History of the Peloponnesian War

And he gave them the same advice as before[*](cf. Thuc. 1.143.) about the present situation: that they should prepare for the war, should bring in their property from the fields, and should not go out to meet the enemy in battle, but should come into the city and there act on the defensive; that they should equip their fleet, in which their strength lay, and keep a firm hand upon their allies, explaining that the Athenian power depended on revenue of money received from the allies, and that, as a general rule, victories in war were won by abundance of money as well as by wise policy.

And he bade them be of good courage, as on an average six hundred talents[*](About £120,000 or $583,200. The original amount at the institution of the Confederacy of Delos was 460 talents (1.96.2. The figure here given is an average amount, because the assessment was revised every four years at the Panathenaea.These figures, and all other equivalents of Greek financial statements, are purely conventional, inasmuch as the purchasing power of money was then very much greater than now.) of tribute were coming in yearly from the allies to the city, not counting the other sources[*](The ordinary revenue, apart from the tribute, consisted of customs duties, tax on sales, poll tax on resident aliens, rents of state property, especially the silver mines, court fees and fines.) of revenue, and there were at this time still on hand in the Acropolis six thousand talents[*](About £1,940,000, or $9,428,400.) of coined silver (the maximum amount had been nine thousand seven hundred talents, from which expenditures had been made for the construction of the Propylaea[*](Completed about 432 B.c.) of the Acropolis and other buildings,[*](Such as the Parthenon, the Odeum, and the Telesterion at Eleusis (see Plut. Per. 13.).) as well as for the operations at Potidaea).