Description

August Boeckh's work, first published in 1817, is still regarded as one of the most thorough treatments of the economic structures of Athenian society. Boeckh makes exhaustive use of the epigraphical and literary sources he has at his disposal and covers a wide range of topics. In Volume 1 he addresses the main areas of the Athenian economic infrastructure, beginning with an account of silver and gold as the general currency. He writes about the income needed by the individual citizen in order to sustain a reasonable living standard, the clothes available to him, and his diet. He investigates the cost of the cult of the gods, and the funds spent on maintaining Athens as a military power. He also explains tax brackets, and gives examples of different categories of fines, as well as examining Xenophon's plan to improve general prosperity. This reissue is of the 1886 edition.