lenic life. The Athenian knew no higher joy than to crowd the grand processions of the Great Panathenæa, or to listen to the lofty strains of poetry and music at his favorite Dionysia. His ardent soul would kindle with transports of rapture, if he could but behold the honor of the gods, or the glory of the state, reflected in the pomp and magnificence of public display. Though economical almost to a fault in his private expenditures, his liberality knew no bounds, when country or religion called. Public festivals, accordingly, became a source of unwarrantable extravagance. Yet, as we contemplate them, in their relation to that age of spiritual darkness, we scarcely know whether more to commend or censure. To the enlightened eye of Christian faith, indeed, all this pomp was but blind idolatry; in the light of sound political science, it was a prodigal waste of precious treasure; yet we discern in these religious and social gatherings so much of rational and refined enjoyment, so much that is unselfish and generous, that we are constrained to qualify our sentence of condemnation. No inhuman and revolting rites, such as too generally follow in the train of a false religion, found a place at these joyous festivities. Healthful and invigorating exercises shared the time with those social and intellectual entertainments of which the cultivated Athenians were ever so passionately fond. Gymnastic contests developed that manly form, which, preserved in the Grecian statue, is still the beau ideal of human symmetry; youth and beauty thronged the festive processions, and melodious voices swelled the choral songs.

But with the decline of Athenian greatness and virtue, the public festivals at once lost their pure and elevated tone. Motives of religion and national glory gave place to those of indulgence and pleasure; sacrificial offerings were multiplied to satisfy the craving appetite of the idle multitude. Demosthenes denounces the degeneracy of these times, and even Plutarch is forced to the reluctant confession, that his favorite Athens squandered in pleasure the best revenues of the state, and expended upon her Edipuses and her Antigones greater treasures than in all her struggles with barbarian or Grecian foes.

Rewards bestowed upon meritorious citizens formed another item in the public charge. The state delighted in entertaining its great benefactors at its public tables in the Prytaneum, and in honoring them with crowns and statues. The golden garland was several times placed by a grateful people on the noble brow of Demosthenes; the invaluable services of the great and good Aristides were rewarded to his children. Each of the daughters received from the state a dowry of upwards of $500, and the son, though degenerate and unworthy, obtained in the name of his noble sire the generous allowance of fifty acres of land, and seventeen hundred dollars in money with the daily stipend of four-fold the pay of an Athenian senator.

But while the meritorious were deservedly honored and rewarded, the idle and the dissolute were permitted to riot upon the public treasury. Indiscriminate donations in various forms were made to the people; baits thrown to the multitude by unprincipled, designing demagogues. Tickets to the theatre and the concert were gratuitously distributed at the public expense; the contributions of the allies were wasted upon a selfish populace; property was confiscated to appease the noisy rabble; public enterprises were abandoned, that more money might be left for feasting and pleasure; indeed, the profligate Demades, on one occasion publicly promised every Athenian citizen some eight or ten dollars for the celebration of a favorite festival, if they would relinquish their contemplated expedition against Alexander, an instance of unblushing corruption well nigh without a parallel in history.

But it is a relief to turn to a brighter phase of Athenian civilization, and to contemplate those noble institutions of charity, to which it gave birth. Athenian munificence permitted no citizen to lack the necessaries of life. While the indolent were required by law to seek an honest support by labor, the helpless and the infirm were cared for at the public charge. The aged soldier who had fought for his country was sure of a comfortable home in his loved Athens. The orphan children of those who fell in battle became the

adopted sons and daughters of the state. At her hands they received their support; by her they were educated, and with her benediction they went forth to the duties of life. Happy lot for the orphan! Many an Athenian youth might envy him, when at the age of eighteen in the great Dionysiac Theatre amidst approving thousands, he received in the name of the state his full suit of armor, and heard the voice of the herald proclaiming aloud his father's glorious deeds, and bidding him, thus panoplied for service, go forth in the light of that bright example.

Athens kept no standing army, yet her military establishment, even in time of peace, involved no trifling expense. The navy numbered some three or four hundred gallies of war, and the cavalry was a thousand strong. Xenophon estimates the annual expense of the latter at $40,000.

The liberality of the ancient Athenians in lavishing their treasures upon great public works, is well nigh proverbial. Amidst all the changing fortunes of the republic, it was their unvarying policy to foster architecture and art as the special handmaids of religion and the state. Through a long line of statesmen with the illustrious names of Pisistratus, Themistocles, Cimon, Pericles, Conon, and Lycurgus, we behold the public revenues lavished with an unsparing hand upon the imposing edifices of the state and the magnificent temples of religion. Athens became the pride of her own citizens, and the admiration of Greece and the world; her master works of art still remain unrivalled amidst the accumulated labors of all ages and nations. Roman genius bowed before the great Athenian models; modern art can do little more than study, admire, and imitate; even Michael Angelo acknowledged himself a child in the presence of the great Grecian master.

The fortifications of Athens were massive and gigantic. One continuous wall of solid masonry, sixty feet in height, and some twelve or fifteen in thickness, encompassed both the city and its harbors. The dockyards were constructed at an expense of $1,000,000, and the Propylaea, we are told, cost upwards of $2,000,000. What expenditure then could

have reared the stately temples, and fashioned the exquisite works of art which crowned the Citadel and filled the sacred enclosure, to which the famed Propylaea, with all its massive grandeur, was but a fit and unpretending portal? What untold treasures were requisite to rear the Parthenon, with all its matchless sculpture and rich adorning? Half a million of dollars was barely sufficient to drape the statue of the virgin goddess, which stood within it. What countless sums must have been expended upon the Theseum, the Erechtheum, and upon the temples of the Olympian Zeus, and of Nike! Estimate, too, the cost of the Odeum, the Prytaneum, the Tholus, the Dionysiac Theatre, the Painted Stoa; count up the aqueducts, the fountains, the gymnasia, the hippodromes; call to mind the countless works of art which adorned all the great temples, and even lined the streets and the Agora; in all this you behold an exhibition of enlarged public spirit almost as rare and wonderful as the matchless creations of genius to which it gave birth.

The annual expenditure upon public works must, of course, have varied with the circumstances of the times, and with the condition of the treasury. It was heaviest under the administration of Pericles. That great patron of art probably expended several millions of dollars in beautifying the city.

Prof. Boeckh, in his general estimate, places the regular annual expenses of the state at $400,000. He adds, however, the obvious remark, that the construction of great public works and special extravagance in the celebration of festivals not unfrequently swelled the expenditure far beyond this amount.

Much has been written on the demoralizing extravagance of the Athenian government, and there certainly were many items in the annual appropriations which must have been at best but an inexcusable waste of treasure; yet it must be admitted that $400,000 is not an extravagantly large expenditure for a state of half a million of souls. Perhaps few governments of modern times are more economically administered. The police for the year 1857 cost the city of

London upwards of $220,000: the budget of Paris recently appropriated for the current year exceeds $14,000,000.

But we pass, finally, to examine the sources of revenue at the command of the Athenian government. The statesmen of ancient Athens had the wisdom to perceive that a revenue raised by indirect taxation would be the most acceptable to the people. To an Athenian it would have been an act of intolerable oppression to impose a direct tax upon the person or the occupation of the citizen; indeed, no direct taxes whatever were levied, except in cases of emergency, and then only upon property, never upon the man himself. Tertullian, in denouncing the direct taxation of the person, did but echo a sentiment which centuries before commanded the general assent of Greece. "As the field," says he, "is of less value when subject to taxation, so are the persons of men more despised when they pay a poll-tax, for this is an indication of captivity." 1

The ordinary sources of revenue were rents, duties, fines, tributes, and the gratuitous services of citizens.

A very considerable income accrued to the state from the rents of the public lands and the mines. Many of the public buildings are also supposed to have been rented; and, however little it may comport with our ideas of state dignity, it is an undeniable fact that the Athenian republic kept tenements to lease.

A trifling duty of two per cent., levied on all imports and exports, probably yielded the state an income of some $35,000. The tax on slaves netted almost $30,000; and the protection extended to resident aliens, $20,000.

The courts of justice also opened an important source of revenue. Law-suits, in ancient as in modern times, furnished an easy method of sinking private fortunes. Whichever party lost, the lawyer and the state were sure to gain. The regular fees were by no means inconsiderable; and the fines imposed as the punishment of crime, were often extremely heavy. The penalty for accepting a bribe was either death or a fine of four-fold the amount received; any

1 Quoted by Boeckh.