INSCRIPTIONS Ixxi turns, as we have already seen, upon Thucyclidcs iii. 19, a passage in which the Athenians arc described as sending ships to Caria and other places for the collection of tribute, having already raised a self-imposed tax of 200 talents among themselves. Now he infers that they would not have taken extraordinary means of raising money until their ordinary resources were exhausted. Yet surely (i) a people, like an individual, may become alarmed at its financial condition long before its capital entire!}' comes to an end, and, having great dangers to face, may take extraordinary measures to meet financial difficulties before the exchequer has been emptied. (2) Such expeditions were sent, not once only, but many times in the course of the war, and even before this time (Thuc. ii. 69, cp. also iv. 50, 75), to collect money from cities which were in arrears or which did not regularly pay tribute, or to exact an extraordinar}' tribute from those which did But (3) if so, the argument for the great expenditure of the first three years of the war falls to the ground. If there is no reason to assume that the Athenians were in extreme necessity when they sent out the squadron, neither is there any need to infer that they had spent at the rate of 2,4664 talents a year during the first three years of the Peloponnesian War. (4) The mere imposition of a property tax is far from proving an}' extreme necessity. It is a tax very likely to be imposed at all times by the growing power of a democracy on the rich, otVe/) kuI
- It cannot safely be maintained, on the strength of the doubtful
passage in [Aristotle] Athen. Polit. 24 vrjes ai toi/s (l>upovs dyovcrai (see note in Sandys that the apyvpo':Ot vrjei collected the regular tribute: the regular tribute, as distinct from exceptional levies, appears to have been brought to Athens by the allies at the Great Dionysia : Aristoph. Ach. 504 avTiil ynp i^nfv ovv rjVai(o t' cyuji', icoiinaj ^ivoL vapftffiv ovre yap <p'-poi iJKovaty ovt' he rwv TTuXfwv ol ^v/i/.Mxoi. Schol. (li 5e TO. Aiorvaia WiTaKTo 'AGT]va(e Koju^itv res nuAci; rev; (popovs (lis EvnoXls tpiiaw iv TluXftJti'.
