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

THE RESTORATION 259
that the substitution of the old tribute and its quotas would bring in
more money than the 5 percent tax on trade that had been introduced
in 414, for they seem to have reintroduced the tribute quotas in 410."
The establishment of the customs-house at the Bosporus, moreover,
could be expected to bring in income beyond that obtained from the
subject cities. In some way, therefore, the Athenians expected to recover
their empire and its revenues and to use the revenues to pay for
the conduct of the war and the expenditures at home. The records of
the Hellenotamiai, who controlled the imperial funds, show that in 410/
9 payments were made from the treasuries of Athena on the Acropolis
for military purposes and for the diobelia, among various other domestic
expenses." Finally, the democratic regime was willing to make use of
a source of revenue that the Five Thousand had refused to employ,
the direct war tax (eisphora). In any case, we would expect that a
government limited to the propertied classes would resist such an
impost, and the evidence is clear that even after the fall of the moderate
regime, the generals associated with the moderates wanted to avoid its
imposition. 53 The democrats, however, were more ready to tap the
fortunes of the upper classes, although prudence and the exhaustion
of those fortunes appear to have limited their impositions to only two
from 410 to 405. 54
The restored democracy made still further demands on the Athenian
treasury by resuming the building program on tbe Acropolis that had
been abandoned at least since the Sicilian expedition. It has been usual
to speak of tbis activity as still another way for the state to give economic
aid to its needy citizens." One scholar has put it most dramatically:
"What once had been the manifestation of the power and wealth
of the state was now a means of maintenance in the greatest need, " 56
but a purely social and economic explanation for the resumption of
HATL 11, A13; J, 91-92, 363 (accepted in GHI, 258-259). This view is challenged
by H. B. Mattingly(BSA LXII l