22 Plague, Fiscal Crisis, and War

The Peloponnesian War significantly changed the population and prosperity of the Greek world; Athens suffered the most immediate impact. The population of Athens had risen from 180,000 in 480 B.C. to perhaps 300,000 by 432 B.C. The outbreak of plague, along with battle losses, reduced the adult male population by at least one-quarter. Even more ruinous may have been the long-term damage inflicted on Athenian agriculture by repeated Peloponnesian ravaging in 431–425 B.C. and again in 414–404 B.C. Starting in 428 B.C., Athens imposed the first eisphora, a property tax on the top three classes; institutionalized the liturgies, or traditional funding of public services by the upper classes; and repeatedly raised the levels of tribute from her allies. In 412 B.C., Athens abolished the tribute in favor of an ad valorem tax of 10 percent on all goods traded in the Athenian Empire. Athens was driven steadily to turn citizens into taxpayers and to hire more mercenaries and allies. Sparta, too, was financially pressed. An inscription of 426 B.C. records what must have been customary levies of silver coin, grain, ships, and materiel from allies. The Spartans also drew on their dependents, the perioikoi and helots; their allies; and mercenaries. The commercialization of warfare in both Athens and Sparta dictated the future of Greece during the 4 th century B.C.