 32.) is in my opinion incorrect in only consider-
ing the Zetetæ as an office of government (gxǹ) in the same
manner that this title is conferred upon judges, heralds, and
clerks; but I must defer to another place the explanation of the
word ex, and its opposite vangeria, as employed in the political
language of Athens.
32 Andoc. de Myst. p. 7, 18, 20, 32.
33 VIII, 114, 115.
214
officers were necessarily delivered up to others, who either
distributed them for the public service or kept them for
security. Aristotle 34, in speaking of the officers of govern-
ment, mentions those to whom the public revenues are paid,
as well as others who collect and distribute them to sepa-
rate branches of the administration: these are called, he
adds, Apodectæ and Treasurers. At Athens there were ten
Apodectæ, after the number of the tribes, who were chosen
by lot; these were introduced by Cleisthenes in the place
of the ancient Colacreta. They kept the lists of all
persons who were indebted to the State, received the
money which was paid in, made an entry of it, and marked
the outstanding sums, erased the names of the debtors
from the list in the senate-house in presence of the senate,
and returned this register into the archives; and lastly,
they together with the senate distributed the money that
had been paid in, that is to say, they assigned it to the
separate offices. Their duties were accurately described
by Aristotle in his Constitution of Athens. They also
had power to decide causes connected with the subjects
under their management 35, a privilege which was allowed to
nearly all public officers at Athens. As far as can be
ascertained from the accounts which are still extant, they
received in the presence of the senate all the monies which
belonged to the State; but the revenues of the temples
34 Polit. VI. 8.
35 Pollux VIII. 97. Harpocr. in v. ¿æodexta from Aristotle
and Androtion, Suid. Etym. Hesych. Lex. Seg. p. 198. and
Zonaras in v. άodexтal. I may mention here, once for all, that
I shall not always quote the latter grammarian, as for the most
he only copied other authorities. The Apodectæ also occur in
Demosth. in Timocrat. p. 750. 24. as persons who were present
at the paying in of money.
215
and of the small corporations were independent of them:
nor had they any funds of their own, but only distributed
to the different offices the money that was paid in. If
their duties should appear confined, it will not seem sur-
prising that the receival of the tributes of the allies is
expressly ascribed to them by Pollux, notwithstanding the
Hellenotamiæ appear to have been appointed for that
purpose: for although the latter, before the funds of
Delos were transferred to Athens and united with the
Athenian treasury, had the entire levying and management
of the tributes, it was possible for the tributes to have
been afterwards received by the Apodectæ in the senate,
and have been then paid into the office of the Hellenotamiæ
to defray the expences which were assigned to their funds.
After the abolition of the Hellenotamiæ the Apodectæ
were the only officers who could have received the tributes.
The treasurers 36 of the tribes and boroughs also received
and administered the money belonging to these corpora-
tions; and in the same manner the revenues which periodi-
cally accrued to the sacred corporations, were paid to their
own treasurers independently of the Apodectæ.
(5.) For every temple of any importance had a treasure
which was composed of offerings, and the surplus of the
amount of the sacred property, together with other receipts
which belonged to the particular deity; and these treasures
were under the management of the treasurers of the sacred
monies (ταμίαι τῶν ἱερῶν χρημάτων)57. The sacred treasure
of the greatest magnitude at Athens was that of Minerva
36 Concerning these officers see Chandler Inscript. II. 109.
where the Tauías of a borough, and another Inscription (p. 104.
n. 142. ed. Boeckh.) where the rauías of a tribe occurs.
37 Aristot. Polit. VI. 8.
216
upon the Acropolis; to which (not to mention in this
place the public monies which were deposited there), besides
the large amount of sacred offerings and rents, many fines
without any deduction, and of others a percentage equal
to the tenth part were assigned, as well as the tithe of all
prizes taken in war, together with that of confiscated pro-
perty 39. Many articles of great value were preserved in
the neighbouring temples, but the chief treasure was de-
posited in the Opisthodomus of the Parthenon 40, ever after
the building of that temple. These treasures of the
temple of Minerva were under the care of the treasurers
of Minerva or of the Goddess, who were also called trea-
surers of the sacred property of Minerva or of the Goddess
(ταμίαι τῆς θεοῦ οι τῶν τῆς θεοῦ, ταμίαι τῶν ἱερῶν χρημάτων τῆς
᾿Αθηναίας, ταμίαι τῶν ἱερῶν χρημάτων τῆς θεοῦ). The most
ancient mention of them, which is in Herodotus ¹¹, refers to
the time of the battle of Salamis; in later times they
frequently occur as the treasurers of the monies and pro-
perty of Minerva exclusively, as well before the Anarchy
in inscriptions of about the 92d Olympiad 12, as subse-
quently to it in a law preserved in Demosthenes, which
was doubtless passed in earlier times 13; in an inscription
of Olymp. 98. 4., and in a passage of Æschines referring to
Olymp. 104. 4. 44. In like manner each temple had its
41
42
38 See book III. 12.
i
39 Whereas the other gods only received a fiftieth of certain
commodities. Concerning these tithes see book III. 6, 12, 14.
40 See book III. 20,
41 VIII. 51. ταμίας τοῦ ἱεροῦ.
42 The superscription of the Choiseul marble (n. 147.). Of the
same date are Inscript. 139 and 141. ed. Boeckh.
43
Ap. Demosth. in Macart. p. 1075. 2.
14 Inscript. 151. and Æschin. in Timarch. p. 127.
217
own treasurers, who together with the chief managers
(TIσTaTaÌ) and sacrificers (iegoTool), administered the money
which belonged to it 45. But about the 90th Olympiad these
treasurers of the different temples, with the exception of the
treasurers of Minerva, were united into one board under the
name of the treasurers of the gods (Taµíaι Tüv lewv), the nomi-
nation of whom took place upon the same principles as that
of the treasurers of Minerva, and they are said to have
also kept their treasures upon the Acropolis (v tóλei), and
even in the Opisthodomus 16, so that from this time all the
sacred money was preserved in the Acropolis. Whenever
therefore after this period the treasurers of the sacred
money in the Acropolis are mentioned, as for example
in Andocides 47, it cannot be determined without a farther
specification which of these two offices is meant. As
moreover according to their original institution, the
treasurers of the goddess and the treasurers of the gods
were entirely different authorities, so they afterwards
remained separate: a fact which the mention in Demos-
thenes of the treasurers of the goddess as an independent
office, and their opposition to the treasurers of the gods,
distinctly prove 48. However they once occur unequivo-
45 Inscript. 76. §. 7.
46 Inscript. 76. §. 6.
47 De Myst. p. 65. where the word govßánλovro does not suit
the office of treasurer, the candidates for which were not pro-
posed, but is inaccurately put in conjunction with it. So that
the passage must be understood as if it stood in this manner :
εἴων με λαχεῖν ταμίαν.
·
48 In Timocrat. p. 743. 1. οἱ ταμίαι, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ ὁ Ὀπισθόδομος ἐνέ-
πρήσθη, καὶ οἱ τῶν τῆς θεοῦ, καὶ οἱ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν. The words of
the decree in Andoc. de Myst. p. 36. Tous Tauías rus bεoũ xai Târ
άλλwy bãy are an inaccurate combination of two different offices.
218
cally united as one office, viz. in Olymp. 95.3. 49 in which
instance the treasurers of the goddess and of the other
gods (ταμίαι τῶν ἱερῶν χρημάτων τῆς ᾿Αθηνᾶς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων
Osv) were altogether only ten, instead of which the trea-
surers of Minerva alone were originally ten, and conse-
quently the treasurers of the other gods created after their
example were the same in number. In their collective.
capacity they transferred the treasures of Minerva as well
as of other gods, for example, of Jupiter Polieus, and of
Diana of Brauron. This union was not however of long
duration; there can be no doubt that about the 98th
Olympiad the treasurers of the goddess again existed
independently, and were ten in number 50. At that time
therefore the treasurers of the gods must have been again
separate from them. Concerning the treasurers of the
goddess, Harpocration and Pollux furnish us with more
exact accounts derived from Aristotle 51. Of these officers
then we learn that there were ten chosen by lot from
among the Pentacosiomedimni; after this class was abo-
lished, a fixed valuation was probably established for
them in some other manner 52. They received and trans-
ferred the treasures, monies, and valuables, particularly
the statue of Minerva, the statues of Victory, and
all the other decorations, in the presence of the se-
nate 53; like the Apodectæ, they received for the pur-
49 See Inscript. 150. ed. Boeckh.
50 As is proved by Inscript. 151. (Superscription), where the
vacant space requires this number of names.
51 Harpocr. in v. raula, Photius, Suidas, Philemon Lex.
Technol. (edited by Burney), and Lex. Seg. p. 306. Poll. VIII. 97.
52 See book IV. 5.
33 Upon this subject compare Inscript. 76. §. 7. in reference to
the treasurers of the gods.
219
pose of custody the fines which accrued to the goddess;
and they had, as is proved from Demosthenes, the power
of cancelling a judicial sentence relating to them. Under
their superintendence was placed all the precious furniture
of the temple of Minerva upon the Acropolis, including,
as we learn from the oration of Demosthenes against
Timocrates54, the trophies of the State (rà agiσTeïα Tys
Tóλews), Xerxes' silver-footed stool, the golden sabre of
Mardonius, and an immense collection of valuable articles
in the Parthenon and its interior cell, the catalogues of
which are still extant in several inscriptions. The office
was annual; at the expiration of each year the predecessors
transferred to their successors all that had been originally
delivered to them, and whatever had accrued since their
instalment in the office; the duties of the treasurers of the
other gods were similar, as their office was arranged on the
very same principles as the former. Now every thing that
has been hitherto mentioned as being under the care of
the two boards of treasurers was sacred property (isgá).
But to whom belonged the superintendence of the money
preserved in the treasury upon the Acropolis, which was not
considered as sacred property (őσ xguara)? According
to a very probable account given in Suidas 55, the public
monies were kept by treasurers chosen by lot, who had the
care of the statue of Minerva, alluding manifestly to the
treasurers of the goddess. For all money which was brought
into the treasury by means of a decree of the people
(whither it was transmitted by the Apodecta), was looked
upon as dedicated to Minerva 56, although it could not have
54 P. 741. Cf. Sigon. R. A. IV. 3.
55 In v. raplar in the first article.
56 According to Inscript. 76. §. 2. Tedn T 'Aonvala To
τρισχίλια τάλαντα ἀνενήνεγκται ἐς πόλιν, ἃ ἐψήφιστο.
220
¿
been considered as her immediate property; and it was
consequently placed under the care of the treasurers of the
goddess; the latter repaid it upon the authority of a
decree of the people; thus, according to the Choiseul
inscription, considerable sums were paid by them to the
Hellenotamiæ and others, partly out of the treasures of
Minerva Polias and of the goddess of Victory, and partly
from the public treasure. The treasurers of the goddess
were therefore not merely treasurers of a temple in the
more limited sense, but guardians also of the public trea-
sure, and in this respect their's was no unimportant office :
occasionally also they are called treasurers (Taμíai) 57.
Thus Androtion is called treasurer without any farther
addition 58, although he could have held no other office
than that of treasurer of the goddess, for he had under his
care the golden crowns, sacred offerings and ornaments for
processions belonging to Minerva in particular, and other
things preserved in the temple of that goddess, which he
obtained permission from the people to recast and alter.
The idea that Androtion must have been elected by the
Cheirotonia of the people, as would be inferred from the
account of Petit 59, is only founded upon a mistake of
Ulpian, which ought not to mislead any reader. It is
scarcely necessary to remark, that the treasurers were bound
to leave the money unemployed, and that it was a dishonest
gain if they lent it out for their own profit; a fraud which,
according to Ulpian upon the oration against Timocrates,
was once actually committed 60.
57 Cf. Harpocr. Suid. &c.
58 Demosth. in Androt. p. 615. 17.
59 Leg. Att. III. 2. 33.
60 From this Demosthenes Tigi ragaπgroßeias p. 435. 8. must
probably be explained.
221
•
(6.) Wholly different from these offices was the Trea-
surer or Manager of the Public Revenue (raµías or ÉπI-
μελητὴς τῆς κοινῆς προσόδου), the most important of all offices
of finance, which was filled not by lot but by the Cheiro-
tonia of the people. Aristides held this situation, to which
he was elected by Cheirotonia 61; Lysias is expressly called
in the decree, by which honours were conferred upon him
after his death 62, treasurer of the public revenue (rauías
TÕ≤ xovñs πgoσódov), and immediately afterwards it is ob-
served that he was chosen by the people. Also in the
Lives of the Ten Orators 63 a law is mentioned, in which
this treasurer is said to have been elected by Cheirotonia
for the charge of the public money (ὁ χειροτονηθεὶς ἐπὶ τὰ
δημόσια χρήματα); and the remark made by Ulpian that
it was necessary that the treasurer should be elected
by Cheirotonia, is only true of this officer. This office
moreover was not annual, like those of the treasurers
upon the Acropolis, but was held for four years, that
is to say, for a Penteteris: it is expressly related of Ly-
curgus, that he filled that office for three Penteterids 64;
and Diodorus says, that he administered the public
revenues for twelve years 65. In early times, the same
individual could be re-elected more than once, as the ex-
ample of Aristides proves; but after the first Penteteris
of Lycurgus, the jealousy of the citizens was sufficiently
61 Plutarch. Aristid. 4. where he is called iμeλntùs tãy xoiv@y
προσόδων.
62 Decree III. at the end of the Lives of the Ten Orators.
63 In Lycurg. Petit (ut sup.) confuses this whole subject most
ignorantly. He does not deserve refutation.
64 Lives of the Ten Orators (from the third Decree), and
thence Photius.
65 Diod. XVI. 88. δώδεκα ἔτη τὰς προσόδους τῆς πόλεως διοικήσας.
222
strong to procure the enactment of a law, by which all
persons were from that time prohibited from holding this
situation for more than five years (μὴ πλείω πέντε ἐτῶν διέπειν
τὸν χειροτονηθέντα ἐπὶ τὰ δημόσια χρήματα): on which ac-
count Lycurgus in the two following periods transacted the
business under fictitious names 66. The mention of five
years might lead one to suppose that the office was held
for that time; but the expression must be considered as
inexact, and the word used in the law was doubtless Pen-
teteris and not five years; a Penteteris according to the
ancient usage was never more than four years, although
the idiom subsequently changed, as may be seen from the
language of some later writers 67. Many of the periods
employed in matters of finance were undoubtedly of four
years, particularly the assessment of the tributes, which is
distinctly stated to have taken place every Penteteris
(every four years): thence arose the duration of the office
in question. There were also other offices at Athens which
were held for four years, being regulated by the great
Panathenæa; but none, as far as I am aware, for five
years. The periodical beginning of the office of treasurer
I have ascertained with probability elsewhere 68; it fell in
the year of the great Panathenæa, in the third year of each
Olympiad, about the commencement of winter.
However considerable the situation of chief manager of
the public revenue may have been, his power in administer-
66 Vit. Dec. Orat. p. 251. vol. VI. of the Tübingen Plutarch.
67 Arrian. Epict. III. 25. Cyrill. Hierosol. Catech. XII. 8. call
a period of four years Tergasria. Concerning the question whether
in the treasurership of Lycurgus the periods were of four or five
years, see also book III. 19.
es Ad Inscript. VIII. §. 2.
223
ing the finances was by no means unlimited, but like every
other officer he was subject to the restraint of legal checks
and of the will of the people; nor was this office by any
means the exclusive source from which all financial measures
proceeded; for every person who had the right of speaking
in the assembly and the senate, every orator and dema-
gogue, was at liberty to originate any measure 69; and per-
haps there existed in early times separate officers, whose
duty it was to procure the necessary revenues, and to
attend solely to that point. The author of the Rhetorical
Lexicon 70 declares, that the duties of the Porista (TogσTai)
were of this nature, and Antiphon 71 classes them with the
Poleta and the Practores. It is upon the whole extremely
difficult to define the extent of the duties and authority of
the manager of the public revenue. He was not like the
Apodectæ, an officer who only received money without
having any funds, nor like the treasurers upon the Acro-
polis, was he merely a guardian of monies, which in the
regular order of things were never paid out. The example
69 I remark incidentally that Gillies (Observations upon the
History, Customs, and Character of the Greeks, p. 136, of the
German translation) supposes that the demagogues, Eucrates
the wool-merchant, Lysicles the sheep-dealer, Hyperbolus the
lamp-maker, and Cleon the leather-seller, were treasurers, which
appears to be a false inference from Aristoph. Eq. 101 sqq.
since whatever power they possessed, even where it extended to
financial matters, was entirely derived from their character as
demagogues.
70 Lex. Seg. p. 294. 19. Πορισταί· πορισταί εἰσιν ἀρχή τις ᾿Αθή-
νησιν, ἥτις πόρους ἐζήτει· ἀπὸ τούτου γὰρ καὶ προσηγορεύθησαν.
71
Περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ p. 791. extr. Demosthenes (Philip. I.
p. 49. 17.) joins τῶν χρημάτων ταμίαι καὶ πορισταὶ, but he uses the
word in such a manner that it cannot be assumed that it was a
public office in his time.
224
of Lycurgus proves, that all the money which was received
and disbursed passed through his hands; consequently he
was the general receiver and superintendant of the offices
of payment, or general paymaster, who received all the
money paid in by the Apodectæ and appointed for fresh
payments, and supplied the separate offices with the re-
quisite sums; with the exception of the property taxes,
which were doubtless paid directly into the war office, as
war supplies. The tributes originally formed an exception,
since they remained under the management of the Helleno-
tamiæ as long as they were independant of the finances
of Athens, a separation which was perhaps retained
until the abolition of the Hellenotamiæ. This officer de-
frayed all expences that were necessary for the adminis-
tration (dioixŋois); to which all the regular expences in
(διοίκησις);
time of peace belonged. In the first place, the duties
(Téλn) were assigned to this department, together with
certain other contributions 72. The keeping and the
management of these monies also unquestionably devolved
upon this officer. As the payment of the judges' salaries
evidently belongs to the administration, the justice-fees,
although there existed a particular office for them, must
likewise have been under his management; neither can
there be any doubt that he exercised a general super-
intendence over the collection of all the revenues; for it
could only have been by virtue of this authority that
Lycurgus was able to prevent the farmer of the duties
from requiring protection-money of Xenocrates 73, and
that Aristides was enabled to point out the frauds and
embezzlements of the public money 74; and hence it can
72 Demosth. in Timocr. p. 731. 4.
73 Vit. Dec. Orat. in Lycurg.
74 Plutarch. Aristid. ut sup.
!
225
be explained how Lycurgus was able to increase every
branch of the revenue, to purchase many valuable orna-
ments for the public use, and to lay by a surplus sufficient
for the construction of great buildings and fleets 75. In
short, the manager of the public revenue had alone of all
the public officers, the whole superintendence of the revenue
and expenditure, and was therefore in a situation to give
the surest judgment as to the possibility of increasing the
former and of diminishing the latter, and to propose bene-
ficial measures to the senate and to the people; he was
under other circumstances what the minister of finance or
the chancellor of the exchequer is in modern States.
Valesius 76 is probably correct in referring to this treasurer
the passage in Aristophanes, in which it is said that the
treasurer had the seal of the people; although it is
possible that it might have been entrusted to the treasurers
upon the Acropolis, for the purpose of sealing the room in
which the treasure was kept 77.
The manager of the public revenue, being an officer who
disbursed money, bore the name of treasurer of the ad-
ministration (ταμίας τῆς διοικήσεως, οι ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς διοικήσεως),
which latter office is identical with the first. Eschines 78
says, that Aphobetus, who was appointed for the adminis-
tration (ἐπὶ τὴν κοινὴν διοίκησιν), also managed the public
revenues justly and honourably (καλῶς καὶ δικαίως τῶν
75 Lives of the Ten Orators, and the third Decree preserved
there.
76 Ad Harpocrat. in v. άrodexta. The passage of Aristophanes
is Eq. 943. where the Scholiast incorrectly interprets it as if it
was only the administration of the Prytaneia.
77 See Inscript. 76. §. 6.
1 Περὶ παραπρεσβ. p. 315.
VOL. I.
Q
226*
ὑμετέρων προσόδων ἐπιμεληθείς): Lycurgus, when he filled the
situation of manager of the revenue, also superintended
the administration (dioíxŋσıç), as we learn from the authors
of the Lives of the Ten Orators and of the Epistles of De-
mosthenes 79, and is distinctly proved by the fact that he
annually paid out and accounted for the whole revenue.
Pollux 80 also sufficiently proves the identity of these two
offices, when he calls the person at the head of the ad-
ministration (ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς διοικήσεως), an officer for the revenue
and expenditure (ἐπὶ τῶν προσιόντων καὶ ἀναλισκομένων), elected,
not chosen by lot. In this capacity he must have issued
all payments for police, building, provision of ornaments
used in processions, public sacrifices, and the celebration of
festivals, the latter belonging to the sacred administration
(iegà droíxno15) 81, in opposition to the civil (óría). Thus
Lycurgus, by virtue of this office, superintended the
building of the docks, of the gymnasia, palæstras, the-
atres, arsenal, &c. and the supply of articles for sacred
uses 82, as well as of the money required for the provision
of ships, arms, and artillery, which was appointed to be
made in times of peace, a duty also performed by Lycurgus;
together with all salaries payable in time of peace, and the
other expences of the domestic administration. Particular
funds were also created for single parts of the administra-
tion, which the treasurer of the public revenue superin-
tended. The Theoricon and the war office were however
wholly independent of his authority, and into one of these
79 Epist. III.
80 VIII. 113.
81
Xenoph. Hellen. VI. 1, 2. Cf. Demosth. in Timocrat.
p. 730. 24. p. 731. 1.
$2 Lives of the Ten Orators.
227
two funds he paid all the surplus money which he received,
as will be presently shewn, after which he ceased to have any
farther charge of it; for a considerable time indeed a great
part of the administration itself was under the care of the
treasurers of the Theoricon, several offices having been
consolidated in them. Two statements, by which it might
seem that the manager of the public revenue was also
treasurer of the Theoricon, admit of a satisfactory expla-
nation. Lycurgus obtained the condemnation of Diphilus,
who had committed some offence connected with the mines
which this person held in lease from the State, and dis-
tributed the confiscated property among the people, after
the manner of the Theorica 83. This case however mani-
festly proves nothing, as it was an extraordinary measure,
and not in the regular course of business. " When
Demades had under him the revenues of the State," says
Plutarch 84, "the Athenians being eager to dispatch some
vessels to the assistance of those who had revolted from
Alexander, called upon him to supply them with money:
from which project he succeeded in dissuading the people
by answering to them, Money you certainly are provided
with, for I have so arranged it that each citizen should
receive half a mina at the Choëis, but if you prefer applying
it to this purpose, make what use you please of your own
property." From the writer's expression it might at first
sight be thought that Demades was manager of the public
revenue but as Demades appears solely in the capacity of
a director of the Theorica, who at the festivals and games
(
83 Lives of the Ten Orators.
V
st Præc. Reip. Ger. 25. ὅτε τὰς προσόδους εἶχεν ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτῷ τῆς
Tóλsws. The date of the event is Olymp. 112. 2. Cf. ad In-
script. VIII.
228
distributed money among the citizens; and as Plutarch's
words that "he had the revenues of the State under him,”
do not necessarily refer to a treasurer of the administration,
we should not, in my opinion, be justified in assuming that
he filled the latter office, to which so thoughtless and
extravagant a man must appear but ill adapted. For a
manager of the Theorica he was much better fitted; since the
more careless and immoral a person in that situation was,
the more could be expected from his administration of the
office. Demades had contrived that the coffers of the
Theorica should be well filled; in time of war however
these funds were always claimed by the well-disposed for
military preparations; and the contest which was carried
on at Athens, as to whether the money of the Theorica
was or was not to be applied to the uses of war, has
become notorious. If this latter fact is taken in connexion
with the above narration, it will evidently appear that
Demades had not the entire administration of the public
revenue, but only of the money of the Theorica.
For the superintendence of works of architecture, such
as the building of walls, streets, docks, and ships, and for
the provision of the sacrifices, particular authorities were
appointed (τειχοποιοὶ, ὁδοποιοὶ, ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν νεωρίων, τριη-
ροποιοὶ, ἱεροποιοὶ κατ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν and ἐπιμήνιοι &c.), some of whom
remained in office for a whole year, others acted only as
commissioners for a shorter period 85. All these officers
had their respective paymasters dependent upon the several
treasurers of the administration. It is proved by inscrip-
tions 86 that money was paid into the hands of the managers
of the sacrifices as well as to the Athlothetæ; and although
85 Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 425.
36 See Inscript. 144 and 147.
229
it appears that money was sometimes paid into their hands
by the treasurers of the goddess, these payments must be
considered only as contributions, since according to the
regular course their money ought to have been derived
from the funds of the administration 87. The treasurer of
the ship-builders (Tauías Tüv Tgingоo) is particularly
mentioned 88, as well as the treasurers of the builders of the
walls (ταμίαι τῶν τειχοποιῶν), and it is expressly stated that
the latter received their money from the funds of the
administration 89; Demosthenes mentions among other
duties of the administration the payment for the wages of
the dicasts, of the assembly, of the senate, and of the
cavalry 90 for these particular payments separate boards
must necessarily have been appointed under the treasurer
of the administration; yet we find that in the Pelopon-
nesian war, the Hellenotamiæ disbursed money out of the
treasury for the cavalry 91. The Thesmothetæ paid the
wages of the assembly 92 out of the monies of the adminis-
tration, and they probably had also their own paymasters
for that purpose. Lastly, since the sacred triremes received
pay even in time of peace (the Paralos for certain, and
probably the Salaminia and the Ammonis), it is natural to
suppose that their treasurers were in a great measure
under the superintendence of the treasurer of the ad-
ministration. The treasurer of the Paralos was an officer of
:
87 Because they were for the gà dioixnois, Demosth. in Timo-
erat. p. 730. 24. p. 731. 1.
88 Demosth. in Androt. p. 598.
89 Ex Tŷs dioixńσews. See Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 425. p. 426.
p. 415. p. 422.
9⁰ In Timocrat. p. 731. 1-5. and 21, 22.
91 See the Choiseul Inscription (n. 147.)
92 See book II. 14.
230
distinction, and he was appointed by Cheirotonia, as much
money passed through his hands in addition to that which
was paid for the uses of the vessel: the others were elected in
the same manner 93: these treasurers of the sacred triremes
(respecting whom Harpocration and Pollux and other
grammarians have derived their knowledge from Aristotle)
supplied the expences of the trierarch 94. Smaller pay-
ments of a domestic nature were probably made at once
by the treasurer of the administration, without the ap-
pointment of a particular board. Thus the charge for
engraving the decrees was assigned to him 95. This duty
J
93 Demosth. in Mid. p. 570. 3, 13, 15. and more particularly
1. 24. and Ulpian's note.
C
94 This is the way in which Pollux (VIII. 116.) should be
understood, ταμίας ἐκάλουν τοὺς ταῖς ἱεραῖς τριήρεσι λειτουργοῦντας,
ἄλλους δὲ τριηράρχους. The State was properly the trierarch of
the sacred triremes; but it was necessary that they should have
trierarchs who represented the State. The reading of Junger-
mann's manuscript, for dè, is probably correct. Harpocration,
and from him Suidas, say, εἰσὶ δέ τινες καὶ τῶν τριήρων ταμίαι, ὡς ὁ
avròs Qixócopós Qnow, viz. Aristotle, a passage which refers to the
sacred triremes alone, as is proved by Photius in v. raµía.. sioì dè
καὶ ἄλλοι ταμίαι ἄρχοντες χειροτονητοὶ ἐπὶ τὰς ἱερὰς καὶ δημοσίας τριήρεις,
ὁ μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν πάραλον, ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ ῎Αμμωνος. Δημόσιαι is here put in
opposition to those furnished at the expence of the trierarchs.
The following observation from the Maricas of Eupolis appears.
to refer to treasurers of all the trierarchs, and will be considered
in a subsequent part of this work, although a definitive decision
is not possible, as is remarked in book IV. 11. The treasurer of the
Ammonis is mentioned by both Suidas and Photius in v. Tauías.
The State moreover paid the money directly into the hands of
the trierarchs, as is shewn elsewhere.
'
95 As for instance in the Decree in Diog. Laert. VII. in the
Life of Zeno, the date of which is unknown, but it is later than
231
on one occasion fell upon the treasurer of the people
(taµías toũ dýμov), by which the same office is meant, and it
is particularly directed that the payments should be made
out of the money which was set apart for the expences of
the decrees (τὰ ἐς τὰ ψηφίσματα ἀναλισκόμενα τῷ δήμῳ).
This belongs to Olymp. 125. 2, 96 In two other decrees
there occurs a remarkable variation. In the one, which is
of later date than Olymp. 119. 1. it is ordered that the cost
of engraving should be defrayed by the treasurers of the
administration (oi éπì tỹ dioixýσei) 97; in the other, which is of
ἐπὶ
the age of Demosthenes, it is assigned to the treasurers
(Tauía) without any further specification 98. The latter
the 130th Olympiad, where he is distinctly called i imi ts door-
κήσεως.
96 See the third Decree after the Lives of the Ten Orators.
97 Decret. ap. Chandl. Inscript. II. 12. ad fin. Megira, the
expression here used, refers to the single numbers of the different
items of the expenditure, as in the Decree in Diog. Laert. and the
Decree of the Tyrian merchant at Delos, in Spon. Misc. Erud.
Antiq. X. 70. p. 344. also in the Salaminian Decree published
by A. E. Köhler Dörpt. Beitr. 1814. first half p. 62. where there
is the following sentence: μερίσαι δὲ τὸν ταμίαν Φιλοκλῆν Πειραιέα ἐκ
τῶν εἰς τὰ [κατὰ] ψηφίσματα ἀναλισκομένων τῷ δήμῳ. Similarly in
several unpublished Inscriptions. [Induxit me olim (Ec. Civ.
11. 6.) decretum pro Lycurgo scriptum (Vit. Dec. Orat. Decr.
III.), ut in Salaminio Titulo vocem zarà delendam putarem;
nam ibi in fine habetur: ἐκ τῶν εἰς τὰ ψηφίσματα ἀναλισκομένων τῷ
du. Sed nisi huic quoque formulæ eandem, quam prioribus,
sententiam tribuere malis, potius illud decretum corrigendum est,
et seribendum ἐκ τῶν εἰς τὰ κατὰ ψηφίσματα.]
98 Decree for Straton, king of Sidon, in the Marm. Oxon.
XXIV. ed. Chandl. line 16. I omit the Decree which Chishull
has given from Ainsworth in Ant. Asiat. p. 164. because the
treasurer of the city is inserted in it by conjecture.
232
are doubtless the same as those who in the first decree are
called οἱ ἐπὶ τῇ διοικήσει; for it is manifest that these were
the only treasurers who could have paid the money but
it is remarkable that several treasurers of the administration
are here mentioned, as nothing is stated in any other place
of there having been more than one. In both cases it is
possible that their office was only temporary: from the
nature of the proceedings we should a priori expect that
frequent alterations would take place in the administration
of finance, and both before and after these decrees we find
only one treasurer of the administration mentioned.
The statement made above upon the authority of
Pollux 99, that a separate office was created for paying the
wages of the Dicasts, which was dependent upon the
treasurers of the administration, will be more clearly illus-
trated by the consideration of the Colacretæ, respecting
whom all that occurs in the ancient writers has been col-
lected by Ruhnken 100, without any light having been
thrown upon the nature of their problematical office.
The singular name by which they are designated, is of
itself sufficient to prove that they had their origin in very
remote times; they were called whangétaι from collecting
certain parts of the victims (properly xwλaygétaι) 101, an
expression which shews that they must have been the
superintendents of the provisions at certain public feasts ;
and this supposition agrees with the well-established facts,
99 VIII. 113. where i izì Tйs dioxństws is mentioned in connec-
tion with the pay of the dicasts.
100 Ad Tim. Plat. Lex. p. 171.
101 As Timæus (p. 171.) and Photius write according to the
derivation. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 693. and thence Suidas
in his second article.
233
that they also took charge of the gifts, which the kings in
the most ancient times, and afterwards the Archons and
Prytanes in their capacity of judges, received for the ad-
ministration of justice, and that they had the management
of every thing connected with financial matters, such at
least as at that time could have been in existence. It is
possible that the Pyrander who is said by the ancients to
have been treasurer at so remote a period as that of the
Eleusinian war, was only a Colacretes of the king; and as
we find in use at Cyzicus a verb which was derived from
the office of Colacretæ, it is evident that they came with
the ancient colony of Neleus to Miletus, and from thence
to Cyzicus, like the Diana of Munychia, and the names of
the four ancient Athenian tribes. Solon left the Colacretæ
untouched, acting on a policy which he appears to have
followed in numerous instances; Cleisthenes, always fond of
innovation, established the Apodectæ in their stead 102; the
Colacretæ were now no longer receivers of the taxes, but
became a subordinate department: to whom however could
they be subordinate? According to the great Etymologist,
they were treasurers of the money and managers of the trier-
archy. This could only have been the case before the time
of Cleisthenes, when indeed they might have had all the
liturgies of the citizens under their superintendence, in-
cluding the provision of the triremes; as to the later period
in which we have more accurate information respecting the
trierarchy, this assertion is absurd, nor does there any where
occur the slightest confirmation of it; neither could they
after the time of Cleisthenes have been treasurers upon
the Acropolis and guardians of the sacred money, although
-
102 Androtion ap. Harpocrat. in v. åπodíxtai.
蘩
​234
Pollux 103.confounds them with the treasurers of the
Goddess. All that we know for certain is, that they paid
the wages of the Dicasts 104, a fact which appears as well
from passages in the grammarians, as from the testimony
of the poet Aristophanes 105. These stipends they probably
distributed in person, as subordinate officers to the treasurer
of the administration. Aristophanes the grammarian ex-
pressly asserts, as well as Hesychius, that they had nothing
to attend to except the payment of the Dicasts 106, a
testimony which of all others is deserving of the greatest
credit. According to the statement of the gramma-
rian of the library of St. Germain, who has been quoted
by Ruhnken and published by Bekker 107, they had
authority over the fines in the courts of justice; but
this is evidently a mistake, the reason of which however
is that the Prytaneia and the other justice-fees, which the
grammarian might call fines, were set apart for paying the
Dicasts, and consequently either directly or indirectly
were delivered over to the Colacreta. The Scholiast to
Aristophanes 108 again enumerates the provision of the
public entertainments in the Prytaneum as one of their
duties, a circumstance of so little importance that Aris-
103 VIII. 97.
104 Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 693. and 723. Av. 1540. Photius
and Timæus ut sup. Lex. Seg. p. 275. Hesychius and Suidas in
V. xwλaxgerai, the second article of the latter grammarian being
taken from the Scholiast of Aristophanes.
105 In the passages just quoted.
106 Aristoph. Grammat. ap. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1540. He-
sych. ut sup.
107 Lex. Seg. p. 190. 15.
108 Av. 1540.
235
tophanes the grammarian probably did not think proper
to mention it: and indeed we are compelled to suppose
that they performed this or some analogous duty; for as
their office originated before the time of Cleisthenes, and
the wages of the Dicasts were first introduced by Pericles,
they must between these two periods have performed
some duty; and this was doubtless the management of
the entertainments in the Prytaneum, a relic of their
more ancient office. The single fact that the justice-
fees were called Prytaneia proves that they were once
paid to the Prytanes, as judges in the Prytaneum ;
which money may have been allotted to defraying the
expences of their meals (what relation the Prytanes bore
to the Archons with regard to the judicial authority,
the latter being also judges, is foreign to the present
question): and when the payment of the Dicasts was after-
wards introduced, it seemed for this reason the obvious
and natural course to assign to them this latter duty.
Thus we find a perfect agreement between two duties
which at first sight appeared of a very different nature;
and it cannot well be doubted that they continued from this
time forth to perform both together. We must now sub-
join what is adduced by the Scholiast to the Birds of
Aristophanes, in order to confute the assertion of Aristo-
phanes the grammarian, which I have implicitly followed
in the above discussion. Androtion the antiquary had
written, that according to some law the Colacrete were
bound to furnish the Pythian Theori with money for their
voyage and other expences out of the Nauxλngixá; from this
Nαυκληρικά
circumstance the Colacretæ have been considered the same
with the treasurers of Minerva, and the grammarians have
derived their statement from this authority that the funds
236
for the festivals or for the gods 109 were under their regu-
lations. We shall in vain attempt to discover what the
vauxλngixa were: it is clear to me that the monies of the
Naucrarias (properly vauxgaginà according to the ancient
form) are meant; but it also appears to me probable that
Androtion, who as well as Philochorus had in some things
an extensive, in others an imperfect, knowledge of the
earliest times of the Athenian State, spoke of the regula-
tions anterior to Cleisthenes in the passage in which he
quoted this law. In this manner Aristophanes the gram-
marian and Androtion can be easily reconciled; and we
must not consider that the Colacretæ continued to be
treasurers of the sacred monies after the time of Cleisthenes,
which besides would not accord with other ascertained
facts.
(7.) A separate office existed during a long period for
the management of the tributes, the Hellenotamiæ or trea-
surers of the Greeks; to these the administration of the
monies at Delos, or the 'EXλnvoτauía, belonged 110, when in
consequence of the treachery of Pausanias after the battle
of Platææ (Olymp. 75. 2.) Athens had obtained the com-
mand, and every financial office was under the direction
of Aristides. This situation was at first exclusively held
by Athenians: the duty attached to it was to receive the
tributes, and to deposit them in the Delian treasury in the
temple of Apollo, where the meetings of the allies were
109 Ap. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1540. Vesp. 623. Timæus, Lex.
Seg. and Photius.
110 Xenoph. de Vectig. 5. 5. unless the right reading is ‘Eλλnvo-
ταμιείας.
237
held 111. There can be no doubt that they continued to be
the guardians of these monies 112; their office was retained
when the funds were removed to Athens under the pretence
of greater security: a proceeding which Aristides declared
to be unjust, though expedient: but the whole injustice of
it first originated with the lavish expenditure on the part of
Pericles 113. After the Anarchy however no more traces of
the Hellenotamiæ occur; under the new administration they
were not reestablished, the ascendancy of Athens and the
tributary condition of the allies having ceased: and although
Athens was again enabled to exact tributes from the de-
pendent States, this office was never again created for the
management of them 114. From this reason the grammarians
know scarcely any thing of these treasurers; Harpocration
says, upon the authority of Aristotle, that they were an office
at Athens which had the management of money; the Etymo-
logist affirms that they were the guardians of the common mo-
nies of Greece: Suidas 115 furnishes nothing that is not known
from other sources: Pollux 116 asserts that they collected the
111 Thucyd. I. 96. Nepos Aristid. 3. Plutarch. Aristid. 24.
Andocid. de Pace p. 107. which oration was called in question
by the ancients, but is evidently the production of Andocides.
Antiphon also (de cæde Herod. p. 739.) mentions the office,
without our deriving any information from him.
112 Schol. Thucyd. I. 96.
113 Plutarch. Aristid. 25. Pericl. 12. Nepos ut sup. Diod.
XII. 38.
114 The Hellenotamias, who according to the Lives of the Ten
Orators (in the Life of Lycurgus) was banished in the Demo-
cracy after the thirty tyrants, had previously held this office.
115 Vol. I. p. 715.
116 VIII. 14. Zonaras in v. 'Eλanvoraplar, where it should be
written iv Agaw, hardly deserves to be mentioned.
238
tributes, and had under their superintendence the constitu-
tions of the tributary islands; whereas the latter duty rather
belonged to the Episcopi, and the former was wholly un-
necessary, as the tributaries themselves paid in the money
during the spring at the time of the Dionysia 117, which
were celebrated annually in the city; particular persons
for collecting them (exλoys) were appointed only upon
extraordinary occasions, who were different from the
Hellenotamiæ; Hesychius is most correct in calling them
the treasurers of the tribute accruing to the Athenians 118.
But the best information concerning them is afforded by
some inscriptions of a date anterior to the Archonship of
Euclid. The form of their nomination is unknown; it
seems however to be probable that they were chosen
by lot, like the treasurers of the gods, out of the
Pentacosiomedimni. Barthélemy 119 says that they were
ten in number, one out of each tribe: not only have I
been unable to find any confirmation of this assertion, but
I am able distinctly to refute it. In the Choiseul inscrip-
tion (Olymp. 92. 3.) eleven Hellenotamiæ are men-
tioned; Callimachus of Hagnus, Phrasitelides of Icaria,
Pericles of Cholargus, Dionysius of Cydathenæum, Thrason
of Butade, Proxenus of Aphidna, Spudias of Phlyæ,
Anatius of Sphettus, Phalanthus of Alopecæ, Eupolis of
Aphidna, and Callias of Euonymia, of whom Pericles and
117 Aristoph. Acharn. 504. and the Scholiast; ibid. 643. The
date of the Acharnenses is Olymp. 88. 3. That the great
Dionysia took place annually has been shewn by Corsini and
others against the unimportant testimony of Scholiasts.
118 Οἱ τοῦ κομιζομένου φόρου παρὰ ᾿Αθηναίοις ταμίας. An incorrect
article in Lex. Seg. p. 188. (dix. óvópe.) I entirely pass over.
119 Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions vol. XLVIII. p. 341.
•
239
Anætius were of the same tribe Acamantis, and the two
Aphidnæans of the tribe Leontis; and still more, Pericles
and Anatius were both Hellenotamiæ in the same, viz.
the sixth Prytanea, and both the Aphidnæans in like
manner in the seventh. From this we are compelled to
suppose either that no regard was paid to the tribes
(which was not by any means necessary, as the office
originally had no concern with the home administration),
or that several were chosen out of each tribe. The former
supposition appears to me the most probable, and I con-
ceive that their number was only ten, and that they did
not enter into their office at the beginning of the year, but
after the Panathenæa and the first Prytanea: if this
hypothesis is adopted, two of the persons who are men-
tioned, Callimachus and Phrasytelides, may be deducted
from the eleven, and we have only nine in the inscription,
who were colleagues in this office, the name of the tenth
not having come down to us. Their duties are still more
difficult to determine than their number. When the funds
were at Delos, they must have acted at the same time both
as Apodectæ and treasurers: afterwards the Apodectæ
appear to have received the tributes, and the Hellenotamiæ
to have been merely the managers of the fund thus col-
lected 120: when the tributes were commuted for a custom-
duty, the Hellenotamiæ naturally remained as treasurers
for these payments. The payments for certain selected
purposes were assigned to their office; in the first place
that for which the tributes were originally designed,
namely, the expences of wars in the common cause and
solemnities of alliance; but the Athenians afterwards
considered the money as their own property, and used it
120 Compare chap. 4.
240
for buildings and works of art, festivals, distributions, and
Theorica 121: the overplus was without doubt laid by
among the public treasure in the Acropolis, which was
chiefly formed from the tributes: but as soon as the money
had been sent to Athens, or even before it was actually
dispatched and only its place of destination had been fixed,
it was no longer under the superintendence of these officers,
but of the treasurers of the Goddess upon the Acropolis.
We see that money in their hands was assigned about
the 90th Olympiad to the redemption of the public debts 122
the only example which we meet with of their having paid
the money out of their own fund. On the other hand in
Olymp. 92. 3. money was appointed to be paid to them
from the public treasure for the provision of the cavalry,
for Diobelia, and war expences 123: at this period the
cavalry appears to have been paid in time of peace by
the Hellenotamiæ and not by the treasurer of the ad-
ministration: for the treasurer of war and the managers
of the Theoricon were not introduced until after the aboli-
tion of the Hellenotamia, who used to make all payments
of this description. There is nothing in the fact of money
being furnished to them from the public treasure, which
ought to surprise us: for if their own funds were ex-
hausted, the treasure would naturally be compelled to
furnish whatever was sufficient to enable them to pay that
which belonged to their department. In the same manner
gold was lent to them out of the treasury to be paid to the
Athlothetæ; but evidently from the sacred money 124,
Hence the payments which they had to make must have
S
121 Plutarch. Aristid. 24. Pericl. 12.
122 Inscript. 76. §. 3.
123 Inscript. 147.
124 Inscript. 144. 3d Prytan. Ist. item.
I
241
been considerable, and their duties cannot have been un-
important. In order to execute these with the greater
facility they divided them among one another 125; and to
assist them they had as many as three superior Archons
as assessors 126. It must not with Barthélemy be thought
singular that we only know of these officers from inscrip-
tions, since of the Hellenotamia themselves we have such
imperfect accounts.
As after the Archonship of Euclid no mention of Helle-
notamiæ occurs, so before that time we hear of no treasurers
of war or managers of the Theorica; the former having per-
formed all the duties which subsequently belonged to the
latter: and we are thence justified in assuming, that by the
changes in the constitution made in the year of Euclid two
new offices, the treasurer of war, and the manager of the
Theorica, were instituted. The name of treasurer of war
(Tapías orgaTIWTIxv) is only once made use of, and this in
reference to one Callias, who is stated by the author of the
Lives of the Ten Orators 127 to have held that office in the
Archonship of Chærondas (Olymp. 110. 3.); probably it
was only filled in time of war, and discontinued when there
was no armed force in motion. The funds for meeting the
expences of war were, with the exception of certain tributes,
derived from two sources; which however were both of a
very uncertain nature. According to ancient laws 128 the
125 As is proved by Inscript. 147.
126 Inscript. 147. 6th Prytan. Inscript. 144. 3d Prytan. first
item, and 8th Prytan. 4th item.
127 In the Life of Lycurgus, according to the correction of
Salmasius: for he is generally called Kanalós. ΚΑΛΛΙΟΥ and
KAAAIOY only differ by a line.
128 Orat. in Neær. p. 1346, 1347. Liban. Argum. Olynth. I.
cf. Demosth. Olynth. I. p. 14. 19. and Olynth. III. (e. g.
VOL. I.
R
242
surplus money of the administration was to be applied in
times of war to the use of the army (τὰ περίοντα χρήματα τῆς
διοικήσεως εἶναι στρατιωτικά): but the people had the madness
to require that the surplus should always be used for the dis-
tribution of the Theorica; and the demagogue Eubulus even
succeeded in passing a law, that if any person again proposed
that the Theorica should be applied to the uses of war he
should suffer death. This law, which crippled the martial
power of the Athenians, was frequently attacked by the well
disposed: Demosthenes complained that the Athenians
though possessing large funds for war, squandered them
away upon festivals: Apollodorus was condemned to a fine
of fifteen talents, for having proposed in Olymp. 106. 4. that
the surplus money should be used for war, though for the
time he attained his object 129: and although even Eubulus
in later times proposed that the Theorica should be applied
to the purposes of war 130; and although according to
Philochorus 131, all the public money was at the instigation
of Demosthenes in Olymp. 110. 2. applied to the military
service, it was frequently in the power of treacherous or
inconsiderable demagogues to deduct very large sums from
the war funds by proposing a donation of money to the
people of which unworthy conduct Demades furnished a
most striking instance. Besides this the extraordinary pro-
perty-tax (sio poga) was set apart for the expences of war 132;
p. 31.) Harpocr. in v. swgxd, and thence Suidas and the Ety-
mologist. Cf. Ruhnk. Hist. Crit. Orat. p. 146. VIII. of Reiske's
Orators.
129 Orat. in Neær. p. 1346. 19. The date is evident from
book IV, 13.
130 Demosth. Tigi nagaπgwoß. p. 434. 24.
131 Fragment. p. 76.
132 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1209. and passim.
I
243
but this being a tax which was unwillingly paid, the coffers
were generally empty. Many higher as well as subordinate
offices were requisite for the custody and disbursement of
the war-funds. All those who bore the name of generals
(as we know for certain to have been the case in the time
of Demosthenes, and probably in earlier times also) were
not in fact commanders of all the troops, but only generals
of the infantry and cavalry of each separate army (orgarny`s
ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ὅπλων or ὁπλιτῶν, and ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ἱππέων): of these one
in his capacity of general of the administration (orgarny`s
ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς διοικήσεως) performed part of the judicial labours,
together with other services: the duty of giving out the pay
of the troops also devolved upon him 133, for which he must
have had a treasurer of his own. Among his proposals for
the equipment of the troops, Demosthenes 134 particularly
recommends that treasurers and public slaves (nuo101)
should be appointed for the custody of the war-funds, in
order that the strictest watch should be kept over their
administration, and that these, and not the generals, should
give an account of the manner in which the money had
been employed. Many of the treasurers of the generals,
who are mentioned in different writers, appear however to
have been merely private paymasters, without being in the
service of the State; thus for example Philocrates was the
treasurer of Ergocles, and Antimachus of Timotheus, who
managed every thing for this general, and also kept a
133 Decret. ap: Demosth. de Corona, p. 265. 11.
134 Orat. de Cherson. p. 101. 14. From this the whole pas-
sage in the fourth Philippic is borrowed (p. 137.), the spurious-
ness of which oration was perceived by Valckenaer, in his notes
to his speech de Philipp. Maced. p. 251. and by Wolf Proleg.
ad Lept. p. LX.
244
secretary for himself 135. In the same manner the trie-
rarchs had treasurers 136.
By means of the Theoricon (τὸ θεωρικὸν, τὰ θεωρικὰ, or
θεωρικὰ χρήματα), the most pernicious institution of the age
of Pericles, there arose in a petty republic a lavishness of
expence, which was not proportionally less than that of
the most luxurious courts, and which swallowed up vast
sums at the very moment that the military operations were
failing from want of the proper supplies. Under the term
Theorica are comprised the monies which were distributed
among the people, for the celebration of festivals and
games 137, either to indemnify them for the entrance-money
to the theatre, or to enable them to feast more plentifully:
they were also in part expended upon sacrifices 138, with
which a public entertainment was always combined. From
the nature and character of this expence it may be expected
that the surplus money of the administration was set apart
for it; in the early times however this was frequently
135 Lysias in Philocr. p. 829. Demosth. in Timoth. p. 1186.
17. p. 1187. 10.
136 Eupolis ap. Harpocrat. in v. rauía. Comp. book IV. 11.
Whether Antiphanes, the treasurer of the ship's captain Philip
(Demosth. in Timoth. p. 1188. 20. p. 1189. 2.), was of this de-
scription, or whether Philip was only a private individual, I
leave undecided. By the treasurer who gave the crown to the
trierarch that was the first in getting his ship ready equipped
(Demosth. de Trierarch. Corona p. 1228. 5.), we must probably
understand neither the treasurer of the trierarch, nor the trea-
surer of the trireme-builders, but the pay-master of war, to whom
this duty is the most suitable.
137 Poll. VIII. 113. Harpocr. Suid. Hesych. Etym. Ammo-
nius.
138 Demosth. de Corona p. 226. 22. See below chap. 13.
245
applied to replenishing or increasing the public treasure;
whereas in later periods not only was no addition made to
the treasure, but the war-funds did not even receive the sur-
plus monies. The managers of the Theoricon are not called
treasurers, although they evidently had the charge of a fund;
they belonged to the number of officers of government, and
were among the principal authorities elected by Cheiro-
tonia 139: it appears that their appointment took place about
the time of the great Dionysia in the city 140. Their number
is no where mentioned; but there were most probably ten,
one from each tribe; for in an office of such importance as
this it cannot be well supposed that any other method of
election was adopted. Their appellation is variable (agxǹ
ἐπὶ τῷ θεωρικῷ, ὁ ἐπὶ τῷ θεωρικῷ ὤν, οἱ ἐπὶ τὸ θεωρικὸν κεχειροτο-
νημένοι, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν θεωρικῶν τεταγμένος, ἐπὶ τοῦ θεωρικοῦ
κατασταθεὶς, θεωρικὴ ἀρχὴ, ἄρχων τῶν θεωρικῶν) 141͵ To the
original department of manager of the Theoricon was
annexed at the time when Eubulus of Anaphlystus filled
this situation, and had obtained the public confidence
in a high degree, many of the other branches of the
administration, partícularly the control of the public.
revenues, the office of Apodectæ, the building of docks,
of the arsenal, the construction of roads, (the latter per-
haps in some degree because they were connected with the
passage of processions), and nearly all the other duties of
the administration, as Eschines informs us 142 in his
capacity of manager of the Theoricon, Demosthenes was
0
W
139 Eschin. in Ctesiph. p. 416, 418.
140 Petit Leg. Att. III. 2. 35.
141 Esch. ut sup. Demosth. de Corona p. 264. 10. p. 243.27.
p. 266. 22. Lex. Seg. p. 264. Suidas and the Etymologist.
142 Eschin. ut sup. p. 417 sqq.
246
also inspector of the building of the walls (reixotoids) 143;
and from the same cause Eubulus appears to have super-
intended the ship-building 144. The extent of their power
in such corrupt times cannot appear in the least surprising.
The Theoricon promoted the private interest of the citizens;
and therefore the assembly passed a decree by which they
conferred extensive influence on any person who had either
the will or the ability to fill the purses of individuals at
the expence of the public. The Athenian people resembled
a tyrant, and the funds of the Theoricon were analogous
to his private purse; if a tyrant desired to have for the
gratification of his own pleasures a private purse which
should never be empty, he would take care to invest the
managers of it with great power, and would leave to the
branches of the administration only just so much of the
public revenue as should not interfere with the proper
supply of the privy purse. This contrivance of the
Ochlocracy was abolished between Olymp. 110. 2. and
112. 3. by a decree proposed by Hegemon 145. At what
time the managers of the Theoricon were the assessors of
the Poletæ, is not mentioned; but it is not necessary to
suppose that they only performed this duty in the time of
their extended authority. For since the surplus money of
143 Eschin. ibid. p. 419, 425. Demosth. de Corona p. 243,
266.
144 Dinarch. in Demosth. p. 66.
145 Petit Leg. Att. III. 2. 36. In Olymp. 110. 3. Demo-
sthenes was both inspector of the building of the walls, and
manager of the Theorica, but only accidentally at the same time,
as I have already remarked, without the two offices being at that
period necessarily united.
247
the administration was in time of peace always set apart
for the Theoricon, and to the administration, duties and
taxes raised in Athens were regularly assigned, while
confiscated property might appear to belong more pe-
culiarly to the Theoricon, it is possible that this regula-
tion was made when the office of manager of the Theorica
was originally instituted.
(8.) From the multiplicity of these offices it is evident
that the quantity of writing to be performed must have
been considerable; the disbursements and receipts were to
be entered, and particularly the respective purposes to
which the monies were assigned; these together with the
acknowledgments of payment, were to be noted down;
and finally, the accounts were to be passed. All these
duties came within the department of the secretary or
clerk (ygauμateús). Thus the treasurers of the sacred
monies, and the Amphictyons of Delos had their secre-
tary 146, and in like manner there were subordinate or
private secretaries, as has been already remarked of Anti-
machus the paymaster of Timotheus. Citizens who were
nominated to situations of this kind were commonly persons
of small fortunes. Public slaves (nuócio) however, who
had been educated at the cost of the State, were also
employed, and were sometimes appointed for keeping ac-
counts, of the generals for instance, and the paymasters in
times of war 147, some as checking-clerks (avrygapeïs, Con-
trarotulatores), as for example the clerks who checked the
accounts of the treasurers of the sacred monies, and of the
war-taxes, although Demosthenes thinks that each con-
116 Inscript. 139, 141, 150, 158.
147 Demosth. de Cherson. p. 101. 14. and thence Philipp. IV,
p. 137. Ulpian ad Demosth. Olynth. II.
KAH
248
tributor ought to perform for himself the office of a
comptroller 148. A clerk in the employ of the State was
never a slave; and although the clerk Nicomachus is called
by Lysias 149 a public slave (dnuórios), this instance does
not apply, for he was only an underclerk, and not one of
the principal clerks or secretaries; and the orator gives
him that name in reference only to his father; for he
himself had been entered in the register of the Phratores,
and consequently was a citizen. But the chief reason why
the Athenians preferred the public slaves for comptrolling
the accounts, was that they could be put to the torture,
and torture was considered as the surest means of elicit-
ing the truth 150, Freemen could not be tortured upon
the rack, nor yet resident aliens or foreigners, as Gillies
asserts; for it was prohibited by the decree of Scaman-
drius that any citizen should be put to the torture
for the purpose of examination 151; and what Lysias
says of Theodotus a youth of Platææ, that he might
:
$
148 Demosth. in Androt. p. 615. 12 sqq. Lex. Seg. p. 197.
149 In Nicom. p. 842. cf. p. 836, 837.
150 Demosth. in Aphob. Yavdou. p. 846. 7. p. 848. 8. p. 856.
20. That more weight was given to the assertions of slaves
upon the rack than to the sworn testimony of free-men, is also
shewn by Hudtwalcker von den Diäteten p. 51.
151 Andocid. de Myst. p. 22. The torture of the concubine of
Antiphon (xary. Pagu. p. 615.), provided that she was a free
woman, which is not certain, must be considered as a punish-
ment, and not as a means of examination. Against the asser-
tion made in the text, that freemen in Attica could not be put
to the torture, may be adduced a passage in Antiphon (de Herod.
cæde, p. 729.), in which it is stated that a freeman was tortured
at Mytilene but whether a Mytilenean or a foreigner, whether
according to the Lesbian or Athenian law, cannot be decided.
249
have been put to the torture 152, must be rather con-
sidered as an exception, as the Plateans were citizens.
Besides these subordinate checking-clerks, there were
others of a superior class, who were in part confounded
with the secretaries or clerks. It is difficult to obtain a
clear knowledge of these officers at Athens; in the mean
time thus far is certain that there were three public clerks,
as we learn from Suidas 153. Pollux 154 gives a more
exact account; one was chosen by lot by the senate in
every Prytanea, for the purpose of keeping the writings
and decrees, and is the officer who prefixed his name to the
decrees according to the form which was in use before the
Archonship of Euclid: of this secretary Aristotle had
according to Harpocration 155 treated at length: the
second was elected by the senate by Cheirotonia for the
laws; a third, elected by the people, was the public reader
in the senate and the Assembly. The first in an inscription
of the time of the Emperors is called the clerk according to
the Prytanea (γραμματεὺς κατὰ πρυτανείαν) 156, where it is
not so easy to perceive why he should be enumerated among
Apol. in Simon. p. 153. What Reiske says upon this
passage does not remove the difficulty.
31
153 Suidas, κληρωτοὶ δὲ (γραμματεῖς) ἦσαν τὸν ἀριθμὸν τρεῖς γράφοντες
τὰ δημόσια. οὐδενὸς δὲ ἦσαν κύριοι ἀλλ᾽ ἢ τοῦ γράφειν καὶ ἀναγνῶναι.
The first word, zλngwroì, is false in this general sense.
ห
15. VIII. 98. γραμματεὺς, ὁ κατὰ πρυτανείαν κληρωθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς βουλὴς
ἐπὶ τῷ [τὰ] γράμματα φυλάττειν καὶ τὰ ψηφίσματα καὶ ἕτερος ἐπὶ τοὺς
νόμους ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς χειροτονούμενος. ὁ δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου αἱρεθεὶς
γραμματεὺς ἀναγινώσκει τῷ δήμῳ καὶ τῇ βουλῇ. Α γραμματεὺς τῆς
Bouλns occurs in Demosth. pro Corona p. 238. 14. and roũ dúμor
in the third decree in the Lives of the Ten Orators.
152
155 In v. yeaµµaтes.
γράμματες.
156 Chandl. Inscript. II. 55. 2.
250
the Æsitæ, as one should rather have expected that he
would only have had the privilege of being fed in the
Prytaneum for a single Prytanea; a fresh one was ap-
pointed in every Prytanea, and the name of the clerk of
the first Prytanea was added to the decrees before the
Archonship of Euclid, and was frequently made use of to
designate the year 157. Harpocration states that it was the
duty of this officer to check the public accounts 158; but he
doubtless confounds them with the checking-clerks. The
second appears to be the clerk of the senators (ygaμμateus
twv Bouλeut@v) occurring in inscriptions 159, of whom I have
nothing more to say than that he is never mentioned
among the Æsitæ, but always among the Prytanes. Lastly,
the third clerk is called the clerk of the State (ygaμμateus
τῆς πόλεως) or of the senate and the people (τῆς βουλῆς καὶ
Toũ dýμov) 160, and is placed in inscriptions among the
157 Vid. ad Inscript. 147. et 76.
158 Καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα ἀντιγράφεται καὶ παρακάθηται τῇ βουλῇ.
The confusion with the checking-clerk is evident from the words
of Pollux VIII. 98. where it is said of him, zai távta ådteygáQeTO
παρακαθήμενος τῇ βουλῇ. This had been remarked by Valesius in
his notes to Harpocration, against whom Kühn's objections (ad
Poll. VIII. 98.) prove nothing.
159 Chandl. II. 55. 1, 2, 3, 4. Spon Travels vol. III. in the
inscription belonging to the second vol. p. 116 sqq. That he
may not be considered the same as the clerk according to the
Prytaneia, the distinction between them in Chandl. II. 55. 2.
should be observed. There are likewise many other similar in-
scriptions, in which these clerks of the senators and the others
occur.
160 Thucyd. VII. 10. and the inscriptions just quoted. Be-
sides Valesius, authorities have been collected upon this subject
by Meursius Lect. Att. VI. 25. Petit III. 2. 28. Barthélemy
251
{
Esita. These officers had an under-clerk (inoygaµµμатEús):
and a considerable number of such persons were used even
in the ancient days of Athens, some of whom were em-
ployed in the higher, and some in the inferior and sub-
ordinate offices 161; the checking-clerks were however dif-
ferent from these superior secretaries or clerks, as we have
already seen in the case of the inferior. A checking-clerk
of the senate (ἀντιγραφεὺς τῆς βουλῆς) is quoted by Harpo-
cration out of Aristotle's state of Athens 162, and a checking-
clerk without any farther specification frequently occurs
in ancient inscriptions, and always among the site.
According to Pollux 163 he was in ancient times elected and
afterwards chosen by lot: the checking-clerk of the senate
is also mentioned by Suidas 164, as well as by the Scholiast
to Aristophanes 165, who however confounds him with the
Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, vol. XLVIII, p. 345. The
iñoygaµµatevs occurs in the inscriptions already quoted; in that
published by Spon the editor incorrectly reads ПPOгPAMMA-
ΤΕΥΣ.
161
gh
Antiph. de Choreut. p. 792. Demosth. pro Corona, p. 314. 7.
ὑπογραμματεύειν καὶ ὑπηρετεῖν τοῖς ἀρχιδίοις, Lysias in Nicom. p. 864.
ter.
162 Harpocrat. in v. ἀντιγραφεύς· ὁ καθιστάμενος ἐπὶ τῶν καταβαλ-
λόντων τινὰ τῇ πόλει χρήματα, ὥστε ἀντιγράφεσθαι ταῦτα. Δημοσθένης
ἐν τῷ κατὰ ᾿Ανδροτίωνος (a passage which is not to the point, as it
relates to subordinate checking-clerks), καὶ Αἰσχίνης ἐν τῷ κατὰ Κτη-
σιφώντος. διττοὶ δὲ ἦσαν ἀντιγραφεῖς, ὁ μὲν τῆς διοικήσεως, ὥς φησι
Φιλόχορος· ὁ δὲ τῆς βουλῆς, ὡς ᾿Αριστοτέλης ἐν ᾿Αθηναίων πολιτείᾳ. The
whole passage is also in Suidas.
163 VIII. 98. Cf. Lex. Seg. p. 190. 26.
164 In v.
rgaμμatiùs, where see Küster's note. Compare also
Lex. Seg. p. 185. 16.
163 Eq. 1253. The following is the whole of this corrupt.
passage: ἐπὶ δὲ δήμου (ὁ γραμματεὺς) ὑπογραφεὺς ἐλέγετο. ὁ δὲ τοῦ
¿ dì
252
clerk. According to Pollux his duty was to sit in the
senate and exercise a general control; a statement which
may perhaps be true, but that the duty which Harpocra-
tion attributes to the checking-clerk, of comptrolling the
receipts of the revenues, refers to this office, is evident,
the taxes having been paid in presence of the senate.
Lastly it is manifest that Eschines 166 alludes to this
officer, when he remarks that the State had a checking-
clerk elected by Cheirotonia, who kept an account of the
revenues for the people in each Prytanea, until this situa-
tion was united with the office of the Theoricon, and con-
sequently the duties of the Apodectæ, and the checking of
the accounts, were injudiciously placed in the same hands.
Besides this checking-clerk for monies received, there was
also a checking-clerk of the highest authority for disburse-
ments, viz. the treasurer of the administration, who was
called the checking-clerk of the administration (ävτiygaßeùs
Tñs dioixýσews) 167. It is probable that all clerks and
checking-clerks (and certainly the latter) were prohibited
from holding the same office twice 168, i. e. not for two
βουλευτηρίου ἀντιγραφεύς. δημοσίου δὲ γενομένου ἔγραψον ἀμφότεροι τὰ
Asyóμsva. The latter words, which are entirely devoid of mean-
ing, Kühn (ad Poll. VIII. 98.) endeavours to correct; but his
correction does not make any better sense.
The ὑπογραφεὺς may
be the zygaμμates of the inscriptions. Petit also (ut sup.)
remarks the confusion between the clerk and checking-clerk in
this passage.
166 In Ctesiph. p. 417. Cf. Ulpian. ad Demosth. in Androt.
ut sup.
167 Philochorus ap. Harpocrat. ut sup. and thence Suidas and
Pollux VIII. 98, 99. according to the correct emendation of
Valesius upon Harpocration.
168 This is evidently the meaning of the law in Lysias c.
253
successive years, and it was necessary that a new person
should be appointed after the interval of a year.
The public accounts being in this manner kept by the
clerks, and comptrolled by the checking-clerks, it was ren-
dered possible to make the scrutiny which was regularly en-
tered into at the expiration of every office. It is the essence
of a democracy that every public officer should be responsible.
Among the distinguishing marks of a Democratic authority,
responsibility is one of the most prominent; while in the
Aristocratical and Oligarchical States of antiquity, such as
Sparta and Crete, the highest offices in which the Aristo-
cracy and Oligarchy really existed, were subject to no
responsibility. Hence the obligation of rendering accounts
for official conduct prevailed to so great an extent at
Athens: no person who had had any share in the govern-
ment or administration was exempted from it; the Senate
of 500, even the Areopagus, at least after the loss of their
great power, were bound to render an account: even the
priests and priestesses were obliged to produce accounts
for the gifts (yega); so also whole families, such as the
Eumolpida and Ceryces, and even the trierarchs, although
the latter furnished every thing at their own expence; no
person who had not rendered his account, could go abroad,
consecrate his property to a god, or even dedicate a sacred
offering; no one could make a will, or be adopted from
one family into another; in short, the legislature had
mortgaged the whole property of the individual until he
had passed his scrutiny 169. In the same manner no
Nicon. p. 864. extr. ὑπογραμματεῦσαι οὐκ ἔξεστι δὶς τὸν αὐτὸν τῇ
dex r aur, although the expression is somewhat singular; but
from the context it appears to me that this is the only way in
which it can be understood.
169 Æschin. in Ctesiph. p. 405 sqq.
254
honorary gift or reward (such for example as a crown)
could be awarded to a person who had not passed his
scrutiny 170. The Dicasts alone were free from this
obligation 171. Now those authorities whose business.
it was
to pass and examine the accounts of public
officers were according to Aristotle 172 called in the Greek
States, in some places εὔθυνοι, in others λογισταὶ, ἐξετασταὶ,
οι συνήγοροι. That the Logistæ of the Athenians were
employed in matters of calculation is proved by their
name; the Euthuni were in intimate connexion with them:
the difference between their duties was not however, as is
supposed by some, that the Logistæ had authority in those
cases only which concerned the administration of public
money, while the Euthuni acted in all other cases; but all
questions belonged indiscriminately to either authority.
In the examinations of persons who either had or had not
the management of money, the Logistæ, after the account
had been rendered before them and the secretary (pro-
bably of the senate and the people), brought the cause into
court, where they gave out by means of the Herald that
they were ready to hear any accusation 173. The intimate
connexion between the two offices is strikingly proved by
the decree in Andocides, in which mention is made of those
whose accounts were found unsatisfactory in the Logisteria
by the Euthuni or the assessors, and affording ground for
an indictment 174: lastly subuva is often used in speaking of
·
170 Æsch. and Demosth. pro Corona.
171 Arist. Vesp. 585. See Hudtwalcker von den Diäteten p. 32.
172 Polit. in the last chapter of the 6th book.
173 Æschin. in Ctesiph. p. 403 sqq. Demosth. pro Corona,
p. 266. 9.
174 De Myst. p. 37. ὅσων εὐθυναί τινές εἰσι κατεγνωσμέναι ἐν τοῖς
λογιστηρίοις (see Lysias in Polystr. p. 672.) ὑπὸ τῶν εὐθύνων ἢ τῶν
ار
255
the Logistæ and λoyouòs in speaking of the Euthuni; and
the Etymologist says 175 that in his time those were called
Logista who formerly had borne the name of Euthuni.
The distinction between them had been explained by
Aristotle in the Constitution of Athens 176; but the gram-
marians do not give any precise information upon this
point. According to Harpocration 177, there were ten
Logistæ, to whom every person gave an account of
his proceedings within thirty days after the expiration of
his office; and the same number of Euthuni, whose duties
were precisely the same. All authorities agree in stating
that both the Logista and Euthuni were ten in number 178.
Tagidęw. The last words appear to be an interpretation
which has crept into the text: but I do not venture to strike
them out, as assessors of the Euthyni were elected.
175 In v.
Ebuvo, from whom Photius and Zonaras took; in the
latter of which grammarians read Πλάτων Νόμων δωδεκάτῳ.
176 Ap. Harpocrat.
•
177 In v. λoyiσtal and buvo, and thence Suidas and Photius in
v. λoyioral and evvo, also Lex. Seg. p. 245, 276. The person
is called εὔθυνος and εὐθύνης, in the plural εὔθυνοι and εὐθύναι, the
proceeding is buva (see the law in Demosth. c. Timocrat.
p. 717. 19. where however it is falsely accented sůlúva), in the
plural sovvas; likewise sun, which the grammarians quote as
the common form, but which is perhaps of later origin. [Doc-
tissimo Boeckhio Staatshaush. d. Athener I. p. 205. lvvæ
ή εύθυνα
antiquior forma esse videtur, siún contra recentior. Sed ana-
logiæ dialecti Atticæ magis consentaneum est eluvŋ. Nullum
enim, quod sciam, apud Atticos vocabulum in va invenitur. De
vva non Attico vid. Phryn. p. 23. Lob. et Rühnk. ad Tim.
p. 26. Contra κορύνη, αἰσχύνη, ταμύνη, etc. Quamobrem apud
Atticos forma ai siuvas ubique anteponenda est formæ ai subvvat.
Göttling ad Aristot. Polit. p. 359.]
178 Etymol. in v. buvot, Photius, and Pollux VIH. 45. From
"/
€
256
Pollux gives us an important addition, viz. "that the
senate chose the Logistæ by lot, in order to attend,” as he
expresses himself, " upon the officers of the administration,"
that is, to watch over their conduct; "but the Euthuni
were chosen in addition, like the assessors of the nine Ar-
chons 179." What constituted the difference of their duties.
Pollux VIII. 99. Petit III. 2. 6. concludes that there were two
other Logistæ: but this passage refers, as has been already
observed, to the two checking-clerks.
179 Pollux VIII. 99, 100. where he says, oi de eübuvol, woπeg oi
πάρεδροι τοῖς ἐννέος ἄρχουσι, προσαιροῦνται. Comp. upon this point
Petit ut sup. [The Author has since referred the first part of this
passage from Pollux to the vrygaQs or checking-clerks, and
adopted the statement of the grammarians (Lex. Seg. p. 276. 17.
Etym. Mag. p. 569. 31.) that the Logist were appointed by
lot, Rheinisches Museum p. 82. It is however singular that the
author, as well as his antagonist, should have missed one of the
most explicit passages on the subject, viz. in a grammarian pub-
lished by Mr. Dobree at the end of Photius p. 672. Aoyioral
καὶ συνηγόροι· ᾿Αριστοτέλης ἐν τῇ ᾿Αθηναίων πολιτείᾳ οὕτω λέγει· λογισταὶ
δὲ αἱροῦνται δέκα, παρ᾽ οἷς διαλογίζονται πᾶσαι αἱ ἀρχαὶ τά τε λήμματα
καὶ τὰς γεγενημένας δαπάνας· καὶ ἄλλοις (ἄλλοι) δέκα συνηγόροις
(συνήγοροι), οἵτινες συνανακρίνουσι τούτοις. καὶ οἱ τὰς εὐθύνας διδόντες παρὰ
τούτοις ἀνακρίνοντες πρῶτον, εἶτα ἐφίενται εἰς τὸ δικαστήριον εἰς ἕνα καὶ φʹ.
This passage seems to shew that the Logista were not chosen by
lot (αἱροῦνται, not κληροῦνται), and it is also a strong negative
proof of the identity of the Logista and Euthuni. The cvvyogu
are mentioned in another grammarian quoted by the author in
note 186. συνήγοροι ἄρχοντες ἦσαν κληρωτοὶ, οἳ τοῖς λογισταῖς ἐβοήθουν
πρὸς τὰς εὐθύνας τῶν ἀρξάντων τινὰ ἀρχήν. Here however it is stated
that the ovvyoga were chosen by lot: perhaps in the former
passage we should read κληροῦνται for αἱροῦνται. These συνήγοροι
therefore seem to have been quite distinct from the public advo-
cates (although the contrary appears also to be maintained by
Schömann, as quoted in the Attische Process p. 102., de Comitiis.
257
i.
can even in general be arrived at only by conjecture. The
Logista were the chief persons, and to them the accounts
were delivered, into the correctness of which they ex-
amined; they also, as the calculators of the State, super-
intended the payment of the public debts 180. But while
the accounts were being examined (λογισμὸς or λόγος), or
even afterwards, if an accuser came forward (who was
however obliged to appear within a certain time 181, 1. e.
within thirty days after the expiration of the office),
questions were put and answers required concerning the
correctness of the statements (suluva), a point which it
would be difficult and tedious to explain: now it is for this,
that the Euthuni appear to have been appointed as assistants
to the Logistæ, as may be inferred from their name. The
Euthuni or their assessors might decide that the account
was unsatisfactory, that money had been embezzled, bribes
received, &c. when such was the case, the affair was brought
before a court of justice, in the same manner as when a
public accuser came forward 182. The proceedings which
p. 108. a book which I am unable to refer to); they were pro-
bably the same as the gdg mentioned by Andocides and
others. The public advocates are stated by Photius (in v.
ruvyogo) to have been nominated by election (xugotovía). In the
passage also from the Politics quoted in note 172. Aristotle men-
tions λογισταὶ, εὔθυνοι, and συνήγοροι as synonymous terms.]
180 Inscript. 76. §. 4. λóyos and λoyous is the account, the
ún or defence of the account was commonly connected with
it, as e. g. in Inscript. 76. §. 8. Eschin. in Ctesiph. p. 397,
403. &c.
181 Pollux VIII. 45.
182 In the Archonship of Alexias in Olymp. 93. 4. by the
decree of Patrocleides, the public debtors were remitted their
debts up to the end of the preceding year (Olymp. 93. 3. in the
VOL. I.
$
258
belonged to this stage (which are even here called
И
Archonship of Callias), and those who had been condemned to
Atimia for non-payment were restored to their civil rights. By
this law, pardon was at the same time extended to those owv
εὔθυναί τινές εἰσι κατεγνωσμέναι ἐν τοῖς λογιστηρίοις ὑπὸ τῶν εὐθύνων ἢ τῶν
παρέδρων, ἢ μήπω εἰσηγμέναι εἰς τὸ δικαστήριον γραφαί τινές εἰσι περὶ τῶν εὐθυ-
νῶν, with the addition of the date εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον χρόνον. For the
explanation of this passage I subjoin the following remarks. It
was not only the public debts and Atimia that were remitted, to
which the debtors had become subject by a punishment which
had been previously adjudged, but it was also enacted that the
actions against public officers which were at that time instituted
on account of incorrect accounts, should be disannulled, i. e. that
the causes which had not been yet decided, but were still de-
pending, should be quashed. These however were of two kinds.
In the first place the Euthuni or their assessors in the examina-
tion of the accounts had decided that certain public officers were
guilty, and had determined to institute proceedings against them
(εὔθυναι κατεγνωσμέναι ἐν τοῖς λογιστηρίοις), although by these means, as
a court of justice could alone pass sentence, no punishment had as
yet been assigned; or an accuser had brought forward complaints
with regard to the accounts of the public servants, who were
undergoing the scrutiny, but the accusations were still in the
hands of the presidents of the courts of justice and not yet
brought before the court itself (γραφαὶ περὶ τῶν εὐθυνῶν μήπω εἰσηγμέναι
sis rò dixartúgiov): both kinds of cases were to be put an end to.
Among the first elass of cases those also were included which
had not yet been brought before the court of justice, which as
being self-evident are therefore not mentioned; but the former
class is particularly noticed, because the accused who were
comprised in it previously laboured under the prejudice of an
office, and appeared to be more injured than the others. It may
be also asked why those persons are not mentioned whose causes
subsequent upon the decision of the Euthuni had been brought
before the court previously to the end of the preceding year, but
had not been decided. No cases however of this kind could have
259
sutuva) 183, were instituted by the chief authority, the
εύθυναι)
Logista; who conducted the actions, and composed
the tribunal which gave judgment in the case 184. In
bringing on the action it is possible that the Euthuni
again assisted the chief authority: and perhaps too,
as Pollux asserts, they enforced the payment of em-
bezzled monies and fines, instead of the Practores. Pho-
tius 185 alone states that each Euthunus had two asses-
sors, but he is supported by the words of Andocides:
Lastly, the public advocates (σvvýyogo) afforded assistance
to the Logistæ 186. Any person who neglected to render
his account could be prosecuted by a particular action
(δίκη ἀλογίου) 187.
existed, because when the cause had been once brought before the
court the decision immediately ensued, without the defendant
being able to delay it by objections or cross suits.
183 Pollux ut sup.
184 Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 395 sqq. and 408. Suidas in v.
ulum, Lex. Rhet. (Seg. p. 245. also Lex. Seg. p. 310. 6.) Etym.
and Phot. in the passages quoted by Ruhnken ad Tim. p. 126.
See Petit ut sup.
185 Εὔθυνος· ἀρχὴ ἦν τις. ἐξ ἑκάστης δὲ φυλῆς ἕνα κληροῦσι, τούτῳ δὲ
δύο παρέδρους : in which passage the εὔθυνοι are falsely represented
as chosen by lot, which is only true of the Logistæ. Hesychius
in v. sitúas only speaks incidentally of the assessors of the Archons,
the word sibúvas occurring in a passage of Aristotle concerning
the latter officers: no one should therefore be led into error by
this article.
156 Lex. Seg. p. 301.
187 Suidas, Hesychius, Etymol. in v. ahoylov díxn, Poll. VIII. 54.
Το approve the accounts is called τὰς εὐθύνας ἐπισημαίνεσθαι. De-
mosth. pro Corona p. 310.21. Επισημαίνεσθαι means to approve,
ve (cf. Æsch. wigi wagangerß. p. 230. Harpocrat. in v. ix-
ἐπι-
onaivoda, and thence Suidas and Zonaras p. 848. cf. p. 830. and
260
From what has been said it is evident that there was no
want at Athens of well-conceived and strict regulations;
but what is the use of provident measures, where the
spirit of the administration is bad? Men have at all times
been unjust and covetous and unprincipled, and above all
the Greeks distinguished themselves for the uncontrolled
gratification of their own desires, and their contempt for
the happiness of others. If any competent judge of moral
actions will contemplate their character without prejudice,
and unbiassed by their high intellectual endowments, he
will find that their private life was unsocial, and devoid of
virtue; that their public conduct was guided by the lowest
passions and preferences; and, what was the worst of all, that
there existed a hardness and cruelty in the popular mind,
and a want of moral principle to a far greater degree than
in the Christian world. The display of noble actions, it is
true, has ceased, and will never re-appear with the same bril-
liancy; but the principles of the majority of mankind have
been elevated, even if we allow that some distinguished indi-
viduals in ancient times were as pure as the most exalted
characters of modern days; and in this general elevation
consists the progress of mankind. When we consider then
the principles of the Greeks, which are sufficiently seen
from their historians and philosophers, it cannot be a
matter of surprise that fraud was used by public officers at
the editor's note) because that which is signed and sealed is
approved of by him to whom the decision belongs: however it
may be possible that after the accounts had been found to be
correct by the proper authorities, the testimony of their correct-
ness was added in writing and confirmed by a seal, so that
ἐπισημαίνεσθαι τὰς εὐθύνας may signify the approval of them which
was vouched by being sealed in this manner.
261
Athens in so great a matter as the regulation of the days: in
the early times of the Republic Aristides accused his con-
temporary Themistocles of this deceit; it was even the com-
mon opinion that there existed a certain prescriptive right
to the commission of this fraud, and a person who had scru-
ples on the subject was censured for his too great strictness 188.
Every where we meet with instances of robberies and
embezzlement of money by public officers; even the sacred
property was not secure from sacrilegious hands. The
Romans had at least a period in which fidelity and honesty
were practised and esteemed: but among the Greeks these
qualities will be sought for in vain. All officers of finance
were bound by a solemn oath to administer without
peculation the money entrusted to their care; "but if in
Greece," says the faithful Polybius 189, "the State entrusted
to any one only a talent, and if it had ten checking-clerks,
and as many seals and twice as many witnesses, it could
not ensure his honesty." The officers of finance were
therefore not unfrequently condemned to death or to
loss of property and imprisonment; sometimes indeed
unjustly, when money had accidentally been lost 190; but
the Logista allowed themselves to be disgracefully bribed
in order to enable the offender to evade the legal penalty 191
Even the great Pericles does not appear to have been free
from the charge of peculation, if at least the story is true
which represents Alcibiades to have said, on hearing
that Pericles was occupied in preparing his accounts for
the people, that he would be better occupied in endeavouring
188 Plutarch. Aristid. 4.
189 VI. 56.
190 Comp. e. g. Demosth. in Timoth. p. 1187, 1197. in
Timocrat. p. 742 sqq.
191 Æschin. in Timarch. p. 126.
262
1
to render none at all 192. The comic poets, who under-
mined the fame of every distinguished person, have also
brought against him charges which are doubtless exag-
gerated; for example Aristophanes in the comedy of
the Clouds misunderstands and ridicules an item in the
account of Pericles which he had rendered in his capacity
of general, although in this instance he was free from all
blame. The truth is that he had charged ten talents,
without specifying the particular object to which they had
been applied; but the charge was allowed by the people,
as it was well known that they had been used for purposes
of bribery, and that the names of those who had received
them could not be mentioned without offending Pleistonax
the king of Sparta, and the Harmost Cleandrides 193.
There is however a very general tradition that Pericles
was in great difficulties with his accounts. Before the
breaking out of the Peloponnesian war, Phidias the sculptor
was subjected, by means as, it appears, of a conspiracy,
to an examination respecting some gold which he was
accused of having embezzled 194; on that occasion Pericles
extricated himself and Phidias from the difficulty. But
other attacks were made upon him for the purposes of
annoyance; and at last when the Athenians were dissatisfied
192 Plutarch. Alcib. 7. Diod. XII. 38.
193 Aristoph. Nub. 858. and the Scholiast, and thence Suidas
in v. δέον, Εφοροι, εἰς δέον, εἰς τὸ δέον, Lex. Seg. p. 234. The
Scholiast of Aristophanes says twenty, Suidas in one place fifteen,
in another fifty talents: I have followed the statement of Plutarch
(Pericl. 22, 23.) which has greater probability.
194 Plutarch. Pericl. 31. This cause instituted against Pericles
is alluded to by Plato Gorg. p. 516. A. where see Heindorf: the
Scholiast of Aristophanes and Suidas confuse this with other
things.
263
with his lavish expenditure 195, they required an account
of his financial administration. The importance of this
transaction is evident from the proceedings which were
proposed for it: the account was to have been referred to
the Prytanes; and according to the decree of Dracontides,
the judges were to vote from the altar upon the Acropolis,
which was the most solemn method of deciding. This last
ceremony was dispensed with by the interference of Hagnon,
and it was directed that five hundred judges should sit in
judgment upon this case, in which it was uncertain whether
there had been peculation or some other offence 196. In
order to put an end to this contest, in which he was in
danger of falling a sacrifice both to party rage and indi-
vidual perfidy, Pericles is said to have engaged his country
in a war 197; a severe accusation, which however will be in
some degree diminished, if it is considered that several
causes contributed, and that this selfish motive might only
have added strength to other inducements. I am the less
inclined wholly to acquit Pericles of this charge, because
Aspasia is also said to have contributed to the undertaking
of the Samian war.
In order that the accounts rendered by persons who had
filled public offices should have the greatest possible pub-
licity, and that it should be in the power of every one to
bring forward accusations, these accounts were, like the
195 Plutarch. Pericl. 14.
196 Plutarch. ibid. 32.
197 Plut. ibid. 31, 32. Diod. XII. 38 sqq. Aristoph. Pac. 604 sqq.
and Schol. Concerning the difficulties in arranging the date see
Dodwell Annal. Thucyd. in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian
war, and Heyne (Antiquarische Aufsätze I. p. 188 sq.) who
has well examined the question. Concerning the Samian war see
Plutarch. Pericl. 25.
264
decrees, engraved on stone and exposed in public. Thus
Lycurgus set up the account for his administration before
the wrestling-school which he had built a short time pre-
viously 198; a fragment of a similar account of the treasurer
of the administration and manager of the public revenue,
and probably of this very one made by Lycurgus, has been
preserved to our days. In like manner the treasurers of
the goddess and of the other gods were obliged to have an
account of what they had received, disbursed, and de-
livered to their successors, engraved upon stone and set up
in the Acropolis 199: Chandler has published three in-
scriptions of this kind, and saw still more in the Par-
thenon 200, and some have been brought to England by
198 Life of Lycurgus at the end, in the Lives of the Ten
Órators.
* See Boeckh. Corp. Insc. I. p. 250. No. 157.
199 Inscript. 76. §. 7, 8.
200 Chandl. Syllab. p. 17. of his Inscript. Antiq. besides those
which I have published. The inedited inscriptions occur in Lord
Elgin's collection, as stated by Visconti in his Memoire. No. 36.
upon two sides of a stone, upon one side of which there are forty,
on the other more than fifty lines, of the writing before Euclid.
The authorities are the treasurers of sacred money (rauiaι tãr
isgŵr xenuárar), the articles enumerated partly weighed, partly
unweighed (Tabua). The first line contains the words in Hava-
θηναίων ἐς Παναθήναια: which is to be explained from what is said in
the text. No. 37. also a fragment, written in the ancient manner,
upon both sides of the stone, each of which contains more than
forty lines. The first side begins with ididosav rèn λóyor, the other
with HHHHAA. This inscription is evidently allied to Nos.
109 and 141 ed. Boeckh. No. 38. another fragment of the same
description in the ancient manner of writing, written in the same
No. 46. a fragment of the same kind as the two inscrip-
tions just mentioned, but very imperfect: there are forty-five
way.
265
Lord Elgin. Several documents of this description, some
money-accounts, some lists of treasures belonging to tem-
ples, delivered over to other treasurers, which were ac-
curately weighed, have come down to our days; among
which may be mentioned the remarkable account given
by the Amphictyons of Delos, of their revenues, ex-
pences, and outstanding debts. Lastly, we know that
the Poletæ also fixed up lists of confiscated property
(Snμióπgara), (whether before or after the sale is uncertain),
upon tablets of stone, some in the Acropolis, some at
Eleusis 201, and doubtless also in other places; and pro-
bably a fragment of an inscription now extant was a part
of a document of this nature. Monuments of this kind
are necessarily destroyed by length of time; but it is
much to be lamented that we should not be possessed of
those which had been collected by Greek antiquarians.
The Attic Epigrams of Philochorus were probably only
poetical inscriptions; but the traveller Polemon, who from
his fondness for inscriptions had acquired the surname of
Stelocopas (anλoxóñas), wrote four books on the sacred
offerings upon the Acropolis 202, as well as copiously upon
other inscriptions, and collected decrees 203 engraved upon
1
lines remaining. No. 50 a later inscription which contains a
catalogue of treasures belonging to a temple, of large size.
Concerning these inscriptions see also the Earl of Elgin's Pur-
suits in Greece, p. 17, 18.
201 Casaub. ad Athen. XI. p. 476. E. Hemsterh. ad Poll. X.
96.
↳ Boeckh. Corp. Inscript. I. p. 286. No. 161.
202 Athen. VI. 234. D. and Casaubon's note.
205 An example occurs in Athen. VI. p. 234. E. From him
also the inscription in the Anaceum (p. 235. B.) is no doubt
taken.
266
stone, particularly at Athens; a collection of decrees, most
of them doubtless taken from inscriptions, was given to
the world by Craterus 204. Another collection of the
registers of the Demioprata was likewise extant, and is
frequently quoted by Pollux in the tenth book 205, and
once by Athenæus; from this source the former writer
drew his information respecting the confiscated property of
Alcibiades 206; and in this collection of the Demioprata
there were also accounts of the treasurers of the Acropolis
concerning the cession of the sacred treasures, probably
from the work of Polemon; among others one which by
chance has come down to our time and is now in England 207.
Probably the list of the sacred offerings upon the Acropolis
quoted by Pollux 208, was set up during the Archonship
204 Plutarch. Cim. 13. From some such collection the decrees
which occur in the Lives of the Ten Orators are borrowed.
205 Vid. ad Inscript. 161.
206 Pollux X. 36.
207 Vid. ad Inscript. XIII. 1. 38.
208 ᾿Αναγραφὴ τῶν ἐν ᾿Ακροπόλει ἀναθημάτων, Χ. 26. The quota-
tions that are made from this catalogue occur in two inscriptions
still extant. vid. ad Inscript. XII. §. 25. There is no mention
of any Archon Alcibiades. Pollux probably confounded the first
treasurer of the goddess or of the gods, whose name stood at the
head of the inscription, with the Archon. If Alcibiades had not
been a treasurer upon the Acropolis, how could it have come to
pass that he, as Plutarch relates in the life of Alcibiades, had in
his house many gold and silver ornaments for processions be-
longing to the State, which he used as his own property? If he
held the office of treasurer upon the Acropolis he would have had
the means of doing this. The account given by Andocides (in
Alcib. p. 126, 127.) is different from this story of Plutarch taken
from Phæax, where he speaks of ornaments for processions,
which Alcibiades had borrowed from the Architheori of Athens
for the sake of his triumphal festival. This has been also
267
of Alcibiades, that is, a memorial of the treasurers' ac-
counts, of whom he was the first, borrowed from these
Demioprata.
(9.) But however essential the settlement of accounts
may be to a regular administration of finance, it is not of
itself sufficient. The first requisite is a correct estimate of
the revenue and expenditure, in order that the former
may be sufficient to meet the latter. It can hardly be
said that this was regularly performed in any Grecian
State; at the same time they must have been able from
experience and a comparison of the public accounts to form
a tolerable judgment as to the amount of the regular
income and expenditure, and how far the former was or
was not sufficient, and the latter necessary or superfluous.
Aristotle says 209, Whoever wishes to deliberate upon
matters of finance must be acquainted with the revenues of
the State, what and how great they are; in order that if
any branch of them is deficient, it may be added, and if too
small, it may be increased. He should also know all the
expences of the State, in order that if any one is super-
fluous, it may be retrenched, and if too large, be curtailed.
For wealth is augmented not only by increasing revenue,
but by diminishing expenditure: and these things a man
cannot learn from his own individual experience; but it is
also necessary in order to deliberate upon subjects of this
nature that he should have the habit of inquiring into the
discoveries of others." Here the questions are clearly
laid down which a minister at the head of the public
revenue should undertake to consider; it may however be
observed by Ruhnken Hist. Crit. Orat. p. 138. vol. VIII. of
Reiske's Orators.
209 Rhet. I. 4. cf. Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. III. 6. 4—6.
268
fairly questioned whether the Athenians always went
correctly to work in the difficult application of these
simple principles. The necessity, and afterwards the
habits or convenience of the people, introduced cer-
tain expences; the time soon came when the revenues
were not sufficient to defray them, and then the former
were to be diminished or the latter increased; of these
alternatives it must be supposed that they generally took
the latter, and this without previously making any correct
estimate. This was the case to a greater degree in their
extraordinary expences, and after the public treasure had
been exhausted, all the great enterprizes were checked by
a want of supplies. With regard to the Athenian Revenue
we have its amount at different periods of the republic;
but of that of the Expenditure we know but little, except
that it varied very much at different times. I shall treat
of the latter first; but as it is a subject connected with
many parts of ancient history, it will for that reason be
impossible for me to give so complete and satisfactory an
account of it as of the revenue, and I must be content
with touching upon the chief points. The regular ex-
penditure may be arranged under the following heads:
expences of buildings, police, celebration of festivals,
donations to the people, pay for certain public services in
time of peace, maintenance of the poor, public rewards,
and the providing of arms, ships, and cavalry in time of
peace. Extraordinary expences were occasioned by war,
of which I will speak at the end of this book.
(10.) The public buildings, the magnificence and splen-
did execution of which still excite astonishment even in
their ruins, were constructed at so great an expence, that
they could not have been attempted without the treasure
derived from the tributes: their maintenance alone re-
269
quired a considerable standing expence. I will only
mention the building of the Piraeus by Themistocles, the
fortification of it together with the other harbours, the
market-place of the Hippodamus, the theatre and the
many temples and sacred edifices, in the Piraeus: the
docks, in which the ships lay as it were under cover, cost
1000 talents, and after having been destroyed in the
Anarchy by the contractors for three talents, were again
restored and finally completed by Lycurgus 210. A splen-
did edifice in the Piraeus was the Arsenal built by Philon
and destroyed by Sulla (σxevołýxn, óæλolýxn) 211. The forti-
fications of Athens were enormous; besides the Acropolis,
the city and the Piraeus with Munychia were respectively
fortified the two latter embraced a circumference of eight
English miles, with walls sixty Grecian feet high, which
Pericles wished to make as much as double this height;
and at the same time so wide that two carriages could
easily pass one another upon them; they were built of
square stones without cement, joined together with iron
cramps; the city and the harbour were also connected by
the long walls, the longer of which was equal to forty
stadia (five English miles), the shorter to thirty-five; built
upon marshy ground raised with stones. And these im-
mense works were restored after their destruction in the
time of the thirty tyrants: for which purpose the Athe-
nians were, it is true, assisted by a donation of money from
Persia 212. To these were added in time of war, ramparts
of earth, trenches and parapets for the strengthening of
the works together with the fortification of smaller places
:
210 Isocrat. Areopag. 27. Meurs. Fort. Att. VII..
211 Meurs. ibid.
212 Xenoph. Hellen. IV. 8. 12.
270
in Attica. Thus Eleusis was fortified as being an ancient,
and formerly an independent city; also Anaphlystus, as
we learn from Xenophon 213 and Scylax; so again Sunium
was fortified in the Peloponnesian war 214, as well as
Thoricus 215 and Enoë a stronghold upon the Boeotian
frontier216; together with the secure defences of Phyle217;
lastly Aphidna and Rhamnus, which in the time of Philip,
together with Phyle, Sunium, and Eleusis, were used as
places of refuge 218. But how great was the number of
splendid buildings which the city and its environs con-
tained; if we consider the spaces used for the assembly, the
courts of justice, and markets, the highly ornamented
porticos, the Pompeum, Prytaneum, Tholus, Senate-house,
and other buildings for the public offices; the innumerable
temples, the Theatre, the Odeum, wrestling-schools, Gym-
nasia, Stadia, Hippodromes, aqueducts, fountains, baths,
together with the buildings belonging to them, &c. 219. And
again how great must have been the expence of the works upon
the Acropolis. The entrance alone, the Propylæa, which
occupied five years in its construction, cost 2012 talents 220.
Here too the numerous temples, the Temple of Victory, the
Erectheum, with the Temple of Minerva Polias and the
Pandrosium, and the splendid Parthenon, all these were
213 De Vectig. 4. 44. Scylax mentions four fortresses, Eleusis,
Anaphlystus, Sunium, and Rhamnus.
214 Thucyd. VIII. 4.
215 Xenoph. Hell. I. 2. 1. Cf. de Vectig. ut sup.
216 Thucyd. II. 18.
217 Xenoph. Hell. II. 4. 2. Diod. XIV. 32. Nep. Thrasyb. 2.
218 Demosth. de Coron. p. 238.
219 Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 2. 10.
220 Heliodorus ap. Harpocrat. and Suidas in v. goúraia, cf.
Phot. where read ßß′ from the Dresden manuscript.
271
adorned with the most costly statues and works of art, and
enriched with gold and silver vessels. And besides these
great works, how many were the perpetual small expences,
of which we have scarcely any notion, that occurred in an
ancient State: for example, the building of altars, which
were always erected for certain festivals 221. Here we may
also mention the construction of roads, not only as regards
the paving of streets in Athens, but the formation of the
roads to the harbours, of the sacred road to Eleusis and
perhaps to Delphi as far as the boundary, since it is
asserted that the Athenians first opened the road to this
place. I grant that the Romans and Carthaginians expended
more money upon the construction of roads than the
Greeks; but roads were formed which were much travelled
over, and intended in particular for sacred processions;
these were not merely constructed with an uneven pave-
ment, but were made firm and smooth with small stones
taken out of the quarries 222. For the superintendence of
all these labours there were some regular officers, and some
only appointed for certain periods. Over the docks and the
ships that lay in them, the inspectors of the docks (étiμeλntai
Twν vεwgíwv) were placed 223; for the repairs of the
τῶν νεωρίων)
221 Plutarch. in vit. Demosth. 27.
222
Σκῦρον as well as λατύπη is what breaks off in the hewing
of stone, and sometimes even signifies mortar. From this is
derived σxvgwrn idòs, of which kind there was one at Cyrene for
processions (Pindar Pyth. V. 90 sqq.), consequently it is not a
paved road, but made in the same manner as ours, only with
great care. Σκυρωτὴ ὁδὸς is however interpreted by λιθόστρωτος,
and therefore it seems to me probable that this word does not
always mean a paved road, but one formed with stones.
223 Sigon. R. A. IV. 3. where he also speaks of the builders
of the walls.
272
walls certain commissioners (TEIXOTOιì) were named, the most
distinguished amongst all the directors of the public works
(ἐπισταταὶ τῶν δημοσίων ἔργων) 224, who, like the builders of
the Triremes, were elected one from each tribe 225. Over
other buildings a manager of public works had the
superintendence: it was in this capacity that Pericles,
and subsequently Lycurgus, undertook so many works of
architecture 226. In the building of the temple of Minerva
Polias, we likewise find directors (IoTaTai), who had
a clerk 227, and probably every temple always had directors
of this kind, who together with the priests and sacrificers
(iegoTooì) composed a college or board 228. Similar autho-
rities were appointed for the care of the roads and of the
supply of water (ὁδοποιοὶ, ἐπισταταὶ τῶν ὑδάτων) 229. The Asty-
nomi composed the street police, five in the city and as many
in the Piraeus: among other duties they had to attend to
the cleansing of the streets, and had on that account the
superintendence of the scavengers (xogoλóyoi) 230. All
224 Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 400. Poll. VIII. 114. falsely includes
them among the ὑπηρέται, as well as the sacrificers (ἱεροποιοὶ) and
Boönæ.
225 Eschin. ut sup. p. 422, 425.
226 Plutarch Pericl. (cf. Diod. XII. 39.) and the Life of Ly-
curgus in the Lives of the Ten Orators.
227 Chandler Inscript. II. 1.
228 At least so the passage in Inscript. 76. §. 7. may be in-
terpreted.
229 Sigon. ut sup. p. 176. vol. I. of his works. Petit. Leg. Att.
V. 1. 3. Concerning the odorool see more particularly Eschin. in
Ctesiph. p. 419. and the comic poet ap. Plutarch. Præc. Polit. 15.
The xenvouλaxes mentioned by Sigonius probably were not
public officers (see the note of the editor upon the passage
quoted).
230 Aristot. ap. Harpocrat. in v. tvvóμo.
273
works of building undertaken by the Public were by
the proper authorities let to Contractors (gyóλaßoi), as
was the case at Rome; this is particularly mentioned
of the repairs of the Temples and public Buildings 231.
and an enquiry was made from time to time, probably
at the change of office, how far the building had pro-
ceeded, and what was still remaining to be done. An
inscription in which the unfinished parts of the building
of the temple of Minerva Polias in the Archonship of
Diocles (Olymp. 92. 4.) are recited, has been preserved
to our days 232.
The amount of money expended upon works of build-
ing was necessarily quite undefined, aud must obviously
have depended upon the quantity of disposable revenue
and the necessity of the projected work. Demosthenes
received nearly ten talents for the repairs of the walls 233;
but it is uncertain whether, as he was appointed only
for the tribe Pandionis, he received all the money, or
whether it was divided between him and his nine col-
leagues, which last supposition is rendered more probable
from the circumstance of several Treasurers being men-
tioned that the expences of building were defrayed by
the State and not by the Tribes, as might appear from
another passage of Æschines, is sufficiently manifest from
the fact that the money was furnished by the Administration.
Probably the commissioner of each tribe had a particular
part of the walls to repair, and Demosthenes received the
sum just mentioned for the expence of his share; this being
insufficient, he added, according to the testimony of a con-
231 Petit. Leg. Att. I. 2. 7.
232 Chandler as above. Edited more correctly by Wilkins.
233 Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 415. cf. p. 425.
VOL. I.
T
274
temporary decree, and of another which was made sub-
sequently, three talents of his own money, in addition to
which he caused two trenches to be drawn round the
Piraeus at his own expence 234. Conon, the son of
Timotheus, was obliged to repair a part of the walls at a
cost of ten talents. In general the surplus of the re-
venue only was applied to building, unless necessity com-
pelled the infraction of this rule: thus in an ancient
decree it is ordered that whatever should remain over and
above the money assigned for the payment of the public
debts should be applied to the repairs of the Docks
and Walls 235. In the time of Pericles this overplus
was extraordinarily great on account of the large sums
produced by the tributes, and out of this fund the
public treasure was formed; thus he was able, as Plu-
tarch 236 says, to build temples which cost even 1000
talents, and in fact he used 3700 talents out of the
treasury for works of Architecture and for the Poti-
dæan War 237, besides what he may have added from
the current revenue. Before his time, not only Pisistratus
but Themistocles and Cimon had spent much money in
building; after these Conon deserves to be mentioned, as
the restorer of the walls, and Lycurgus, who completed the
234 Decret. ap. Demosth. de Cor. p. 266. and decrees in the
Lives of the Ten Orators. In Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 405. only a
hundred minas are mentioned, but evidently from a confusion
with the sum which he contributed as manager of the Theorica
(de Coron. p. 266.) he is followed by the author of the Lives of
the Ten Orators (p. 263. ed. Tübing.). Concerning Conon see
Nepos Timoth. 4.
235 Inscript. 76. §. 9.
236 Pericl. 12.
437 'Thuc. II. 13.
275
many works that had been left unfinished; the Docks, the
Arsenal, and the theatre of Bacchus: it was he who laid
the foundation of the Panathenaic Stadium, the Gymnasium,
Odeum, and Lyceum, embellished the city with several
other works, and moreover furnished many decorations
for processions, and for the temple of Minerva golden
statues of victory, and gold and silver ornaments for 100
Canephora 238. But upon the whole the public buildings
of this age were inconsiderable when compared with those
of earlier times, while the splendour of private buildings
had increased. "In ancient days," says Demosthenes 239,
every thing that belonged to the State was costly and
splendid, and no individual distinguished himself from the
multitude; and the proof of it is, that if any of you
know
the houses of Themistocles and Miltiades, and the famous
men of that time, he will see that they are not more mag-
nificent than those of other people; but the buildings and
constructions of the State were of such size and number,
that it is not in the power of succeeding generations to
surpass them-the Propylæa, the Docks, the Porticoes,
the Piraeus, and the other works with which you see
the city adorned! But now all who are concerned in the
management of public affairs have such a superfluity of
riches, that some have built private houses more mag-
nificent than many public edifices; and some of them
have purchased more land than all of you who are sitting
in the court are together possessed of; but your public
(C
258 See the passages in Meursius Fort. Att. p. 58. of the 4to
edition, where nothing is omitted but the original source, viz.
the third decree in the Lives of the Ten Orators.
Olynth. III. p. 35, 36. which
See the spurious speech wig
239 In Aristoc. p. 689. 11–24.
two passages I have combined.
ovyrážews from p. 174. 17. to p. 175. 12.
276
buildings and works, it is disgraceful to tell how scanty and
contemptible they are.
What indeed can be said of your
works? what of the parapets which we throw up? of the
roads which we construct, and the fountains, and the trifles
at which we labour?" Thus speaks the ardent enthusiast for
the happiness and fame of his country; his speeches of
admonition might with a few alterations be adapted to the
present age, in which such vast sums have been squandered
away without producing any thing useful or durable.
(11.) It is evident that the police could not possess that
distinct and important character among the Greeks, which
it has in the States of modern Europe, as from their re-
publican government, judicial decisions were always pre-
ferred to the operations of police. It is indeed wholly
impossible for such an institution as a secret police to exist
as a separate establishment in a democracy: but a strict
and vigilant inspection was produced by the privilege
which the citizens possessed of coming forward as accusers
in all things which affected the public interest, though this
right was not exercised without cunning, envy, and ca-
lumny. There existed a system of watching and espionage,
which in its consequences was not less pernicious than the
worst institutions of modern despots; although it had the
double advantage over these, that no person could be
condemned without a public trial, and that it cost the
State nothing. The only kind of Police which existed as
a distinct institution in ancient times, was that to which
was entrusted the performance of certain needful services,
such as the street-police, which was in the charge of the
Astynomi, together with that of the market, and traders:
which latter did not cause any expence and finally, some
institution must have been indispensable as well in respect
to the aliens, as to the maintenance of order and security
277
S
in the city, particularly in the public assembly. In all
the Grecian States, notwithstanding their hospitality,
foreigners were considered as enemies, and for that reason
they were at Athens under the jurisdiction of the Archon
Polemarchus, as at Rome under that of the Prætor Pere-
grinus: it is not improbable that the foreign police as well
as some establishment for granting passports was under his
direction, of which a slight indication occurs in a passage
of Aristophanes 240. For the maintenance of security and
order there was a city-guard composed of public slaves
(onμooo)241: these persons, although they were of low
rank, enjoyed a certain consideration, as the State em-
ployed them in the capacity of bailiffs. These public
slaves were sometimes also appointed for the trade-
police 242; and subordinate places, such as heralds and
checking-clerks, together with other offices in the assembly
and courts of justice, were filled by persons of the same
description. The public slaves who composed the city-
guard must be looked upon as a body-guard of the
Athenian people; which thus resembled Polycrates the
tyrant of Samos, who kept a thousand bowmen about his
own person 243. They are generally called bowmen
(Točótai), or, from the native country of the majority,
Scythians, also Speusinians; they lived under tents in the
market-place, and afterwards upon the Areopagus 244.
240 Av. 1209. and Schol. ad 1214. The name is oQgayis, ouμ-
βολον.
241 Concerning these see Harpocrat. Suid. Etym. Poll. IX. 10.
and Hemsterhuis' note, also Maussac ad Harpocrat. in v. dnpiéolos
Lex. Seg. p. 234.
242 Inscript. 123. §. 5 sqq.
243 Herod. III. 39, 45.
244 Poll. VIII. 132. and his commentators, Aristoph. Lysistrat.
278
:
Among their number there were also many Thracians
and other Barbarians. Their officers had the name of
Toxarchs (rotagxo)245. Their number increased progres-
sively in the first instance 300 were purchased soon
after the battle of Salamis 246: subsequently it rose,
according to the Scholiast to the Acharnenses of Aristo-
phanes and Suidas, to a thousand, according to Andocides
and Eschines, to 1200 247. It is evident that these troops.
437. Acharn. 54. Schneider ad Xenoph. Mem. Socrat. III. 6.
Lex. Seg. p. 234. Photius in v. Tožóta.
245 Inscript. 80.
246 Esch. Tigi Tagangirß. p. 335.
247 Æschin. ut sup. p. 336. χιλίους δὲ καὶ διακοσίους ἱππέας κατ-
εστήσαμεν καὶ τοξότας ἑτέρους τοσούτους. Hieronymus Wolf
asks whether 300 or 600 are meant, as he makes śrégous rocoúrovs
refer to the 300 mentioned in p. 335. which were first bought: it
is clear to me that Ergo ToroTo used in this manner can only
refer to the number which immediately precedes, and therefore
in this place only to χιλίους καὶ διακοσίους, and that here the whole
number of the bowmen is meant, including those that were first
bought, most of whom might besides have died and their vacan-
cies filled up. It is undeniably true as Hier. Wolf observes,
and as Viger has said after him, that once as many is often
said, when the preceding number is reckoned, and the same
number is added. But unquestionably, taken in its original and
strict sense, it means just as many, as eregos Toloûtos another person
of the same kind, as in Æsch. in Ctesiph. p. 448. ix IIeλoπovvýσov
μὲν πλείονας ἢ δισχιλίους ὁπλίτας, ἐξ ᾿Ακαρνανίας δὲ ἑτέρους τοσούτους.
That this is the force of it in the present passage is shewn more
particularly by Andocides de Pace p. 93. χιλίους τε καὶ διακοσίους
ἱππέας, καὶ τοξότας τοτούτους ἑτέρους κατεστήσαμεν, where the preceding
number fixes the meaning of roroÚTous. This also agrees the best
τοσούτους.
with Suidas and the Scholiast. There were 1200 horsemen at
Athens, but Xenophon only speaks of 1000. The same account
is given by Suidas and the Scholiast in reference to Æsehines.
31
279
might, if necessary, be used in the field; although the
Athenians had also free aliens, of whom I shall presently
speak. The expence which this regiment occasioned may
be nearly ascertained. As it was necessary for them to
be strong, able-bodied men, upon whom dependence could
be placed, the purchase-money cannot be fixed at less than
three or four minas apiece and as the whole number
would have required renewal about every thirty or forty
years, exclusively of any increased number of casualties
which might have been produced by war, thirty at least
must have been purchased annually, which would have
caused an expence of from one and half to two talents.
Their pay doubtless amounted to three oboli a day 248,
making altogether about 36 talents a year.
(12.) The celebration of festivals produced in the early
times of the Athenian republic, a profuseness of expen-
diture in no way inferior to that of the courts of luxurious
princes: this republican system however possessed several
advantages over the latter method of useless expenditure.
For in the first place, all the citizens partook in these
solemnities, and not a select few; in the second place they
were founded upon the duties of religion; and again, the
public games or contests, which had a powerful influence
in forming the national mind, awakened and improved
the taste and spirit of the people. To expend large sums
The only thing that can be remarkable is the word έrégovs, since
bowmen were not cavalry; this however is evidently according to
the same idiom, by which Xenophon says, τοὺς ὁπλίτας καὶ τοὺς
ἄλλους ἱππέας. Moreover the rest of the narration shew's that the
author is not speaking here of bowmen in general but of the
slaves, since the first three hundred are distinctly said to have
been bought.
248 From the traces in Inscript. 80.
280
1
of money on the fine arts, which appeared in the highest
perfection at the sacred festivals, upon costly but lasting
ornaments for the temples, upon choruses and musical
entertainments, and upon a theatre, which was so perfect
that it excelled equally in tragedy and comedy, were con-
sidered as acts of a liberal and noble mind. And while
the Athenians were led by their religious obligations to
these costly practices, the Spartans were satisfied to mani-
fest their piety by offering small sacrifices to the gods.
That the person who provides the sacrificial feast should
receive a share of the offering, appears both natural and
reasonable; but when the principal revenues of the State
were wasted upon public banquets, and the sacrifices were
maintained at the public expence not so much for the
purposes of religion, as for the support of the poor 249,
the policy of the Athenians was alike unjust and inexpe-
dient, inasmuch as the continuance of it without oppressing
the allies was impossible, and the State, being deprived of
the means of self-defence in a most frivolous and unpar-
donable manner, was led on to certain destruction. The
Athenians not only had twice as many festivals as other
Grecian States 250, but every thing was considered se-
condary to them. “The Panathenæa, the Dionysia,"
says Demosthenes 251, "are always celebrated at the proper
time, festivals on which you expend more money than on
any naval enterprize, and for which you make such pre-
parations as were never heard of elsewhere; but when you
send out a fleet it always arrives too late." Even Plutarch,
by nature of an admiring and laudatory turn of mind,
249 Cf. Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 2. 9.
250 Xenoph. ibid. 3. 8.
251 Philipp. I. p. 50. 3.
281
who with his beautiful style and amiable disposition has
misled the understandings of many readers by engaging
their feelings, in his Essay upon the Glory of Athens 252,
perceives this weak point. For after having enumerated
the various splendour of the tragedies, he thus proceeds.
"Gazing upon this the Lacedæmonian justly remarked that
the Athenians erred greatly in making serious matter of
trifles, that is, in expending upon the theatre sums suffi-
cient for the equipment of large fleets, and for the main-
tenance of great armies. For if it were calculated what
sum each play cost the Athenians, it would be found
that they had spent more treasure upon Bacchas, and
Phœnissæs, and Edipusses, and Antigones, and the woes
of Medea and Electra, than upon wars undertaken for
empire and for freedom against the Barbarians."
With the exception of the Theoricon, the most consi-
derable expences of the festivals were those for sacrifices,
plays, and processions. In many festivals all these three
were combined, as, for instance, at the great Dionysia;
and such festivals must therefore have been extremely
expensive 253. The sacrifices were of very different kinds;
a number of small offerings, consisting either of young
pigs, sheep, cocks, &c., or of cakes, and fruits, were sacri-
ficed to some god or object of worship: of this description
252 Cap. 6.
253 An account of the costliness of the Dionysia, especially on
account of the sacrifices, is given in the second book of Pseud-
Aristot. Econ. sec. 6. where it has been thought that Athens
was meant. It is however by no means certain that it relates to
that town, as may be seen from Schneider's note. It seems to
me most probable that it should be referred to Antissa, as the
man is called 'Avrioratos, who is mentioned as the originator of
the proposal there cited.
282
were the sacrifices performed before every public assembly
and every sitting of the senate and the courts of justice;
and, in the second place, more expensive sacrifices, which
had been in use from early times. The ancient and most
sacred offerings were called paternal sacrifices (Tάτgio
bvola), and were opposed to those which were made at
the more recent, or, as they were called, the additional
festivals (éπídetαi ograí). In the bad times which ensued,
the former were at most but sparingly solemnized, or were
sometimes entirely discontinued: at the celebration of the
latter great banquets were given, for which perhaps 300
oxen were slaughtered at the public cost, and the paternal
sacrifices were paid for out of the rents of the sacred
estates, or rather they were furnished by a contractor for a
certain sum, who was indemnified out of these rents 254.
It is easy to judge of the immense number of these great
sacrifices, from the fact, that the money received for skins
(deguatixov) in Olymp. 111. 3. amounted to 51483 drach-
254 Isocrat. Areopag. 11. Οὐδ᾽ εἴ ποτε μὲν δόξειεν αὐτοῖς, τριακοσίους
βοῦς ἔπεμπον· ὁπότε δὲ τύχοιεν, τὰς πατρίους θυσίας ἐξέλιπον· οὐδὲ τὰς μὲν
ἐπιθέτους ἑορτὰς (cf. Harpocrat. in h. v.), αἷς ἑστίασίς τις προσείη,
μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἦγον, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἁγιωτάτοις τῶν ἱερῶν ἀπὸ μισθωμάτων ἔθυον.
That ἀπὸ μισθωμάτων means ἐκ τῶν τεμενικῶν προσόδων, we learn
from Harpocration in this phrase. That the sacrifices were let
to contractors is shewn by the last words of this article: où yag
κατ᾽ εὐσέβειαν ἔθυον τὰ ἱερεῖα, ἀλλὰ μισθούμενοι, and more distinctly in
Lex. Seg. p. 207. of which I only transcribe the end: los yag v
τοῖς βουλομένοις μισθοῦσθαι τὰς θυσίας, καὶ τέλος ἦν τῶν θυσιῶν πωλούμενον
T Bouλouév: an incorrect expression, for how could it be called
a réλos, when a contractor undertook any thing at the expence of
the State? Concerning the neglect of the Targi burial see also
Lysias in Nicomach. in the passage quoted below, and concern-
ing the public banquets in the temples Petit I. 2. 1.
་
283
mas for only seven months. Thus 500 young kids were
sacrificed to Diana Agrotera alone at the festival for the
battle of Marathon 255: but the frequent sacrifices of oxen
were particularly designed to allure the people, on which
account Demosthenes 256 connects this donation of oxen
with the Theoricon. A hecatomb alone cost upon an
average a talent 257; and many other expences were neces-
sarily connected with these solemnities. The law of Solon
upon the sacred tablets (xúgßsis) had fixed the amount of
the sacrifices and of other solemnities; a single one was
rated at a talent. But this in the age of Lysias appeared
very inconsiderable: a secretary named Nicomachus, who
was employed to transcribe the laws, fixed it upon his own
authority at nine talents, and moreover at a moment when
the State had from poverty suffered the walls and docks to
fall out of repair, and was unable to pay three talents to
the Boeotians, as an indemnity for the reprisals made
against them by which means the State lost twelve
talents in two years, and was incapable of performing
the paternal sacrifices 258. Demosthenes, when he was
manager of the Theoricon, contributed 100 minas to the
sacrifices, which he paid out of that fund 259; a proof that,
>
• See Boeckh Inscript. T. I. p. 250. No. 157.
255 See the passages in my Preface to the Catalogue of the
Lectures in the University of Berlin, Summer, 1816. p. 4.
256 Olynth. p. 37. 6. These were presents from the public
coffers. Those referred to in the second Prytaneia of the Choiseul
Inscription are quite different.
257 Book I. 14.
258 Lysias in Nicomach. p. 856-860. which passage has not
been entirely understood by the Commentators.
259 Decret. ap. Demosth. de Coron. p. 266. 23. Lives of the
284
although it was for the most part well filled, it did not
satisfy the people. Besides the sacrifices furnished by the
State (dnμoteλn isga), there were many others provided by
particular corporations and societies, such, for instance, as
those furnished by the boroughs (onμorina iegà) and by the
companies of the Orgeones (ogywvxa) 260; not to mention
the feasting of the tribes, of which I will speak in a
subsequent part of this work. The entertainments at the
festivals were either musical or gymnastic, both being
attended with considerable expence. The choruses, both
in and out of the plays, their teaching, maintenance, and
dresses, the cost of the musicians and actors, together with
the decorations, machinery, and dresses, and in the gym-
nastic games, the maintenance of the combatants of all
Ten Orators p. 263.
singular expression)
260 Lex. Seg. p. 240. Hesychius and Harpocration in v. dno-
TEλй iɛgά. Some of these expressions occurred in the Laws of
Solon, as e. g. the dnporεañ iɛgá. See Esch. in Timarch. p. 47.
p. 176. in Ctesiph. p. 566. These words also occur in the
speech against Neæra (p. 1374. 2. p. 1374. 4.) in the Formula
εἰσιέναι εἰς τὰ δημοτελῆ ἱερὰ, which induced Reiske, in the Index to
Demosthenes, and Buttmann ad Mid. p. 125. to think that the
temple was meant: but sioivas is rà iɛgà evidently refers in
particular to the admission to the sacrifices, although it also
includes permission to enter the temples in which the sacrifices
were held. To these passages all the interpretations of the
grammarians refer, and perhaps to the words of the Dodonaan
oracle excellently emended by Buttmann ad Demosth. in Mid.
p. 531. 24. Buttmann also quotes from Pollux the dnμoreλes
έogras, from which these sacrifices were bought. Thyatir. Inscript.
in Spon's Travels vol. III. part 1. p. 110. ràs duoredeïs Ovolas nai
ἑορτὰς ἀφθόνως καὶ ἀνυπερκρίτως ἐπιτελέσαντα. Thucydides (II. 15.)
has logràv dnμortan, Dio Cassius (XLIII. 25.) and Herodotus
(VI. 57.) θυσίην δημοτελῆ.
where the words dzidane dè xai Dewgois (a
vgías refer to this circumstance.
285
kinds, and the preparation of every thing which belonged
to their exercises and contests, required a considerable
outlay of money: and although this was in part provided
by direct Liturgies, the Choregia and Gymnasiarchy, it all
came at last from the same source; and it makes no essen-
tial difference whether the State raised the money and gave
entertainments for it, or whether private individuals pro-
vided the games instead of paying the money in the shape
of a tax. To these must be added the prizes awarded to
the successful competitor, of which some had no great
value, while others were costly, and were given either in
money (in the άyæves ágyugîtai), crowns, or tripods, which
either the State or whoever defrayed the costs of the
festival provided, or the conqueror himself furnished at
his own expence 261. There occurs in an inscription 262 a
golden crown of victory weighing 85 drachmas, which must
at the least have cost 1000 or 1200 drachmas of silver.
At the games of Neptune in the Piraeus, the first Cyclic
chorus that gained the victory, received, according to a
regulation of Lycurgus, at the lowest a reward of ten
minas, the second eight, and the third six 263; and, even
before the time of Solon, it was customary to grant to the
Athenians who gained the prize in foreign sacred games
(i. e. in the four great contests) rewards of a certain sum
of money, which for that age were not inconsiderable, to
the conqueror at the Olympic contests 500 drachmas, at
the Isthmian 100, and to the others in proportion 264.
Lastly, something may be said upon the splendour of the
261 Lysias pro Aristoph. bonis, and Inscript. 158. §. 5.
262 No. 150. §. 15.
263 Lives of the Teu Orators p. 252.
264 Petit Leg. Att. I. 1. 29, 30.
286
Athenian Пoμal or sacred processions. These indeed
yielded in nothing to the theatrical representations: no
expence was spared for them, and even the cavalry was
partly maintained in time of peace for their sake. Another
expence connected with this subject were the public burials
(inμórias Tapai), which indeed only occurred in time of
war. Again, the greater and less Theorias or sacred
embassies were of frequent occurrence, which were sent,
after each of the four great Grecian games, to Delos and
to other sacred places for the purposes of festivals, and
united in themselves sacrifices and processions. One part
of the expence was borne by the Architheorus as a Liturgy,
another part by the State: thus the Delphian Theori,
according to an ancient law, received money for their
journey and all their other expences; and thus Aristo-
phanes mentions the wages of a Theorus to Paros of so
small an amount as two oboli 265; thus also the Delian
Architheorus received a talent from the public purse 266.
The Theori were obliged to appear with a splendour and
dignity suitable to the character of their nation; they
themselves, wearing splendid crowns, drove into the city
upon crowned chariots, which were often expensively
painted, gilt, and hung with carpets 267. When Nicias
265. Concerning the former see Androtion ap. Schol. Aristoph.
Av. 1545. (comp. above book II. 6.); concerning the latter see
Aristoph. Vesp. 1183. where neither the entrance-money into
the theatre, nor the pay of the soldiers, can be meant, as the
Scholiast thinks. The first does not at all suit the context; in
the latter case a soldier may have been called in joke a Theorus,
which is very improbable.
266 Inscript. 158. §. 5.
267 Hesych. in v. Bewgixòs and his Commentators, and Plutarch.
Nic. 3.
287
went as Architheorus to Delos, he built a bridge from
Rhenea to Delos, for his entry, four stadii in length 268.
The passage of the Theori and Choruses from Athens to
Delos cost on a later occasion 7000 drachmas 269, and the
quadriennial Delian festival, which was celebrated entirely
at the expence of this Theoria, cost, according to the
accounts now extant, inclusively of this latter expence, but
with the exclusion of many other items which have been lost,
4 talents 43 drachmas, although they were not paid out of
the funds of the State, but from those of the temple of
Delos. From all that has been said, it is easy to conceive
that the State expended much money upon the celebration
of festivals; and at times it even became necessary to
resort to the public treasure for money to defray those
expences. Thus in Olymp. 92. 3. five talents and a
thousand drachmas were paid out of the treasure for the
Athlothetæ, at the celebration of the great Panathenæa,
and 5114 drachmas to the sacrificers for hecatombs, and an
Olympiad earlier the Athlothetæ received at the same
festival 255 Cyzicenic staters (7140 drachmas) 270. A
large part of the other payments in Olymp. 92. 3. appear,
according to an account of the money disbursed from the
public treasure, of which the destination is not specified,
to have been also for festivals 271.
For the administration and superintendence of all reli-
268 Plutarch. ut sup.
269 Inscript. 158. §. 5.
270 Inscript. 147. 2d Prytan. Inscript. 144. Pryt. 3. Item 3.
271 Barthélemy Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions tom. XLVIII.
p. 378. calculates the money supplied out of the public treasure
for the festivals, as given in the Choiseul Inscription, upon
perfectly false suppositions; for which reason I have made no
use of his computation.
See Taylor ad Marm. Sandw. p. 18.
288
gious solemnities certain unpaid authorities were appointed,
who ranked among the principal public officers. Of this
description are the Managers of the Mysteries and of the
Dionysia (ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν μυστηρίων, τῶν Διονυσίων): to parti-
cular Archons certain sacrifices also belonged 272, as well
as to the Generals 273, together with the Collectors of the
People (σuλλoyeïç тoũ dýμov) 274, and all sacred rites at Delos
were managed by the Amphictyons; but the most numerous
officers were the yearly and monthly Sacrificers, the former
of whom were ten in number; and again there were Sacri-
ficers for the Revered Goddesses or the Eumenides (iegoTool
κατ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν, ἐπιμήνιοι, ἱεροποιοὶ ταῖς σεμναῖς θεαῖς) 275. For the
games there were Athlothetæ, who had the particular care of
the great Panathenæa (though probably with the exception
272 Sigon. R. A. IV. 7.
273 Inscript. 157. §. 2, 3.
274 Inscript. 157. §. 2.
275 Hesychius in v. isgorool, and his Commentators, who
quote Photius and other grammarians, Poll. VIII. 107. and his
Commentators, Lex. Seg. p. 265. they also occur particularly
often in Inscript. 157. I. p. 250. See also Barthélemy ut sup.
p. 342. The iɛgoπoloi tãv oeµväv beãy, quoted by Photius, are taken
from Demosth. in Mid. p. 552. 6. Whether they, as Creuzer
represents them (Symbolik vol. IV. p. 518.), were properly priests
for sacrifices might appear uncertain, if Demosthenes did not
shew that they at least performed the commencement of the
sacrifice, or the immolation of the victim (rò xarágkαobαi tãv iegŵv).
The grammarians also consider the gorrotol as having actually
performed the sacrifice. Aristotle Polit. VI. 8. expresses himself
too generally to allow a safe conclusion to be drawn. That they
had however certain duties of administration to perform is evident
from the Choiseul Inscription and from Inscript. 158. That the
oɛuvai Oɛai are the Eumenides is remarked by Ulpian, Photius,
and Harpocration, in v. σeµval beat, and Lex. Seg. p. 303.
289
of the sacrifices) 276, as also the Agonothetæ, &c. Lastly,
the Boval, or Purchasers of Oxen, were considered among
the highest officers; Demosthenes ranks them with the
Sacrificers, and Libanius with the Sitona, Generals, and
Ambassadors: they were elected by the Public Assembly,
and provided the cattle and animals which were slaugh-
tered at the sacrifices and feasts 277: a proof how important
to the people these institutions were, which suited equally
their appetite and their principles of religion, and by
which we are forcibly reminded of the Roast Beef of Old
England.
(13.) The public donations, or distributions among the
people (diavopai, diadóσeis), were of frequent occurrence.
To these belong the distributions of corn, which have been
mentioned before 278, the Cleruchiæ, and the revenues from
the mines, which before the time of Themistocles were
divided among the citizens; and, lastly, the money of the
Theorica, for the introduction of which Pericles is charge-
able. For this statesman, finding himself unable by reason
of the scantiness of his fortune to vie with other public
leaders and demagogues in liberality, thought of supplying
his private incapacity (according to the testimony of Ari-
stotle, at the suggestion of Demonides of Ea) by a distri-
276 See the Choiseul Inscription Pryt. 2. although the gram-
marians assert (see Barthélemy and Photius, and Lex. Seg.) that
the sacrificers had nothing to do at the great Panathenæa.
¿
277 Demosth. in Mid. p. 570. 7. and there Ulpian. Liban.
Declam. VIII. Harpocrat. Suid. in v. Bowvns, Lex. Seg. p. 219.
Harpocration: ὅτι λαμπρὸς ἦν ὁ βοώνης καὶ αἱ μέγισται ἀρχαὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ
ExagoToro. Pollux VIII. 114. falsely includes them among the
inferior offices, or offices of service (vängsrín). They occur fre-
quently in Inscript. 157.
278 Book I. 15.
VOL. I.
U
290
bution of the public revenue, and bribed the multitude
partly with the Theorica, partly with the payment of the
Dicasts, and salaries of other descriptions 279: while he at
the same time maintained himself in popular favour by
processions, feastings, and other solemnities. The great ad-
mirer of the Lacedæmonian customs, who, like Plato and his
master, formed a correct judgment in a moral point of
view, perceived that Pericles had made his countrymen
covetous and indolent, loquacious and effeminate, extrava-
gant, vicious, and unruly, by maintaining them at the
public expence with donatives, salaries, and Cleruchiæ 280,
and by flattering their sensuality and love of enjoyment by
sumptuous festivals; nay, even Pericles himself had too
acute a mind to overlook the consequences of his own
measures; but he considered that there was no other
means of maintaining his own and the people's sovereignty
in Greece, than by supporting the populace in this manner;
he was aware that with him the power of Athens would
cease, and he endeavoured to preserve it as long as was
possible; but upon the whole his contempt for the people
was as great as his liberality towards them. In the mean
time the people, so long as Pericles lived, were neither
wanting in activity nor public spirit, which tended to make
these measures more harmless; and as long as neither
injustice abroad, nor negligence in the national enterprizes,
nor disorder in the State, resulted from them, it might
appear just and equitable that the citizens should enjoy
the fruit of their exertions and valour. Besides which
Pericles could not suspect that, twenty Olympiads after
his death, the multitude would rather consume the public
J
279 Plutarch. Pericl. 9. cf. 11.
230 Plat. Gorg. p. 515. E. Plutarch. Pericl. 9.
291
:
revenues in feasting, than equip an armament in defence
of their freedom, a corruption which was first produced by
the avaricious and treacherous demagogues of later days,
who flattered every whim of the twenty thousand headed
Hydra. These considerations might then appear to pal-
liate the conduct of Pericles. But he must have been
aware that the unavoidable result of his measures was to
increase the oppression of the allies, the dominion of the
multitude, and the injustice towards the opulent citizens;
while Pericles himself only raised the tribute by a small
amount, his successors were forced to augment it to a far
greater extent, in order to keep up his profuse expenditure.
The surplus of the tributes was brought by talents at the
Dionysia into the orchestra to be distributed here the
allies were shewn in what light their property was
viewed 281. The oligarchical party was well aware that
the abolition of these payments would be a severe blow to
the democracy; and accordingly, during the government
of the Five thousand (Olymp. 92. 1.), which was only of
very short duration, no superior office received any sa-
lary 282. Aristotle 283 has indeed already remarked, that
the different kinds of salaries, for example, the wages of
the Public Assembly, are dangerous to the chief persons
in the State, for that they occasion the imposition of
property-taxes, confiscations of property, and bribery of
justice. Not only was it the practice to adjudge property
to the State, in order to increase the revenue 284, but the
demagogues publicly declared in law-suits, that if judgment
281 Isocrat. vμμax. 29.
282 Thucyd. VIII. 97.
283 Polit. VI. 5.
254 Lys. in Nicom. p. 851.
#
292
was not given in some certain manner, the salaries could
not any longer be paid to the people 285; and therefore the
wealthy, in order to prevent this jealousy, made voluntary
donations of their possessions 286. It sometimes happened
that the proceeds of the confiscated property were distri-
buted among the citizens without any authority; and even
Lycurgus divided in this manner 160 talents, which the
property of Diphilus had produced. Thus they were not
satisfied that by these distributions the State was deprived
of its most powerful resources for useful and advantageous
objects, but those who profited by these measures encou-
raged in the people a desire after the property of others, and
widened the breach between the rich and poor, which in the
States of antiquity was an incessant and highly dangerous
evil. Aristotle justly compares these institutions to the per-
forated vessel of the Danaides, as the Athenians were per-
petually receiving taxes, and then paying them away, and
were then compelled to raise fresh supplies; but the moral
corruption which they caused was a far more pernicious
consequence; the Athenians were themselves, to make use
of an illustration of Plato's, the vessels of the Danaides,
which were continually receiving the gratification of their
desires, without ever being completely satisfied.
The distribution of the Theorica, which, as we have
seen, produced such fatal consequences to the Athenians,
took its origin from the entrance-money to the theatre.
285 Lys. in Epicrat. init.
286 Herald. Animadv. in Salmas. Observat. ad I. A. et R. VI.
3. 13.
C
d [Aristot. Polit. VI. 5. Ὅπου δ᾽ εἰσὶ πρόσοδοι, μὴ ποιεῖν ὁ νῦν οἱ
δημαγωγοί ποιοῦσι· τὰ γὰς περιόντα νέμουσι, λαμβάνουσι δὲ ἅμα καὶ
πάλιν δέονται τῶν αὐτῶν· ὁ τετρημένος γάρ ἐστι πίθος ἡ τοιαύτη βοήθεια τοῖς
ἀπόροις.]
293
The entrance was at first free, and crowds and tumults.
having arisen from the concourse of many persons, of
whom some had not any right to enter, it was evidently to
be expected that in a theatre constructed of wood, which
was the only one that Athens then possessed, the scaffold-
ing would break; and this accident in fact took place; to
avoid which evil it was determined to sell the seats for two
oboli; but in order that the poor might not be excluded,
the entrance-money was given them, on the delivery of
which each person received his seat 287. Persons of high
rank no doubt at first disdained this as well as other
donations 288; although in the age of Demosthenes they
received the Theoricon 289. It is possible that the entrance-
money for the theatre was introduced before the Theoricon
was first paid by the State: it may be fairly supposed that,
the citizens having for a time defrayed it at their own
expence, the State undertook to pay for the poor; and the
introduction of the entrance-money may be fixed without
improbability as early as the 70th Olympiad, at which
time the scaffolding fell in suddenly, when Pratinas, and
287 Liban. Argum. ad Demosth. Olynth. 1. Schol. Lucian.
Timon. 49. Suidas in the first article of bewgixòv, and Etymol. in
V. Dewgixèv ágyúgiov, where, as in Photius, there is a mixture of the
articles occurring in the other grammarians. The account given
in Lex. Seg. (dix, óvóµ.) p. 189. 29. does not deserve to be men-
tioned.
288 Cf. Herald. Animadv. in Salmas. Obser. ad I. A. et R.
VI. 3. 11.
289 Philipp. IV. p. 141. 18. which oration, as Valckenaer and
Wolf have justly remarked, is not the production of Demosthenes,
but is composed of different passages of this orator, and is written
in the style of a sophist. The defence of the Theoricon in par-
ticular, which occurs in p. 141., is in direct contradiction with
Demosthenes.
294
probably also Æschylus, were representing in the theatre 290.
But the payment of the Theoricon out of the public
money was first introduced by Pericles 291; and when
Harpocration calls Agyrrhius the author of the Theoricon
in the extended sense of a distribution of money, he refers
to an increase of it made at a later period, of which I shall
presently speak 292. This distribution of the Theoricon
filled the theatre 293. We may observe, that the entrance-
money was paid to the lessee of the theatre (sargúvns, Deα-
τροπώλης, ἀρχιτέκτων)294, who was bound to keep the the-
atre in repair, and who paid something to the State for
rent, as we see in the case of the theatre at the Piraeus.
Ulpian, a writer on whom very little dependence can be
placed, affirms that one obolus was given to the lessee of
the theatre, or, as he calls him, to the Architecton, and
that the citizens received the other for their support; this
statement is however without foundation, for, according to
Demosthenes, the regular entrance-money was two oboli 295;
although it is so far true, that a separate payment of
Theorica was made for the banquet of the citizens 296. It
290 Vid. Græc. Tragoed. Princip. p. 38. and more particularly Her-
mann's de Choro Eumenidum Eschyli Diss. II. p. VIII, XIV.
291 Ulpian. ad Demosth. Olynth. 1. Plutarch. Pericl. 9.
292 Petit IV. 10. 9. unjustly charges the grammarian with
confusing this with the pay of the Assembly.
293 Plutarch de Sanit. Tuend. p. 373. vol. I. ed. Hutt.
294 Ulpian. ad Demosth. Olynth. 1. cf. Casaub. ad Theoph.
Char. 11. [See Rose Inscript. p. 257.]
295 De Corona p. 234. 23.
296 Harpocrat. in v. ewgixòy (from Philinus), from which the
second article of swgxà in Suidas, and the third in Photius, is
transcribed. As this is frequently the case, I shall not always
quote Suidas and Photius, where they have nothing new.
295
might also be supposed that, as Demosthenes reckons the
entrance-money among the smaller revenues of the State,
the payment was received on the public account, and not
for the lessee; but even though the tenant received it, it
might have been enumerated among the national profits,
inasmuch as he paid a rent to the State; so that this
example from Demosthenes, who only speaks in general
terms, and without any great precision, proves nothing in
contradiction to my opinion. The privilege of receiving
the Theorica was obtained through registration in the book
of the citizens (^nžiagXixòv ygaµµatstov) 297; the distribution
was made both individually and by tribes 298, absentées
receiving nothing 299; and it took place in the Assembly300;
which was sometimes held in the theatre, particularly when
the business related to the celebration of the Dionysia 301.
The application of the Theorica was soon extended, and
money was distributed on other occasions than at the
theatre 302, though always at the celebration of some festival;
and as either a play or procession was invariably connected
with it, the name still continued applicable. Under the
head of Theorica were also comprised the sums expended
upon sacrifices and other solemnities 303. Not only at the
Panathenæa 304, but at all the great festivals (iegoun-
297 Demosth, in Leochar. p. 1091 sq.
298 Herald. ut sup. VI. 3. 10. also Lucian Timon. 49.
299 Hyperides ap. Harpocrat. ut sup.
300 sch. in Ctesiph. p. 642.
301 Lex ap. Demosth. in Mid. p. 517. cf. Isocrat. ovuµax. 29.
302 Libanius ut sup.
503 Hesych. in v. θεωρικὰ χρήματα, θεωρικὸν ἀργύριον, and θεωρεί,
and his Commentators. See above chap. 7.
304 Hesych. in v. Oswgixà xgńpata. Dem, in Leochar. ut sup.
296
vía) 305, Theorica were distributed. In the Choiseul In-
scription we find that in Olymp. 92. 3. from the public
treasure alone (probably however on condition of repay-
ment) in the first seven Prytaneias 16 talents 4787 drach-
mas were paid to the Hellenotamiæ, under the name of
Diobelia, which formed a part of the Theorica. The
citizens were thus enabled to celebrate the festival with
greater luxury; and from this various application of the
money there has arisen an uncertainty whence the Theo-
ricon took its name; and Ammonius, in direct contradic-
tion to Cæcilius, denies that it had reference to spectacles
(θέαι) 306.
From this uncertainty the question suggests
itself, whether the rate of the Theoricon for the separate
festivals was not raised when its objects were multiplied,
and whether the difference in the statements of ancient
writers may not be thus explained. The grammarians
speak in general of two oboli 307; the inscription above
referred to mentions the Diobelia, as also Aristotle and
the Lexicon Rhetoricum 308. In an oration falsely indeed
attributed to Demosthenes, but not on that account unde-
serving of credit 309, the Theoricon, for the distribution
of which a nominal assembly was held, is estimated at
305 Ulpian. ad Demosth. Olynth. III.
306 Ammonius in v. Osagòs, where he falsely derives it from dev
ὠρεῖν: διὰ τὸ ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς εὐσεβεῖν καὶ ἐπιθύειν (as
Valckenaer corrects for ἐπιθεῖν) καὶ εὐφραίνεσθαι.
307 Ulpian, Libanius, Suidas, in the first article, Etymol. Pho-
tius in the first article, Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 1183.
308 Aristot. Polit. II. 5. (II. 4. 11. ed. Schneid.), who calls it
dißoria, although he speaks of it with another view. Schneider
has not examined the subject with sufficient accuracy. Lex.
Seg. p. 237. διωβελία· ὀβολοὶ δύο, οὓς καθήμενος ὁ δῆμος ἐμισθοφόρες
300 περὶ συντάξ. p. 169. 1.
297
two oboli. On the other hand, Philochorus, as quoted by
Harpocration, states, that "the Theoricon was originally
a drachma for the theatre, whence in after times it re-
ceived its name," and the grammarians mention the same
amount 310; Lucian 311 speaks of the drachma and the
three oboli, where from the context the former can only
be referred to the Theoricon, and the latter to the pay of
the Assembly or of the Dicasts; and in the spurious
Proœmia to the Public Speeches of Demosthenes 312 it is
said, “with the drachma, and the chus (of wine probably),
and the four oboli (which latter I confess I cannot explain),
the orators prolong the life of the people, as physicians do
of the dying." The difficulty appears to vanish if we ad-
mit that the Theoricon was very variable, which seems to
be pointed at by Harpocration; nor will I deny that this
was the case: since however two oboli are mentioned both
in ancient and recent times, it does not appear to have
been raised by increasing the regular rate; the change
was probably effected by doubling or trebling the same
two oboli for festivals which lasted several days, in such a
manner that for a festival of three days a drachma was
given, and for one of two days four oboli, to which the
above-cited passage of the Pseudo-Demosthenes may be
referred. Hesychius, Suidas, and Zenobius, indeed assert,
that in the Archonship of Diophantus the Theoricon
amounted to a drachma; but this is not contrary to my
310 Hesych. and Suid. in v. deaxù xaλaçãoa, Zenob. III. 27.
311 Demosth. Eulog. 36. where J. M. Gessner thinks that the
drachma is the pay of the orators, which however is too small a
sum for the regular stipend, to be meant here. He should have
rather instanced the pay of the senators.
312 P. 1459. 27.
298
44
5
supposition. Diophantus was Archon in Olymp. 96. 2.
according to Petit's correct remark, against which it is
needless to object that the nation could not at that time
have given so high a Theoricon, as it had not yet recovered
from its impoverished State; for it was precisely at this
moment that the condition of Athens began to ameliorate;
and with the democratic constitution which then existed, it
would undoubtedly have been the first object to restore
the Theoricon: and this probably was in fact the case; so
that for three great festivals of three days a Diobelia was
paid three times. From a passage of Harpocration 313,
rather obscurely expressed, it may be inferred that its
renewal was effected by Agyrrhius, who flourished at
this period, and who, as will be presently shewn, tripled
the pay of the Assembly about the same time. Moreover
it may be observed, that in the age which followed the
Anarchy, the price of an ordinary place in the theatre
remained at two oboli314; the price of the best places at
316 In v. Θεωρικά: Θεωρικὰ ἦν τινα ἐν κοινῷ χρήματα ἀπὸ τῶν τῆς
πόλεως πρόσοδων συναγόμενα· ταῦτα δὲ πρότερον μὲν εἰς τὰς τοῦ πολέμου
χρείας ἐφυλάττετο καὶ ἐκαλεῖτο Στρατιωτικὰ, ὕστερον δὲ κατετίθετο εἴς τε
τὰς δημοσίας κατασκευὰς καὶ διανομὰς, ὧν πρῶτος ἤρξατο ᾿Αγύρριος ὁ
Inaywyós. Photius has the same article, only the most im-
portant part, the mention of Agyrrhius, he omits.
514 Demosth. pro Corona p. 234. where he says if it had not
been ordered that the Architecton was to assign a place to
Philip's ambassadors, they must have sat iv Toîv dvoîv ößoλoïv, which
should not be taken with Hier. Wolf for dvov ißoλov, for in that
case what would be the use of the preposition and the article?
Reiske correctly refers it to a particular place; it means however
a common, as opposed to a good, seat; such, for instance, as the
place of those who had the privilege of Proedria (cf. Æschin. in
Ctesiph. p. 466.), which the ambassadors occupied: what Ulpian
(p. 281. ed. Bekker), or rather the collection of scholia com-
1
299
the representation of comedies was at the highest no more
than a drachma 315.
If we reckon that eight thousand people received the
Theoricon-and the number of the receivers cannot have
been well less-the Diobelia for one day amounted to a
talent; and since it was without doubt paid on twenty-five
or thirty days in the course of a year, the lowest rate at
which we can estimate the annual expence of it, is from
twenty-five to thirty talents. They were not however satis-
fied with allowing it to remain at this point, but, as I have
before remarked, they squandered away as Theorica all the
money destined for the uses of war; that the funds however
of the Theorica amounted to 1000 talents, which were
dissipated in this manner, as asserted by a modern writer,
is a statement of which I have been unable to find any
confirmation. It was by this means that the Athenians
delivered themselves to the power of Macedon.
" With
the death of Epaminondas," says Justin 316, who pro-
bably avails himself of an idea of Theopompus, " perished
also the virtue of the Athenians. For after the excitement
which had been produced by the emulation existing be-
tween the Athenians and Epaminondas had ceased, they
resigned themselves to indolence and inactivity, and squan-
posed of various kinds of notes, says in this place about a trio-
bolon and of an obolus is mere absurdity.
315 Plat. Apol. Socrat. p. 26. E. Suidas also and Photius (in
the second article) in v. Otwgxè, and Schol. Lucian. ut sup.
assert that a drachma was the highest sum which was given for
a place; but to suppose that a lower sum was never given, as
they assume, with the exception of Photius, is absurd, since it
would contradict what occurs before.
316 VI. 9. He says at the end, Dividi cœpium est, which is
not entirely correct.
300
dered away on festivals and shows the public revenue
which formerly had been used for the equipment of fleets
and armies. Then were the taxes, with which soldiers and
sailors used to be maintained, distributed among the inha-
bitants of the city. Thus was Philip able to gain the
ascendancy." What in Pericles indeed originated from
no motives of patriotism, was employed by profligate
Demagogues to work upon a depraved multitude; and
we may here remark that nothing can be a more striking
proof how destructive the immorality of the governors is
to the welfare of the governed. For is it not the fact that
the chief promoters of the Theoricon were men distin-
guished for their effeminacy, immorality, and general de-
pravity? Agyrrhius, who obtained such popularity by
his profuse administration of the public revenue, that
after the death of Thrasybulus (Olymp. 97.) he was ap-
pointed to succeed him as general 317, was notorious for
his effeminacy, farmed the taxes like an usurer, and was in
prison many years for embezzlement of public money 318.
Eubulus of Anaphlystus, by his distribution of the Theo-
rica, arrived at the highest pitch of popular favour 319,
and after his death great honours were decreed him (as
had been done to Lycurgus and Demosthenes), which Hy-
perides spoke of in his oration περὶ τῶν Εὐβούλου δωρεῶν;
317 Xenoph. Hell. IV. 8. 31. Diod. XIV. 99.
318 Concerning him see Harpocration in v. 'Ayúggos and there
Valesius, and Suidas, also Demosth. in Timocrat. p. 742. 16.
and Andocid. de Myst. p. 65. who ironically calls him ròv xañón
xayatov, and the passages collected by Meursius, Lect. Att.
VI. 4.
319 See book II. I. and 7. Concerning the Theorica which he
distributed, see more particularly Philinus ap. Harpocrat. and
Photius in v. θεωρικά.
301
but he was strongly suspected of being in the pay of
Philip, and was actively instrumental to the downfal of
his country. The severe but impartial Theopompus gave
his character with perfect justice, " that he was a celebrated
demagogue, active and indefatigable in his vocation, but that
during his administration and by his distributions of money,
Athens sunk to the lowest state of inactivity and indo-
lence, exceeding even Tarentum in extravagance and de-
bauchery 320." Lastly, what shall we say of Demades,
who promised each Athenian fifty drachmas for the Choëis
in order to hinder the equipment of a fleet against Alex-
ander for the support of the common safety of Greece 321;
and carried his effrontery to such a pitch as to call these
distributions the cement of the Democracy 322? Even Es-
chines 323 did not go so far as this, for he at least declared
،
320 Theopompus in the tenth book of the History of Philip had
treated of the Athenian Demagogues, and particularly of Eubu-
lus. Some account from that source is given by Harpocration
in v. Eűßouλos, and more by Athen. IV. p. 166. E. according to
whom he had called him caros. But the passage of Theopom-
ἄσωτος.
pus quoted as a proof refers to the Athenian people and not to
Eubulus: καὶ τοσοῦτον ἀσωτίᾳ καὶ πλεονεξίᾳ διενήνοχε τοῦ δήμου τοῦ Τα-
ραντίνων, ὅσον ὁ μὲν περὶ τὰς ἑστιάσεις εἶχε μόνον ἀκρατὴς, ὁ δὲ τῶν ᾿Αθηναίων
καὶ τὰς προσόδους καταμισθοφορῶν διατετέλεκεν. Casaubon perceived this,
but Schweighäuser confuses it all again, although the passage of
Æschines (in Ctesiph. p. 300.) which he had already quoted upon
the word xaraμclopogav might have taught him that the people is
meant. Theopompus however had evidently censured Eubulus
severely, and compared him to his disadvantage with Callis-
tratus, the son of Callicrates, whose luxurious life he indeed
blamed, but appears to have praised his political conduct.
321 See book II. 6.
322 Plutarch. Qu. Plat. X. 4.
323 Eschin. in Ctesiph. p. 642.
302
himself hostile to the distribution of the revenue; al-
though his professions and his real opinions probably
disagreed. What however was the public and private
life of Demades? Though a man of such splendid quali-
ties of mind that an ancient said of him, that he was above
the State, while he could only call Demosthenes worthy of
the State, he yet became openly a traitor to his country,
indulging only his own appetites, and his principles
became as loose and unsteady as his judgment was
perverse. It is vain to urge in extenuation of his public
conduct that a fragment only of the vessel of the State
was left to his charge, which was scarce worth preserving
from shipwreck; he himself was, as Plutarch happily
expresses it, the shipwreck of the State 324. How dis-
gracefully he yielded himself to the will of Antipater;
how did he delight in every unlawful practice, and in
dissolute opulence, fragrant with perfumes and walking
in a costly chlamys! He lived in such a manner that
Antipater could never supply him with money sufficient
for his purposes; and aptly said of him when he grew
old, that like a dressed ox upon the altar, nothing re-
mained of him but belly and tongue 325. His profligate
life hardly allows us to bestow upon his mournful death
the compassion which common humanity would dictate.
(14.) The salaries at Athens were of various kinds, but
the most important were the wages of the Assembly, the
Senate, and the Dicasts. The nature of Democracy re-
quires that all public affairs should be determined upon
324 Plutarch. Phoc. 1. where he calls him the vaváyev rus
Toλs, which does not however signify shipwreck, but a fragment
of a vessel wrecked; there is however no other word by which it
can be translated into our language.
325 Plut. Phoc. 20, 26, 30.
303
by the whole people in an assembly, and that the business
and decrees be prepared beforehand by a select body,
which should have the management of them, and execute
the resolutions of the popular assembly; and unless the
governing power is to fall into the hands of the mob, the
people should receive no pecuniary compensation for their
share in the government, an expence which it is impossible
to defray by revenues justly raised; it is a condition
requisite for good government, that all who wish to par-
take in the ruling power should support themselves upon
their own property. Athens was not however the only
State in which the people were paid for governing; a
similar system of salaries had been introduced at Rhodes by
the Demagogues 326. As to the wages of the Dicasts, it
is right that some compensation should be allowed for the
performance of judicial duties, and it was at all times
customary; Oligarchies indeed were enabled to compel
the rich by the threat of punishment to execute these
duties, whereas in Democracies the poor were paid for
their labour 327. But from the number of judges in a
democratical court of justice, this practice could not exist
without the expences being defrayed by a tax, which it
was impossible to raise without oppression. And if Athens
like other States had only decided her own law-suits, it
would not have been necessary to pay the Dicasts; the
citizens would have remained at their business, active
and industrious. But to the great injury of the allied
States, Athens, in order to ensure her own power,
usurped the jurisdiction over them, and the people were
well pleased, that the custom-duties became by these
326 Aristot. Polit. V. 5.
327 Aristot. Polit. IV. 9. and 14.
བ
/
304
means more productive, that the judicial fees were multi-
plied, and that the rent of houses and slaves was in-
creased 328. Under these circumstances the number of
causes was so much augmented that there were more to
decide in Athens than in the whole of Greece; and the
law-suits, particularly as the festivals produced so large
a number of days on which no business was done, were
extremely protracted, unless indeed they were accelerated
by bribery 329, against which nevertheless at Athens
as well as at Rome very excellent regulations were in
existence. Nearly the third part of the citizens sat
as judges every day: hence that passion for judging
necessarily arose, which Aristophanes describes in the
Wasps, and the citizens were thus not only made averse
to every profitable and useful employment, but were ren-
dered sophistical and litigious; and the whole town became
full of pettifoggers and chicaners, who were without any
real knowledge of law or justice, and on that account only
the more rash and thoughtless. According to the expres-
sion of the comic poet, they sat, like sheep, muffled up in
their cloaks and with their judicial staff, for three oboli a
day, thinking indeed that they managed the affairs of the
State, while they were themselves the tools of the party-
leaders.
/
The wages of the Assembly (μισθὸς ἐκκλησιαστικὸς) the
sovereign people paid to itself. The honour of invent-
ing this salary is contended for between Callistratus
and Agyrrhius, and fortunately both claimants can be
satisfied. Pericles, as far as we know, had no share in it,
and it may be asserted with sufficient probability that this
328 Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. 3. Aristoph. Av. 1430, 1465.
329 Xenoph. ut sup. 3. 2.
305
payment had not been introduced in the early part at least
of his administration. "When the noble Myronides
ruled," observes Aristophanes 330, with reference to the
wages of the Ecclesiasts, "no one administered the affairs
of the State for money." Now Myronides was an early
cotemporary of Pericles 331; after the time then of this
Myronides, and consequently long after the beginning of
the influence of Pericles, the payment of the Ecclesiasts
was introduced, which at first amounted to one obolus
and afterwards to three. Callistratus Parnytes first intro-
duced the obolus as the pay of the Ecclesiasts 332, and this
was a considerable time before the Ecclesiazusæ of Aris-
tophanes, which was acted in Olymp. 96. 4.; but, at what
particular period we are ignorant, since who this Callis-
K
330 Eccles. 302.
331 Myronides was general in the 80th Olympiad, Thucyd. I.
105, 108. IV. 95. Diod. XI. 97, 81. Cf. Plutarch. Pericl. 16.
The Myronides in Demosth. c. Timocrat. p. 742. 25. is a dif-
ferent person. [Myronides was introduced by Eupolis in the
Ana (ap. Plutarch. Pericl. 24.) as holding a dialogue with
Pericles: if therefore Eupolis first exhibited in 429. B. C. the
year in which Pericles died (Clinton Fast. Hell. p. 63.) the Anuos
must have been his first play; and consequently Myronides had
a part in public affairs in the last year of the life of Pericles.
Photius in μὴ παιδὶ μάχαιραν. Εὔπολις Δήμοις· μὴ παιδὶ τὰ κοινὰ,
i. e. probably, “do not trust the management of public affairs
to Alcibiades." This allusion is not inconsistent with the date
429. B. C. for two years afterwards he was mentioned by Aris-
tophanes in the Aarraλus (427. B. C.), at which time, as Elmsley
says, ad Acharn. 716. “inter claros oratores habitus est Alci-
biades."]
352 Append. Vatic. Proverb. III. 35. 'Oßoλòv süge Пægvurns. That
Petit should suppose (III. 1. 3.) that the Ecclesiasts here men-
tioned might be the orators, is quite natural, as he always hits
upon the most improbable explanation.
VOL. I.
X
King
306
!
tratus was is wholly unknown. The most celebrated of
the persons of this name is Callistratus, the son of Calli-
crates, of Aphidna, the near relation of Agyrrhius 333, a
famous orator and general in the 100th and 101st Olym-
piads 334, censured for his private life by Theopompus,
but praised for his zeal in the public service 335; he is
said to have excited Demosthenes to the study of elo-
quence by the famous law-suit concerning Oropus 336, and
having been at first acquitted, was afterwards condemned
to death in Olymp. 104. 3.; he lived in Macedonia, chiefly
at Methone, and was the founder of Datum 337; and is
doubtless the person to whom the improvement in the
system of custom-duties in Macedonia is ascribed 338;
finally, after his return from exile he was put to death.
This person however lived at too late a period to have
been the introducer of the obolus; and still less can we
suppose it to have been the Callistratus, who was Archon
in Olymp. 106. 2. Not then to mention less noted per-
333 Concerning him see Demosth. pro Corona p. 301. 18. in
Timocrat. p. 742. 23. de Fáls. Leg. p. 436. 13. Orat. in Neær.
p. 1353. 19. and p. 1359. 18. in Timoth. p. 1187. 7. p. 1188. 10.
p. 1198. 10. The latter speech, together with that against Neæra,
is probably not the work of Demosthenes, according to the sus-
picion of the ancients ap. Harpocrat. in v. xaxorexviãõu.
334 See book III. 18. He also occurs in Xenophon's Hellenics.
335 Ap. Athen. IV. p. 166. E.
356 Cf. Ruhnken. Hist. Crit. Orat. p. 140. vol. VIII. of
Reiske's Orators.
337 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1220, 1221. Scylax p. 27. Isocrat.
ovμμax. 9. Comp. Niebuhr Transactions of the Berlin Academy
συμμαχ.
for 1804-1811. p. 93, 94.
338 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. 2. 22. This he did in his exile, not
for Athenians, as Schneider appears to think, but for the Mace-
donians.
my
307
sons of this name, it is more probable that Callistratus,
the son of Empedus, is meant, who in Olymp. 91. 4.
perished as commander of cavalry in the Sicilian expe-
dition 339; or perhaps Callistratus of Marathon, who in
Olymp. 92. 3. was treasurer of the Goddess 340, and pro-
bably is the same person as the Knight of the tribe
Leontis (to which Marathon belonged), who was killed
during the Anarchy by the party in the Piraeus 341. The
increase in the wages of the Ecclesiasts to three oboli
evidently took place but a short time before the Eccle-
siazusæ of Aristophanes; perhaps in Olymp. 96. 3.342,
when Agyrrhius re-established the Theoricon; to him
also the Scholiast upon Aristophanes 343 ascribes the first
introduction of the wages of Ecclesiasts; from which it
is evident, as Petit remarked 344, that he was the person
who increased them.
339 Pausan. VII. 16. In the Lives of the Ten Orators (De-
mosth, ad init.) this one is strangely confounded with the cele-
brated Aphidnæan.
340 Choiseul Inscription, at the beginning.
1
341 Xenoph. Hell. II. 4. 18.
342
K
Aristoph. Eccl. 302, 380, 392, 543. This increased pay
also occurs in the Plutus vs. 329. which passage is therefore from
the second edition produced in Olymp. 97. 4.; the date of the
first is Olymp. 92. 4. The triobolon in the Ecclesia is also men-
tioned by the Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 171.
343 Eccl. 102.
344 Leg. Att. III. 1. 3. The Scholiast of Aristophanes (Plut.
329, 330.) speaks of the pay being raised to three oboli, which
was said to have been done by Cleon, but we must avoid under-
standing this of the wages of the Ecclesiasts, which are there
confounded with the pay of the Dicasts, although the words are
not ambiguous; it refers to the wages of the Dicasts. Both have
been frequently confounded with one another by both ancient and
Sp
T
308
The number of the Athenian citizens cannot be taken
on an average, as has been before shewn, at more than
20,000; it is absurd then to suppose that there were
assemblies of 30,000 persons. But of these 20,000 many
were absent in the country on military service, or upon
mercantile business; or even if they were in the city, they
did not attend the assembly; so that, particular cases being
excepted, it is impossible to imagine that the assembly
ever contained even this number to the full. But after
the introduction of the three oboli, there was a more
numerous attendance of the poor citizens. Formerly
when the Ecclesiasts only received one obolus," says Aris-
tophanes in the Ecclesiazusæ, "the people sat talking;
now that they receive three oboli they crowd in num-
bers 345; and jostle against one another for this small
sum 346." But the wealthy usually were glad to stay
66
S
modern interpreters, for instance by Spanheim upon Aristo-
phanes, and by the Scholiast to the same poet. The author of
the note to the 861st verse of the Clouds even explains the
ὀβολὸς ἡλιαστικὸς as the pay of the Ecclesiasts, which passage is
not to be corrected, but the mistake is solely to be attributed to
the ignorance of the writer. I may also mention that I have
intentionally omitted Pollux VIII. 113. as his words are too
indefinite to allow us to infer from them with Meursius (Lect.
Att. V. 12. VI. 4.) that the wages of the Ecclesiasts ever
were an obolus; it is evén preferable to refer the three words
that occur there, τριώβολον, διώβολον, and ὀβολὸς, all to the pay of
the Dicasts.
345 Aristoph. Eccl. 302 sqq. Compare with this the opinion of
Aristotle, that where the nation is wealthy or the Ecclesiasts
receive pay, the people being unoccupied frequently assemble
and decide every thing, without the Senate having any great
influence.
346
Aristoph. Plut. 329.
309
away from the public assemblies, so that Aristotle 347 recom-
mended that a fine should be imposed upon them if they did
not attend, and to give wages to the poor alone, in order to
produce a salutary mixture of both classes; the rich there-
fore always composed the minority. It is probable that we
should not err much if we took an assembly of the people
at about 8000°; we know that in certain cases, particularly
for the ratification of a decree, which related to an indi-
vidual (privilegium), such as Ostracism or the admission
of a fresh citizen, 6000 votes were requisite 348, in order
to secure a large majority; in general then not many more
than 6000 could have been present. If we suppose 8000,
the wages of an Assembly taken at three oboli amount to
about 4000 drachmas. Now there were forty regular As-
547 Polit. IV. 14. Cf. IV. 6.
?
e The author says in the Addenda that "the number of
citizens attending the Ecclesia is estimated too high. According
to the Oligarchs in Thucydides VIII. 72. there never was an
assembly of 5000 to deliberate on the most important questions:
καίτοι οὐ πώποτε ᾿Αθηναίους διὰ τὰς στρατείας καὶ τὴν ὑπερόριον ἀσχολίαν
ἐς οὐδὲν πράγμα οὕτω μέγα ἐλθεῖν βουλεύσοντας, ἐν ᾧ πεντακισχιλίους
Evveλev. According to this passage then it must be assumed
that the 6000 votes, which was the number prescribed for cer-
tain questions, was not the number of those who voted for
the particular subject in debate, but only of the citizens who
voted both ways on the question, which indeed is expressly stated
to have been the case with regard to the Ostracism, although
when I wrote the passage in the text it appeared to me impro-
bable. The accurate investigation of this point must however
be deferred to some other occasion."
-
348 Petit. Leg. Att. II. 1. 8. II. 3. 10. Sigon. R. A. II. 4.
The remarks that Fetit has made in different places (II. 1, 8.
JII. 1. 3. III. 3. ad fin.) concerning this majority of the votes,
which was not by any means necessary for all decrees, arise from
mere misapprehension and delusion.
310
!
;
semblies in a year; the extraordinary meetings (which
were numerously attended) at very disturbed seasons
exceeded the number of the regular 349; but upon an
average not more than ten can be fairly assumed, one being
reckoned to each Prytaneia. Consequently the wages of
the Assembly cannot be estimated at more than thirty or
thirty-five talents, and thus it is not true that they fell more
heavily on the public than the wages of the Dicasts 350,
The money was paid to each person as he entered the
Assembly by the Thesmothetæ 351, which officers received
it from the treasurer of the administration: those who
came too late received nothing 352.
Of nearly equal amount were the wages of the Senate of
Five hundred (μiolòs Bouλeutinós). These amounted to a
drachma for each day on which the Senate assembled 353.
Now the Senate sat mostly on the same days as the courts
of justice; that is to say, every day, with the exception of
the festivals, which were the only holidays the Senators
had; and consequently the number of days on which they
sat was about three hundred 354. The annual expence
therefore amounted to 25 talents. In what manner the wages
of the Senate were paid, we are not informed; probably by
. Prytaneias. When the Four hundred abolished the demo-
349 Esch. de Fals. Leg. p. 251.
350 As Meiners says in his History of the Origin, Progress, and
Decline of the Sciences, vol. II. p. 150.
1
351 Aristoph. Eccl. 290.
352 Aristoph. ibid. and 381.
353 Hesych. in v. Bovλñs λaxeiv, Xenoph. Hell. II. 3. 18. and
his Commentators.
354 Cf. Aristoph. Thesmoph. 85. The senate originally sat on
some feast-days, and was not released from these duties till later
times, as is shewn by the document in Athen. IV. p. 171. E.
311
cracy, and drove the Senate out of the Senate-house, they
gave the Senators the whole pay for the rest of the year in
advance 355.
(15.) The largest item among the salaries regularly paid
in time of peace was the wages of the Dicasts (μισθὸς δικα-
στικὸς), the introduction of which is ascribed to Pericles by
Aristotle 356, on whose accurate acquaintance with anti-
quity perfect reliance can be placed. And from the testi-
mony
of the same writer we learn that the wages of the
Dicasts did not remain the same, but underwent some
556 Thucyd. VIII. 69.
356 Petit II. 10. It is therefore unnecessary to refute the
Append. Prov. Vatic. III. 35. which attributes the first institu-
tion of this pay to Callistratus. [The passage in the Politics
referred to, τὰ δὲ δικαστήρια μισθοφόρα κατέστησε Περικλῆς, is from a
chapter which appears not to be the production of Aristotle (see
Göttling ad loc. p. 345.; another statement in the same chapter
is called in question by the author himself, vol. II. p. 261.); it is
however confirmed by Plutarch, Pericl. 9. καὶ ταχὺ θεωρικοῖς καὶ
δικαστικοῖς λήμμασι . . . . συνδεκάσας τὸ πλῆθος, &c. The testimony of
the Scholiast to Aristophanes (Vesp. 682.), cited in the next note,
seems to be unfairly made use of. It is as follows: τὸν φόρον λέγει
ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἐδίδοτο τὸ τριώβολον. τοῦτο δὲ ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἐδίδοτο, τῶν δημα
γωγῶν τὰ πλήθη κολακευόντων, ὥς φησιν Αριστοτέλης ἐν Πολιτείαις, i. e.
wages were given to the Dicasts at different rates at different
times, the demagogues flattering the populace, as Aristotle says
in the Politics, viz. IV. 4. ὁ δημαγωγὸς καὶ ὁ κόλαξ οἱ αὐτοὶ καὶ
ἀνάλογον, &c. and V. 11. διὸ καὶ ὁ κόλαξ παρ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις ἔντιμος· παρὰ
μὲν τοῖς δήμοις ὁ δημαγωγὸς, ἔστι γὰρ ὁ δημαγωγὸς τοῦ δήμου κόλαξ.
No objection can be made from the use of the plural Πολιτείαις ;
for Aristotle himself says IV. 7. ὥσπες Πλάτων ἐν ταῖς Πολιτείαις.
The same expression with regard to the variable rate of the
Dicasts' wages is used by Hesychius, without any mention of
Aristotle: δικαστικόν· ᾿Αριστοφάνης ἐν Ωραις τριώβολόν ψησιν εἶναι· οὐ
μέντοι ἔστηκεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἐδίδοτο.]
.
e
}
312
change 357. What then were these alterations, and when
did they take place? Strepsiades says in the Clouds 358
that he had given the first Heliastic obolus to his son,
when he was six years old, to buy a little cart; hence we
learn that originally the pay of the Dicasts amounted to
an obolus; and since in Olymp. 89. 1. the child is re-
presented in the Clouds as a practised rider, this obolus
must have been introduced for at least four Olympiads.
The Scholiast tells us that the wages of the Dicasts.
amounted to two oboli in the time of the Frogs of Aristo-
phanes; it is also stated that they were a drachma at the
same period 359. With regard to the latter statement, there
is evidently a confusion either with the drachma of the
Diætetæ, or with the pay of the advocates (olds oumyo-
gixòs), of which latter Aristophanes speaks in a passage
that the Scholiast perhaps referred to the wages of the
Dicasts. But no traces occur of their wages ever having
been two oboli, except a vague report in the Scholiast to
the Birds, that the Dicasts had for a time received two
357 Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 682. from Aristotle's State of
Athens. Schol. Nub. 861. Plut. 329. Av. 1540. Hesych. in
v. dinaσTixò, Suidas in v. iarraí. Concerning the expression of
the grammarians compare Hemsterhuis ad Plut. ut sup. Petit
as usual (III. 1. 3.) founds a false view of the subject upon a
false interpretation of the Scholiast of Aristophanes.
358 Vs. 861.
359 Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 141. (Cf. Schol. Vesp. 658. con-
cerning the drachma). Welcker, at the above passage in the
Frogs, allows that the Triobolon may have been introduced pre-
viously, but he prefers adhering to the explanation of the Scho-
liast, as he thinks that Aristophanes mentions two oboli accord-
ing to the ancient usage, although they received three at that
time. This is not very probable, and I do not doubt that he
will prefer my interpretation.
Vô
313
oboli; either the grammarian inferred this from the words
of Aristophanes (ὡς μέγα δύνασθον πανταχοῦ τῷ δυ᾽ ὀβολώ), or
he had heard something of the Diobelia, and supposed
it was the wages of the Dicasts. But the words of
Aristophanes unquestionably refer to the Diobelia. That
this was in full force in Olymp. 92. 3. we know from the
Choiseul Inscription, and why should it not have been
equally so in Olymp. 93. 3., the year in which the
Comedy of the Frogs was acted? If the wages of the
Dicasts had been raised before this time to three oboli, no
one will suppose that the Athenians would have lowered
this rate in opposition to their pecuniary interest; and
in fact we find that it had been introduced previously.
In the Birds of Aristophanes 360, which was acted in
Olymp. 91. 2., the Triobolon occurs as the wages of the
Dicasts, as is proved by the connection with the Colacretæ ;
and indeed it is mentioned at a much earlier date, viz. in
the Knights (Olymp. 88. 4.) and the Wasps (Olymp. 89.
2.) 361. In both plays Cleon is the chief object of ridicule,
and in the Knights he is distinctly mentioned as the
favourer of the Triobolon 362; in the latter comedy he
boasts of having always taken care that it did not fail;
and he flatters the people by telling them that, according
to ancient oracles, the pay of the Dicasts would be in
Arcadia as high as five oboli; i. e. as the Scholiast adds,
when the Peloponnese should be conquered 363. If we add
360 Vs. 1540.
361 Eq. 51, 255. Vesp. 607, 682, 688, 797, 1116.
562 Eq. 257.
363 Eq. 797. This passage has been strangely misunderstood
by Spanheim (ad Nuh. 861.), who has inferred from it that in
Arcadia the pay of the Dicasts amounted to five obuli. The Ar-
cadians probably never thought of the Dicasts' wages: but Cleon
--
314
to this the testimony of the Scholiast to the Plutus 364, it
follows with certainty that none other than this noxious
demagogue, at the time of his greatest power, about the
88th Olympiad, raised the wages of the Dicasts from one
to three oboli'. From this it seems that the rate of pay-
ment never was at two oboli; yet Pollux 365, as well as
the Scholiast to Aristophanes, appears to have believed in
its existence. Otherwise the grammarians, in speaking of
the wages of the Dicasts, generally mention three oboli, at
the same time recognizing their mutability 366. The hero
forcibly represents to the Athenians the extension of their juris-
diction to the middle of the Peloponnese, and its consequence, a
plentiful harvest of money.
364 Vs. 330. which, although adduced in an improper place,
should be referred to the pay of the Dicasts.
f
f [Zenobius and Photius in v. ὑπὲρ τὰ Καλλικράτους-᾿Αριστοτέλης
δέ φησιν ἐν τῇ ᾿Αθηναίων πολιτείᾳ Καλλικράτην τινὰ πρῶτον τοὺς δικαστι-
κοὺς μισθοὺς (δικαστῶν τοὺς μισθοὺς Zen.) εἰς ὑπερβολὴν αὐξῆσαι. From
the expression "a certain Callicrates, Kaλλgáτn Tiva," it seems
Καλλικράτη τινὰ,”
that the increaser of the Dicasts' wages could not have been a
well-known person. Callistratus, the son of Callicrates, flou-
rished about the 100th Olympiad (see above p. 306.); his father
therefore might have carried this measure ten Olympiads before
that time; which nearly agrees with the date given in the text
for the supposed increase by Cleon.]
365 VIII. 113. According to the explanation of Spanheim ut
sup. which, as I have above mentioned, I prefer to that of Meur-
sius, without however believing the account of Pollux, as Span-
heim does.
366 Poll. VIII. 20. Hesych. in v. dinaσrınòv, Suid. in v. ¿λaσtai
ηλιασταὶ
and Banτngia, Schol. Aristoph. in the passages quoted above and
Plut. 277. Suid. and Phot. in v. cíußodov, Schol. Demosth. in
Reisk. Demosth. vol. II. p. 131. Lucian. Bis Accus. 12. and 15.
Several other passages, as e. g. Hesychius in v. ßoλol, I omit, as
they contain nothing to make them worth quoting.
315
Lycus, under whose protection the system of judicature
was placed, regularly received his three oboli, if he had a
sanctuary in the court of justice 367.
The payment of the wages of the Dicasts, which was the
duty of the Colacretæ, took place at each sitting of the
court 368, in the following manner. Besides the judicial
staff, each person received at his entrance into the court a
small tablet (called σúµßoλov); at the close of the sitting
he gave this to the Prytanes, and received the money
for it; whoever came late into court ran the risk of
receiving nothing 369. The Prytaneia were first appointed
for defraying the expence; if these were not sufficient
(and how could they ever have been so), the other
branches of the revenue contributed, particularly the fines,
and probably in ancient times the tributes 370. Aristo-
phanes reckons the annual amount at 150 talents, assuming
300 days on which the courts sat, and 6000 Dicasts a day
who received the Triobolon 371; and that the expence was
not less we learn from other sources. It is however to be
remarked, that Aristophanes in forming his calculation
·
•
367 See Hudtwalcker von den Diäteten p. 14.
368 Lucian. ut sup.
369 Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 277. whose information is chiefly
taken from Aristotle's State of Athens quoted by the Scholiast at
v. 278. also Suidas in v. ßanrngia, Etymol. in v. cußoλov, Poll.
VIII. 16. Aristoph. Vesp. 710.
370 Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 682.
371 Vesp. 660 sqq. and the Scholiast. About sixty holidays,
on which the courts did not sit, are not too many for Athens;
this leaves 300 sitting-days. But I am not able to find any
confirmation of Hudtwaicker's supposition (von den Diäteten
p. 30.) that the courts did not sit through the whole of Sciro-
phorion.
316
S
has taken the Dicasts at 6000, their highest number, who
did not perform their duties every day. Six thousand were
appointed for each year; and from these the Dicasts were
first selected for each particular cause, and it was not till
they were actually assigned to some court that they re-
ceived the pay. The ten regular courts of justice at
Athens, consisting each of 500 Dicasts, required only the
daily attendance of five thousand 372. Now it is true that
large tribunals occur of 1000, 1500, 2000, and even 6000
Dicasts; but, on the other hand, small ones of 201, 401,
&c. 373. It is therefore possible that the expence was
something less than Aristophanes states it; I am willing
however to allow his estimate to pass as an approximation
to the truth, when applied to the times preceding the
Anarchy, and to compute the expences of jurisdiction
generally at 150 talents, particularly as many small ex-
pences, in addition to the pay of the Dicasts, must ne-
cessarily have been incurred in the courts; but after
the Archonship of Euclid, when the allies had revolted,
it is not possible that there could have been so many
Dicasts, and the expence must therefore have been less.
And as in time of war the courts did not always
continue sitting 374, these expences occasionally ceased.
The wages of the Diæteta were not provided out of the
public money; these persons were paid for each separate
cause by the litigant parties themselves. The Diætetæ
received a drachma from the plaintiff at the commence-
372 See Matthiä Miscell. Philog. vol. I. p. 251 sqq. comp. also
p. 158.
373 Besides Matthiä see Pollux VIII. 53 and 48. Lex. Seg.
p. 310. 30. and p. 189. 20. Phot. in v. aia.
374
57 Lys. περὶ δημοσ. ἀδικ. p. 590.
317
ment of the suit, and again the same sum from both par-
ties at the Antomosia, and at every Hypomosia 375. A
grammarian of mean authority 376 states that the Diætetæ
arbitrated many law-suits, and that the public authorities.
employed every possible means to prevent the sitting of
the courts, in order that the State might not be compelled
to expend so much money upon the wages of the Dicasts ;
but, judging from the disposition of the Athenians, we can
at the most believe that such a motive might have influ-
enced them at seasons of the greatest national distress; for
in ordinary times they demanded pecuniary largesses for
the maintenance of the people.
(16.) The wages of the public advocates or orators
(μiodòs ouunyoginòs) occasioned a small expence, which
amounted every day, i. e. for the 300 days of busi-
ness, to a drachma, and not for each speech, as the
Scholiast of Aristophanes erroneously asserts 377. As
these advocates were ten in number, the whole expence
amounted to half a talent a year. The ambassadors also
received a stipend in ancient times; and although resident
embassies (a practice first introduced by the French) were
unknown, it is not yet impossible that they were reckoned
among the regular expences, since ambassadors were very
frequently despatched to foreign States; and when they
travelled to a distance, as, for example, to Persia, were
375 This is the παράστασις or παρακατάστασις. Pollux VIII. 39.
127. Harpocrat. in v. zagúcracıs, and thence Suidas, Photius,
and Lex. Seg. p. 290, 298. Пaganaráσтaris occurs in Photius,
Etymol., and Lex. Seg. See Hudtwalcker von den Diät. p.
14
sqq.
377 Schol. Demosth. ap. Reisk. ut sup. to which statement
Hudtwalcker assents, p. 34.
377 Aristoph. Vesp. 689. and the Scholiast.
318
f
tet.
海苔
​น
bide Carto
to 1
necessarily absent for a long time. The ambassadors to
Philip of Macedon attended him even on marches and
journeys 378. All ambassadors, during the time that they
were able to have fixed residence, were never compelled to
live at their own expence; they were supported by pre-
sents which they received both in free States 379 and in
countries where the government was monarchical. It may
be seen from the speech of Demosthenes for the Crown,
that in the Greek cities they were not only honoured with
the first place in the theatres, but were hospitably enter-
tained, and generally resided at the house of the Proxenus,
although an instance occurs of an embassy to Philip having
for particular reasons preferred the public inn 380. The
treasurer however usually paid them a sum in advance for
thirty days, as travelling money (épódiov, Togelov) 381. In the
time of Aristophanes the ambassadors received two or
three drachmas a day 382. The highest pay which we
meet with, such indeed as never was given in any other
State, is 1000 drachmas, which was received by five Athe-
nian ambassadors who were sent to Philip. These ambas-
sadors remained absent three months, although they might
have equally well returned at the end of one 383. In
378 Demosth. Philipp. III. p. 113. 18.
379 Demosth. de Fals. Leg. p. 393. 25. Lys. pro Aristoph.
bonis p. 629. Ælian. Var. Hist. I. 22. Decree of the Arcadians
in Crete in Chishull's Ant. Asiat. p. 118.
380 Orat. de Halon. p. 81. 19. Xenoph. Hell. V. 4. 22. Dem.
de Fals. Leg. p. 390. 26.
381 Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. XI. Etymol. in v. ogɛov, Chand.
Inscript. II. 12.
3S2 Acharn. 65. and from the context 602.
383 Demosth. de Fals. Leg. p. 390. That there were only five of
319
general however the Athenians sent ten ambassadors, and
occasionally not more than two or threes. The Sophro-
nistæ, or inspectors of the youths in the training schools,
of whom there were ten annually elected by Cheirotonia,
one from each tribe, received a daily stipend of one
drachma 384; the Episcopi also, who were sent to subject
States, received a salary, probably at the cost of the cities
over which they presided 385. The Nomothetæ, a law-
commission consisting of. 501, 1001, or 1501 persons, who
them is evident from the decree in Demosth. pro Corona p. 235.
Demosthenes was indeed one of the number, but his name is
not in the decree, and therefore the 1000 drachmas should
only be referred to the five mentioned in it, unless a subsequent
decree was framed, and other ambassadors were appointed in
addition to the former. My space however does not permit me
to treat of this point at full length, particularly as there are great
chronological difficulties connected with it.
5 Four drachmas a day appear to have been given in later
times. Menander ap. Phot. in pigulv..... Mer' 'AgioToTÉλous yàg
᾿Αριστοτέλους
τέτταρας τῆς ἡμέρας Ὀβολοὺς φέρων.
384 Lex. Seg. p. 301. Phot. in v. cwQgovorai, cf. Etym. in v.
in the two latter read ixάorns Quañs eis. The words of the Etymo-
logist are both in Phavorinus and Stobæus. See Fischer's Ind.
Æschin. in v. ow@govioral, where however, together with Hem-
sterhuis ad Poll. VIII. 138. he falsely assumes that there were a
hundred Sophronistæ, from the incorrect reading in the gramma-
rians above quoted. In the times of the emperors there were
only six, and probably the same number of Hyposophronista,
who entered their office together at the beginning of the month
Boedromion, as may be concluded from an Inscription in Wheler
p. 402. Spon, vol. III. part II. p. 158. The Gloss refers to
Demosth. de Fals. Leg. p. 433. 3. where however there is only
an allusion to this office, which is also mentioned in the Axiochus
p. 367 A.
385
Aristoph. Av. 1023 sqq.
320
were selected from those who had been Dicasts, also per-
haps received a stipend; for in their former capacity they
had been accustomed to the Triobolon; and the Senate
was commanded by law to administer the money for the
Nomothetæ 386. The collection of the public revenue did
not require any paid officers, as it was let out in farm;
even when the Senate found it necessary to appoint a
collector in order to enforce payment of the farmers, he
was but scantily paid. All the servants of the different
authorities received salaries, for example, the Prome-
tretæ 387; it is however probable that these officers were
paid by the sellers of the commodities measured. Ori-
ginally there was an important distinction between service
(ingeσía) and an office of government (agx); the former
received a salary, the latter none. The heralds and clerks
particularly deserve notice; since certain heralds, as well
as the clerk of the Senate, the clerk of the Senate and
People, and the checking-clerk and under-clerk of the
Senate, were fed at the cost of the State in the Tholus or
Prytaneum 388, where doubtless they also resided. To the
transcribers of the laws a stipend was allowed for a fixed
time, within which they were bound to complete their
labours 389; and a particular sum of money was set apart
for engraving the decrees 390. How large the salary of
the physicians and the pay of the singers and musicians
were at Athens and in other places has been shewn in the
386 Petit Leg. Att. II. 1. 1. See Wolf Proleg. ad Lept.
p. CXLVII.
587 Harpocrat. in προμετρηταί.
388 See the Inscriptions quoted in Book II. 8. and Demosth. de
Fals. Leg. p. 419. 25.
389 Lysias in Nicom.
390 Book II. 6.
321
first book 391. And how great must have been the number
of persons whom the State remunerated for their services
(either by its own means or by those of subordinate corpo-
rations), such as Citharists, Gymnasts, and others of the
same description. The poets also received a salary, which
was allowed them by the Senate of Five-hundred; and we
have reason to suppose that its amount was not incon-
siderable; for Agyrrhius having been offended, as it seems,
by the ridicule of comic poets, thought it worth while to
persuade the people to reduce it 392. Lastly, several
hundred sailors received regular pay in time of peace. In
early times the Athenians had two sacred triremes, the
Paralos, the crew of which bore the name of Paralitæ
(παραλῖται, also πάραλοι), and the Salaminia or Delia
(sometimes simply called Theoris), and its crew were
named Salaminians 393: the latter vessel belonged to the
Delian Theoria; and both these triremes, as being quick
sailers, were used for other Theorias, as well as for em-
bassies and for the transport of money and persons; in
battles also, and then they conveyed the admiral. That the
crew of the Paralos, although it was mostly in harbour,
always received four oboli a day, we know from distinct
391 Chap. 21.
392 Schol. Eccl. 102. Aristoph. Ran. 370. and the Scholiast.
Archinus is mentioned in the last Scholium; but the Scholiast
on the Ecclesiazusæ appears better informed; and perhaps Ar-
chinus is only an error of the transcriber for Agyrrhius.
393 Concerning both these vessels see Sigon. R. A. IV. 5. In
and the Paralos are stated
Photius (in v. ágaλo) the Salaminia
to be the same ship, which is false. But in the word wágaλos,
and in the first article of régano, they are correctly distinguished.
Concerning the name of the crew see Pollux VIII. 116. Hesych.
in v. Tagaλíτns. Concerning the Delia vid. ad Inscript. 158. §. 1.
VOL. I.
Y
322
÷
testimony 394; and as the Salaminia performed the same
services, we may without any hesitation assume that the
Salaminians received the same pay. The pay of the tri-
reme-crews having been generally calculated by estimating
the wages of two hundred common sailors, the pay of two
triremes at four oboli a man per day: for a year reckoned at
365 days (the intercalary month being divided among the
several years) will amount to 16 talents 1333 drachmas
two oboli. In latter times we meet with a trireme named
Ammonis, which is undoubtedly different from the two
first; and an Antigonis and a Demetrias, so called no doubt
from the names of those much honoured kings; and finally
a Ptolemais 395, of which it is probable, that like the tribe
Ptolemais, it only succeeded in the place of the Antigonis
or the Demetrias. We are not informed how the pay of
these vessels was regulated; but as the Ammonis had a
treasurer, it is probable the others had the same, and since
the Ammonis served in time of peace, it must occasionally
have had sailors who would then have received pay. I
will presently speak of two other kinds of salaries paid in
time of peace, the pay of the cavalry, and the maintenance
of the infirm, which was also called μotos or pay 396; all
these taken together caused a considerable expence. In
order however to produce some diminution in the amount,
and to prevent any person from obtaining greater emolu-
ments from the State than was fair, the law ordered that
no one should receive pay from more than one source
(un dixóber μiotopogeiv) 397. Thus the wages of the Dicasts,
διχόθεν μισθοφορεῖν)
394 Harpocrat. and Phot. in v. ágaños.
395 Harpocrat. and Suidas in v. 'Auuavis and there Maussac,
Lex. Seg. p. 267. Phot. in v. ágaños and wágaños.
396 Esch. in Timarch. p. 123.
397 Demosth. in Timocrat. p. 739. 6. Petit alone (Leg. Att.
323
orators, Ecclesiasts, senators, soldiers, sailors, cavalry, in
short all salaries whatever, precluded any person from
receiving pay for other services upon the same day. More-
over the grammarians assert that pay was given out by Pry-
taneias 398, a statement which is incorrect in this general
sense. For the Dicasts and the Assembly were (as well as
the Theorica) paid by the day, the soldiers and sailors in
war by the month; but of all other persons receiving
salaries it may have been true. Nothing seems more
natural than that the Senate of Five-hundred, the orators,
clerks, and other inferior officers should have been paid by
Prytaneias; with regard to the maintenance of the infirm,
this was certainly the regulation, and for the soldiers and
sailors in the time of peace we may suppose that it was
adopted for the sake of uniformity. This mode of pay-
ment was also the most convenient for passing the accounts,
which took place in every Prytaneia.
(17.) The maintenance of those citizens, who on account
of bodily defects or infirmities were unable to obtain a
This
livelihood (adúvaro), was a laudable institution.
practice however, as well as the custom of supporting
children whose fathers had died in war, until they reached
the age of manhood 399, belonged exclusively to the Athe-
V. 6. 2.) has believed the absurd idea of Ulpian that this means
a prohibition to follow more than one occupation at the same
time.
398 Ammonius and from him Thomas Mag. in v. zgvravitov.
πρυτανεῖον.
Hesychius in the same word says that ἡ ἐπὶ μηνὶ μισθοφορία is also
called evτavior, which probably means the pay of the Prytanes
and the other Senators, which was paid by Prytaneias, for in
later times the Prytaneias coincided with the months.
399 Aristid. Panath. vol. I. p. 331. ed. Cant. [Aristotle how-
ever (Pol. II. 5.) states that in his time this last institution
324
nians, as compassion was a virtue rarely met with
among the Greeks. With regard to the maintenance
of persons who had been mutilated in war, Pisistratus is
mentioned as the originator of this custom 400; an account
which has every probability, since Pisistratus was of a mild
disposition, and usurpers are generally glad to seize every
opportunity of conferring a benefit, with a view to make
themselves popular; nor would the Athenians with their
hatred of tyranny have attributed this honour to him, if
he had not deserved it. According to others 401 this pro-
vision derived its origin from a law of Solon, who certainly
gave the example to Pisistratus by the proposal being
made, as Heraclides in Plutarch informs us, for the benefit
of an individual. In early times Athens could boast of
having no citizen in want of the necessaries of life,
nor did any one ever disgrace the nation by begging 102,
but after the Peloponnesian war, poverty made itself every
where manifest; and no small number stood in need of this
assistance, if they were infirm or maimed. The bounty
was restricted by law to persons whose property was under.
three minas 403; but even in the age of Socrates an income
of this amount was very inconsiderable; and, accordingly,
all those who received this bounty were in fact nearly
destitute. The Athenians however do not seem to have
402.
A
existed in other States except Athens: ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἐν ταῖς ᾿Αθήναις
οὗτος ὁ νόμος νῦν καὶ ἐν ἑτέραις τῶν πόλεων].
400 Plutarch. Solon. 31.
401 Schol. Æschin. ap. Taylor. ad Lys. vol. V. p. 739. ed.
Reiske. et ap. Reisk. vol. III.
p. 738.
402 Isocrat. Areop. 38.
105 Harpocrat. Suid. Hesych. and the above-quoted passages
of the Lexica in Taylor. ut sup. and the commentators upon
Hesychius.
325
been very sparing of this donative; the individual for
whom Lysias 404 wrote his speech in order to prove that he
was deserving of this support, carried on certainly some
trade, although he asserts it was not sufficient to maintain
him, and it appears that he rode occasionally, although
indeed not upon his own horse, and also because he was
unable to walk without the help of crutches. This bounty
was awarded by a decree of the people 405; but the ex-
amination of the individuals belonged to the Senate of Five-
hundred 406; the payments were made by Prytaneias;
consequently if any one deferred his examination in one
Prytaneia he was obliged to wait till the next 407.
400
The unpublished Scholiast to Æschines, who is quoted
by Taylor in his notes, states that this bounty amounted to
three oboli a day; here then again we meet with the
Triobolon of the Dicasts, which is always crossing the path
of the grammarians. The money paid to the infirm was never
more than two oboli or less than one: between these two
rates ancient writers are divided; the obvious supposition
is that some received more than others, according as their
necessities were more or less urgent; but a closer consider-
ation teaches us that the difference refers only to the times.
In the time of Lysias one obolus was given 408; afterwards
Περὶ τοῦ ἀδυνάτου. This speech is written in such a jesting
tone, that I consider it to be a mere rhetorical exercise, which
was never delivered: at least the Athenians must have been
very much astonished at the jocularity of this poor man when
petitioning for a pecuniary allowance.
405 Herald. Anim. in Salm. Observ. ad I. A. et R. III.
8. 4.
406 Æschin. in Timarch. p. 123. Harpocrat. Suid. Hesych, and
a Lexicon in the Bibl. Coislin. p. 603. p. 238.
407 Eschin. ut sup.
40s Lys. ut sup. p. 749. p. 758.
326
when the difficulty of procuring subsistence had increased,
this rate was doubled. The time at which this increase
took place may be nearly ascertained from the gramma-
rians. Harpocration 409 states" that the infirm or impotent
(ådúvator) received two oboli a day, as some say, or one obolus,
as Aristotle in the constitution of Athens states; but
as Philochorus says, nine drachmas every month." Suidas
gives the same account from Philochorus 410; Hesychius
mentions two oboli without any farther limitation. In
Suidas and other Lexicons 411, it is stated that some re-
ceived one, and others two oboli; but Bast has proved
that the reading in Suidas is erroneous; and according to
the true reading the grammarian says that some writers
mention that they received one, and others two; it
is evident therefore that the error should be corrected
in the same manner in the other Lexicons. We see
from these passages that Aristotle as well as Lysias spoke
only of one obolus 412: and we may thence infer that up
409 In v. adúvato, where the right reading is preserved in the
Paris MS. in Bast's Epist. Crit. p. 176. duo ßoλoùs Tйs nμégas of
μέν φασιν ἑκάστης.
110 In v. åðívato, comp. Zonaras in v. adúvaro. The Lexicon
in the Bibl. Coisl. p. 603. falsely charges Philochorus with
saying that they received five oboli a day; but there is an error
of the copyist, viz. ' instead of evvéa deaxuas, as Alberti has shewn
by the comparison and correction of Bibl. Coisl. p. 238.
411 Suid. in v. åðívato, Zonaras, and the Lexicon in Bibl.
Coisl. p. 238. In Suidas it should be written oi μév Qaoiv ixdorUS
μέν φασιν ἑκάστης
ἡμέρας ὀβολοὺς δύο, οἱ δὲ ὀβολόν. See Bast's Epist. Crit. p. 176.
412 For although the Lexicon in Bibl. Coisl. p. 603. represents
Aristotle to have said that they received two oboli, without
making any mention of one, this is an evident error, which
is not worth the trouble of refutation.
327
to the time of the latter this bounty was not greater; it
must therefore have been subsequently raised, perhaps,
between the times of Aristotle and Philochorus, who was a
youth when Eratosthenes was an old man.
For the state-
ment of Philochorus is the same in substance with
the other account, that they received two oboli a day;
which for the month of twenty-nine days gives nine
drachmas four oboli; the latter the grammarians omit.
Philochorus's computation by months proves of itself that
he is speaking of later times, when the Prytaneias coincided
with the months; it does not however follow from this
that the increase did not take place before the introduction
of the twelve tribes. If we could now ascertain how many
upon an average were in need of this bounty, an estimate
of the expence might be made; but the assumption of
Meursius that they amounted to five hundred, is founded
upon a false reading in Suidas 413. Considering however
the necessitous condition of most of the Athenian citizens,
and the frequency of wars, five hundred may be assumed
as the lowest number of the old, blind, lame, sick and
maimed, who were to be maintained; and the expence of
their maintenance, according as we reckon it at one or two
oboli a head, may be at the lowest estimated at five or ten
talents. To this must be added the support of the orphan
children, whose fathers had perished in war; for whose
instruction also the State provided until their eighteenth
year, in order that their education might be completed
before they were sent forth into society 414. That the
413 Meurs. Lect. Att. VI. 5. The passage in Suidas which
others thought that they had corrected, was first ingeniously
emended by Bast Epist. Crit. p. 176.
¹¹¹ Comp. Petit Leg. Att. VIII. 3. 6.
12
328
number of orphans after so many wars was considerable,
might have been assumed without the authority of Iso-
crates 415. The support which private individuals pro-
cured by means of a particular agreement which they made
by entering into a society (pavos) differed from public
maintenance 416. The society itself and the money sub-
scribed were each called Eranos, the members Eranistæ,
their whole number, the company of the Eranista (Tò xowòv
Tŵv égaviot☎v), and their president an Eranarch. Their
objects were of the most various description; if some
friends wanted to provide a dinner, or a corporation to
celebrate a solemnity, to give a banquet, or forward any
particular purpose by bribery 417, the expence was defrayed
by an Eranos. Associations of this kind were very common
in the democratic States of Greece, and to this class the
numberless political and religious societies, corporations,
unions for commerce and shipping, belonged: many of
them, more particularly the religious associations (@íaσoi),
were possessed of real property 418, and like States and
subordinate corporations they had power to make decrees,
which they recorded upon stone 419; and lastly, there
415 Συμμαχ. 29.
416 I only mention this subject in a few words: several early
writers have treated on it at full length, who mutually correct
one other, of which the chief are, Petit Leg. Att. V. 7. 1. Sal-
masius de Usuris chap. 3. Defens. Misc. chap. 1 sqq. Herald.
Observ. chap. 43. Animadv. in Salmas. Observ. ad I. A. et
Rom. VI. 1-8. An account more suited to common readers
but not without some errors may be seen in Birger Thorlacius'
populäre Aufsätze das Gr. Röm. und Nord. Alterth. betreffend.
German transl. p. 71 sqq.
417 Demosth. pro Corona p. 329. 15.
418 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. II. 2. 3.
419 See for example Chandl. Inscript. II. 22, 127.
329
were laws concerning these companies (gavxoì vóμoi),
and law-suits called after their name (gavixal díxaı), in
which, as well as in the commercial causes, a more rapid
course of justice was prescribed 420, Another kind of
Eranos is that which was made for the support of the
destitute citizens; it was founded upon the principle of
mutual assistance, and it was expected that the members
who had been relieved should pay the money back
again when they had raised themselves to better circum-
stances 421.
(18.) A small expence was occasioned by one part of
the public allowances and rewards. Under this head may
be mentioned the public entertainments (σίτησις ἐν πρυτανείῳ),
which many others, besides the fifty Prytanes and certain
inferior officers, received as a mark of distinction, and
which must have cost two or three talents a year. The
donation of the golden crown (orépavos) was by no means a
rare occurrence; the Senate of Five-hundred, if it per-
formed its duties honestly, was presented with a crown
every year 422; nations gave crowns to one another, and
private individuals were frequently crowned by the State:
how great was the weight of these golden crowns has been
already shewn 423. In ancient times however they were
not frequently given; those who after the Anarchy brought
back the people from Phyle to Athens, only received
chaplets of leaves; the value of which at that time was
greater than of golden crowns in the age of Demosthenes 424,
420 See book I. 9. Pollux VIII. 144.
421 Isæus de Hagn. Hered. p. 294. Theophrast. Char. 17.
422 Dem. in Androt. cf. Æschin. in Timarch. p. 130.
193 Book I. 5.
༥༠༢
424 Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 570 sqq. and particularly p. 577.
330
The erection of a metal statue (ɛixwv) to a person who had
deserved well of the State, was in early times still more
unfrequent; after Solon, Harmodius, and Aristogiton, this
honour was first conferred upon Conon, as having liberated
his country from the intolerable yoke of the Spartans 425.
But in later times this reward ceased to confer any distinc-
tion; Chabrias, Iphicrates, and Timotheus received crowns
in honour of their services, as well as others, although
their deeds were not thought worthy to be recounted 426.
But in that age trifling or even negative services were
highly celebrated, and in the time of Demetrius Phalereus
this practice was carried to such a pitch, that in one year
they erected to him three hundred and sixty statues, in
chariots, on horseback, and on foot 427. This frivolous ex-
penditure partly owed its origin to the Theoricon, by which
the Demagogues had made the people indolent, and had in-
duced them to flatter their corruptors 428; and partly
resulted from the general decline of the State and of morals,
and the loss of that simplicity and honesty, which disdaining
1
425 Demosth. in Lept. p. 478.
426 Esch. in Ctesiph. p. 635. See the oration Tigì cuvτážews
περὶ συντάξεως
p. 172.
427 Diog. Laert. V. 75. and the passages there quoted by
Menage.
428 Comp. Nepos Miltiad. Of these and of other marks of
honour the learned K. E. Köhler has treated at full length in
his excellent dissertation of which the title is Etwas zur Beant-
wortung der Frage, gab es bei den Alten Belohnungen des
Verdienstes um den Staat, welche dem Ritterorden neuerer Zeit
ähnlich waren, third book, in the Dörptische Beiträge for 1814,
first and second half; which dissertation I have not been able to
make use of, as I did not meet with it till after the completion
of this work.
331
outward splendour; finds a sufficient reward in the exercise.
of virtues. Athens from her republican constitution, which
would always have prevented this corruption from attaining
its utmost height, only displays a feeble shadow of what in
monarchies or despotisms, in which the moral state of the
people and the government is at a low ebb, appears to
excess. Then are the citizens, both for the State and for
themselves, covetous of titles and rank, as may be seen
remarkably in the eastern and western Roman empire:
titles of every description were created and lavishly dis-
tributed; regulations concerning rank, and the splendour
of the oriental courts, were introduced into the west; out-
ward show and pageantry, which render the mind vain and
slavish, became the substitutes for intrinsic excellence; and
as no claims could be advanced on the ground of personal
merit, all consideration was derived from the favour of the
ruling power. On particular occasions pecuniary rewards
were bestowed at Athens. After the return of the people
from the Piraeus, those who at Phyle had undertaken the
restoration of the democracy, received a thousand drachmas
for sacrifices and sacred offerings, which however did not
amount to ten drachmas apiece 429. According to Isocrates
10,000 drachmas were given to Pindar for his splendid
praise of the Athenians, for which the Thebans had sub-
jected him to a fine; according to others the reward given
was the double of the fine which he had been condemned
to pay 430. Aristides received in honour of his father,
429 Eschin. in Ctesiph. p. 575.
430 Isocrat. de Antidosi p. 87. ed. Orell. The other account
is given by the author of the Fourth epistle of Æschines p. 669.
Tzetzes and others state that the fine itself was only a thousand
drachmas. See the fragments of Pindar p. 74. Heyn. Schneider's
332
upon the proposal of Alcibiades, a hundred minas of silver,
a hundred plethra of wooded land, and as much unplanted
land in the island of Euboea, and in addition four drach-
mas a day
a day 431, a most absurd expence for an insig-
nificant and worthless individual. With better reason
they gave 3000 drachmas to the two daughters of this
distinguished man, and to the daughter of Lysimachus the
privilege of being maintained in the Prytaneum, like the
victors at the Olympic contest; and other donations in
money were granted to the successors of Aristides down to
the time of Demetrius Phalereus 432. These single exam-
ples, to which many others might have been added, prove
that the Athenian people were not illiberal in bestowing
pensions. Lastly, rewards for the discovery of offenders
(unvuτga) deserve to be mentioned; thus in Andocides 433,
two rewards of this kind occur, one of 10,000 and another
of a thousand drachmas, which were both actually paid.
(19.) Although the most opulent citizens equipped them-
selves at their own expence, there is no doubt that the
Athenian State was under the necessity of providing a store
of arms, as well in time of war as during peace, that in
case of need it might be possible to arm not only such
citizens as from poverty could not provide for themselves,
but the resident aliens, and even the slaves. That such
was the practice is rendered highly probable, by the circum-
Life of Pindar p. 39. and the Life of Pindar which he has
published before the Theriaca of Nicander.
431 Dem. in Lept. 95. and Wolf's note.
132 Plutarch. Aristid. 27. an obscure passage, the interpreta-
tion of it however would lead me too far.
433 De Myst. p. 14. Of the nature of rewards were the prices
which were set upon the heads of offenders. Cf. Aristoph. Av.
1072 sqq.
333
stance that large sums were expended upon naval prepa-
rations in time of peace. In the Piraeus was the marine
storehouse, which contained sails, ropes, leather-bags for
provisions, oars, and other articles for the equipment of
vessels; and the building of ships of war was carried on
unceasingly both in peace and war. Themistocles passed
a law that twenty new triremes should be built every year:
Diodorus 434 indeed relates this event under Olymp. 75. 4.
but it is probable that he, like many other historians, has
on this occasion confounded together institutions of different
periods, in order to introduce the circumstances which in
the narration immediately follow; and Themistocles had
perhaps in fact carried the law at a much earlier period,
viz. when he obtained the decree which directed the money
derived from the mines to be applied to the building of ships
for the Æginetan war 435. We are not informed whether
subsequently the same number of ships was built every
year; but we cannot well suppose that they provided a less
number; for the triremes would be falling into decay, and
there were generally three or four hundred in existence. The
Senate of Five-hundred had to superintend the building of
the triremes 436; if this was not done, the customary crown
was denied them; the personal superintendence was dele-
gated to commissioners called the builders of the triremes.
In the time of Demosthenes the building was stopped for
434 Diod. XI. 43.
435 See my dissertation upon the silver-mines of Laurion in the
Memoirs of the Berlin Academy.
436 Demosth. in Androt. p. 598. 20 sqq. where there is also
the account of the paymaster who ran away. The following
story of Demetrius is given by Diod. XX. 46. Plutarch. Demetr.
10.
334
a year, the treasurer of the trireme-builders having
eloped with two and a half talents: from the smallness of
this sum it would be natural to conclude that not many
triremes were building at the time; but as it is probable
that the timber and other necessaries had been previously
laid up in store, the stolen money may have been applicable
only to the payment of the labourers: even this sum too
may have been destined only to some particular portion of
the labour; and therefore it would not be safe to infer from
this fact that less than twenty triremes were built every year.
After the time of Alexander the building nearly ceased, as
the supply of timber from Macedonia then failed. Deme-
trius Poliorcetes in Olymp. 118. 2. promised the Athenians
timber for a hundred triremes, a proof that there was a
scarcity of it at Athens.
Another part of the military force for which Athens
incurred some expence in time of peace, was the Cavalry,
which was maintained partly on account of the sumptuous
appearance which from the beauty of the riders and
horses and the magnificence of their trappings it produced
at processions; and partly because the Athenians were
well aware that if both men and horses had not gone
through previous training, they were unserviceable in war.
The particular superintendence of this body belonged to
the Senate of Five-hundred, who also examined the horses
and riders 437; the rich were bound by law to serve in it.
The pay of the cavalry in time of peace was called Cata-
stasis 438, by which name the examination of the horsemen
437 Xenoph. de re Equestri 1. 8. Econ. 9. 15. and in the
Hipparchus. Also Lycurgus ap. Harpocrat, in v. dexquarteis.
δοκιμασθείς.
458 Lys. pro Mantith. p. 574. Harpoc. Suid. Phot. in v.
xatástaσis, Lex. Seg. p. 270. Reiske's error in his note upon
335
made by the senate is also stated to have been called;
probably because the distribution of the pay and the
examinations were connected with one another; it was
however a regular pay, and not an extraordinary donative,
as Reiske supposed. In the speech of Lysias for Man-
titheus it is mentioned, that the horsemen who had served
during the Anarchy, were compelled after the restoration
of the democracy to refund the money which they had
received during that time: hence the grammarians by a
false generalization of a particular case have inferred, that
if the State dismissed the cavalry and appointed others, it
required them to refund their pay to the Phylarchs 439.
But the public would probably have preferred giving none
at all. The truth is that this measure was effected by a
special decree, and only on that single occasion, as the
knights had been the chief attendants of the thirty tyrants,
and had incurred the public hatred to such a degree, that
to have been a knight under the thirty tyrants was reckoned
a disgrace. The expence of the cavalry in time of peace
amounted, according to Xenophon 440, to forty talents;
which agrees with the Choiseul Inscription, in which it is
stated that there were paid out of the public treasure in
four Prytaneias, 16 talents 2148 drachmas 3 oboli, viz.
in the first, three talents 3328 drachmas 34 oboli, in the
third five talents 4820 drachmas, in the fourth three
talents, in the seventh four talents; the rest of the pay
appears to have been defrayed out of the current revenue.
The object of these payments was to supply the provender
Lysias had been already corrected by Larcher Mem. de l'Acad.
des Inscript. tom. XLVIII. p. 92.
459 Properly it was collected by the Demarchs. vid. ad In-
script. 80.
140 Hipparch. 1. 19.
I
336
of the horses; Ulpian expressly says that pay was given
for the keep of the horses 441, and in the above-mentioned
inscription this money is accounted for under the name
of provender for the horses (σitos inπois). The amount
which each person received out of this grant has been dif-
ferently determined by modern writers, according as they
assumed a thousand or twelve hundred as the number
of knights at Athens 442. In the latter case it has been
calculated that they received sixteen drachmas a month or
two oboli a day, in the former twenty drachmas a month
or about four oboli a day. Both estimates appear to be
too low; for even the sailors who were paid in time of
peace received four oboli a day, while the knights were not
only obliged to keep a servant, but also two horses. The
provision of a horseman in war cost the Athenians a
drachma a day 443. Doubtless the same sum was allowed
in peace, and the only difference was, that in war they
received provision-money in addition to their pay. This
view is confirmed by the fact that the Catastasis (which
was in truth nothing more than the knights' allowance for
provision in time of peace, and which they were forced
after the Anarchy to refund) amounted to a drachma.
I state this however solely upon the authority of an in-
scription, with respect to which I entertain no doubt that
it refers to and establishes this fact. It thus appears to
me probable, that the whole cavalry did not receive pay in
time of peace, but only about six hundred; and for a long
time Athens had not more than this number. Now the
p.
341 Ad Demosth. in Timocrat. p. 460.
442 Petit Leg. Att. VIII. 1. 2. Barthél. Anachars. T. II.
184. Larcher ut sup. p. 92.
413 See Book II. 22.
337
pay of these, reckoning the year at 360 days, as Xenophon
does in another place, would exactly amount to thirty-six
talents for that time. Xenophon too only says that the
State paid annually to the cavalry nearly forty talents;
nor can the payments made out of the public treasure,
according to the above-quoted Inscription (which are
moreover unequal in different Prytaneias) be adduced
against my hypothesis, for they were contributions which
might in part have been paid for arrears of preceding
Prytaneias. Lastly, Barthélemy 444 asserts that the Knights
frequently kept their own horses, an error into which he is
led by referring to the public cavalry a passage which
relates only to those citizens, who expended money upon
horses either from fondness of the animal, or in order to
contend for the prize at the public games.
(20.) These expences when taken together, if the lowest
estimate be made of each item, did not amount annually to
less than 400 talents; to these however if great works of
building, extraordinary distributions of money, and large
sums for festivals were added, the State might have
easily consumed 1000 talents in a year, even without
carrying on war, the expences of which are unlimited.
Four hundred talents, which are equal to about £96,666,
were in ancient times at least worth three times as much
as at the present day, if the value of the precious metals
is compared with that of the common necessaries of life;
with this view then we may consider that the former sum
is equal to triple its amount, or in the currency of modern
times to about £290,000; which is in fair proportion to a
population of 500,000 souls, or indeed if we consider the
444 Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions tom. XLVIII. p. 351.
referring to Lycurg, in Leocrat.
VOL. I.
Z
338
high rate of interest, low in comparison with the incomes
of the inhabitants. If however in consequence of war or
some particular extravagance the amount was increased
(an event which was unquestionably of no unfrequent
occurrence) to 1000 talents or more, and as the citizens
were at such a period (as indeed at all others) forced to
serve the Liturgies required by law, the expence was
evidently incommensurate with the means of the State,
and could not be well defrayed without oppressing the
more wealthy classes by property-taxes, and without the
help of tributary allies. Now war, it is certain, produced un-
usually large and inevitable expences. At the present day
indeed the equipment of armies costs the State immense sums
of money; an expence from which the Greeks were very
nearly exempt; for every citizen carried with him clothes
and arms into the field, which indeed may be considered
as a tax levied in another form; the mercenaries also came
completely armed; sometimes perhaps it happened that
poor citizens, foreign settlers, or slaves, were sent into the
field, and assistance on the part of the State was necessary;
a point however on which we have no accurate information.
Another considerable expence in modern warfare is caused
by artillery and ammunition; but as in ancient days the
heavier engines of war were on account of their helplessness
seldom brought into the field; they in general only had to
provide them upon the occasion of a siege or of the defence
of fortified places: the quantity of light darts or jave-
lins used was inconsiderable. The equipment of fleets,
which was necessary for Maritime Warfare, created a
separate branch of expenditure; for which it was altogether
impossible that such effectual provision could have been
made during peace as to leave nothing to be provided at
the breaking out of war. Lastly, the infantry and cavalry,
339
together with the persons attending upon them, and the
crews of the different ships, were to be supplied with pay
and provisions: and if the total expence of providing for
these services should appear to be less than would be neces-
sary in the times in which we live, it must be remembered
that although the Grecians maintained no standing army,
and the funds for the pay and provision of their troops
were required only for a short time, yet on the other hand the
soldiers were not only better paid, and also that during the
most flourishing periods of the history of Athens war was
almost incessant. In order to enable the reader to take a ge-
neral survey of these subjects, I will treat of them separately,
after having in the first instance acquired some general know-
ledge of the magnitude of the military force of Athens.
(21.) Although the numbers of which the armies con-
sisted were in the ancient times of Greece very different
according to circumstances and the necessities of the oc-
casion, and although to state any one precise number of
men is no more possible than in the case of any European
nation, yet it can be safely asserted that no modern State,
even in the latest times in which armies have been sent into
the field, maintained so large a regular force in proportion
to its population as was supported by Athens. And it is
equally true that her military force was not only on a par
with that of all the other States of Greece, but, with the ex-
ception of Sparta, it was superior to them. What Demos-
thenes 445 says of Athens at the period at which he is speak-
ing, that of all the Grecian States it had the most nume-
rous naval force, heavy-armed infantry, and cavalry, and
the greatest quantity of money, must have held good in a
higher degree when the strength of Athens had not been
H
445 Philipp. I. p. 51. 20.
340
CON
broken, excepting that Sparta could send into the field a
larger number of land-forces. Upon the irruptions into
Attica at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the Pelo-
ponnesian and Boeotian forces, which were then enumerated,
amounted in heavy-armed soldiers alone to 60,000 men 446,
and consequently the whole army was more than double this
number. We meet indeed with far more numerous armies
in the Grecian States of Sicily and Italy. According to
Diodorus 300,000 Sybarites contended with 100,000 in-
habitants of Crotona; Philistus stated the military force
of Dionysius at 100,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 400 ships
of war, which required an equipment of 80,000 men.
The first is an evident exaggeration, greater even than
modern newspapers are accustomed to make; whether
the latter is possible, I leave to others to decide. Hume 447
has already exposed the exaggerations in numbers com-
mitted by the ancients, and on the whole not without
success, although he may have erred in particular points.
It is not enough to know that Athens had about 20,000
citizens who were bound to serve in war were we to
estimate its military strength merely from this datum, we
should form a very incorrect judgment. The safest way
to arrive at a satisfactory result is, without pretending to
a complete enumeration, to collect the principal accounts
of the land and sea forces at the different periods. First, it
is needless to speak of the Trojan war, at which the Athe-
nians appeared with fifty, or, according to another report,
with sixty ships 448: a somewhat more certain account may
446 Plutarch. Pericl. 33.
447 Essay upon the Populousness of Ancient Nations, vol. II.
p. 230. Lond. 1760.
448 Il. B. 556. Eurip. Iphig. Aul. 247. Cf. Græc. Tragoed.
Princip. p. 238.
•
341
however be given of the times of Solon. Before the consti-
tution of Cleisthenes, Athens had twelve Phratrias, and in
each of them four Naucrarias or Naucarias, which, as pub-
lic corporations, were originally the same that the boroughs
were afterwards; they must indeed have been in existence
before the time of Solon, as the presidents of the Naucrari
(πρυτάνεις τῶν ναυκράζων) are mentioned before the period of
his legislation 449, and probably all that Aristotle 450 means
when he ascribes their institution to Solon is, that the
existence of their office was confirmed by that lawgiver.
Now each Naucraria furnished two horsemen, amounting
altogether to ninety-six, and one vessel, making therefore
in all forty-eight; and the whole military system, in
respect to defraying the expences, was doubtless regu-
lated according to Naucrarias 451. When Cleisthenes
afterwards introduced the boroughs, the Naucrarias were
still retained, probably with a financial and military
view; but he so far altered their constitution, that he
created fifty Naucrarias, five in each tribe 452, and con-
sequently they now furnished a hundred horsemen and
fifty ships. This is perfectly consonant with the fact
mentioned by Herodotus 453, that the Athenians in the
war against the Æginetans anterior to the Persian wars,
449 Herod. V. 71. Instead of these Thucydides (I. 126.)
mentions the nine Archons, who probably were at the head of
the Prytaneias.
150
Ap. Phot. in v. ravxgagia.
ναυκραρία.
451 Poll. VIII. 108. from which passage Zeun. ad Xenoph.
Hipparch. 9. 3. has drawn some false conclusions, Hesych. in v.
vauxλagos, Phot. ut sup. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 37. Ammon. in
V. vauxλngo, Harpocrat. and Suidas in v. vavxgagia.
452 Cleidemus ap. Phot. ut sup.
453 VI. 89.
342
could only send out fifty ships of their own, and were
compelled to receive twenty ships from the Corinthians in
order to increase their force; and we may observe that in
this case triremes and not smaller vessels are meant, as is
proved by their connexion with the Corinthian ships, the
Corinthians being the first who had triremes. Now Mil-
¦ tiades after the battle of Marathon undertook the expedi-
tion against Paros with seventy ships 454. But it was
precisely at this time that Themistocles increased the
naval force, and brought it to the height at which we find
it in the Persian war after the battles of Artemisium and
Salamis. In the former action 271 triremes were engaged,
among which there were 127 belonging to Athens, which
were in part manned with Platæans, they having no
ships of their own: besides these the Athenians gave
twenty to the Chalcideans 455. To these were added
fifty-three other Athenian vessels, so that Athens num-
bered two hundred vessels among those engaged at Salamis,
although the whole Grecian fleet present at that battle
only amounted to 378 triremes 456. Demosthenes in the
oration for the Crown 457 agrees exactly with these state-
1
454 Herod. VI. 132.
455 Herod. VIII. 1. Herodotus in this and in nearly every
place where he speaks of ships of war, means triremes, as is
shewn by their being opposed to Penteconters. Comp. also VIII.
42-48.
456 Herod. VIII. 14. 42--48. If however all the separate
numbers are added together, the sum is only 366; something
therefore must have been lost in the text, as others have already
remarked. Concerning the 200 triremes, or 180 without the Chal-
cidean, compare also Herod. VII. 144. VIII. 61. Plutarch. The-
mistocl. II. 14. The more ambiguous passages of Isocrates
(Paneg. p. 79, 82, ed. Hall.) I pass over.
457 P. 306. 21.
343
ments of Herodotus, as far as the Athenians are concerned;
for out of 300 Grecian he reckons 200 Athenian triremes:
how it came to pass that in the speech upon the Sym-
moriæ 458 only 100 Athenian vessels are mentioned among
300 Grecian, I am unable to explain: this circumstance
might indeed lead one to suspect that this oration is
spurious, if there was not such strong internal evidence in
favour of its authenticity. We may farther observe that
the manning of 180 triremes required 36,000 men, of
whom only a few were Platæans; but as the Athenians
had at that time wholly deserted their country, it would not
have been difficult to man that number of triremes solely
with citizens, and aliens, taking both old and young, even
without slaves; land-forces, as such, were for the moment
not in existence. And how numerous these were, we learn
from the battles of Marathon and Platææ. In the first of
these 10,000 Athenians were engaged, including of course
none but Hoplita; we cannot suppose that in those times
there were any slaves among the regular forces; and al-
though Pausanias 459 asserts that slaves fought for the first
time in the former battle, it may be inferred from his
words that they were in the ranks of the Platæans; so
that as far as Athens is concerned, his testimony does
not apply. Athens could not then have raised a larger
number of troops, otherwise it would have done so at the
times of the greatest necessity for probably only the
three superior classes were Hoplita, and the Thetes were
light-armed; subsequently the Thetes were employed as
Hoplitæ, although this is pointed out as an uncommon event
--
458 P. 186. 5.
459 I. 32. 3. They appear to have been runaway Boeotian
slaves, who lived at Platææ.
344
in the times of the Peloponnesian war 460. The Athenians
had not any bowmen or cavalry in this battle461; even the
small number of horsemen, which must have been in exist-
ence according to the former regulations, were not at their
post, and the whole order of Knights was at that time no
more than a name. Attica, from the nature of the country,
was little suited for cavalry 462; and as this species of mi-
litary is powerful among undisciplined masses of infantry,
the aristocracy or oligarchy in ancient days was generally
composed of horsemen, a form of government which the
Athenians of all the Grecian States were most averse
to. Boeotia, Phocis, Locris 463, and Thessaly, were the
highlands, in which the cavalry was most numerous:
even the Pisistratidæ had 1000 Thessalian horsemen, which
a Thessalian prince had sent to support them against the
Spartans 464, and according to an ancient alliance, the
Thessalian cavalry came to the assistance of the Athenians
before and during the Peloponnesian war 465. At Platææ
the heavy-armed infantry of the Greeks amounted to
38,700 men, together with 69,500 light-armed troops,
besides 1800 light-armed Thespians: among them there
were 5000 Spartans, with 35,000 light-armed Helots and
5000 Lacedæmonian Hoplitæ, with 5000 light-armed
troops; the Athenians had only 8000 Hoplita, together
with the same number of light-armed troops, for Hero-
dotus expressly reckons upon an average one light-armed
man to each Hoplites, with the exception only of the
460 Cf. Harpocrat. in v. Tes. Thucyd. VI. 43.
461 Herod. VI. 112.
462 Herod. IX. 13.
465 Thue. II. 9.
464 Herod. V. 63.
365 Thục. I. 102, 107. II. 22.
345
Spartans, of whom each one had seven with him 466. The
allied Grecian army appears not to have had any cavalry,
as the equestrian nations were on the side of the Persians;
but the Athenians at this battle had bowmen for the first
time on land 467, who were doubtless citizens belonging to
the light-armed troops, and of the class of Thetes;
by sea more than 700 bowmen had already been employed
at the battle of Salamis. The Athenians would without
doubt have had more troops for the battle of Platææ, if
they had not at the same time been compelled to furnish
crews for the fleet which was engaged at Mycale, and
consisted, according to Herodotus, of 110, according to
Diodorus, of 250 triremes, under the command of Leoty-
chides, and on the side of the Athenians Xanthippus 468.
In the next age the Athenian force remained nearly the
same: Cimon commanded 200 Athenian and 100 allied
triremes, according to one account, but, according to the
more credible statement of Thucydides, both taken toge-
ther amounted to 200 triremes: by land they were not
stronger than before. In the battle of Tanagra (Olymp.
80. 3.) the whole Athenian land-forces were present, ex-
cepting what were at that time in Egypt; 1000 Argives
were on their side, together with other allies, and yet
466 Herod. IX. 28 sqq. cf. 61. In the number of the light-
armed troops Herodotus reckons 800 more than results from his
own data: this difficulty cannot be solved. I pass over the
accounts of Diodorus and Pausanias, which cannot have much
weight. Plutarch (Aristid. 11.) agrees in the number of the
Athenian Hoplitæ.
467 Herod. IX. 60. cf. 22. Concerning the archers in the
battle of Salamis see Plutarch. Themistocl. 14.
468 Herod. VIII. 131. Diod. XI. 34.
346
altogether they only made up 14,000 men 469, that is,
exclusively of the ught-armed troops, which were usually
not taken into the account. At the same time moreover
there was a fleet of 50 ships cruising against the Spartans
at sea, which likewise required 10,000 men. The Athe-
nians however endeavoured at all times to improve and to
increase both the land and sea forces. It is stated by
Andocides, and also Æschines in a most obscure passage 470
(from which however, after the errors have been corrected,
some truth may be extracted), that in thirteen years pre-
ceding the Æginetan war (from the 77th to the 80th
Olympiad) 100 new ships were added to the 200 which
before existed; besides which they had formed a regiment
of 300 horsemen, and had purchased the first Scythian
bowmen, to the number of 300. During the armistice,
which was shortly afterwards concluded with Sparta, in
Olymp. 83. 3. and which was observed up to the time of
the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians again made great
exertions in the building of ships, so that in Olymp. 87.
2. they were enabled to decree that a hundred new tri-
remes should be provided for particular purposes 471; the
cavalry was also raised to 1200, and the same number of
bowmen appointed 472. Also after the peace of Nicias
(Olymp. 89. 3.) Eschines states that they procured
The
300, or, according to Andocides, 400 triremes.
estimate of Pericles at the breaking out of the Pelo-
ponnesian war agrees sufficiently well with the principal
469 Thuc. I. 107. Diod. XI. 80.
470 Esch. de Fals. Leg. p. 334-337. taken from the begin-
ning of Andocides de Pace.
471 See below chap. 23. It was this that floated in the mind
of the orator.
472 See above chap. 11.
347
statements which have been here quoted 473. According
to his account Athens had not at that time more than
3000 heavy-armed men fit for active service; besides
these, 6000 of the oldest and youngest of the citizens,
and as many of the resident aliens as were heavy-armed,
were appointed to defend the fortifications of the city; to
which must be added 1200 cavalry, including the mounted
bowmen, 1600 bowmen who served on foot, and 300
triremes ready to put to sea; and, according to Xeno-
phon 474, there were in the docks and on service altogether
400. Isocrates, with the amplification of an orator, gives
the numbers at double the amount stated by all the other
writers.
If we reckon that 300 triremes were manned with 60,000
men, the sum total of the crews does not amount to less
than 91,800 men, a number incredibly great for a popula-
tion of 500,000 souls, four-fifths of which were slaves. It
might indeed be said that Athens was not able to man
300 triremes, if all the Hoplita were deducted; but even
if about 10,000 Hoplitæ are reckoned as included in the
ships' companies, the number which remains is still very
considerable. This fact may however be accounted for
by the following considerations. The number of Hoplitæ
is larger than we find in the accounts of earlier times, as
473 Thuc. II. 13. The inaccurate Diodorus (XII. 40.) dis-
agrees in some points, and is not so explicit as Thucydides.
474 Cyr. Exped. VII. 1. 27. Isocrat. Panegyr. p. 85. With
regard to the number 300 compare Aristoph. Acharn. 544. The
places for the ships in the Piraeus were calculated for 400, as
Strabo mentions in the ninth book, adding at the same time that
the Athenians had sent out that number. Whether the 400
Trierarchs who were formerly appointed every year refer to this
circumstance may be questioned. See book IV. 12.
348
persons of greater or less age were included, who only
served on garrison-duty and not in the field; and it was
farther increased by the addition of some resident aliens.
All indeed were regularly armed; but the whole together
was not essentially unlike the rising in mass of a popula-
tion on the alarm of invasion; and it comprised every
individual capable of bearing arms, from eighteen to sixty
years of age. The resident aliens were originally, when
armed as Hoplitæ, only used as garrison-soldiers; in later
times they also served in campaigns, to which aliens not
yet domiciliated were occasionally summoned 475, but they
were prohibited from serving in the cavalry 476; nor could
there have been many among the Hoplita; for several
Athenian boroughs supplied a large number of these.
Acharnæ (by which we are not to understand the little
village of the charcoal-burners, as is generally supposed,
but a more considerable town which was celebrated for the
heroism of its ancient inhabitants) 477 alone supplied
3000 478; consequently a greater number of aliens could be
spared for the fleet; for this class of persons was probably
more numerous in Attica at the time of Pericles than in
that of Demetrius Phalereus; and it is well known that
they chiefly served in the fleet 479. In addition to these
the State also took into its service the out-dwellers (oi
475 Thuc. IV. 90.
476 Xenoph. de Vectig. 2. 2. 5. Cf. Hipparch. 9. 6. That the
:
resident aliens frequently went into the field is also observed by
Ammonius in v. iooreλns, and I have remarked various passages
in different authors to the same purpose.
477 Pindar. Nem. II. 16.
478 Thuế. II. 20.
479 Thuc. I. 143. III. 16. Xenoph. de Rep. Ath. I. 12. De-
mosth. Philipp. I. p. 50. 22. and others.
+
:
349
xwgis oixoũvtes) as they were called, by whom we must
either understand with the grammarians, freedmen, or else
persons, who, though still slaves, lived apart from their
masters, and supported themselves by their own labour 480.
If it is borne in mind that the Spartans brought their
Helots with them into the field, that the Thessalian
mounted Penesta were bondsmen, that a considerable
number of slaves was always employed in war as at-
tendants on the army, who were sometimes even manu-
mitted 481, that slaves are said to have fought as early as
at the battle of Marathon, and afterwards at Chæronea
when the Athenians granted them their liberty 482, it can-
not excite any surprise that a large proportion of the
rowers were slaves. It is remarked as an unusual circum-
stance that the seamen of the Paralos were all freemen 483.
At the successful sea-fight of Arginusæ there were many
slaves in the Athenian fleet 484; and it equally redounds to
the honour of both parties, on the one hand that victory
was chiefly owing to the slaves, and on the other that the
Athenians immediately emancipated them, and made them
Platæan citizens 485. This must have taken place at an
480 Demosth. ut sup. and Hier. Wolf's note, but more particu-
larly Harpocrat. Suid. and Photius in v. Tous xwgis oixovvtas. Lex.
Seg. p. 316. The author of the speech against Euergus and Mne-
sibulus p. 1161. 15. says of a freedman xwgis xs.
91
481 See book I. 13.
482 Dio Chrysost. XV.
485 Thuc. VIII. 73.
C
484 Xenoph. Hell. I. 6. 17.
485 Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 33. cf. 193. A clearer reference to
it is made by Aristophanes himself, ibid. 706. This play was
produced in the same year (Olymp. 93. 3.) in which the battle
was fought, but later in the year, in the month Gamelion. Con-
350
S
earlier period in the time of the Peloponnesian war; for
according to Hellanicus, who could not have been alive at
the time of this action, slaves who had been engaged in
sea-fights were made Platæans 486. A large number of
slaves was considered not as useful only, but as neces-
sary to a State which possessed a naval force 487. The
Athenians also employed foreign seamen who served for
hire, and who remained as long only as they pleased,
so that if the enemy offered better pay they immediately
changed sides. Thus the Athenians were able to man far
more ships than appears to have been possible if we merely
judge from the numbers of the free population. It was
only on some pressing emergency that citizens were em-
ployed as rowers; excepting indeed in the sacred triremes,
in which the rowers were generally Thetes; Knights indeed
were so employed on rare occasions, and at times even Pen-
tacosiomedimni. Lastly, they sometimes pressed sailors
in the countries of the allies, and made compulsory levies
of troops, as for instance before the battle of Arginusæ,
G
cerning the fact comp. also Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 6. Diodorus
expresses himself inaccurately XIII. 97.
486 Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 706. τοὺς συνναυμαχήσαντας δούλους
῾Ελλάνικός φησιν ἐλευθερωθῆναι καὶ ἐγγραφέντας ὡς Πλαταιεῖς συμπολι
Tevoba. Sturz (Fragment. Hellan. p. 119.) has wholly mis-
understood this passage, as he was not aware that Platæans
were a kind of Athenian citizens. The Plataan rights of citizen-
ship were first introduced at Athens in Olymp. 88. I.; conse-
quently this occurrence cannot be placed earlier, nor can it by
any means be referred with Sturz to the battle of Salamis.
[Hellanicus died in 411 B. C. the year in which the history
of Thucydides breaks off; consequently he could not have alluded
to the enfranchisement of the slaves after the battle of Arginusæ.
See however Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 732.]
487 Xenoph. de Vectig. 4. 42. de Rep. Athen. I. 11.
351
and for the Sicilian expedition 488; and this even in the
subject States, although they had long redeemed their
obligation to serve in war, which arrangement the Athe-
nians willingly concurred in, as they were rejoiced to
see them thus deprived of the means of revolting 489.
Upon the whole then it would be assuming too much,
if we reckoned, according to the usual computation, a
servant for each Hoplites over and above the ship's com-
pany; there can be no doubt that we must consider those
who served at sea in the capacity of rowers, as analogous
to the servants who attended the heavy-armed soldiers by
land.
The cavalry was composed of the order of Knights, but
as a military force it at first increased slowly; the numbers
of one hundred and three hundred I have already quoted:
afterwards, according to the Scholiast on Aristophanes
and Suidas 490, the number amounted to 600, and last of
all there were 1200 Knights at Athens, according to the
statements of Thucydides and Eschines. The ratio of
the cavalry to the infantry was among the Greeks as one
to ten, and 1200 horsemen are consequently nearly in this
ratio to 13,000 Hoplite; but were all the 1200 composed
of Athenians, and of the order of Knights? That this
order might have contained 1200 persons no one will
488 Xenoph. Hell. I. 6. 18. Thuc. VI. 43.
489 Thuc. I. 99. Plutarch. Cim. 11. This had been brought
about by the management of Cimon himself.
490 Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 624. and thence Suidas in v. izzûç.
Diod. XIII. 72. cannot be referred to this with safety, as there
may be auxiliary troops among his 1200 Athenian cavalry,
for instance Thessalians. The passage of Harpocration quoted
by Zeune ad Xenoph. Hipparch. 9. 3. has nothing to do with
this point.
352
deny; and even if it contained fewer, there might have
been that number of horsemen, for probably there were
many Pentacosiomedimni among them. But Aristophanes
only reckons a thousand Knights 491, and this too in the
comedy called by their name, which was produced in Olymp.
88. 4.; the same number was given by Philochorus in
the fourth book of the Atthis 492, who did not however
omit to mention that their number occasionally varied;
Demosthenes states the very same number 493; and Xeno-
phon proposes, in order to bring the cavalry more rapidly
and easily to 1000 men, which he evidently considers as
the usual number, that they should keep foreign horse-
soldiers 494. Larcher 495 very properly rejects the suppo-
sition of Petit 496, that the ancient writers had made use
of 1000 as a round number, upon the ground that 1200
would have equally suited their purpose; and he sup-
poses that the origin of the difference in the statements
was, that from the beginning of the Peloponnesian war,
until the date of the Knights of Aristophanes, they had
been diminished about 200; which supposition appears
to be untenable. My opinion coincides rather with
Schneider's 497, that in the 1200 the mounted bowmen are
included, as Thucydides expressly states; it is possible that
besides these bowmen there were a thousand, viz. a hun-
491 Eq. 225.
492 Ap. Hesych. in v. iππйs.
493 De Symmor. p. 181. 17.
494 Hipparch. ut sup.
495 In his otherwise superficial Memoir on the Class of
Knights in Greece, Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. XLVIII.
p. 92.
496 Leg. Att. VIII. 1. 2.
497 Ad Xenoph. Hipparch. ut sup.
353
dred from each tribe, who were Athenians, and armed in
the Greek manner; while the 200 mounted bowmen were
doubtless in the cavalry what the Scythians were in the
infantry, i. e. light-armed. In this capacity they rode
in front, even before the Hipparch 498; and in an oration
attributed to Lysias it is considered degrading to an
Athenian to serve in the cavalry among the bowmen 499.
It is no objection to the above hypothesis, that Xeno-
phon not only makes no mention of the existence of the
foreign cavalry at Athens, but himself first proposes that
such a body should be formed; for these bowmen, being
light-armed soldiers, did not come into consideration when
he was treating of the maintenance or improvement of the
cavalry, which was composed of citizens. Thucydides
mentions 1600 bowmen who served on foot, the orators
only 1200; this difference also may probably be accounted
for by the fact that the mercenary Scythian bowmen were
at most 1200 500, but that the others were either citizens of
the poorer classes, or resident aliens, who were light-armed,
and chiefly trained in shooting. Bowmen occur in the
battles of Salamis and Platææ, before any Scythians had
been procured; and it may be distinctly seen from an
inscription still extant, that a difference was made between
foreign bowmen and those who were citizens (evixo) and
άσTIXO): finally, the bowmen, who occur in two Athenian
military lists 501, appear to have been citizens, especially
498 Xenoph. Socrat. Mem. III. 3. 1.
499 Lys. in Alcib. λuzetaž. II. p. 565. This passage is de-
cisive, although the speech is probably not the work of Lysias,
but of some other contemporary.
500 See book II. 11.
i Inscript. 80. I. p. 119. ed. Boeckh.
501 In the well-known list of the killed, of the date of Olymp.
VOL. I.
А а
354
as in one immediately after the bowmen a new division
begins with the superscription "foreigners" (évoi). The
Athenians also had Cretan bowmen in pay for a time, as
Thucydides and Pausanias mention.
The accounts of the military force which was in action
during the Peloponnesian war appear to coincide with the
numbers here ascertained; and of this I will now adduce
some examples. At the very beginning of the war Pericles
sent 100 ships to the Peloponnese, to which 50 Corcyræan
and other allied ships were added; at the same time 30
vessels were sent to Locris, and some must without doubt
have been reserved for the defence of Attica itself 502. So
again, in the second year of the war, while the enemy's
troops were in the country, Pericles went to Epidaurus
with 100 Athenian and 50 Lesbian and Chian triremes,
having on board 4000 Hoplitæ and 300 horsemen. In the
fourth year of the same war, the Lesbians having revolted,
40 triremes were sent against them; at the same time
30 were sent to the Peloponnese, and 30 others were
equipped in order to protect Athens from invasion; these
were manned with Athenians, who were however neither
Knights nor Pentecosiomedimni, and with resident aliens 503.
At the end of the summer 1000 Hoplita were sent to
80. . which has been edited by Spon, Maffei, Corsini, and
others, in which indeed some names sound rather common and
not of Athenian origin, but they may be the names of inferior
persons admitted to the rights of citizenship from foreign coun-
tries; and in another inscription which I have published in the
Catalogue of the Winter Lectures of the University of Berlin,
1816, 1817, as well as Clarke in his Travels. The passage of
Pausanias I. 29. 5. refers to the Cretan bowmen.
502 Thuc. II. 24
26.
III. 3, 7, 16.
503 Thuc. II. 56.
355
Lesbos, who themselves rowed the ships thither 504,
Thucydides remarks, that at that time the number of
ships in use was very large, but that it was still greater at
the beginning of the war, when Attica, Salamis, and
Euboea, were guarded by 100 ships, 100 had been de-
spatched to the Peloponnese, and 50 more to Potidæa
and to other places, amounting altogether to 250; besides
these there were 4600 Hoplita before the walls of Potidæa
(only 1600 however for some time), and an equal number
of attendants 505. Thus we find in this instance, in addi-
tion to the land-forces that remained in Attica, a body of
60,000 men in service. In the expedition to Sicily the
numbers were not inferior 506. Although the war was
continued in Greece, the Athenians decreed that 60 ships
should be sent to Sicily, under the command of Nicias and
Alcibiades; but Nicias, rightly 'estimating the magnitude
of the enterprize, saw that it would be necessary to have
land-troops in addition to a powerful naval armament, and
counselled them to send a large number of Hoplita, bow-
men, and slingers, both of their own and of the allies,
together with provision-ships and apparatus for baking.
He disapproved however of the war altogether; but in
consequence of his advice the People sent 60 swift-sailing
triremes with 40 military transports, to which were also
added 34 allied triremes and the provision-ships: the
Hoplita were 5100 in number, of whom 700 were Thetes
created for the occasion, and 1500 Athenians from the list
of citizens; the others were mostly subject allies and a few
mercenaries; also 480 bowmen, of whom 80 were Cretans,
304 Thuc. III. 18.
30s Thuc. III. 17.
506 Thục. VI. 8, 21, 22, 31 sqq., 43.
356
700 Rhodian slingers, 120 light-armed Megarian exiles,
and 30 horsemen. If we reckon the crews of 134 triremes,
each at 200 men, and the attendants of the Hoplite and
cavalry, we find that they amounted to 38,560 men: 250
dismounted horse-soldiers followed at a later period, who
were to have been mounted in Sicily, and also 30 mounted
bowmen 507. And yet they were able at the same time to
send 30 ships to the Peloponnese 508, and other small fleets
were dispersed about in various places. Nor was this all;
for ten ships were sent as a reinforcement under Eury-
medon to Sicily, and twenty for the blockade of the
Peloponnese; where soon afterwards thirty more were
sent under the joint command of Charicles and De-
mosthenes, with sixty Athenian and five Chian vessels,
together with 1200 Hoplitæ from the list of the citizens,
and others from the islands; the Thracian Peltasts, who
arrived too late, were sent home again on account of the
scarcity of pay; fresh troops however were received in
different places; other ships were also provided, but some
of them were again dismissed. When Demosthenes and Eu-
rymedon arrived in Sicily they had 73 triremes, 5000 Hop-
litæ, together with a number of Grecian and Barbarian ja-
velineers, slingers, and bowmen 509. Now if we add together
the whole number of men of all descriptions who went,
after the departure of the first fleet, to Sicily, viz. cavalry,
Hoplitæ, light-armed soldiers, and ships' crews, together
with the servants of the cavalry and Hoplitæ, it gives
507 Thuc. VI. 94. cf. Plutarch. Alcib. 20.
508 Thục. VI. 105.
509 Thuc. VII. 16, 17, 20, 27, 42. Diodorus is less precise
in his statements than Thucydides; but he agrees with him
upon the whole. See XII. 84. XIII. 2, 7, 8, 9, 11.
357
about 26,000 men; so that the whole military force which
was sent to Sicily amounted to about 65,000 men. In
this moreover the Sicilian auxiliaries are not included, but
only the Grecian and Italian. But in the decisive sea
fight at Syracuse only 110 ships were engaged, and some
of these were in very bad condition 510; 40,000 men sur-
vived the battle, as Thucydides informs us 511; of whom
many were destroyed by land, 8000 were put to death, 7000
made prisoners in a body; of the rest some were kept as
slaves by the soldiers, and others sold 512. Diodorus there-
fore makes Nicolaus underrate the number, when he states
the Athenian forces in Sicily at more than 200 ships, and
above 40,000 men513; he might have said above 60,000
men.
This loss was the greatest that the Athenians had ever
experienced; although nearly equal reverses had been
sustained in earlier times. "In Egypt," says Isocrates 514,
whose account of the defeats of Athens, although inaccu-
rate, is very remarkable, " 200 triremes were lost, with all
510 Thuc. VII, 60.
511 Thục. VII. 75.
512 Diod. XIII. 20.
513 Diod. XIII. 21. Manso charges Diodorus with some false
statement, and censures him for exaggerating: see his History
of Sparta vol. II. p. 455.
514
Evµµax. 29. To what the loss of 10,000 Hoplita in the
Pontus refers I am wholly ignorant; but hardly to the auxiliary
troops of Cyrus, which had nothing to do with the Athenians.
Ælian Hist. Var. V. 11. transcribes this passage of Isocrates,
but purposely omits these 10,000 soldiers. The manner in
which Isocrates counted the 240 ships has been shewn by
Perizonius upon Elian. Cneius Piso justly observed that the
population of Attica in later times was a conflux of vagabonds
and rabble, Tacit. Annal. II. 55.
358
I
their crew, 150 off Cyprus; and in the Pontus 10,000
Hoplite of the Athenians and the allies; in Sicily 40,000
men, and 240 triremes; and afterwards in the Hellespont
200 more: but as to the triremes which had been lost by
tens and fives, and the men who had been destroyed by
thousands and two thousands, who could enumerate them?"
In consequence of these calamities, the Phratrias and the
register of the Lexiarchs were filled with aliens, in order
to replenish the number of the citizens; and the races of
the most celebrated men and the noblest families, which
had hitherto preserved an unbroken descent through in-
ternal troubles and disturbances, and through the vicis-
situdes of the Persian wars, were at length sacrificed to
their struggles for dominion, and became extinct. Per-
haps no country ever adopted so many strangers as Athens:
hence that mixture of languages soon arose, which Xeno-
phon complains of in his Essay upon the Athenian State;
but whatever may have been the inconveniences resulting
from this practice, no other means would have sufficed, after
such great and repeated losses, to keep up the numbers of
the citizens with regard indeed to the defeat in Sicily,
many strangers were involved in it; the greater part of
the citizens were at home: for as at that precise period,
after Alcibiades had been recalled from Sicily, the Spartans
occupied Decelea, and kept it constantly garrisoned, it was
impossible to leave the city in a defenceless state. The fact
of there having been only 5000 Hoplitæ admitted into a share
of the government which was introduced in Olymp. 92. 1.,
immediately after the Sicilian expedition 515, may indeed
in part have been occasioned by the misfortunes of war,
but is chiefly to be accounted for from the circumstance
that the Thetes are not comprised in this number; for by
515 Thuc. VIII. 97.
359
law they were prohibited from serving as Hoplite; and in
this instance they would have been still more strictly
excluded, as the registration was made in reference to an
aristocratical constitution, in which the Hoplita were to
compose the Public Assembly; for which reason many
citizens, even who were not Thetes, were unquestionably
debarred from a participation. The same holds good of
the 3000 in the Anarchy 516, who were Hoplite; but it is
impossible that persons of this description alone were
admitted, and we may conclude that they were selected
arbitrarily from among the citizens who remained at home.
By these means Athens sustained herself in the years
immediately following the Sicilian expedition; and, not-
withstanding her unfavourable condition, defeated the
Lacedæmonians off Abydos (Olymp. 92. 2.) with eighty-
six ships517; and, soon afterwards, for the second time, off
Cyzicus 518. Then Alcibiades appeared with 100, and
afterwards Conon with 70 ships519; and this fleet being
unsuccessful, the Athenians in Olymp. 93. 3. equipped
110 ships within thirty days, the crews of which were
composed of all persons who were able to serve in war,
both slaves and citizens; and there were even some
Knights who went with them. To these were added ten
Samian and more than thirty other allied vessels, and
several which had been detached to different places were
recalled; making altogether 150; while Conon retained
seventy under his immediate command, of which thirty
were lost 520. The crews of the ships that fought at
516 Xenoph. Hell. II. 3. 12, 13. 4. 2.
518 Xenoph. Hell. I. 1.
519 Xenoph. Hell. I. 5.
520 Xenoph. Hell. I. 6.
517 Thuc. VIII. 104. and Diod. XIII. under Olymp. 92. 2.
Diod. XIII. under Olymp. 92. 2.
Diod. under Olymp. 93. 1, 2.
Diod. under Olymp. 93. 3.
360
Arginusæ alone amounted to more than 30,000 men;
those of Conon's fleet to 14,000, and many persons capable
of bearing arms must necessarily have remained at home.
Lastly, in the battle of Egospotamos the Athenian force
amounted to 180 triremes, which would require alone
36,000 men 521¸
4
Even after the unfortunate termination of the Pelopon-
nesian war, the Athenians soon recovered themselves, and
in Olymp. 100. & were enabled to think of equipping, ac-
cording to Polybius, a hundred ships and 10,000 Hoplitæ ;
or according to Diodorus, 200 ships, 20,000 Hoplitæ, and
500 cavalry 522. The forces of Chares, Timotheus, Cha-
brias, and Iphicrates were not inconsiderable, as we learn
from the Historians; according to Isocrates the State pos-
sessed 200 triremes even at a later period than this;
Demosthenes in the 106th Olympiad reckons the naval
force at 300 vessels which could be sent to sea on
an emergency, together with 1000 horse-soldiers, and as
large a number of Hoplitæ as might be wished 523; Ly-
curgus provided the State with 400 triremes 524, and so
completely filled the docks that they could not contain any
more; the Athenians sent to the assistance of the Byzan-
tines not less than 120 ships together with Hoplitæ and a
supply of missiles 525; and before the battle of Chæronea,
they decreed to send 200 ships to sea 526. At this time how-
Sin
521 Xenoph. Hell. II. 1. 13. Diod. under Olymp. 93. 4.
522 Diod. XV. 29. Polyb. II. 62. Comp. Book IV. 4.
523 Isocrat. Areop. 1. Demosth. de Symmor. p. 181. 17. p. 183.
186.8.
15.
p.
524 See Meurs. Fort. Att. VII. and more particularly the third
decree after the Lives of the Ten Orators.
525 Decree of the Byzantians in Demosth. pro Corona, p. 256.
526 Decree in Demosth. pro Corona, p. 290.
361
ever the military force was in a continually declining state,
as the citizens were unwilling to serve, and preferred
carrying on war with mercenaries, while they were squan-
dering away the public revenue in shows and banquets at
home. It is undoubtedly true that mercenaries had been
frequently employed in the Peloponnesian war, both in the
fleet as rowers, and by land as heavy and light-armed troops;
but it had not at that time become a principle, that the
whole war should depend on the services of mercenaries.
Isocrates 527 at the time of the Social war complains
that his countrymen no longer exerted themselves; so far
from it that they employed refugees, deserters, and other
criminals, who would immediately turn their arms against
Athens if any body offered them higher pay: this the
Athenians did at a time when they were hardly able to
defray the expences of the administration; whereas formerly
when there was abundance of gold and silver in the Acro-
polis, the citizens themselves served in war.
It was a
common practice to write down 10,000, 20,000 mercena-
ries; but it was a force which existed only on paper,
and nothing more than a decree to that effect went out
with the general: they chose ten Generals, ten Taxiarchs,
ten Phylarchs, and two Hipparchs; but with the excep-
tion of one, they all remained at home, and together
with the sacrificers, superintended the processions. Every
general was two or three times put upon his trial for life
or death, and when defeated with his mercenaries, was
made the object of party accusations. In order to diminish
this evil, Demosthenes counselled the Athenians that the
fourth part of the standing army should be composed of
citizens. In addition to this it often happened that the
527 Συμμαχ. 16.
362
foreign leader of the mercenaries was a general, the
equipments of the army were never ready at the right
time, and that the war was carried on upon unsound
military principles 528. The greatest number of mercenaries
which Athens collected at this time against Philip was,
according to the statement of Demosthenes, 15,000 to-
gether with 2000 cavalry, which were furnished by the
Euboeans, Achæans, Corinthians, Thebans, Megarians,
Leucadians, and Corcyræans, in addition to the other
force composed of the citizens of these nations 529: others
than these Athens was forced to maintain at her own
expence.
The total numerical amount of the land army must
always be estimated at twice the number of men which is
stated by ancient authors, when they merely mention
Hoplitæ and cavalry. For each Hoplites had an attendant
(ὑπηρέτης, σκευοφόρος) who carried his baggage and provi-
sions, and also his shield; the horseman too had a servant
who attended to his horse (iTπоxóμоs) 530. This regulation
diminished the labour of the soldiers; but it must neces-
sarily have produced a regular and continual system of
depredation. That the armies were also attended by a
large train of carriages and asses 531 and of suttlers does not
require to be stated.
528 Demosth. Philipp. I. p. 45, 47, 53.
529 Demosth. pro Corona p. 306. And thence Plutarch, in his
Life of Demosthenes 17. The statement in the first decree at the
end of the Lives of the Ten Orators and in Æsch. in Ctesiph.
p. 488. is lower. Cf. ibid. 536. Æschines states a less number, as
he does not include the Theban mercenaries.
530 Thuc. III. 17. VII. 75, 78. Xenoph. Hell. II. 4. comp.
Barthel. Anachar. vol. II. p. 145.
531 Xenoph. Econ. 84. and frequently in the Historians.
363
(22.) In ancient times the troops received no pay,
excepting such foreign soldiers as engaged themselves in
the service of a State; a practice which the Carians were
the first to introduce, and which among the Greeks the
Arcadians, who resembled the Swiss in such mercenary
habits, were particularly prone to. Pericles first introduced
the pay of the citizens who served as soldiers 532. The
payment was made under two different names; one being
the wages (μolòs) paid for actual service, which the soldiers
when the cost of their arms and clothes had been deducted,
were able to lay by; and secondly the allowance for pro-
visions (σιτηρέσιον, σιτάρκεια, σῖτος), they being seldom
furnished in kind. The soldiers being free citizens, it was
thought that the State was bound to pay them highly,
and that if freemen voluntarily undertook this hazardous
service and discharged their duties at the risk of their
lives, they were entitled at least to a maintenance: the
generals and commanders were however proportionally ill
paid, as their distance from the common soldiers was not
so great as at the present day; the honour of their situa-
tion was also considered as sufficient indemnification, and
they had the chance of being remunerated by booty and
contributions. The pay was generally given out in gold;
by the Athenians probably for the most part in their own
silver 533; the provision-money was also given at the same
time, which for that reason has not always been properly
distinguished by the ancient writers from the pay, and
consequently it will be impossible for us always to ascertain
532 Ulpian ad Demosth. πgì cvvráž, p. 50. A.
533 That Athens sometimes paid in Cyzicenic staters, may be
inferred from Demosth. in Mid. p. 570. (See however book I.
note 84.)
364
the difference. The pay of an Hoplites never amounted
to less than two oboli a day, and the provision-money to
the same sum: which was still the common rate in the
age of Demosthenes; since this orator reckons ten drach-
mas a month for the provision-money of the Hoplita, and
thirty drachmas for that of the cavalry, together con-
sequently they amounted to four oboli a day for each
Hoplites; the attendants were not always paid separately.
The life of a soldier was proverbially called, on account of
this rate of pay, the life of a Tetrobolon (TETgwßóλov Blog) 534.
At the same time higher pay was frequently given. In
the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the Hoplita who
besieged Potidæa received daily two drachmas a head, one
for themselves, the other for their servants 535; in which
instance the pay was doubtless rated at three oboli, and
the provision at the same sum. In the Acharneans of
Aristophanes 536 some Thracian soldiers are introduced
demanding two drachmas for pay, including of course
the provision-money: the Thracians who were sent back
in the Sicilian war on account of a scarcity of money,
were to have received a drachma each day 537; this was
the rate of pay for every description of force in the Sicilian
expedition. If here again we reckon one half for the pay,
and the other for provision, each amounted to three oboli;
and this was the sum which the bowmen at Athens, who
composed the city-guard, received, and as they were
534 Eustath. ad Odyss. p. 1405. ad Il. p. 951. ed. Rom. A
passage of the comic poet Theopompus, where he speaks of a
payment of two oboli, can only be understood of the pay, without
the provision. See book I. 22.
535 Thuc. III. 17. to which Pollux IV. 165. refers.
536 Vs. 158. The date of this play is Olymp. 88. 3.
57 Thục. VII. 27.
365
bondsmen it was probably not paid as wages, but provision-
money 538. Cyrus the younger at first gave a daric a
month to the Grecians in his service, and afterwards
one and a half 539; the former pay would amount to
twenty, the latter to thirty drachmas of silver, reckoning
the ratio of gold to silver as one to ten, which is probably
far too low for that age. Seuthes gave a Cyzicenic stater
a month to the common soldiers, twice that sum to the
Lochagi, and four times that sum to the generals 540: this
same gold coin is also mentioned in other places as monthly
pay 541; the double and fourfold scale for the commanders!
was probably the established rate of payment; thus
Thimbron offered the common soldiers a daric a month,
and the commanders in the same proportion as Seuthes 542;
sometimes indeed common mercenaries, if they particularly
distinguished themselves, received from those who under-
stood how to ingratiate themselves with them, two-fold,
three-fold, and four-fold pay (διμοιρία, τζιμοιρία, τετρα-
Morgía) 543. In these cases the provision-money is included,
μοιρία)
without its being particularly specified. After the defeat
at Mantinea, the Spartans and their allies having decreed
to raise an army, the allies were permitted to contribute
money instead of troops, at the rate of three Æginetan
oboli a day for each foot soldier, and four times this sum
for the cavalry 544; now three Æginetan are five Athenian
538 Comp. above book II. 11.
539 Xenoph. Cyr. Exped. I. 3. 21.
540
Xenoph. ibid. VII. 3. 19. cf. VII. 6. 1.
541 Xenoph. ibid. V. 6. 12.
542 Xenoph. ibid. VII. 6. 1.
543 Xenoph. Hell. VI. 1. 4. Aquoigital is interpreted incorrectly
in Lex. Seg. p. 242.
544 Xenoph. Hell. V. 2. 14.
366
t
oboli, which were in this case evidently to be given for pay
and provision together. In the time of the Peloponnesian
war, the same sum was stipulated for provision alone.
For in the alliance of the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans,
and Eleans, it was fixed that the State affording assistance
should provide the troops which they sent with necessaries
for thirty days; and that if the troops remain longer, the
State to whose assistance they came should give the in-
fantry three Æginetan oboli a day, and the cavalry twice
this sum, for provision (σītos) 545. It follows at the same
time from these facts, that the cavalry were treated very
differently from the infantry, as their pay or provision-
money sometimes amounted to twice and even three or
four times the pay received by the latter at Athens the
three-fold scale was adopted; if the Hoplitæ received
two oboli for provision-money, the horsemen received a
drachma 546. This latter proportion existed among the
Romans 547.
:
These examples shew that during the Peloponnesian
war, the soldiers who served on land were the best paid;
afterwards, and particularly in the time of Philip, less was
given, as the multitude of adventurers and mercenaries
had increased, and the wealthy citizens seldom served,
who would have required a higher pay to have enabled
them to live in a manner suitable to their habits. The
pay of the naval forces was in like manner variable;
although it does not appear to have fallen off in a degree
at all corresponding to that of the land service; but it was
first higher, then it became lower, and then something
545 Thucyd. V. 47.
546 Demosth. Philipp. I. p. 47.
647 Lipsius Milit. Rom. V. 16.
367
higher again. As the statements given are generally of
the sum total of the pay of the whole ship's company, it
will be necessary first to ascertain the numbers of the crew
of a trireme. In the sea as well as in the land service
a distinction was made between pay, and provision (σ-
géσov) 548; in the sea service the latter was frequently
given in money 549, and was supplied at the public ex-
pence, although if it happened that the generals had no
money, the Trierarchs perhaps would either contribute
some part, or engage the whole number of seamen at their
own cost 550. Demosthenes reckons twenty minas a month
as the provision-money of a trireme 551; which, upon the
supposition that the 200 men in a trireme were paid ac-
cording to the same rate, or rather that 200 times the pay
of a common sailor was required for the payment of the
whole crew, would come to two oboli a head, the same
sum that a common land-soldier was to receive according
to the plan of Demosthenes. Now since the
pay and
pro-
vision-money used to be equal, the common soldier
received at that time four oboli for both, the sum paid
to the Paralitæ as wages in time of peace 552. On the
other hand, the Athenians in the beginning of the Pelo-
ponnesian war gave the seamen as much as a drachma a
day 553; which was the case afterwards in the expedition
against Sicily; when the Trierarchs also made additional
548 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1209. 12.
549 Orat. in Timoth. p. 1187.21. Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1223.
19. p. 1224. 1.
550 The latter for example in the case in Demosth. in Polycl.
p. 1208. 15.
551 Philip. I. p. 47, 48.
352 Book II. 16.
335 Thuc. III. 17.
368
allowances to the Thranite, and to certain other persons
employed in the ship, such as the steersman, &c.554 If
at this rate of payment we reckon the crew at 200 men,
the monthly pay amounted to a talent; according to which
the Egestæans, for the purpose of promoting the war
against Syracuse, sent sixty talents to Athens as monthly
pay for sixty vessels 555. In general however the Athe-
nians at that time only gave three oboli, which, it clearly
appears, were both for the daily pay and provision of a
sailor; if they gave a drachma, it was for the purpose of
stimulating the exertions and augmenting the numbers of
the men.
Thus Tissaphernes promised to the seamen at
Sparta an Attic drachma a day, and at first he kept his
word (Olymp. 92. 1.), although afterwards at the instiga-
tion of Alcibiades he refused to give more than three oboli,
until the king had allowed the whole drachma, as even
Athens only gave three oboli; in withholding which he
was not influenced by want of money; but, in addition to
other reasons, he feared lest the possession of so much
more money than they wanted should produce insubordi-
nation amongst the seamen, and lead them into dissolute
habits, by which their bodies would be enfeebled. At
the same time he consented, instead of three oboli a day
for each man, to give three talents a month for five ships,
i. e. for every ship 36 minas; if therefore we reckon 200
men to a trireme, eighteen drachmas a month or 3% oboli
a day would be the pay of each man 556. In the agree-
554 Thuc. VI. 31. with the Scholiast.
555 Thục. VI. 8.
556 Thuc. VIII. 45, 29. The latter passage Palmerius and
Duker have alone rightly understood: the note of the latter
is the best worth consulting. It should evidently be written,
ἐς γὰς πέντε ναῦς τρία τάλαντα ἐδίδου τοῦ μηνὸς, and the words
369
ment between Sparta and Persia the rate fixed had been
only three oboli 557, and Tissaphernes gave the rest merely
as a voluntary addition, and without the approval of the
king. Again at a subsequent period, the Spartans de-
manded a drachma of Cyrus the younger, and maintained
their unreasonable claim by saying that the Athenian
sailors would desert to their side, as they only received
half as much in answer to which Cyrus appealed to the
agreement, by which each ship was to receive only thirty
minas a month, or three oboli for each man; however,
Cyrus allowed himself to be prevailed on by their en-
treaties to give to each sailor an additional obolus, after
which they received four oboli a day 558. In this instance
also 200 men are reckoned to the trireme. It may be far-
ther observed that the seamen, when they were first engaged,
received bounties and advances of money, that they gene-
rally made considerable demands, and after all were with
difficulty retained in the service. The travelling expences
of those who went away either by land or water were
frequently paid, and particularly by private indivi-
duals 559.
xai vτýzovτæ are an unintelligible addition from VIII. 26.
The preceding sentence ὅμως δὲ παρὰ πέντε ναῦς πλέον ἀνδρὶ ἑκάστῳ ἢ
τρεῖς ὀβολοὶ ὡμολογήθησαν contains the same sense, since παρὰ πέντε
means, by every five ships, and the following sentence from xai
τοῖς ἄλλοις down to ἐδίδοτο, shews the justness of this correction.
557 Concerning the agreement see Thuc. VIII. 5. That only
three oboli was the sum fixed in it is evident from Xenoph.
Hellen. 1. 5. 3.
558 Xenoph. Hell. 1. 5. 3, 4.
559 Demosth. in Polycl. p. 1208. 16. p. 1212. 9, 19. de Trie-
rarch. Corona p. 1231. 10. Thuc. VI. 31. Lysias pro Mantitha
p. 579.
VOL. I.
B b
370
:
The foregoing statements relative to the pay of the
sailors, concur throughout in the fact that there were 200
men to be paid in each trireme and in these accounts the
marines or soldiers, as well as the sailors, must have been
included, since otherwise a separate payment for them
would have been somewhere mentioned; and they are evi-
dently comprised among the ship's company, when the
ancients speak of the pay of the seamen. But as a doubt
has been raised whether a trireme did in fact contain so
large a crew, it appears necessary to produce additional
testimony in order to confirm our supposition. According
to Herodotus, Cleinias, the son of Alcibiades, served in
the battle of Salamis with a trireme of his own and 200
men 560. The same author 561 estimates the whole force
of Xerxes, which consisted of 1207 ships, at 241,400 men,
taking 200 for each as the regular number, inclusive of
the marines that belonged to them; the 30 Epibata who
were also on board, did not belong to the regular comple-
ment, but were added to the full crew from the Persians,
Medes, and Sacæ. Plato in the Critias 562 gives a sketch
of a military force for the inhabitants of Atlantica accord-
ing to the custom prevalent in his own time, excepting
that he speaks of military chariots, which were but seldom
used even in the times between the Persian and Pelopon-
nesian wars.
Of the 6000 lots into which he divides the
country, each is to supply, besides a chariot and its driver,
two Hoplita, two bowmen, two slingers, three light-armed
560 Herod. VIII. 17.
561 VII. 184. cf. 96. Duker ad Thucyd. VIII. 29. unjustly
blames Meibomius (de Fabrica Triremium) for not including
these thirty Epibatæ in the calculation.
562 P. 119. A sqq.
371
soldiers for throwing stones, and the same number for throw-
ing javelins, and lastly four seamen for the manning (πλý-
gwμa) of 200 ships, which gives 200 apiece. There is how-
ever one statement which does not agree with this number.
In the Lexicon Rhetoricum 563 the complement of a Pente-
conter is stated at 50 men, or one Lochus, and the trireme
at 300 men, or six Lochi. It is possible that the rowers
of the triremes were distributed into six Lochi, each row
upon either side being separately considered a Lochus;
but that each Lochus amounted to 50 men is unquestion-
ably false; it is more probable that the number was 25
men or thereabouts, if the Lochus was numerous, and that
the marines made up the rest of the crew.
But it may
be
said, if there were 200 men to each trireme, how could the
pay of the whole crew have been exactly 200 times that
which the common sailor received; a talent a month, when
the common sailor received a drachma, and a half talent
when he received three oboli? must not the commanders
and the experienced seamen have received more than the
common rowers? To this I answer as follows; that in the
payment of a ship's crew it was settled once for all, that
the of a trireme should be 200 times the wages of a
pay
common seaman: it must at the same time be considered
as possible, or rather probable, that the seaman received
less than the average rate of pay, and that the able seaman
received somewhat more, so that what was deducted from
the former was added to the latter. The Scholiast of
Aristophanes 564 distinctly asserts that the Thalamitæ re-
ceived lower wages, because they had the shortest oars,
and consequently the lightest labour: the Thranitæ on
563 Lex. Seg. p. 298.
564 Acharn. 1106.
372
1
the other hand from having the largest oars had the great-
est fatigue, and for this reason in the Sicilian expedition
the Trierarchs made them an additional allowance, toge-
ther with some other inferior persons in the vessel, proba-
bly the steersman, the Proreus, &c.; but that their regular
pay was higher we are neither told by Thucydides nor his
interpreter 565, who have been adduced as authorities for
the fact. But even if the pay was graduated according to
rank, we could not apportion the different rates for each
description of seamen; especially as we are not able to
ascertain with accuracy the respective numbers of each
class. It is indeed scarcely possible even with the aid of
conjecture to determine the proportion which the sailors
in a ship bore to the soldiers; I will therefore make some
addition to what has been already observed on this point
with a view to render more intelligible our assumption
respecting the numbers of the crew of a trireme.
Triremes were of different kinds, either swift (TaxeÏαι),
or military transports (στρατιώτιδες, ὁπλιταγωγοί): the latter
were completely filled with land-forces, who, as they were
put on board solely for the purpose of being carried from
one place to another, were for this reason ineffective in
battle, and therefore never called on to fight except on
emergencies 566; the former kind however took on board
no more than the full complement of men (λngwμa) which
was necessary for working and defending the ship. The
troops on board the military transports in addition to the
proper crews were, like all persons who travelled by sea,
called Epibatæ; 5100 men were transported in forty such
vessels, according to the account of Thucydides, making
}
565 VI. 31.
566 Thucyd. I. 116. affords an instance of this.
373
altogether with their respective attendants more than 200
men to a trireme; the Thebans sent 300 men to Pagasæ
in two triremes 567, whose motion was consequently much
retarded. The Hoplite upon a few occasions transported
themselves, performing the labour of rowing with their
own hands (avregéra) 568. The crews of the swift triremes
(αὐτερέται)
however consisted of two descriptions of men, of the
soldiers or marines appointed to defend the vessels, who
were also called Epibatæ; and of the sailors. These
Epibatæ were entirely distinct from the land-soldiers, such
as Hoplitæ, Peltasts, and cavalry 569; and belonged to the
vessel: but if it was an object to increase the usual num-
ber, it was easy to give an additional quota of land-soldiers,
as for instance, the 30 to each trireme in Xerxes' fleet.
The seamen, under whom I include the whole crew with
the exception of the soldiers, are called sometimes servants
(úπngétαi), sometimes sailors (vautai): in the more limited
sense however the rowers (égétai, nuπyλátαi) are dis-
tinct from the servants and sailors, and only comprise
those who were employed at the steerage, sails, cordage,
pumps, &c. Finally, the rowers
Finally, the rowers were of three kinds,
Thranitæ, Zugitæ, and Thalamitæ. If now the regu-
lar crew of the swift triremes amounted to 200 men,
how was this number divided? Meibomius reckons 180
rowers, in three rows, so that there were 30 upon each
bank, on either side. This is a most singular hypothesis.
For if there were 180 rowers, there would only remain 20
567 Thucyd. VIII. 43. Xenoph. Hell. V. 4. 56. There were
300 citizens who were on board the triremes as Epibatæ and no
rowers.
568 Thuc. III. 18. cf. VI. 91.
569 Xenoph. Hell. 1. 2. 4.
374
for all the rest of the crew, whereas the navigation of the
ship alone would have required this number; if we consider
only the steersman, the Proreus, the Celeuustes, the Trie-
raules, the Nauphylax, the Toicharchs, the Diopes, the
Eschareus, and the many others that were unquestionably
employed; and what room do we then leave for the ma-
rines? The supposition of Meibomius is borrowed from the
Quinquireme, to which Polybius assigns 300 rowers, and
120 fighting men; the former in five rows of 60 men, 30
on each side; but his reason for crowding as many rowers
into the long side of the trireme, which he reckons at
150 feet, as into that of the Quinquireme which measured
105 feet, is arbitrary. Not to go into farther details, the
rowers could not have amounted to more than 130 or 140
men, if we leave a sufficient number for that part of the
crew which worked the ship, and for the Epibatæ. In the
Quinquireme the rowers were to the marines in the ratio
of five to two; in a Penteconter there were 30 men besides
the 50 rowers 570, most of whom were undoubtedly soldiers,
as the number required for the working of the vessel must
in this case have been smaller; probably only about ten
men, so that the ratio of the rowers to the fighters was
again as five to two. If therefore we reckon that there
were in a trireme 130 or 140 rowers, and 40 or 50 Epi-
batæ, in addition to twenty other seamen, the number of
rowers assumed is proportionally large. I know only of
two definite accounts of the number of the Epibata which
refer to particular occasions. Herodotus 571 tells us that
the Chians having revolted from Persia, and equipped a
hundred ships, distributed 40 opulent citizens as Epibatæ
370 Herod. VII. 184.
571 Herod. VI. 15.
!
375
in each trireme, which agrees perfectly with my computa-
tion. Plutarch 572 informs us that only eighteen men
fought upon deck on board the Athenian triremes at the
battle of Salamis; that of these, four were bowmen and
the others heavy-armed; this estimate is however singu-
larly low. With regard to the mode of fighting it may
be observed, that the rowers struck their opponents with
oars, the Epibatæ used arrows and darts at a distance,
spears and swords in close combat 573. It must not how-
ever be supposed that the rowers were so nearly defence-
less. Isocrates 574 indeed in the passage in which he com-
plains that foreigners were then serving as fighting-men,
and citizens as rowers, remarks, that in descents upon the
enemies' territory, the former fought as Hoplita, while
the latter landed with the cushions on which they sat;
from which it might be inferred that the rowers were un-
provided with any weapons of defence: there can however
be no doubt that they were armed, only not in any regular
manner, every one providing for himself as he could, or as
accident determined for him, some as Peltasts, bowmen,
&c. that is, the Thranite and Zeugitæ 575, and probably
the Thalamitæ also. They were therefore able to serve
on land, which was necessarily the case with the Hoplitæ
who rowed themselves 576. Since then the arming of the
rowers was irregular, some preparations were frequently
required in order to make them serviceable on land. Thus
Thrasyllus armed 5000 seamen belonging to his fifty
572 Themist. 14.
573 Compare for example Diod. XIII. 46.
574 Συμμαχ. 16.
373 Thuc. IV. 3. 2.
576 See the passages referred to in note 568.
376
1
triremes as Peltasts 577; and on an occasion mentioned by
Thucydides 578 the sailors were obliged to be provided
with shields before they could serve upon land. This
irregularity in the equipment of the seamen is the less
surprising, as we find that even the Hoplita and the
Epibatæ were not armed with perfect uniformity; for, had
this been the case, there would have been no foundation
for the story which Herodotus relates of an Hoplites in
the battle of Platææ, who brought an anchor with him, in
order to fasten himself to the ground 579; or an Epibates,
who made use of a spear-sickle (dogudgéπavov) instead of a
spear, as Plato 580 mentions.
The land and sea forces generally received their pay
and provision at the same time; if any portion of it
remained in arrear, it was commonly the pay; and the
provision-money, as being necessary, was usually supplied
first. In the expedition of Timotheus against Corcyra,
the mercenaries had received three months' provisions in
advance, but no pay had been supplied; so that there
would have been considerable danger of their going over
to the enemy, if Timotheus had not inspired them with
confidence in his pecuniary resources by giving them the
provision-money 581 in advance. Demosthenes 582 produces
another instance, in which the Trierarch had received the
whole of the provision-money for his crew, though he
obtained no more than two months' pay for the whole
time of his Trierarchy. Here too should be mentioned a
577
Xenoph. Hell. I. 21. cf. I. 1. 24.
578 IV. 9.
578 Herod. IX. 74.
580 Laches p. 183. D.
581 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. II. 23.
552 In Polycl. p. 1209. 12.
377
suggestion of the same statesman in the first Philippic,
which however was never put into execution. He pro-
posed to maintain a standing army, in order to carry on
war against the Macedonians without intermission; ten
ships and 2000 infantry, at an expence for each of forty
talents; and 200 cavalry, at twelve talents a year: these
sums however were only to be given them as provision-
money; he would not allow any pay, but they were to
have unlimited permission to plunder. This proposal is
worthy of remark, as having no parallel in any Grecian
author; it is the outline of a plan for embodying a
military force to maintain itself at free quarters, and at
the same time to form a permanent standing army;
though its continuance was indeed limited to the duration
of war.
A standing army in time of peace would not only
have utterly ruined the finances, had it received pay, but,
if it had consisted of citizens, would have led to a military
government; as the Thousand at Argos, who were required
to devote themselves exclusively to the exercise of arms,
and received pay for their services, took forcible possession
of the sovereign power, and changed the democracy into
an oligarchy 583. The Greeks were well aware that a
standing army obtained a greater degree of skill in the
art of war; but they were prevented from introducing it
by the nature of their constitutions: for neither were they
able to realize the ideal state of Plato, in which the stand-
ing army, formed according to philosophical and moral
principles, is at the head of the government; nor could
they return to the oriental form of castes, an institution
of universal adoption in remote antiquity, and under
A
585 Diod. XII. 75, 80. Thuc. V. 81. Pausan. II. 20. Aristot.
Polit. V. 4.
378
which Attica had in early times had her military caste;
nor, lastly, could they have endured the oppression of a
military government. The Romans were of the same
opinion: even after their government had declined into a
barbarous military despotism, it was nevertheless consi-
dered indecorous that an armed force should reside in the
capital, for the purpose, as it were, of overawing the people ;
and in order to preserve the decorum to which they owed
the continuance of all ancient forms, and even of the Senate
itself, the imperial guards at Rome were compelled to wear
the civil toga, and their helmets and shields were kept in
the armoury 584. With regard to the scheme of Demos-
thenes mentioned above, it seems strange, according to
our notions, that the soldiers were to have first received
money merely for provision, and to have had no pay
whatever; as it appears more natural to have given
them pay, and have supplied provisions by means of
requisition and quartering: but the former method was
too tedious and difficult in an enemy's country, if it
was to be exacted regularly; and the latter was very
rarely practised in the Greek States. In the first place,
it was unnecessary, war being generally carried on in the
favourable time of year, and the life of a camp in so mild
a climate was healthy and pleasant; in the second place,
it was inadmissible upon military in a foreign, and on
political principles in a friendly, country. The ancients,
on account of the freedom of their governments, would not,
any more than England, have submitted to an institution
from which every sort of oppression and injustice is inse-
parable, and which endangers the very existence of liberty;
considering too the greater dissoluteness of their morals
584 See Lipsius ad Tacit. Ann. I. 38.
379
(particularly with regard to the intercourse of the sexes
and their proneness to unnatural vices), the susceptibility
of their passions, the want of discipline in the armies, and
the great claims and pretensions of the soldiers, the neces-
sary consequences of such an institution would have been
murders, insurrections, and revolutions. In the case of
friendly States it was first necessary to ask whether an
army in march or a naval force could be received into the
city alone, and even this was frequently denied: if per-
mission was granted, every thing was paid for on the spot.
When Athens sent an army to the assistance of the
Thebans, they received it in so friendly a manner, that
the Hoplitæ and cavalry being encamped without the
city, the Thebans admitted them into their houses: but in
how marked a manner does Demosthenes boast that no
disturbance ensued. "The three most splendid encomia
of your virtues," he says 585, "the Thebans shewed on
that day to all the Greeks; the first of your courage, the
second of your justice, the third of your moderation: for
by giving into your power what with them and all people
is guarded with the greatest sanctity, their wives and
children, they shewed that they had a firm assurance of
your continence: and in that they judged rightly, for
after the army had entered the city, no inhabitant made
any complaint against you, no, not even an unjust one."
The Persians however managed their army in a different
manner: in their expedition to Greece they encamped
indeed in the open fields, but were supported by the
inhabitants: the reception and maintenance of Xerxes'
army cost the Thasians alone, for their towns situated
upon the main-land, 400 talents, which were paid out of
1
365 Pro Corona p. 299. extr.
380
the public money, so that individuals did not directly bear
the burden; and the Abderite said with justice that the
whole State would have been destroyed if Xerxes had
breakfasted as well as dined there 586. Datames the Per-
sian provisioned his troops in the same manner in a foreign
country 587. The Romans oppressed the provinces most
grievously with their armies, especially for winter-quar-
ters; the Prætors were not ashamed to burden one State
with money for expences which had been defrayed by
another these bribes were called the Vectigal Prætorium,
whence in subsequent times the Epidemeticum arose 588.
Whether the allowance for provision was given out in
money or in kind, it was the imperative duty of the
generals to attend to the provisioning of the troops, espe-
cially for voyages, when food could not be purchased day
by day. It usually happened that a large market esta-
blished itself in any place where the armies either re-
mained for a time, or were expected. Here the soldiers
supplied their wants, and upon a march their servants
and beasts of burden carried provisions in the rear; sut-
tlers and handicraftsmen followed for the sake of their
own-gain: Datames the Persian even supported a number
of these traffickers, in order to have a share in their profits,
and prohibited all others from entering into competition
with them 589. With great armies the supply of pro-
visions was necessarily on a large scale: the Grecian army
at Platææ was followed by large stores from the Pelopon-
586 Herod. VII. 118 sqq.
587 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. II. 24.
588 Burmann de Vect. Pop. Rom. XII. An action of similar
oppression is mentioned by Tacitus, Hist. I. 66.
589 Pseud-Aristot. ut sup.
381
nese, the care of which belonged to the attendants 590; in
like manner the Persian army was followed by whole fleets
of store-ships. The provident Nicias stated it as an indis-
pensable requisite to the undertaking of the Sicilian expe-
dition, that wheat and roasted barley should be sent from
Attica to Sicily, and that they should take with them
hired bakers, who were procured from the mills by a
compulsory levy 591; the provision-fleet collected at Cor-
cyra consisting of 30 corn-vessels, with the bakers and
other handicraftsmen, such as stone-masons and carpenters,
and the implements required for a siege; also a hundred
smaller vessels were constrained to attend the store-ships,
and many others both smaller and larger followed the
army for the sake of traffic 592.
When such was the case
however the soldiers doubtless purchased their provision
either from individuals or from the State, which had only
the care of procuring supplies, without any thing being
given freely to the soldiers, unless perchance no provision-
money had been paid them. When Timotheus besieged
Samos, a scarcity of provisions was produced by the
concourse of so many strangers; he therefore prohibited
the selling of ground corn, and did not allow it to be sold
plain in less quantities than a medimnus, or any liquids
590 Herod. IX. 39. cf. 50.
591 Thuc. VI. 22. where the bakers are called йvaynaoμÉvor
quito, as, although they received pay, they had been forced to
follow this expedition. The worthy critic, who was puzzled with
this expression, did not know how many men serve for pay
contrary to their will. Пgès égos Duker rightly interprets pro
Πρὸς μέρος
rata portione; it is not however in reference to the corn, but
means that a proportional number should be taken from each
mill, ix tãv pevλávwv πgòs µégos, for example, two out of each.
592 Thuc. VI. 30, 44.
382
·
in less quantities than a metretes; by these means the
strangers were obliged to bring their provisions with them,
and they sold whatever remained unconsumed; while the
Taxiarchs and Lochagi bought food by wholesale, and re-
tailed it among the soldiers 593. The same must be considered
to have been the case in the Sicilian expedition, and other
similar occasions. If the provision was supplied in kind,
which was necessarily more general with the sea than with
the land service, the commanders received the Siteresion,
and with that money they purchased a store of pro-
visions. The Trierarchs supplied their inferiors with
barley-meal (λora), cheese, and onions 594, or garlic,
which were carried in nets 595; the maza was baked from
the barley-meal 596, with water and oil 597; and if it was
wished particularly to stimulate the rowers, wine also was
added 598. Probably each man received a choenix of
barley-meal a day: a comic poet indeed says of a man,
who boasted of eating 24 medimni in a day, that he would
consume the provisions of a long trireme 599, although
what he eat was in fact only 120 chonices; but who will
require of a jester accuracy on such a subject as this?
Ptolemy gave the Rhodians, for the provision of ten
triremes, 20,000 artabæ of corn 600, probably of wheat,
593 Pseud-Aristot. II. 23. Polyæn. III. 10. 10.
594 Plutarch. de Glor. Ath. 6.
595 Thence the saying, σxógodov v dixTús, see Suidas in v.
σκοροδίοις.
596 Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1105.
597 Hesychius and Zonaras in v. μáča.
μάζα.
598 Thuc. III. 49. comp. Scheffer Mil. Nav. IV. 1. This μála
is the oivourra, Athen. III. p. 114. F.
οἰνοῦττα,
599 Athen. X. P. 415. C.
600 Polyb. V. 89.
383
making ten artabæ a year for each man, if we reckon 200
to a trireme; which amounts to almost one choenix and a
half a day, if large artabæ are meant, and if small, only
three quarters of a choenix.
To estimate the amount of the pay and provision-money
required for a war, another condition is necessary besides
the numerical force of the army and the rate of the pay,
viz. the length of the campaign. As soon as the campaign
was over, the payment of the troops ceased; even mer-
cenaries did not constantly receive wages, but were paid
for a portion only of the time 601. In early times war was
carried on with the Lacedæmonians for four or five months;
but Philip made no difference between summer and win-
ter 603. Yet as early as in the Peloponnesian war, armies
were paid in winter, as in Sicily and elsewhere; and
Pericles used regularly to keep sixty ships eight months
at sea, and to pay them for the whole time 603: these alone
must have cost 480 talents a year, if each man received a
drachma a day. But how could Athens have raised pay
and provision-money for more than 60,000 men in the
Sicilian expedition, the cost being 3600 talents in a year,
i. e. in the money of the present day, £870,000, which,
according to the prices of commodities at that time,
may be considered as equal to more than two millions
sterling. We must not therefore wonder that, notwith-
standing the high tributes and the oppression of the allies
(though the independent confederate States in great mea-
sure paid their own troops), a scarcity of supplies quickly
arose; nor need we be surprised that Pericles, who, in the
-
601 For an instance of this see Thucyd. VIII. 45.
602 Demosth. Philipp. III. p. 123.
603 Plutarch. Pericl. 11.
384
beginning of the war, kept an equally large force on foot,
although not throughout the whole year, was compelled to
have recourse to the public treasure.
(23.) The expences of war were also considerably in-
creased by the equipment of fleets, and the preparation of
machines used in war and of instruments for sieges. Be-
sides the ships which were built in time of peace, they
were accustomed, as soon as any severe struggle was appre-
hended, to apply themselves with extraordinary zeal to the
construction of vessels; yet, before the ships could be
ready to sail, there remained always much to be done in
order to complete their equipment; part of which was
furnished by the State, and part by the Trierarch at his
own cost. Besides the swift triremes, it was also necessary
to provide many transports (λxades), auxiliary vessels
(ὑπηρετικὰ πλοῖα), and cavalry transports (ἱππαγωγὰ πλοῖα);
which latter, although the Greeks had taken horses with
them to the siege of Troy, and the Persians had employed
many ships of this description in the war against Greece,
were yet for the first time regularly introduced at Athens
in the second year of the Peloponnesian war, and were
afterwards frequently used 604.. On rare occasions only it
happened that the Athenians had a fleet equipped and
ready for battle, such as that appointed in Olymp. 87. 2.,
when it was decreed that the 100 best triremes should be
selected, to which Trierarchs were immediately assigned,
in order that Attica might be defended in the event of an
attack from the sea; and at the same time a thousand
604 Thuc. II. 56. IV. 42. VI. 43. and elsewhere, Demosth.
Philipp. I. p. 46. 5. Plutarch. Pericl. 35. Concerning the
Persians see Diod. XI. 3. Herod. VII. 97.
385
talents were ordered to be laid by for the same object 605.
The preparations for sieges were particularly expensive,
as much carpenters' work and masonry and many handi-
craftsmen were required for these purposes: machines for
attack and defence were used in early times, not only in
the Peloponnesian war, but even at an earlier period, as,
for example, by Miltiades, and by Pericles at the siege of
Samos; although the art of besieging did not attain its
greatest perfection among the Greeks until the time of
Demetrius Poliorcetes. That considerable outlays were
made for missile weapons is evident from several passages
in ancient writers. With regard to Athens, it will be
sufficient to mention the two decrees 606 by which honours
were conferred on Demochares and Lycurgus; the former,
for having procured arms, darts, and machines; the latter,
for having brought arms and 50,000 darts into the Acro-
polis.
(24.) If all these several heads are added together, it
will be at once evident how immense must have been the
whole expences of a war after the time that Pericles had
introduced the pay of the forces. Whereas in earlier times
the building and equipment of the fleets were the only
things that caused any expence to the State. The fine of
fifty talents, to which Miltiades was condemned on account
of the failure of his expedition against Paros, might there-
fore have been taken as equivalent to the whole expence,
as Nepos 607 thinks it was, did we not know that this sum
605 Thuc. II. 24. VIII. 15. Esch. de Fals. Leg. p. 336.
Andoc. de Pace p. 92. Suid. in v. äßvoros. The money was laid
by only once, and not annually, as some writers have erroneously
supposed.
606 At the end of the Lives of the Ten Orators, II. III.
507 Miltiad. 7.
VOL. I.
се
386
was a common fine, without any regard to a particular
compensation. The siege of Samos in Olymp. 84. 4.
appears, according to Diodorus, to have cost 200 talents;
for Pericles required a contribution to this amount, as an
indemnification for the expences which had been incurred 608
The Olympian Jupiter must however have reckoned very
leniently in this case; for a nine months' siege by land
and sea, in which, according to the account of Thucydides,
not less than 199 triremes were employed, or at any rate
a large part of this number for a considerable time, must
evidently have caused a greater expence; and the state-
ment therefore of Isocrates and Nepos 609, that 1200
talents were expended upon it, appears to be by no means
exaggerated. But the expences of the Peloponnesian war
are the most extraordinary in the financial history of
Athens. If we assume that the ships employed at the
beginning of the war received only six months' pay, they
must have cost 1500 talents; and in this number the
forces employed at the siege of Potidea are not included.
This siege was extremely expensive, having been continued
uninterruptedly during both summer and winter for two
years; Thucydides reckons the expence at 2000 610, Iso-
crates at 2400 talents, a part of which Pericles took from
the public treasure 611. A separate war-tax of 200 talents
608 Diod. XII. 28. cf. Thuc. I. 117.
609 Thuc. I. 116, 117. Isocrat. de Antidosi p. 69. Nepos
Timoth. 1.
610 Thuc. II. 70. where the reading xine is undoubtedly false,
Isocrat. de Antid. p. 70. Diodorus (XII. 46.) reckons the
expences some months before the surrender at more than 1000
talents.
611 Thuc. III. 17. II. 13. According to the latter passage
3700 talents were taken out of the treasury, which Diodorus
387
was levied for the siege of Mytilene, and twelve ships were
dispatched for the purpose of collecting money from the
allies 612. No enterprize went so far beyond the resources
of the Athenian State as the Sicilian expedition. The
annual pay alone amounted, as we have already seen, to
3600 talents, nearly the double of the whole annual re-
venue of Athens, if we take it at the highest estimate;
and at how great an amount must we reckon the other
expences of this war? By these means both money and
provisions soon almost wholly failed; nor were the sub-
sidies furnished by the Egestæans at all considerable, viz.
sixty talents given at the very commencement, as monthly
pay for sixty ships, and thirty talents sent at a subsequent
period 613. There was little plunder taken, although 100
talents were once obtained from that source614: the remit-
tances from Athens were by no means large, 20, 120, or
300 talents, and these, as it appears, even came, in part at
least, from the public treasure 615, to which, both then and
afterwards, they were compelled to have recourse, in order
to support the expences of the war, for which purpose
indeed it had been originally collected. Nothing but a
fortunate issue could have put Athens in a condition to
(XII, 40.) less accurately calls 4000. Barthélemy reckons 3000
for the public works of Pericles, and 700 for the first part of the
siege (Anach. tom. I. note VIII.). This assumption is however
quite arbitrary; Potidea and the works of building and art might
have cost more than 5000 talents, and those 3700 have been
only an advance from the public treasure, in addition to what
was paid for out of the current revenues.
612 Thuc. III. 19,
613 Diod. XIII. 6.
614 Diod. ibid.
615 See Inscript. 144. according to my interpretation.
·
388
познани
defray the immense sums required for pay; without which
however it would have been impossible to adopt so vast a
plan. If Pericles had not introduced the pay of the
soldiers, Athens could not have carried on the Pelopon-
nesian war for so long a time; nor again, could the
youthful imagination of Alcibiades have conceived the
lofty notion of obtaining a footing in Sicily, as a new
centre from which they might subdue Carthage and Libya,
Italy, and finally, the Peloponnese 616; the people and the
soldiers were moreover favourably inclined to this expedi-
tion, because they hoped to receive money immediately,
and to make conquests, by which they would be enabled
to receive their pay without intermission 617. In the age
of Demosthenes also much treasure, levied chiefly by
property-taxes, was applied to the uses of war; but with
much money little was effected. A fruitless expedition to
Pyle cost, together with the expences incurred by private
individuals, above 200 talents 618; Isocrates complains of
the loss of more than 1000 talents, which had been given
to foreigners619; Demosthenes of the squandering of more
than 1500, which, as Æschines remarks, were not expended
upon the soldiers, but upon the ostentatious splendour of
616 Thuc. VI. 15, 90. Isocrat. Zvμpax. 29. Plutarch. Alcib.
17. The idea was new; for although in the Knights of Aristo-
phanes (vs. 174, 1300.) a plan is hinted at for attacking Car-
thage, it only owes its existence to a false reading. In both
places Kaλyndavy should evidently be read for Kagxndar, as the
Scholiast at vs. 1300 writes, and as the sense requires in
vs. 174.
617 Thuc. VI. 24.
618 Demosth. de Fals. Leg. p. 367. 21.
619 Isocrat. Areopag. 4.
389
the generals 620, at the very time they lost the allied cities
and their ships. The State had been impoverished by
the Theorica, while individuals had enriched themselves;
there was not in the military chest money enough for a
single day's march 621; and if any funds were collected
for war, the mismanagement and maladministration would
surpass all belief, did we not know that the same mischief
has recurred in all times. Commanders or demagogues, who
received pay for the troops, drew it for empty places 622, as
was the expression; in the same manner that in modern times
generals have received pay for what were termed men of
straw, or soldiers that existed only on the roll. To ascertain
the extent of these practices, commissioners were sent out
to discover whether there were as many mercenaries, as the
generals reported; these enquirers however frequently
allowed themselves to be bribed 623. The Trierarchs, as
early even as in the time of the poet Aristophanes, were
accused of embezzling the pay of part of the crew, and
stopping the unoccupied apertures for the oars in their
ships, in order that it might not be seen that there was a
620 Demosth. Olynth. III. p. 36. 8. (and thence mel ouvτáž.
p. 174. 11.) Esch. de Fals. Leg. p. 249.
621 Demosth. in Aristocrat. p. 690.
622 This is the meaning of μισθοφορεῖν ἐν τῷ ξενικῷ κεναῖς χώραις,
Æschin. in Ctesiph. p. 536. Others cheated the soldiers, as
e. g. Memnon of Rhodes and Cleomenes. See Aristot. Econ.
II. 29, 39.
Timarch. p. 131. wɛgì
623 These are the Tarral, Esch. in
Tagaлgroß. p. 339. Lex. Seg. p. 252. The passage in the
oration gì GUYτážews p. 167. 17. seems also to refer to the
Exetastæ; those however mentioned in the decree communicated
by Chishull Ant. As. p. 164. from Ainsworth, which probably
belongs to Athens, are of a different description.
390
deficiency of rowers 624. In the mean time the public
money was squandered away by such generals as Chares
and many resembling him, who were distinguished by
every kind of profligacy. If in an age of simplicity and
decorum, Themistocles was not ashamed to drive through
the Ceramicus in the morning with a carriage full of
courtesans 625, it is easy to understand how Alcibiades,
who, notwithstanding his extraordinary talents, was a man
of the most immoral and irreligious character, did not
scruple (as at least his enemies said of him 626) to carry
women about with him in his campaigns, and to embezzle
200 talents; how Chabrias, according to Theopompus, was
not able to remain in Athens on account of his debauched
habits; and how, according to the same authority, Chares
had with him in the field women even of the lowest descrip-
tion, and applied the public money to uses wholly at variance
with its proper destination. But the Athenians could not
censure such a course of habits, for they themselves lived in
an equally depraved manner, the young men with female
flute-players and courtesans, the old in gambling; while
they consumed more money in public banquettings and
distributions of food than for the real service of the State,
and allowed themselves to be entertained in the market
place at a triumphal festival for a battle won over the
mercenaries of Philip with an expence of sixty talents,
which Chares had received from Delphi 627. Theopompus
is decried as censorious for having painted from nature
the dissolute manners of a corrupt age: for most people
624 Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 1233.
625 Heraclides ap. Athen. XII. p. 533. D.
626 Lysias in Alcib. λuzorak, 1. p. 598.
627 Theopompus ap. Athen. XII. p. 532.
532. B sqq.
391
are inclined to view every thing on its fairest side,
especially if they view it from a distance, when all the
passions are silent, and the benevolent feeling which is
implanted in the heart of man is not contradicted by
immediate and personal experience: but honour is due to
the Historian who knows how to distinguish the covering
from the substance, and, like the judge of the infernal
regions, drags the souls before his judgment-seat, naked
and stripped of all
pomp and
and pageantry.
Timotheus the son of Conon, deserves to be honourably
mentioned as a warrior equal to his father, and among all
the Athenian generals of being that one who knew how to
carry his enterprizes into execution with the least outlay
of money, and therefore without burdening the allies, and
making himself and his country odious through extor-
tion. I pass over his other services, which will be men-
tioned hereafter; but his skill in maintaining his soldiers
ought not to be left unnoticed. Timotheus generally
received little or nothing in the beginning of the cam-
paign; though there arose the greatest scarcity in the
army, he was still successful in the war, and paid his
soldiers to the last obolus 628. He subdued four and
twenty States with less expence than the siege of Melos
had occasioned in the Peloponnesian war 629; the siege of
Potidea, which had cost such vast sums in the time of
Pericles, he carried on with money which he had raised
himself, together with the contributions of the Thracian
cities 630; according to Nepos he gained in the war against
628 Isocrat. de Antidosi p. 72. ed. Orell.
629 Isocrat. ibid. p.
70.
630 Isocrat. ibid. p. 70.
392
Cotys 1200 talents of prize-money 631. In the expedition
against Olynthus having no silver money he issued a
coinage of copper tokens, and induced the merchants to
take it by promising them that they might use it in paying
for whatever property either in land or plunder they might
purchase, and he pledged himself to redeem whatever
should remain over 632. In the expedition round the
Peloponnese to Corcyra, there was likewise great scarcity:
for Timotheus had received only thirteen talents 633. He
accordingly compelled each of the Trierarchs to give pay
to the sailors to the amount of seven minas, for which he
pledged his own property 634: afterwards being unable to
furnish any more pay to the troops, he gave them the
provision-money for three months in advance, in order
that they might believe he was in the expectation of large
sums which were only detained by the unfavourable state
of the weather 635; and in the mean time he sent for a
fresh supply of money from Athens for his numerous
fleet 636. But he and Iphicrates also paid away some of
the prize-money on this occasion 637. Lastly, Timotheus
kept thirty triremes and 8000 peltasts in pay (with which
631 Nep. Timoth. I.
632 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. II. 2. 23. Polyæn. III. 10. 1.
633 Isocrat. ut sup. p. 68.
634 Orat. in Timoth. (in Demosthenes) p. 1187, 1188.
635 Pseud-Aristot. Econ. ut sup.
636 Xenoph. Hell. V. 4. 66.
637 Diod. XV. 47. cf. XVI. 57. Xenophon indeed (Hell. VI. 2.
23.) relates the accounts, which Diodorus ascribes to both, of
Iphicrates alone, and undoubtedly with more correctness; but it
can be safely asserted of Timotheus that he assisted himself at
that time with plunder.
393
he besieged Samos for eleven months) sustaining them
wholly from the enemy's country, whereas Pericles had
not been able to take the same island without incurring
a vast expence 638.
་
638 Isocrat. ut sup. p. 69. Aristot. Econ. ut sup. Polyæn. I.
10. 5, 9.
VOL. I.
MAY 8 - 1915
D d
Note to p. 374. l. 12.
"-reckons at 105 feet." In the original it is printed "auf
150 Füssen anschläght." The words of Meibomius (De Fabrica
Triremium, Gronov. Thes. Ant. Rom. vol. XII. p. 584 B.) are,
Longitudinem triremis antiquæ facio circiter pedum CV. lati-
tudinem pedum XI. sedilia cujusque ordinis XXX. ut caperet
remiges CLXXX.”
..

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