Note 665 — Chapter XCV · GRECIAN AFFAIRS FROM THE LANDING OF ALEXANDER IN ASIA TO THE CLOSE OF THE LAMIAN WAR.

See the remarkable decree in honor of Lykurgus, passed by the Athenian people seventeen or eighteen years after his death, in the archonship of Anaxikrates, B. C. 307 (Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 852). The reciting portion of this decree, constituting four-fifths of the whole, goes over the public conduct of Lykurgus, and is very valuable.

It seems that the twelve years of financial administration exercised by Lykurgus, are to be taken probably, either from 342-330 B. C.—or four years later, from 338-326 B. C. Boeckh leaves the point undetermined between the two. Droysen and Meier prefer the earlier period—O. Müller the later. (Boeckh, Urkunden über das Attische Seewesen, also the second edition of his Staatshaushaltung der Athener, vol. ii. p. 114-118).

The total of public money, recorded by the Inscription as having passed through the hands of Lykurgus in the twelve years, was 18,900 talents = £4,340,000, or thereabouts. He is said to have held, besides, in deposit, a great deal of money entrusted to him by private individuals. His official duties as treasurer were discharged, for the first four years, in his own name: during the last eight years, in the names of two different friends.