Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/82

 Ixxviii THUCYDIDES The inscription C. I. A. 273, which records the loan of the sacred treasure, has also an historical interest derived from the mention of names and events which occur in Thucydides. Under 01. 88. 4, 425-424 b. c, appears the name of Demosthenes, and probably that of Nicias : — (TTpaTTjyoi'i 7rc[pi llejAoTrovvy^crov Arj/J-ocrOiveL ' AXKicrOevov^ A^i8[miw] ^ ^ ^ {=30 talents). tT[€]pa 8oo-is (TTpaTrjyoi^ [Nikio, NiKT^/iarou KvSaJvrtSj; frl (= 100 talents). The first payment is made on the third day of the fourth, the second on the fifteenth day of the ninth pry- tany. Probably the reference is to an employment of Demosthenes in establishing and paying a garrison, in- cluding the Messenian, in Pylos, in the autumn of 425, for the date is too late for the blockade, and to the expedition of Nicias against Cythera early in the summer of 424. (Thuc. iv. 27, 53.) Regarded from the historical point of view, C. I. A. 273 may be placed with another class of inscriptions from which the results obtained are rather historical than finan- cial. To these we will proceed : The money expended from the sacred treasury appears to have been reckoned in two forms. In one of these forms it was regarded as a debt to the temple, having to pay interest, of which calculation is made. In the other form the account is simply a record of sums paid to the generals or other officers to be used in the public service ', In the second form of the account, as might be expected, ' [This is only certain for the j^ears 433-423. In C. I. A. 180-183 the treasurers of the Goddess in one special case (183, 1. 6 ; 415 b. c.) use the word I5ai/€icra[^€j'], ' we lent' : not, as usual, iraptSo/jfi' or vaptboaav. It must be remembered that 433-423, and the last years of the Peace of Nicias, were the only period during which the Athenians are known to have had a large surplus and a large expenditure : before 433 they had a large surplus and comparatively small expenses : after the Sicilian expedition they had a cmshing expenditure and no surplus.]