Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/55

 INSCRIPTIONS li the supposition that the Ionian and Carian, as well as the Island tribute, was greatly raised in that year Thus, apart from the uncertain and startling Hellespontian total, and from the perplexing Thracian list, the argument turns on the probability that the assessments of the other states were raised in the same proportion as those of the Islanders. It may be argued in reply to what is only a presumption that the Island tributaries were more completely under the control of the Athenians, and more likely to have had their tribute raised : a glance at a map of the Athenian empire will show that they formed the * home circle ' of it. Thus we are driven to the conclusion that the uncer- tainty respecting the doubling of the tribute has not been entirely removed. It is very probable that the Athenians as the}' increased in power increased their demands on the allies. It is more probable than not that Andocides (granting the genuineness of the De Pace) was right when he implied that the tribute had increased from 600 to 1,200 talents, for the increase must have taken place in his own time ^ Neither he nor any one else says that the tribute was doubled in 425 ; his statement would be satisfied if the Athenians were receiving 1,200 talents from their allies at any time during the peace of Nicias^ Nor is the argument from the silence of Thucydides against this supposition of any weight. His manner of writing is so different from that of a modern historian, that it is difficult to argue beforehand what events or measures he would have inserted in his history, and what he would have omitted. All these probabilities remain as they were before. But not much can be added to the argument from ' [May not some of them belong to the period 435-431 ? Cp. p. xli, and C. I. A. 251.] ^ The Pseudo-Andocides (in Alcib., 11) cannot be right in attributing the measure, if it took place in 425, to Alcibiades, whose political influence cannot as yet have been sufficiently great. ^ Cp. Plut. Aristides, xxiv HepinKfovs 5' uiroOav^vTos iirtTdvovrts ol brjfxa- -,ojyol Kara [Aiicpiv ds X'^''^^' «"! TpiaKoalaiv raXavTOiv K((paaiov av-qfa'^ov.