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 DELPHIAN TREASURE. 253 his intensions at the outset, all such reserves or limits, or obliga lions to repay, were speedily forgotten in practice. When the feeling which protected the fund was broken through, it was as easy to take much as little, and the claimants became more numer- ous and importunate ; besides which the exigencies of the war never ceased, and the implacable repugnance raised by the spolia- tion amidst half of the Grecian world, left to the Phokians no security except under the protection of a continued mercenary force. 1 Nor were Philomelus and his successors satisfied without also enriching their friends and adorning their wives or favorites. Availing himself of the large resources of the temple, Philome- lus raised the pay of his troops to a sum half as large again as before, and issued proclamations inviting new levies at the same rate. Through such tempting offers he was speedily enabled to muster a force, horse and foot together, said to amount to 10,000 au avTiKaraarqaai nu^iv, Thucyd. ii. 13). After the disaster before Syra cuse, and during the years of struggle intervening before the close of the war, the Athenians were driven by financial distress to appropriate to public purposes many of the rich donatives in the Parthenon, which they were never afterwards able to replace. Of this abstraction, proof is found in the Inscriptions published by Boeckh, Corp. Inscript. No. 137-142, which contain the official records of the successive Boards of Treasurers of Athene. It is stated in an instructive recent Dissertation, by J. L. Ussing (De Par thenone ejusque partibus Disputatio, p. 3. Copenhagen, 1849), "Multae in arce Athenarum inventas sunt tabula? Qusestorum Minerva?, in quibus quo- tannis inscribebant, quamam vasa aurea aliaeque res pretiosae in aede Mi- nerva? dedicata extarent. Harum longe maxima pars ante Euc.lidem ar- chontem scripta cst : Nee tamen una tabula templi dona continebat nni- versa, sed separatim qua3 in Pronao, quae in Hecatompedo, qua? in Parthe- none (the part of the temple specially so called), servabantur, separatim BUIS quaeque lapidibus consignata erant. Singular! quadam fortunacontigit, ut inde ab anno 434 u. c., ad 407 B. c., tarn multa fragmenta tabularum eervata sint, ut hos donorum catalogos aliquatcnus rcstituere possimus. In quo etiam ad historiam illius temporis pertinet, quod florentibus Athenaram rebus opes Deaj semper augeri, fractis autem bello Siculo, rode ab anno 412 B. c.. eas paulatim deminui vidcmus Urgente pecunise inoj'ia Athenienses ad Dcam confugiebant, et jam ante annum 406 B. c., pleraque Pronai dona ablata esse videmus. Proximis annis sine dubio nee Hecatompedo ncc Par- then on i pepercerunt ; nee minim est, post bellum Peloponnesiacum ex an- tiquis illis donis fere nulla comparere." 1 Theopompus, Frag. 182, ed. Didot Athene, xiii. p. 605, v : . p. 232, Ephorus, Frag. 155, ed. Didot; Diodjr. xvi. 64. xi 22