The Institution of the Hellenotamiae

Abstract

At the very beginning of the Delian Confederacy, in describing its organisation during the winter of 478–477 B.C., Thucydides records (i 96) that permanent arrangements were made for the collection of contributions in money from those cities which preferred to supply cash rather than ships for the furtherance of the new League's activities. These arrangements included the establishment of officials to receive, disburse, and be generally responsible for the cash funds, but Thucydides' brief account of their appointment has given rise to difficulties. He says, in the barest terms, The last four words are loosely attached to describe the office's function and are explicative of not what concerns us are the seven words before the comma.Thucydides' phrase, with its emphatic clearly puts out of court the idea of E. M. Walker that the Hellenotamiae began when the tribute-lists began, i.e. in 454–453, when the treasury of the Confederacy was moved from Delos to Athens and Athenian control of it was more firmly secured. Walker's view was adequately refuted both by Gomme and by the authors of The Athenian Tribute Lists; it also runs contrary to the sense of Xenophon's remark (Poroi 5.5) about the acquisition of control of fleet and treasury by Athens. Since the Athenians commanded from 478, as the result of the treasurership must have been Athenian from the same date—or so, unless he be held to ignore all chronological distinctions, Xenophon clearly implies.

The Organization of Athenian Public Finance

“…68 A. G. Woodhead thought that at first the hellenotamiai should have been League officials appointed by the League, even if the men appointed were in fact Athenian; but I think it more likely that Athens as hegemon provided the treasurers just as it provided the commanders. 69 While the state treasury had separate receiving officers and paying officers, the apodektai and the kolakretai, the hellenotamiai performed both functions: Cleonymus' tribute decree instructs the hellenotamiai to produce lists of defaulters and payers, while in the accounts of loans from the sacred treasuries for the Peloponnesian War payments are commonly made to the hellenotamiai to be spent on campaigning. 70 The Peloponnesian War saw a series of financial reorganizations, to make it easier for the state to gain access to the funding which it needed to fight the war.…”