On Revenues | Page 3

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Etext prepared by John Bickers, [email protected].

On Revenues
by Xenophon
Translation by H. G. Dakyns

Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a pupil of Socrates.
He marched with the Spartans, and was exiled from Athens. Sparta
gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years
before having to move once more, to settle in Corinth. He died in 354
B.C.
Revenues describes Xenophon's ideas to solve the problem of poverty
in Athens, and thus remove an excuse to mistreat the Athenian allies.

PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though there

is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7 The Hellenica 7 The Cyropaedia 8 The Memorabilia 4
The Symposium 1 The Economist 1 On Horsemanship 1 The
Sportsman 1 The Cavalry General 1 The Apology 1 On Revenues 1
The Hiero 1 The Agesilaus 1 The Polity of the Athenians and the
Lacedaemonians 2
Text in brackets "{}" is my transliteration of Greek text into English
using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical
marks have been lost.

WAYS AND MEANS
A Pamphlet On Revenues

I
For myself I hold to the opinion that the qualities of the leading
statesmen in a state, whatever they be, are reproduced in the character
of the constitution itself.[1]
[1] "Like minister, like government." For the same idea more fully
expressed, see "Cyrop." VIII. i. 8; viii. 5.
As, however, it has been maintained by certain leading statesmen in
Athens that the recognised standard of right and wrong is as high at
Athens as elsewhere, but that, owing to the pressure of poverty on the
masses, a certain measure of injustice in their dealing with the allied
states[2] could not be avoided; I set myself to discover whether by any
manner of means it were possible for the citizens of Athens to be
supported solely from the soil of Attica itself, which was obviously the
most equitable solution. For if so, herein lay, as I believed, the antidote
at once to their own poverty and to the feeling of suspicion with which
they are regarded by the rest of Hellas.
[2] Lit. "the cities," i.e. of the alliance, {tas summakhidas}.
I had no sooner begun my investigation than one fact presented itself
clearly to my mind, which is that the country itself is made by nature to
provide the amplest resources. And with a view to establishing the truth
of this initial proposition I will describe the physical features of Attica.
In the first place, the extraordinary mildness of the climate is proved by

the actual products of the soil. Numerous plants which in many parts of
the world appear as stunted leafless growths are here fruit-bearing. And
as with the soil so with the sea indenting our coasts, the varied
productivity of which is exceptionally great. Again with regard to those
kindly fruits of earth[3] which Providence bestows on man season by
season, one and all they commence earlier and end later in this land.
Nor is the supremacy of Attica shown only in those products which
year after year flourish and grow old, but the land contains treasures of
a more perennial kind. Within its folds lies imbedded by nature an
unstinted store of marble, out of which are chiselled[4] temples and
altars of rarest beauty and the glittering splendour of images sacred to
the gods. This marble, moreover, is an obejct of desire to many
foreigners, Hellenes and barbarians alike. Then there is land which,
although it yields no fruit to the sower, needs only to be quarried in
order to feed many times more mouths than it could as corn-land.
Doubtless we owe it to a divine dispensation that our land is veined
with silver; if we consider how many neighbouring states lie round us
by land