{"id":22665,"date":"2020-11-03T02:51:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T02:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=22665"},"modified":"2020-11-05T11:11:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T11:11:03","slug":"only-the-richest-ancient-athenians-paid-taxes-and-they-bragged-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/only-the-richest-ancient-athenians-paid-taxes-and-they-bragged-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes \u2013 and they bragged about it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Martin<\/a>, College of the Holy Cross<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state\u2019s most important national expenses \u2013 the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about how much they paid.<\/p>\n

Money was just as important to the ancient Athenians as it is to most people today, so what accounts for this enthusiastic reaction to a large tax bill? The Athenian financial elite felt this way because they earned an invaluable payback: public respect from the other citizens of their democracy.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Ancient Athens was a thoroughly modern city in its large public funding needs.<\/span>
\nLeo von Klenze via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Modern needs, modern finances<\/h2>\n

Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. had a population of free and enslaved people topping 300,000 individuals. The economy mostly focused on international trade<\/a>, and Athens needed to spend large sums of money to keep things humming \u2013 from supporting national defense to the countless public fountains<\/a> constantly pouring out drinking water all over the city.<\/p>\n

Much of this income came from publicly owned farmland and silver mines that were leased to the highest bidders<\/a>, but Athens also taxed imports and exports and collected fees from immigrants and prostitutes as well as fines imposed on losers in many court cases. In general, there were no direct taxes on income or wealth.<\/p>\n

As Athens grew into an international power, it developed a large and expensive navy of several hundred state-of-the-art wooden warships called triremes<\/a> \u2013 literally meaning three-rowers. Triremes cost huge amounts of money to build, equip and crew, and the Athenian financial elites were the ones that paid to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Triremes were the most advanced and expensive military technology of the ancient Mediterranean, and rich Athenians funded them out of their own pockets.<\/span>
\nMarsyas via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The top 1% of male property owners supported the saving or salvation of Athens \u2013called \u201csoteria<\/a>\u201d \u2013 by performing a special kind of public service called \u201cleitourgia,\u201d or liturgy. They served as a trireme commander, or \u201ctrierarch,\u201d who personally funded the operating costs of a trireme for an entire year and even led the crew on missions. This public service was not cheap. To fund their liturgy as a trierarch, a rich taxpayer spent what a skilled worker earned in 10 to 20 years of steady pay, but instead of dodging this responsibility, most embraced it.<\/p>\n

Running warships was not the only responsibility the rich had to national defense. When Athens was at war \u2013 which was most of the time \u2013 the wealthy had to pay contributions in cash<\/a> called \u201ceisphorai\u201d to finance the citizen militia<\/a>. These contributions were based on the value of their property, not their income, which made them in a sense a direct tax on wealth.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Theater of Dionysus in Athens could hold thousands of spectators for shows subsidized by liturgists.<\/span>
\ndronepicr via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To please the gods<\/h2>\n

To the ancient Athenians, physical military might was only part of the equation. They also believed that the salvation of the state from outside threats depended on a less tangible but equally crucial and costly source of defense: the favor of the gods.<\/p>\n

To keep these powerful but fickle divine protectors on their side, the Athenians built elaborate temples, performed large sacrifices and organized lively public religious festivals. These massive spectacles featured musical extravaganzas and theater performances that were attended by tens of thousands of people<\/a> and were hugely expensive to throw.<\/p>\n

Just as with trieremes, the richest Athenians paid for these festivals by fulfilling festival liturgies. Serving as a chorus leader<\/a>, for example, meant paying for the training, costumes and living expenses for large groups of performers for months at a time.<\/p>\n

Proud to be paying<\/h2>\n

In the U.S. today, an estimated one out of every six tax dollars is unpaid<\/a>. Large corporations<\/a> and rich citizens<\/a> do everything they can to minimize their tax bill. The Athenians would have ridiculed such behavior.<\/p>\n

None of the financial elite of ancient Athens prided themselves on scamming the Athenian equivalent of the IRS. Just the opposite was true: They paid, and even boasted in public \u2013 truthfully \u2013 that they often had paid more than required<\/a> when serving as a trierarch<\/a> or chorus leader<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, not every member of the superrich at Athens behaved like a patriotic champion. Some Athenian shirkers tried to escape their liturgies<\/a> by claiming other people with more property ought to shoulder the cost instead of themselves, but this attempted weaseling out of public service never became the norm.<\/p>\n

[The Conversation\u2019s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.<\/em> Weekly on Wednesdays<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

So what was the reasoning behind this civic, taxpaying pride? Ancient Athenians weren\u2019t only opening their wallets to promote the common good. They were counting on earning a high return in public esteem<\/a> from the investments in their community that their taxes represented<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This social capital was so valuable because Athenian culture held civic duty in high regard. If a rich Athenian hoarded his wealth, he was mocked and labeled a \u201cgreedy man\u201d<\/a> who \u201cborrows from guests staying his house\u201d and \u201cwhen he sells wine to a friend, he sells it watered!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates was erected in 335 B.C. by the liturgist Lysicrates after his play won first prize, and it still stands today.<\/span>
\nC messier via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Social wealth, not monetary riches<\/h2>\n

The social rewards that tax payments earned the rich had long lives. A liturgist who financed the chorus of a prize-winning drama could build himself a spectacular monument<\/a> in a conspicuous downtown location to announce his excellence to all comers for all time.<\/p>\n

Above all, the Athenian rich paid their taxes because they craved the social success that came from their compatriots publicly identifying them as citizens who are good because they are useful<\/a>.
\nEarning the honorable title of a useful citizen might sound tame today \u2013 it didn\u2019t boost Pete Buttigieg\u2019s presidential campaign<\/a> even though he describes his political role as \u201ctrying to make myself useful\u201d \u2013 but in a letter to a Hebrew congregation in Rhode Island written in 1790, George Washington proclaimed that being \u201cuseful\u201d was an invaluable part<\/a> of the divine plan for the United States.<\/p>\n

So, too, the Athenians infused that designation with immense power. To be a rich taxpayer who was good and useful to his fellow citizens counted even more than money in the bank. And this invaluable public service profited all Athenians by keeping their democracy alive century after century.\"The<\/p>\n

Thomas Martin<\/a>, Professor of Classics, College of the Holy Cross<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Martin, College of the Holy Cross In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state\u2019s most important national expenses \u2013 the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":22666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[3350,8902,196,5973,4086,3397,546],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22683,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665\/revisions\/22683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}