Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/489

 miEUARCHIC REFORM. 4G3 joying as he did, now after long public experience, the increased confidence of his fellow-citizens, and being named superintendent of the navy, 1 he employed his influence not only in procuring en- frgetic interference both as to Eubrea and Byzantium, but also in correcting deep-seated abuses which nullified the efficiency of the Athenian marine department. The law of Periander (adopted in 357 B. c.) had distributed the burthen of the trierarchy among the twelve hundred richest citizens on the taxable property-schedule, arranged in twenty fractions called Symmories, of sixty persons each. Among these men, the three hundred richest, standing distinguished, as leaders of the Symmories, were invested with the direction and enforce- ment of all that concerned their collective agency and duties. The purpose of this law had been to transfer the cost of trierar- chy a sum of about forty, fifty or sixty minae for each trireme, defraying more or less of the outfit which had originally been borne by a single rich man as his turn came round, and afterwards by two rich men in conjunction to a partnership more or less numerous, consisting of five, six, or even fifteen or sixteen mem bers of the same symmory. The number of such partners varied according to the number of triremes required by the state to be fitted out in any one year. If only few triremes were required, six teen contributors might be allotted to defray collectively the trie- rarchic cost of each : if on the other hand many triremes were needed, a less number of partners, perhaps no more than five or six, could be allotted to each since the total number of citizens whose turn it was to be assessed in that particular year was fixed. The assessment upon each partner was of course heavier, in pro- portion as the number of partners assigned to a trireme was small- er. Each member of the partnership, whether it consisted of five, of six, or of sixteen, contributed in equal proportion towards the cost. 2 The richer members of the partnership thus paid no 1 jEschines cont. Ktesiph. p. 85. c. 80. kincru,rTi<; rov VO.VTIKOV. 9 Demosthen. De CoronA, p. 260-262. %v -yap avroif (role ^-ye^om ruv avftfiopiuv) EK.ne.vruvTTporepuvv6iJ.uv avvEKKai6eKa 'Xeirovpyelv avrolf ulv umpa KO.L oiiisv uva^iffKovaiv, roijf 6' anopovQ ruv irohiruv imTffScvotV. . . . in 6e TOV E'fiov vopnv rb yiyvopsvov Kara, rrjv ovaiav enaarov Ti&tvai Kal dvolv rpLrjpapxog 6 7% fiitif SKTOC Kal dsKarof Ttporepov avvr&ijs oide yiif, in UVQUU&V tavrovc,