Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Map. The Hellenistic Near East
- Introduction
- Part I PRELIMINARIES
- Part II THE UNDERLYING ECONOMY
- Part III THE ROYAL ECONOMY
- Chapter 7 PS.-Aristotle's Oikonomika, Book 2
- Chapter 8 Revenue
- Chapter 9 The handling of surpluses
- Chapter 10 Expenditure
- Chapter 11 Coinage
- Chapter 12 A model of the Seleukid economy
- Chapter 13 Financial administration
- General conclusions
- Appendix I Coin hoards lists
- Appendix 2 Documents and translations
- References
- Index
Chapter 10 - Expenditure
from Part III - THE ROYAL ECONOMY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Map. The Hellenistic Near East
- Introduction
- Part I PRELIMINARIES
- Part II THE UNDERLYING ECONOMY
- Part III THE ROYAL ECONOMY
- Chapter 7 PS.-Aristotle's Oikonomika, Book 2
- Chapter 8 Revenue
- Chapter 9 The handling of surpluses
- Chapter 10 Expenditure
- Chapter 11 Coinage
- Chapter 12 A model of the Seleukid economy
- Chapter 13 Financial administration
- General conclusions
- Appendix I Coin hoards lists
- Appendix 2 Documents and translations
- References
- Index
Summary
With regard to expenditure, what is to be cut and when, and whether to meet expenses with coinage or with goods in place of money.
The main regular expenses of the empire concerned the maintenance of armed forces and satrapal administration and the upkeep of king and court. Ad hoc expenditure aided the kings' foreign and domestic policies and included the funding of city construction, grants of tribute and taxation relief and gifts to cities, temples and individuals. And one should not forget losses suffered in war, in particular the Roman indemnity after Magnesia.
Expenditure was incurred both in silver and in kind and my theme has been that, increasingly, it took the form of silver, as this was what its major destination, the Seleukid armed forces, required. An attempt will be made in chapter 12.4 to estimate total expenditure.
MILITARY EXPENSES
No figures are given in the sources for the military costs of the Seleukids at any time and yet, as will be seen below, this represented the major expense item of the royal economy. This was a ‘spear-won’ empire, retaining its hold on the land, as its predecessors had done in the Near East, primarily through the threat and application of military force. An army was maintained in order to exact tribute and fed off the process of this tribute.
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- Information
- The Seleukid Royal EconomyThe Finances and Financial Administration of the Seleukid Empire, pp. 189 - 212Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004