Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/81

 INSCRIPTIONS Ixxvii [The best explanation of the inscriptions seems to be given by the following suppositions (see Beloch, Rhein. Mus. xxxix. p. 55 ; Gilbert, Greek Constitutional Antiqui- ties, Eng. TransL, pp. 332-338 ; and cp. Headlam, Elec- tion by Lot at Athens, pp. 132, 133). — There was no ' secular fund ' at all unless we give this name to the ordinary current receipts of the year, consisting principally of the f^ths of the tribute in the hands of the Hellenotamiae. The surplus, if any, remaining over at the end of the year must, after a certain time, have been paid into the sacred treasury, for there was no other source of income from which the immense sums mentioned as sacred in C. I. A. 32, 273, can have come. The difficulty is about the applica- tion of the yearly income to current expenses. It is reason- able to suppose that part of it could be applied by the Hel- lenotamiae themselves to the service of the state : Beloch points out that the sums expended 3'early from the treasury of Athene Polias in 426-423 b.c. (261, 130, 133, 222 talents, C. I. A. 273) are nothing like the amounts of the tribute which must have come in and been spent in these years. Ifthe.se sums or part of them were deposited with the Ta/xLaL TTys Oeov at all, they could probably be drawn out again by the Hellenotamiae on the strength of a simple vote of the people (cp. the payments e/c tCji' eVerctW, xj/rjifiiaa/xevov Tov 8r]iJLov, by the ra/itai lepwv ^rjfxaTujv to the Hellenotamiae and others in 410-9 : C. I. A. 188, 189 ; see p. Ixxxiv). After a time, any surplus remaining from these funds must have been incorporated with the sacred treasure, and could only be expended on secular objects under special restric- tions ; the people had to pass a previous vote of indemnity [il/7]cf)i(rafjLevov toC hi'jfxov ttjv uSeiav, C. I. A. 32) after 434 O^ 418 B.C. ; and, between 433 and 423 at least, the sum was regarded as a loan bearing a small interest.] 1 The 20 Tan'tai raivoaiuv (as distinct from Upwv) xprji^aruv of [Aristotle] Athen. Polit. 30 may be only a part of the projected constitution of the 400 ; there is no trace of them in the inscriptions.