Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/47

Rh fixed by Aristides was remembered at the peace of Nicias as setting a limit to the exactions of the Athenians. Thucydides further tells us (i. 99) that some of the allies soon began to contribute money instead of ships (crážavro ἀντὶ τῶν νεῶν τὸ ἱκνούμενον ἀνάλωμα φέρειν), and we might have expected the total to be swelled by these additional contri- butions. But the extant quotas only begin in the year 454 B.C., and the change from ships to money may have been completed before that time. Still a difficulty remains. For the tribute imposed by Aristides, instead of falling from 460 to 423 talents, would have been proportionably increased; in other words, the defaulters in ships would have paid more money. All the allies, with the exception of the Lesbians and Chians, had been reduced to 'servi- tude' in the interval between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, and they had given up supplying ships to the common cause. We should expect therefore, unless their lands were transferred to Athenian citizens, as later in the case of Lesbos (iii. 50), that the allies who had once con- tributed ships would have increased the tribute recorded in the quota lists. The amount would have been swelled by large sums paid by the allies, made up both of penalties reimbursing the Athenians for the expenses of the war when they rebelled (cp. i. Ior fin., χρήματα ὅσα ἔδει ἀποδοῦναι αὐτίκα ταξάμενοι καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν φέρειν), and of tribute exacted in lieu of the ships over and above the 460 talents. there is no trace of any such increase. As from the first it was arranged that some were to supply money and others ships, it can hardly be supposed that the latter are included in the contributors to the 460 talents'. Nor is it But


 * r1 [This explanation is certainly inconsistent with a precise interpretation of Thucydides' words in i. 96 ἔταξαν άς τε ἔδει παρέχειν τῶν πόλεων χρήματα πρὸς τὸν βάρβαρον καὶ ἃς ναῦς . . . καὶ Ἑλληνοταμίαι τότε πρῶτον Αθηναίοις κατέστη αρχή, οἳ ἐδέχοντο τον φόρον· οὕτω γὰρ ὠνομάσθη τῶν χρημάτων ἡ φορά, ἦν δ᾽ ὁ πρῶτος φόρος ταχθεὶς τετρακόσια τάλαντα καὶ EKOVтa. Still it is possible that Thucydides may not intend to confine the φόρος ταχθείς to the χρήματα, and that the expense of furnishing triremes χρήματα ἐτάξαντο ἀντὶ τῶν νεῶν τὸ ἱκνούμενον ἀνάλωμα φέρειν,