Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/339

PLANS OF DEMOSTHENES. 313 swift sailing war triremes are also to be provided to protect the transports against the naval force of Philip. The citizens are to serve by relays, relieving each other ; every one for a time fixed beforehand, yet none for a very long time. 1 The orator then proceeds to calculate the cost of such a standing force for one year. He assigns to each seaman, and to each foot soldier, ten drachma) pei month, or two oboli per day; to each horseman, thirty drachmas per month, or one drachma (six oboli) per day. No difference is made between the Athenian citizen and the foreign- er. The sum here assigned is not full pay, but simply the cost of each man's maintenance. At the same time, Demosthenes pledges himself, that if thus much be furnished by the state, the remain- der of a full pay (or as much again) will be made up by what the soldiers will themselves acquire in the war; and that too, without wrong done to allies or neutral Greeks. The total an- nual cost thus incurred will be ninety-two talents (=about 22,- 000.) He does not give any estimate of the probable cost of his other armament, of fifty triremes ; which are to be equipped and ready at a moment's notice for emergencies, but not sent out on permanent service. His next task is, to provide ways and means for meeting such additional cost of ninety-two talents. Here he produces and reads to the assembly, a special financial scheme, drawn up in writing. Not being actually embodied in the speech, the scheme has been unfortunately lost ; though its contents would help us materially to appreciate the views of Demosthenes. 2 It must have been more or less complicated in its details ; not a simple proposition for an cisphora or property-tax, which would have been announced in a sentence of the orator's speech. Assuming the money, the ships, and the armament for perma- nent service, to be provided, Demosthenes proposes that a formal law be passed, making such permanent service peremptory ; tho general in command being held responsible for the efficient em- ployment of the force. 3 The islands, the maritime allies, and the commerce of the JEgean would then become secure ; while the 1 Demosthenes, Philipp. i. p. 45, 46. 3 Demosthen. Philipp. i. p. 48, 49. "A c5' vnap^ai dtl nap 1 vfiuv, ravi' tarlv ay& yeypafya. ' J IJcmosthcn. Philipp. i. p. 49. s. 37. VOL. xt. 27