DIRECT TAXATION. 381 the Long Walls and of the fortifications of Peiraeus by Konon, was an assistance not less valuable to the finances of Athens than Td 6' Evayxof ovx, uiravref i/p.el(; upw/uev TdAair' lcrecn?ci irevTCKoaia rji T?)f TEaaapaKoarrif, r/v iirbpia' 1 JL KeiiK'f KOTEXpiiaov nu uvr/p "Ore firj (5' uva(TKOTTOv/j,Evoif e^alvero 'O Atof Kopivfioe, Kal rb Trpuy/z' OVK fipKEcrsv, ILuXiv KaTsmrrov nuf avr/p TLvpimSrjv. What this " new financial scheme" (so Sievers properly calls it) was, which the poet here alludes to, we have no means of determining. But I ven- ture to express my decided conviction that it cannot have been a property- tax. The terms in which it is described forbid that supposition. It was a scheme which seemed at first sight exceedingly promising and gainful to the city, and procured for its author very great popularity; but which, on farther examination, proved to be mere empty boasting (6 Aidf Kopivdof ) How can this be said about any motion for a property-tax ? That any finan cier should ever have gained extraordinary popularity by proposing a property-tax, is altogether inconceivable. And a proposition to raise the immense sum of five hundred talents (which Schomann estimates as the probable aggregate charge of the whole peace-establishment of Athens, Antiq. Jur. Public. Grs&c. s. 73, p. 313) at one blow by an assessment upon property ! It would be as much as any financier could do to bear up against the tremendous unpopularity of such a proposition ; and to induce the assem- bly even to listen to him, were the necessity ever so pressing. How odious are propositions for direct taxation, we may know without recurring to the specific evidence respecting Athens ; but if any man requires such specific evidence, he may find it abundantly in the Philippics and Olynthiacs of De- mosthenes. On one occasion (De Symmoriis, Or. xiv. s. 33, p. 185) that orator alludes to a proposition for raising five hundred talents by direct property-tax as something extravagant, which the Athenians would not en- dure to hear mentioned. Moreover, unpopularity apart, the motion for a property-tax could scarcely procure credit for a financier, because it is of all ideas the most simple and obvious. Any man can suggest such a scheme. But to pass for an acceptable financier, you must propose some measure which promises gain to the state without such undisguised pressure upon individuals. Lastly, there is nothing delusive in a property-tax, nothing which looks gainful at first sight, and then turns out on farther examination (avaaKo- rrovfj,Evoif) to be false or uncertain. It may, indeed, be more or less evaded ; but this can only be known after it has been assessed, and when payment is actually called for. Upon these grounds I maintain that the TEaaapaKoarrj proposed by Euripi- des was not a property-tax. What it was I do not pretend to say ; but rea- may have many other meanings ; it might mean a duty of too
