If Gary Lineker wants to convert his footballing OBE into something better reflecting his wealth, he will have to try a little harder. His latest suggestion that all rich men should be taxed more was not a hit. Let him pause the day-job hawking crisps and instead propose an ancient Greek solution to our financial problems.
Every year in Athens, the richest 300 citizens could be instructed to carry out a leitourgia, lit. ‘work in the interests of the people’, i.e. an obligation to subsidise a state activity (origin of our ‘liturgy’). The wealth in property that qualified a man for such a duty was 3-4 talents (18,000-24,000 drachmas).
This duty could involve anything from equipping a trireme for a year to underwriting cultural festivals. These did not come cheap. A working man’s wage was 1 dr. a day. One of the cheapest liturgies was staging a choral show at 300 dr.; putting on a stage production could cost 3,000 dr.; and running a trireme for a year 5,000 dr. or more. The rich, however, are a hard-headed lot, and Athenians were no exception. What if Alpha down the road got the leitourgia but thought Beta was richer? He could challenge Beta to an exchange of property or ask a court to decide. But there was a competing, even more powerful, emotion involved: desire for public acclaim, with all the kudos and political benefit that b(r)ought.
Greek literature is full of examples of the rich citing the number of leitourgiai they had carried out, and at what expense, to demonstrate the fine service that they had performed for the community. That meant a great deal to the ancients.
There was also an irregular tax, levied in times of war or emergencies, on the 6,000 Athenian citizens who had declared a certain level of property. When this group was later turned into an official taxation ‘partnership’, the richest three members had to fork out the whole sum and get it back from the others themselves.
Reach for a crisp and chew on that, Gary.
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