PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 579 



Another curious feature of the fiscal policy of Athens was an 

 indirect augmentation of the public revenues, by diminishing the 

 public expenditures by an institution which was essentially one 

 of differential exaction (miscalled taxation), and was known as 

 " liturgies." They consisted in the conferring upon ambitious and 

 wealthy citizens certain honorary public offices to which noth- 

 ing of salary or compensation was attached, but which entailed 

 large expenditures for the entertainment of the people or defense 

 of the country. The acceptance of these offices was compulsory ; 

 parsimony in expenditure on the part of the holder exposed him 

 to public censure ; and the institution undoubtedly found favor 

 with the masses as a method of dividing the property or con- 

 suming the incomes of the wealthy. The system of liturgies was 

 not, however, peculiar or restricted to the Athenian state. It 

 existed in the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and also to a certain 

 extent in Rome, where the persons accepting the office of sedile, 

 whose business it was to take care of public edifices and superin- 

 tend public festivals, were expected to appropriate large sums 

 from their private resources for the convenience and amusement 

 of the people. The office of sedile in Rome, which was one of 

 great honor, was thus only made accessible to the very wealthy. 

 But as the office was, however, in the direct line of preferment to 

 some lucrative office in the provinces, the expenditures of its occu- 

 pant were probably regarded in the light of an investment, from 

 which more than complete remuneration was to be expected in 

 the future. The principle involved in the liturgies would also 

 seem to find recognition and exemplification in modern times, and 

 under a different civilization, but in accordance with the same hu- 

 man nature ; as, for example, in Great Britain, which by requiring 

 members of Parliament to serve gratuitously, virtually restricts 

 membership in that body to wealthy citizens ; and also in the 

 United States, which, by paying her judges and most of her other 

 great officers of state inconsiderable and inadequate salaries, prac- 

 tically reduces the cost of her Government, and virtually makes 

 merchandise of her honors by entailing a part of the proper ex- 

 penses of such offices upon every first-class incumbent of them.* 



The comparatively small expenditures of the Athenian state 

 should also to be considered in connection with their revenue re- 

 quirements. Thus, Mr. Grote estimates the annual expenditure 

 of Athens, in the time of Pericles, at one thousand talents^ or 



* It will not probably be disputed that the talent and experience which ought to be pre- 

 requisite to the holding and proper discharge of the duties of many of the important oflSces 

 of the Government of the United States judges, cabinet ministers, foreign ministers, 

 consuls, etc. will command in private life a much higher compensation or salary than is 

 paid by the state. 



