In Defence of the Dēmos: Raising Revenue for Athenian Warmaking 400/399 – 370/69 BC

For two hundred years scholars have argued that early fourth-century Athens had very little public revenue with which to fund its military campaigns. The central tenet of this argument is the belief that Athens was not able to generate annual surplus revenues after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Much of the blame for this is levelled at the Athenian dēmos. This paper argues the opposite: that Athens did, in fact, produce annual surplus revenues from as early as the beginning of the fourth century, and that the dēmos was able to anticipate, plan for and successfully fund its military campaigns. The paper traces the development of Athenian revenue-raising strategies across the three decades and reconsiders the importance of each to the funding of Athenian warfare. The paper concludes that the Athenian dēmos was proactive, innovative and forward thinking in its financial decision-making regarding military funding during this period.