The liturgy (, leitourgia, from λαός / Laos, "the people" and the root / ergon, "work" Peter Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Klincksieck, Paris, 1999 (updated edition) () s.v. λαός.) was in ancient Greece a public service established by the city-state whereby its richest members (whether citizens or resident aliens) more or less voluntarily financed the State with their personal wealth.This was not the Greek state's only source of revenue. In classical Athens the mineral rights to the silver mines at Laureion were reserved to the state while the mining was contracted out as concessions to private entrepreneurs, European Economic History, vol 1, eds. W.I Davidson and J.E. Harper, p. 136. Latterly Athens also derived an income from her empire in the form of tribute, but in this she was atypical. It took its legitimacy from the idea that "personal wealth is possessed only through delegation from the city".Michael Austin, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Économies et sociétés en Grèce ancienne, Armand Colin, 2007, p. 347. See Socrates's rich Critobulus in Economics (II, 6) Xenophon: "Remissness in respect of any of these charges will be visited upon you by the good citizens of Athens no less strictly than if they caught you stealing their own property." The liturgical system dates back to the early days of Athenian democracy, and included the constitutional duty of trierarchy, which gradually fell into disuse by the end of the 4th century BC,Christ 1990, p. 148 eclipsed by the development of euergetism in the Hellenistic period. However, a similar system was in force during the Roman empire.
Principles and types The liturgy was the preferred mode of financing of the Greek city, to the extent that it allowed them to easily associate each public expense with a ready source of revenue. This flexibility makes it particularly suited to the unpredictability of the period. This also explains its widespread use, including in undemocratic cities such as Rhodes. However, no strict uniformity is found in the specific practices of these liturgies, either geographically (from one city to another) or over time (as changing times and circumstances confront the Greek cities).Baslez (ed.) 2007, pp. 341–342
One can classify liturgies into two main categories.Davies 1967, p. 33 Those associated with the liturgical or agonistic calendar (related to sporting and religious events) are mainly the gymnasiarchia (γυμνασιαρχία), that is to say, the management and financing of the gymnasium, and the choregia (χορηγία), the maintenance of the choir members at the theater for dramatic competitions. There were also many other minor liturgies. The hestiasis () was to fund the public dinner of the tribe to which the liturgist belonged;Demosthenes, XX = Against Leptines, 21 and Scholia of Patmos; Demosthenes XXI =Against Midias, 156 and Athenaeus, V, 185c. the architheoria () to lead delegations to the four sacred Panhellenic Games;,Lysias XXI = Defending anonymous, 5.Andokides, I = On the Mysteries, 132. the arrhephoria () to cover the cost of the arrhephoroi, four girls of Athenian high society who brought the peplos to the Athena Parthenos, offered her cakes and dedicated white dresses adorned with gold,Lysias XXI Defending anonymous, 5. amongst others. There was considerable creativity in relation to the liturgy, "and with the practicality which characterised their attitude on the subject, the cities were capable of creating new liturgies in accordance with their immediate needs, or of suppressing them temporarily or permanently.". All of these liturgies are part of a religious festival and were recurring ().Demosthenes, XX = Against Leptines 21
By comparison, the military liturgies were used only when needed. The main one was the trierarchy, that is to say the equipment and maintenance of a trireme and its crew for a year. The trierarch was also to assume, under the direction of the strategos, the command of the ship, unless he choose to pay a concession and left the fighting to a specialist in which case the office was purely financial. Later the proeisphora was to carry the burden for his tax group or class (symmoriai) advancing the eisphora, the contribution levied from various wealthy social classes to compensate for the costs of the war. It has also been proposed to add to this number the hippotrophia (), namely the maintenance of the horses of the cavalry instituted after the Persian Wars, but it is not certain that this liturgy actually existed.L. J. Worley, Hippeis: The Cavalry of Ancient Greece, Westview, 1994 pp. 63–74.
In 355–354 BC, Demosthenes estimated the number of Athenian calendar liturgies to be sixty per year. This figure is almost certainly seriously understated. The Dionysia alone required 23–32 choregoi, and in the following eraDavies 1967, pp. 33–34 we can add ten hestiatores to this number. The Panathenaia required at least 19 liturgists per yearDavies 1967, p. 37 as against 30 (or perhaps 40) for the Greater Panathenaic Games which was held every four years;Davies 1967, pp. 36–37 the Lenaia annually had 5 choregoi, and the Thargelia 10.Davies 1967, pp. 34–35 Some liturgists were also required for other religious holidays, which must be added to the theoroi () of the Panhellenic Games and the oracle of Delphi. A careful calculation therefore reaches at least 97 civilian liturgists per year in Athens, and at least 118 in years of the Greater Panathenaia.
Cost and operation
Becoming a liturgist: method of selection
The liturgist (λειτουργός / leitourgós), the person in charge of a liturgy, was appointed by the magistrates. They started by asking for volunteers, and then designated those who seemed most able to take charge.Christ 1990, p. 149 In Athens, at the time of Aristotle, it fell to the eponymous archon to designate the religious choregoiAristotle, Constitution of Athens [detail editions] [read online (archive)] (LVI, 2). for all holidays, except the Lenaia comedy competition, which was in the archon basileus's competency.Aristotle, Athenian Constitution (LVII, 1). The trierarchs were selected by the strategos responsible for the symmoriai. The hestiatores, responsible for organizing the common meal of their tribe, were appointed by it.Demosthenes, Against Boeotus = XXXIX (7). With the exception of the trierarchy, metics made as much financial contribution as citizens, even if it appears that their active participation was relatively marginal.Demosthenes XX = Against Leptines 20; D. Whitehead, The Ideology of the Athenian metic, Cambridge, 1977, pp. 80–82.
The choice of a liturgist was based on his wealth, as informally estimated by the city and the liturgists themselves. It does not appear that any "liturgical roll" was established, or that a threshold was set corresponding to the wealth declared by the liturgist, within which everyone would be forced to accept a liturgy. Conversely, citizens of modest wealth could handle certain inexpensive liturgies. In fact, establishing a threshold requirement would have made liturgical expense mandatory instead of voluntary, and caused the city difficulty in the event of widespread impoverishment of its individual members.
However, thresholds of informal wealth beyond which an individual could not shirk his duty were regularly raised in court pleadings: it is clear that in Athens in the 4th century BC a patrimony of 10 talentsPatrice Brown, Eisphora, syntaxis, stratiotika : recherches sur les finances militaires d'Athènes au ive siècle av. J.-C., Belles Lettres/Annales littéraires de l'université de Besançon, Besançon, 1983, p. 18 necessarily makes its holder a member of the "liturgical class". A citizen with a fortune of three talents could also be called upon to take part.Ouhlen, p. 326 It is possible that less expensive liturgies were taken care of by less wealthy individuals, but still conferred the prestige that such a position gave them: "the ideologies of expenditure (megaloprepeia) and of ambition (philotimia) which drive the liturgic ideal, give rise to individual strategies that allow each citizen, in accordance with his financial means and social priorities, to undertake, in a more or less extravagant manner, more or less burdensome liturgies".Ouhlen, p. 325
In fact, the net worth of each liturgist, and the percentage of his wealth committed to the liturgy, varied greatly,Baslez (ed.) 2007, p. 344 as the "liturgical class" itself varied greatly. The size of the "liturgical class" can be estimated for classical Athens as a range between 300 It seems that these "Three Hundred" liturgist's fortunes were generally much higher than the other 900 and therefore assumed the heaviest loads. Ouhlen, pp. 328–329 and 1200 individuals,Christ 1990, p. 150 or as high as 1500–2000 if we take care not to confuse the number of people required to administer the system and the contingent of those who actually took up the liturgy. The number of individuals actively involved is necessarily greater than the total number of liturgies because of the temporary exemptions available and the size of the competitive liturgy system.Ouhlen, pp. 328–329 Therefore, because of changes in wealth (whether related to economic happenstance or the division of inherited wealth) individuals of this "liturgical class" cannot be considered a closed group: it was constantly being renewed, although marginally, by the addition of the "new rich" and the decline of certain families who had previously been wealthy enough to participate.
The practical method of appointing liturgists arose from a social consensus arrived at by the wealthy amongst themselves, which was itself based on "a competitive and luxurious ideology of aristocratic origin, developed in the archaic period, and maintained to its own advantage by the democratic city: [...] the liturgists, far from being manipulated by an administrative structure that forces them to pay, are the active forces in a system which they operate to their own advantage." Specifically, the system was based primarily on the voluntary nature of the role, and the stratification of Athenian society: most of those Athenians to be included on the list of trierarchs had been so before, or were descendants of former trierarchs,The expenses of liturgists were often transmitted from father to son, as is pointed out in several speeches of Isaeus: On the succession of Nikostratus, 27; On the succession of Dikaiogénès, 41, On the succession of Apollodorus, 35-40 with the result that the families providing the trierarchs tended to be the same ones from generation to generation. For the civilian liturgies, including the choregia, it does not appear that there was a similar list. However, the wealthy were eager to volunteer their support,Ouhlen, p. 324 due to peer group pressure and a desire for fame equivalent to their fortunes. Wealthy citizens or resident aliens who were tempted to hide their wealth to escape their duties were deterred by the threat of the "antidosis" (a type of litigation in which a citizen nominated as liturgist tried to compel another to act in his stead), and the harm to reputation that their reluctance to contribute to the public good would cause them within their city.
Taking on a liturgy: the financial burden
The cost of a liturgy varied greatly according to its nature and prestige.Baslez (ed.) 2007, p. 346 The least expensive was the eutaxia (), known by a single mention, which cost only 50 drachmas; its nature is unknown - it may be related to the Amphiareia Games at OroposDavies 1967, p. 39 and probably did not last a long time.Davies 1981, p. 9 A dithyrambic chorus at the Panathenaea cost only 300 drachmas.Lysias, XXI = Defending anonymous, 2. However, a choregia in the Dionysia could cost up to 3000 drachmas,Christ 1990, p. 148. or, "counting the consecration of the tripod, 5000 drachmas".