Felipe Arraño’s Reviews > Athens: A History, From Ancient Ideal to Modern City > Status Update

The Athenian ideal was to work for oneself, not another (unless the other was the state), because working for someone else was what a slave did (p. 151). Rich people were liable to a combination of voluntary and involuntary taxation, usually they contribute in military and festival liturgies, which was a kind of honor (p. 151-152). Three classes: upper class (people with inherited estates and capital to invest), middle class (smallholders, shopkeepers, small businessmen, master of craftsmen), lower class (dependents on wages earned from the state or casual labor) (p. 152). Most food was grown on one’s own farm for one’s household’s consumption (p. 154). The main imports were grain, slaves, timber, and metal while the main export was silver followed by olive oil, olives, honey, and fine pottery (p. 155).