28 EDwaRD M. HaRRIs aND DavID M. LEwIs
There is no talk in the dialogue of limiting one’s acquisitions to one’s
natural needs or to achieve autarkeia. Critobulus requires a large amount of
cash because he has many civic and social obligations. Socrates reminds him:I see that you are obliged to offer many large sacrifices to the gods; oth-
erwise, I think, both gods and men would object. Next, it is incumbent
on you to entertain visitors from abroad, and to do so generously. What
is more, you have to invite your fellow citizens to dinners and do them
favors; otherwise, you’ll have lost your supporters. Furthermore, I notice
that the State is already requiring great expenditure from you on things
like horse-rearing, financing choruses and athletic competitions, and
on administration; and if there should be a war, I’m sure that they will
require you to finance triremes and will make you pay an almost unbear-
able amount of tax. And if you give the impression of not doing enough
in any of these areas, I have no doubt that the Athenians will retaliate as
severely as if they had caught you stealing from them. (Xen. Oec. 2.5–6,
tr. Waterfield)Critobulus cannot retreat into the leisured isolation of self-sufficiency. He is
enmeshed in a web of civic and social obligations which compel him to look
for ways to extract as much surplus as he can from his household. The head of
an Athenian household could not afford to think like a rentier, content to draw
a fixed income from his property. If he wished to maintain his position in soci-
ety, he had to think constantly about ways to increase his income to pay for the
expenses imposed on him by his political and social duties. Ischomachus tells
Socrates that he prays to the gods that he may obtain health, physical strength,
respect in the city, goodwill from his friends, honourable safety in war and
wealth increased in an honest way (Xen. Oec. 11.8). When Socrates asks him if
he cares about gaining wealth when it causes him so much trouble to manage
it, Ischomachus replies that he takes pleasure in honouring the gods, helping
his friends and adorning the city (Xen. Oec. 11.9). Socrates observes that he can
pursue these aims only by acquiring a surplus (Xen. Oec. 11.10).
We have seen so far that whilst Aristotle himself might have believed in
an ideology of self-sufficiency, it is quite another thing to extrapolate one
man’s philosophical views to the extent that they can be seen as the root of
real-life economic practices for the majority of the population. Xenophon’s
Oeconomicus provides a valuable corrective, particularly for the upper echelons
of Athenian society, but we should not think of the average citizen farmer as
being isolated from markets, as we have noted earlier, nor should we think of
him as cherishing an ideology of economic self-sufficiency and isolation.^130The Role of the State
We finish our review of the place of markets in the Greek economy with
some considerations regarding the role of the state.^131 The Finleyan view of