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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

II. THE GREAT AGE OF THE GREEK REPUBLICS TO 362 B.C.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

* The Perils of Hellas   * Expeditions of Darius against Greece   * Xerxes and the Great Persian War   * Athens under Themistocles, Aristides, and Cimon   * Athens under Pericles   * The Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.   * The Spartan and Theban Supremacies, 404-362 B.C.   * Decline of the City-State

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SYSTEM OF STATE PAY

A large number of Athenians were relieved from the necessity of working for themselves through the system of state pay introduced by Pericles. Jurors, soldiers, and sailors received money for their services. Later, in the fourth century, citizens accepted fees for attending the Assembly. These payments, though small, enabled poor citizens to devote much time to public duties.

INDUSTRIAL ATHENS

Athens contained many skilled workmen whose daily tasks gave them scant opportunity to engage in the exciting game of politics. The average rate of wages was very low. In spite of cheap food and modest requirements for clothing and shelter, it must have been difficult for the laborer to keep body and soul together. Outside of Athens, in the country districts of Attica, lived the peasants whose little farms produced the olives, grapes, and figs for which Attica was celebrated.

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy