Ancient Greek Taxation: Athens’ Liturgies, Trierarchy, and Economic Systems

For the Greeks, the idea of taxation rested on property or wealth that could readily be seen, usually meaning either land or produce. It is better, however, to think of taxation as public revenue, or what the state had access to and could spend. The best-known tax system is that of Athens, given that it was the largest and richest state in the Greek world. The revenue coming into Athens during the fifth century was tribute or external revenue (taxation) and internal revenue.

It appears that during the time of the Peisistratids in the sixth century, there was a 5 percent tax on agricultural income, although this did not survive their rule and the tax was abandoned. The Athenians taxed prostitutes, silver (presumably mining), and foreigners. It is hard to determine who paid taxes in Athens since there are few records. It is probable that the wealthiest 2,000 men were liable for most of the direct taxes, which would probably account for at least 50 percent of the total wealth in Athens.

At the start of the Peloponnesian War, the historian Thucydides stated that Athens received 600 talents a year from external sources (i.e., tribute). This account is augmented by the historian philosopher Xenophon, who stated that the Athenian revenue for the same period from both internal and external sources was 1,000 talents a year. This would indicate that the Athenians collected 400 talents a year from their internal or domestic receipts.

The magnitude of these figures is further correlated with the playwright Aristophanes, who in 422 said that the revenue Athens received from home and abroad was 2,000 talents, which occurred due to a reevaluation of foreign tribute and a special tax on the wealthy that produced another 200 talents a year. Although all of these figures are rounded off, it is probable that the magnitude of each author was correct, establishing that Athens during peacetime took in 1,000 talents and during the early period of the war took in an extra 1,000 talents a year.

The majority of Athens’s external revenue or tribute went to servicing the fleet. A total of 600 talents would have been required to keep 100 triremes or warships in service for six months. The external revenue came in the form of tribute from the allied states. The tribute became part of the contribution originally made to the Delian League to fight against Persia. When the treasury was moved from Delos to Athens in 454, the tribute was calculated not only for the total contribution of the league, but for each city-state separately. The surviving lists record the aparchai, meaning one-sixtieth, given to Athena from the tribute of the city-states. Most likely, this was the amount originally given to Apollo at Delos, and then to Athena when the treasury was transferred. The lists were carved on stone in Athens.

The records seem to show that tribute was collected each year, and for 453-439, the amounts were inscribed on a single slab of marble, while for the next eight years (438-431) on another block, and then for each year afterward on a separate block. There appears to be no record for the year 448, when peace between Persia and the Delian League occurred, and it may have been this year that the tribute was used exclusively by Athens. This tribute was changed in 413 to a 5 percent duty on all goods transported by sea; presumably, it was to benefit Athens and probably represents an even larger amount than the tribute. It seems that the tribute was reintroduced in 410.

The tribute lists tended to record the neighboring states together, so by 442, there were five regional areas: Ionian, Hellespontine, Thracian, Carian, and the Islands; in 437, the interior of Caria was abandoned, probably due to Persian conquest, and Caria was combined with Ionia. The amounts varied greatly, with Aegina contributing 300 drachmas, the yearly wages for one person, to Thasos at 30 talents (a talent equaled 6,000 drachmae) per year. The levels were reassessed every four years, with the amounts remaining consistent rising in a constant fashion until 430 and in 428 and 425, when the amounts were increased due to the Peloponnesian War. In addition to the aparchai, there are fragments of the assessment lists of 425, 422, and 410, which give valuable information on the total amount given by each state.

From the aparchai and later assessment lists, it is possible to perceive general trends. The first assessment in 478 amounted to 460 talents. The states could provide ships or money, but ultimately most of them commuted the amount as money; therefore, by 431, only Chios and Lesbos provided ships. In 450, the tribute was just under 432 talents. Although these figures are below Thucydides’s 600 talents, it may be that he had included the ships in his calculations.

The internal revenue included the revenue from the mines of Laurium. Although again its round number of 100 talents is somewhat suspect, one source claimed that that amount of revenue was the return in the 480s. This was probably the largest single contribution for the state. It was known that the city rented slaves from private owners who worked in the mines. It is probably not incorrect to suggest that a quarter of Athens’s domestic income came from the mines since when the Spartans captured them in the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians had to dip into their reserves.

The other large contributor to the state were the imposts collected on trade in the agora and port of Piraeus. These market and harbor dues were normally paid by the merchants bringing goods to Athens to sell. These dues were rents calculated based on a percentage of the value of the goods. By 422, when the war was dragging on, Athens imposed a 1 percent excise tax on duties, fines, market and harbor dues, public sales, mine leases, and public contracts.

Even this 1 percent produced a large amount of revenue for the city. At the end of the fifth century, there were references to a 2 percent import/export tax. This implies that a regular tax on trade existed in Athens. The Athenians also levied a 10 percent transit tax for the Bosporos dating to the end of the Peloponnesian War. Using their colony of Chrysopolis near Byzantion, the Athenians fortified and garrisoned it, levying a tax on ships leaving the Black Sea. There was also a tax imposed on grain in this region of 8.5 percent, referred to as the one-twelfth, and this could have been a tax in kind of the grain ships coming from southern Russia.

Since no type of income tax existed at this time, the state had to rely on taxes on produce (tithes) and property taxes, as well as the previously mentioned indirect taxes. Since the ancients did not use any type of double-entry bookkeeping, this system mainly equated income and capital. There was no system to produce an annual income tax or tax leases and rents. In the Athenian system, money was regularly deposited in temples to be accumulated, so by the beginning of the war, the city had a reserve of 6,000 talents.

These types of taxes were not the only way for a city-state to collect funds. Another was the system of liturgies, which meant that wealthy Athenians were required to provide some type of service to the city. In a sense, they were taxes on the wealthy. The individual could do a choregia, where a wealthy man underwrote the cost of putting on the production of a chorus (series of dramas, comedies, and musical entertainment) at one of the major festivals. There may have been nearly 100 annual liturgies for these festivals. There was the gymnasiarchia, who paid for the festival torch-races and probably also the general running of a gymnasium. The Panathenaic Games were also in part supported by the wealthy.

Another type of liturgy was the construction of monuments or buildings. For example, the Stoa Poikile (Painted Porch) of Peisianax was funded by an individual. If an individual was selected to undertake a liturgy and he felt that someone who was wealthier had been bypassed and could pay instead, he could challenge the other individual to an exchange of property, or antidosis. This allowed a check on the wealthy since if someone did not undertake a liturgy and someone else had, the former would either lose property in the antidosis or have to undertake the liturgy to save his wealth.

The most important liturgy was the trierarchy. The trierarch had to pay for the cost of outfitting a warship (excluding the rowers’ pay) for a year. This was an expensive undertaking, even when two men shared the expenses. The system was modified in the 350s so that 1,200 of the wealthiest Athenians were grouped into twenty symmoriai (partnerships), where each contributed the same amount. This liturgy was the most important for the Athenians since it allowed the city to expand its empire in the fifth century.

In addition, there were special levies or eisphorai, imposed during times of hardship. Thucydides indicated that this amounted to 200 talents in 428, when the Athenians were besieging Mytilene. In the fourth century, it appears that a 1 percent tax would yield 60 talents, indicating a total valuation of property at 6,000 talents. It is not clear how the value was determined, but it might have been based on a type of census declaration or on the city’s general level of wealth. Most foreigners did not have to worry about paying these extra levies or liturgies. One foreign group that did have to pay them were the metics, or resident aliens. These were individuals who were not transient visitors but rather foreigners who wished to live in Athens permanently and enjoy some of a citizen’s rights. In these instances, the metic would be liable to pay all the liturgies except for the trierarchy.

The idea of liturgies, at least initially, was that the wealthy would make a gift to the city. Undoubtedly, the wealthy also realized that they would receive benefits from these gifts, including honor, prestige, and notoriety. This might help someone win a court case or be elected, or even affect the type of liturgy a person received from the general assembly. There also appears to have been taxes paid at the local level in Athens, the demes. There were also taxes for religious purposes, imposed apparently to fund the state cults just before the war with Sparta, and such taxes may be seen as a way to receive help from the gods.

The system of taxation or state revenue existed in other Greek cities as well, but they are less well known. In Sparta, wealth mainly existed in the form of land and farm produce, while Corinth’s taxation probably mirrored Athens due to their trade. Other cities clearly had import/export taxes, as well as taxes on produce and imposts for visitors and professions such as prostitutes. These taxes allowed the city to construct public works, pay its military forces, and when necessary bribe other cities or leaders. The taxes allowed the running of the state, but since each state was small and not coordinated with others, the Greek world could not compete with Macedon and Persia in terms of financial power.