MONEY OF ATTICA. 



441 



arc very clearly pointed out in a passage of Aristoplianes ; and we 

 learn trom the poet, tliat at the time when the play of the Vespa? was 

 performed, or 423 B.C., the revenue of the republic was 2000 talents, 

 or 500,000/. sterling. 



Kaj "TT^urov fztv Xoyia-tzi (pduXug, jwij ^]^^^Olg, aAX' aVo %£<fo? 



Tov (pooov r,f/.7v cctto tuv 'ttoXbcov ^v\XifiQcy\v rov TrqciriovTa.' 



Kari) TcvTcu TO, TsX'/j x^'^'^i "'*' Tug TToXXug iKuroa-Txc, ■'■ 



n^VTOiviTx, fjtiTuXX , uyopxc, Xiix.suxc, f^icrSouq Kxi SvjfitoTrpotTCK, 



ToVTuv 7rX7j^u[/,(X. tuX»vt eyyvg Air^iX/a: yiyverxi '^fxTv. 



Vespse, 656. 



The revenue in the year mentioned by Aristophanes seems to have 



been unusually great ; for Xenophon, Anab. lib. vii., speaks of 1000 



talents as the income of the republic during the war derived from the 



citizens as well as foreigners. n^oa-oSov ova-ra xkt mavrov d-Tro « tuv 



Iv^yiLiuv Kd) i/. T^i; \n:i^o^ltx.g ov f/A't'ov xtXiuv Ta.xd.vruv. In the time of 



Demosthenes, the sum was much smaller ; the orator, Phil, iv., says 

 it amounted to 400 talents. . :• 



The system of financial policy adopted by the Athenians (and 

 Greeks in general) led them to amass considerable sums to meet the 

 necessary expences of war. " The states of the ancient world," says 

 Hume, " prepared for their contests by hoarding as much as they 

 could. The mode adopted by modern Europe of anticipating the 

 revenues of future generations was unknown to them." Thucydides, 

 lib. ii., has communicated to us some particulars respecting the state 

 of the Athenian finances at the breaking out of the Peloponnesian 

 war. There were 6,000 talents, or 1,500,000/. in the treasury ; a sum 

 which had been collected from the contributions of the allies ; the 

 uncoined* gold and silver found in the religious offerings belonging 



* Xputri'ou a3->j/i,oo x«i apyvplov. Tluic. 1. 2. "Acrjjfiov in modern Greek is " silver ;" it 

 is found in this sense in Ccdrenus: and in an e])igram on a person who had placed at 

 table before his guests some empty dishes of silver, " Seek," says the epigranimist, " for 

 those who are fasting, if you want to make a display of your silver; you may excite iheir 

 admiration by your empty dishes." 



ZiJTEi n)c7T£U0VTac Ef ccfyvpsrjv eTTl'SflflV, 



Kai TOTS flaufiairffM xoOipov aa->]/xov fp^oii'. — Cas. His. A. S. 153. ', 



3l 



