Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/77

 INSCRIPTIONS Ixxiii determine how far civil as well as military expenditure was defrayed from the treasures of the temples, or how far extraordinary expenses were defrayed out of ordinary resources : we do not know what was received from mines, public lands, law fees, harbour-dues, confiscations; how far the tribute may have risen above or fallen below 600 talents ; or how much w^as brought in by apyvpoyoi vr]e<i. We cannot tell to what extent the Xnrnvpyiat relieved the state finances of expenditure which has to be met by modern states. Neither do we know what was spent on temples and other public buildings, on theatrical perform- ances, sacred missions and festivals, on hulls of ships, siege engines, and other munitions of war, on the main- tenance of the orphans of citizens killed in battle, and other public expenses. We cannot therefore attempt to balance the accounts of the Athenian empire. But Kirchhoff is quite right in supposing that there was a very large expenditure of capital in the first few ^-ears of the war, larger, as we gather from C. I. A. 273, than in the years which followed. This important inscription, bearing on the preceding as well as on the following discussion, may here be con- veniently introduced. It contains an account, apparently drawn up by the Xoyto-rat, of money paid out for the public service at different times from the treasuries of Athene Polias, Athene Nike, and of the other deities. The account is divided into two parts, one extending from 01. 86. 4 to 88. 2 (433 to 427 B.C.) inclusive, the second from 88. 3 to 89. 2 (426 to 423 e.g.) inclusive. The total of the money borrowed during the first seven years from all these treasuries amounts to about 4,729 talents 2,625 drachmae 2 obols ; that borrowed during the last four 1.200 talents' (which it may have done, in theory at least, but see p. li), ' that Aristophanes exaggerates, and lastly that the ov nuoy in Xenophon is put by litotes for " fully 1,000 or more," we may reconcile the state- ments of the two wTiters.' Gilbert, Greek Constitutional Antiquities, Engl. Translation (Brooks and Nicklin), p. 358, n. 2.] VOL. I. f