A Periclean Economy?

This chapter examines the nature of the economic prosperity of Athens during the time of Pericles. It first considers the existence of a Periclean oikonomia in relation to the birth of a “market economy” and “marketable agriculture”—agriculture whose products were destined for the marketplace—in Athens before describing Pericles' mode of managing his oikos . It then discusses the development of the Athenian economy under Pericles based on the revenues that Athens obtained as benefits of imperialism. It shows that Pericles actively promoted the genesis of a truly democratic economic policy—a policy that was founded on widespread redistributions of the city's wealth to a newly redefined civic community not only by means of great constructional undertakings but also through the general introduction of civic pay.