Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/144

 122 HIST-ORY OF GREECE The chosen portion of these hoplites, both as to age and as to equipment, were thirteen thousand in number; while the re- maining sixteen thousand, including the elder and younger citizens and the metics, did garrison-duty on the walls of Athens and Peineus, on the long line of wall which connected Athens both with Peineus and Phalerum, and in the various fortified posts both in and out of Attica. In addition to these large mil- itary and naval forces, the city possessed in the acropolis, an accumulated treasure of coined silver amounting to not less than six thousand talents, or about one million four hundred thousand pounds, derived from annual laying by of tribute from the allies and perhaps of other revenues besides : the treasure had at one time been as large as nine thousand seven hundred talents, or about two million two hundred and thirty thousand pounds, but the cost of the recent religious and architectural decorations at Athens, as well as at the siege of Potidoea, had reduced it to six thousand. Moreover, the acropolis and the temples throughout the city were rich in votive offerings, deposits, sacred plate, and silver implements for the processions and festivals, etc., to an amount estimated at more than five hundred talents ; while the great statue of the goddess recently set up by Pheidias in the Parthenon, composed of ivory and gold, included a quantity of the latter metal not less than forty talents in weight, equal in value to more than four hundred talents of silver, and all of it BO arranged that it could be taken off' from the statue at pleasure In alluding to these sacred valuables among the resources of the state, Perikles spoke of them only as open to be so applied in case of need, with the firm resolution of replacing them during the first season of prosperity, just as the Corinthians had pro- posed to borrow from Delphi and Olympia. Besides the hoard thus actually in hand, there came in a large annual revenue, amounting, under the single head of tribute from the subject allies, to six hundred talents, equal to about one hundred and thirty- eight thousand pounds ; besides all other items, 1 making up a gen- eral total of at least one thousand talents, or about two hundred and thirty thousand pounds. To this formidable catalogue of means for war were to be 1 Thucyil. ii, 13 j Xcnoplion, Anabas. vii, 4.