The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT
I I I
on public services, including payments of the special war taxes, and
service as trierarch." In another the speaker recounts his expenditures
for the years 411/10 to 404J'3, a total of almost 10 talents. His list
provides us with evidence of the variety of public obligations imposed
upon Athens' wealthier citizens: he produced tragic and comic dramas;
paid for choral competitions, dancers, athletic contests, and trireme
races; equipped six triremes for battle in seven years; and during that
time twice contributed his share of the eisphora. 19 To be sure, he boasts
that he spent four times what was legally required, so the less generous
men of his class might have had to spend no more than 2.5 talents
during the same period, but even that was a very high sum. We must
remember that a talent consisted of 6,ooo drachmas, that a drachma
was a very good day's pay in the late fifth century, and that in those
years an Athenian citizen rowing in the fleet was expected to get by
on half that amount. Another way of understanding the meaning of
these sums is to note that Nicias, one of the richest men in Athens,
was expected to leave an estate of no more than 100 talents and that
his son, not a notorious wastrel, left no more than 14 talents to his
heir. There is good reason to think that the fortunes of many Athenian
families were seriously reduced by public services during the Peloponnesian
War.'" By 411, and especially in the years since the Sicilian
disaster, the unprecedented expense would already have been strongly
felt, and it would not take much imagination for the propertied classes
to see that there would be similar and even greater demands in the
future.
The moral standing of the democratic regime, the alleged foolishness
of its policies and incompetence of their execution, the decline in the
quality of leadership, and the heavy burden of public financial obligations
were all problems of long standing for those Athenians skeptical
of the democracy, although all of them were intensified in the years
after Sicily. The new element in 411 was the dismal prospect for
success or even survival in the war against the Peloponnesians. The
dismay after the Sicilian disaster had quickly given way to determination
and action. The Athenian response to rebellion in the empire
uLys. 19.42-43· The speech is dated to about JSS/87, at the end ofthe Corinthian
War, and so the total must include a good deal spent after the Peloponnesian War.
One expenditure mentioned, however, is for the Sicilian expedition from 415 to 413,
so some considerable portion must have been spent during the earlier war.
19
Lys. 21.1-5.
loLys. 19·45-48.