¹ I acknowledge a debt to some recent scholars of ancient finance: E. Cohen, Athenian Economy and Society: A Banking Perspective (Princeton, 1992); P. Millett, Lending and Borrowing in Ancient Athens (Cambridge, 1991); L. Kallet-Marx, Money, Expense, and Navel Power in Thucydides’ History 1–5.24 (Berkely, 1993); and M. Horster, Sterling Dow Fellow at Ohio State’s Center for Epigraphical Studies 1999. A version of this paper was presented at the May 1999 meeting of Association of Ancient Historians at Columbia University. It was completed while I was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. I am grateful to colleagues at the Institute’s School of Historial Studies and to the referee and editor of CQ for their insights and suggestions.