442 



MONEY OF ATTICA. 



to the state and the citizens, and the vessels used in sacred ceremo- 

 nies, amounted to 125,000/. The gold on the statue of Minerva, 

 which could be taken off, if the public exigencies required it, weighed 

 40 talents of pure metal, and was, according to the ancient proportion 

 of one to thirteen, worth 130,000/.* A passage in Demosthenes, 

 Hep Zvpp., gives the valuation of the property and wealth of the Athe- 

 nians at 6,000 talents f; in Polybius, lib. ii., we find the sum stated at 

 5,750 talents. Winkelman, as well as Meursius and Leland, consider 

 them as speaking of revenue ; but it is contrary to all probability, 

 that the Athenian finances should ever have been so flourishing as 

 this statement would make them, and the passage I have already 

 cited from Xenophon and Aristophanes is a sufficient confutation of 

 that opinion. Mr. Wallace J supposes the sum to mean a valuation 

 of yearly rents and profits, according to which a tax was to be im- 

 posed on the Athenians. Mr. Hume § considers it as including the 

 whole value of the republic, and comprehending lands, houses, com- 

 modities, and slaves ; but if we calculate the slaves at only 200,000, 

 and at two minse each, the lowest value which was put on any of those 

 belonging to the father of Demosthenes, the slaves alone were worth 

 more money. || Some suppose the words ft^fidt t^s to be a 



valuation of land ; Dr. Gillies applies them to the worth of lands and 

 houses. The opinion of Heyne seems to be the most satisfactory, 

 and to agree with the words of Polybius ; it was, he says, an estimate, 

 perhaps below the real value of the general property of Attica and 

 Athens ; and that on occasions, when an armament was to be equip- 

 ped, or any contribution was required, a tax was laid on the different 

 districts of Attica according to this estimate. 



So long as the Athenians retained their command at sea, they 



* For 40 talents of gold multiplied by 13, give 520 talents of silver, or 130,C00Z. 

 Barthelerny supposes that in the time of Thucydides, as of Herodotus, this was the 

 proportion. 



f To t/ju.t;|x« ecttj to tvjj X^P 01 ^ ^awiayiA/aii' t«A«vt«;v. 



\ Numbers of Mankind, 289. § Essay V. 



]| In Aphob. 1. — See Wallace, p. 189. 



