econd class; and those between two
hundred and three hundred, the third. The fourth and most numerous class
comprised all those who did not possess land yielding a produce equal to
two hundred medimni. The first class, called Pentacosiomedimni, were
alone eligible to the archonship and to all commands: the second were
called the knights or horsemen of the state, as possessing enough to
enable them to keep a horse and perform military service in that
capacity: the third class, called the [Greek: Zeugitae], formed the
heavy-armed infantry, and were bound to serve, each with his full
panoply. Each of these three classes was entered in the public schedule
as possessed of a taxable capital calculated with a certain reference to
his annual income, but in a proportion diminishing according to the
scale of that income--and a man paid taxes to the state according to the
sum for which he stood rated in the schedule; so that this direct
taxation acted really like a graduated income-tax. The ratable property
of the citizen belonging to the richest class (the Pentacosiomedimnus)
was calculated and entered on the state schedule at a sum of capital
equal to twelve times his annual income; that of the Hippeus, horseman
or knight, at a sum equal to ten times his annual income: that of the
Zeugite, at a sum equal to five times his annual income. Thus a
Pentacosiomedimnus, whose income was exactly 500 drachmas (the minimum
qualification of his class), stood rated in the schedule for a taxable
property of 6,000 drachmas or one talent, being twelve times his
income--if his annual income were 1,000 drachmas, he would stand rated
for 12,000 drachmas or two talents, being the same proportion of income
to ratable capital. But when we pass to the second class, horsemen or
knights, the proportion of the two is changed. The horseman possessing
an income of just 300 drachmas (or 300 medimni) would stand rated for
3,000 drachmas, or ten times his real income, and so in the same
proportion for any income above 300 and below 500. Again, in the third
class, or below 300, the proportion is a second time altered--the
Zeugite possessing exactly 200 drachmas of income was rated upon a still
lower calculation, at 1,000 drachmas, or a sum equal to five times his
income; and all incomes of this class (between 200 and 300 drachmas)
would in like manner be multiplied by five in order to obtain the amount
of ratable capital. Upon these respective sums of schedule