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[1353a]
[1]
Many slaves were thus registered, and a large sum of
money was paid <in premiums>. And when a slave ran away, Antimenes
instructed the governor of the <province> where the camp lay
either to recover the man or to pay his master his value. Ophellas of
Olynthus appointed an officer
to superintend the revenues of the Province of Athribis. The local governors came to him, and told him they
were willing to pay a much larger amount in taxes; but asked him to remove the
present superintendent. Ophellas inquired if they were really able to pay what
they promised; and on their assuring him that they were, left the superintendent
in office and instructed him to demand from them the amount of tax which they
themselves had assessed. And so, without being chargeable either with
discountenancing the officer he had appointed, or with taxing the governors
beyond their own estimate, he obtained from the latter many times his previous
revenue. Pythocles the Athenian recommended his fellow-countrymen
that the State should take over from private citizens the lead obtained from the
mines of Laurium1 at the price
of two drachmae <per talent> which they were asking, and should
itself sell it at the fixed price of six drachmae. Chabrias had levied crews
for
[20]
a hundred and twenty ships to
serve King Taos.2 Finding that
Taos needed only sixty ships, he gave the crews of the superfluous sixty their
choice between providing those who were to serve with two months' rations, and
themselves taking their place. Desiring to remain at their business, they gave
what he demanded. Antimenes bade the governors of the provinces replenish,
in accordance with the law of the country, the magazines along the royal
highways. Whenever an army passed through the country or any other body of men
unaccompanied by the king, he sent an officer to sell them the contents of the
magazines.
1 These silver mines were state property; but mining rights therein were let to private citizens. Lead and silver were found in the same ore and had to be separated. The weight of the lead is not specified: it may have been a talent of 80 lbs. See Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung der Athener; and Xen. Ways.
2 See 25.
Aristotle. Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 18, translated by G.C. Armstrong. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935.
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