The purpose of this website is to educate the web
surfer about some of the important concepts of the finances of
ancient Athens. Mainly the website is used as an informative
tool to browse through the revenues and expenses of Athens' government.
The topics discussed are: taxes (the different kinds and how
they were collected), wealthy donations (donations by the wealthy
for such gatherings as athletic or religious), leases and rents
(how the government earned revenue from such things as mine leases),
public works expenses (the construction of buildings and other
public goods), military expenses (the costs to upkeep a military),
civil services (costs for government workers and transfer payments).
Second, from the website one can understand how innovative the
ancient Greek government was to obtain financial stability, as
well as some of its short comings. Finally, to ensure that the
website has been carefully read and understood, or one wants to
have fun there is a word finder worksheet to help understand some
of the ideas and terminology used in this website. For students
and teachers this worksheet can be used as a reference to this
site's information for further class activities.