From the earliest days of Athenian democracy the only taxes levied on citizens were those on property, really the only source of measurable wealth. And only the rich paid them.
There were two types of taxes or fees. One was applied only in cases of extreme necessity due to wars or other serious circumstances, and was imposed on the 6,000 citizens who had declared a certain level of wealth and property. Another was annual and applied to the 300 richest citizens of the polis. It was called liturgy (λειτουργία).
It was an obligation to finance certain public services. Citizens were elected each year to finance the upkeep of the gymnasium (gymnasiarch), to finance the training of the theater choir (corega), to arm and equip a trireme and maintain it and its crew for the fleet (trierarch), and various other liturgies. sports, religious or military. In total, the annual civil liturgies (those in charge of a liturgy) are estimated at about 97, which would rise to 118 the years that the Great Panathenaic celebrations were celebrated.
The basis on which these obligations were sustained was the idea that wealth was possessed, not personally, but by delegation from the polis. Furthermore, wealth in ancient Athens was highly volatile. According to J.K. Davies, only one family managed to maintain its wealth for five generations (5 families for 4 generations, and 16 for 3 generations).
The liturgies were appointed by the city magistrates, who initially asked for volunteers. For most wealthy citizens of Athens, being chosen to finance a public service was an honor, and many volunteered. In the first place because it highlighted his fortune. Those eligible had to have declared wealth equal to or greater than four talents (24,000 drachmas). For comparison, the salary of a craftsman was approximately 350 drachmas a year.
But also because it conferred a high status within the citizenry, and could serve as a springboard for a political career. Xenophon puts these words into the mouth of Socrates to the rich Critobulus:
Being elected a liturgist involved a considerable outlay. The cheapest liturgy was eutaxia , whose amount amounted to 50 drachmas, although what exactly it consisted of is unknown. The choregia (financing and maintenance of a choir) could cost between 300 and 3,000 drachmas, depending on the festival. And the trierarchy (equipment and maintenance of a trireme) is estimated between 2,000 and 6,000 drachmas, depending on the state of the ship, the duration of the military campaign and other factors.
Some costs that for the less wealthy liturgists, those who had less than ten talents (such as the orator and politician Demosthenes) could suppose the total of their annual income, and force them to ask for loans. Lysias, one of the ten famous Attic orators who wrote 233 speeches in the late 5th and early 4th centuries B.C., put these words into the mouth of a litigant:
That is why there were also ways to get rid of a liturgy. The most common was not to declare himself rich, that is, to hide his own fortune. But that entailed certain inconveniences if he aspired to achieve a position in Athenian society. The other was the Antidose .
The Antidose It was a very unique and brilliant choice. If a citizen did not want to assume a liturgy, he could appoint another who he considered richer than him, and to show that he had no bad intentions, he proposed that all his fortune and assets be exchanged. If the second did not accept, and not accepting used to mean that he knew he was richer than the first, he had to take part in the liturgy or go to court, where a popular jury decided who was richer and had to take charge of the liturgy. tax.
Demosthenes refers to this system in one of his speeches:
Although no documented case is known in which the exchange of fortunes was carried out, it is known that it was a common practice and not at all rare. On the contrary, some speeches have been preserved, such as that of Demosthenes, which the logographers (professional writers) made for the litigants in trials of this type.
By the end of the fourth century B.C. This financing system began to be questioned. The rich were less and less willing to cover the expenses of the city and finally the two most important liturgies, the trierarchy and the choregy, were suppressed and their financing was assumed by the state.