Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/401

 THE THEORIC BOAflD. 379 lie assemblies and sat as dikasts in the dikasteries, pay essential to the working of the democracy, was restored only by degrees ; beginning first at one obolus, and not restored to three oboli, at which it had stood before the capture, until after an interval of some years. 1 It was at this time too that the Theoric Board, or Paymasters for the general expenses of public worship and sacri- fice, was first established ; and when we read how much the Athe- nians were embarrassed for the means of celebrating the pre- scribed sacrifices, there was, probably, great necessity for the formation of some such office. The disbursements connected with this object had been effected, before 403 u. c., not by any special Board, but by the Hellenotamias, or treasurers of the tribute col- lected from the allies, who were not renewed after 403 B. c. as the Athenian empire had ceased to exist. 2 A portion of the money dis- bursed by the Theoric Board for the religious festivals, was em- ployed in the distribution of two oboli per head, called the diobely, to all present citizens, and actually received by all, not merely by the poor, but by persons in easy circumstances also. 3 This distribu- tion was made at several festivals, having originally begun at the Dionysia, for the purpose of enabling the citizens to obtain places at the theatrical representations in honor of Dionysus ; but we do not know either the number of the festivals, or the amount of the total sum. It was, in principle, a natural corollary of the religious idea connected with the festival ; not simply because the comfort and recreation of each citizen, individually taken, was promoted by his being enabled to attend the festival, but because the collective effect of the ceremony, in honoring and propitiating the god, was believed to depend in part upon a multitudinous attendance and lively manifestations. 4 Gradually, however, this distribution of 1 Aristophan. Ecclesias. 300-310. Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens, ii, 7, p. 179, 180, Eng. transl. and Schomann, Antiq. Jur. Publ. Graec. a. 77, p. 320. 3 Demosthenes, Philippic, iv, p. 141, s. 43 ; Demosth. Orat. xliv, cont. Leocharem, p. 1091, s. 48. 4 It is common to represent the festivals at Athens as if they were so many stratagems for feeding poor citizens at the public expense. But the primitive idea and sentiment of the Grecian religious festival the satis- faction to the god dependent upon multitudinous spectators sympathizing nd enjoying themselves together (ufiftiya Truvrcf) is much anterior to
 * See the Inscription No. 147, in Boeckh's Corpus Inscriptt. Graecor.