A thorough and authoritative study of Athenian finance both before and during the Peloponnesian War. Loren Samons tackles the complexities of Athenian revenue and state expenditure, drawing on a range of literary and historical source material which survives in varying degrees of detail. Rents, taxes, tribute, fines, slave sales, fees and so forth formed the basis for state income which were then used to run the Athenian `machine', to pay various people for their services to the state and for beautifying their towns and cities.