80 MARK wOOLMER
of political or military services: it is not until an unknown point between 410
and 336 BCE that the Athenians began to bestow ateleia to professional mer-
chants. Grants of ateleia greatly increased the social standing of the recipient
in Attica as they essentially placed the recipients in the same company as the
descendants of Harmodius and Aristogeiton (and other exceptionally impor-
tant military and political figures). However, although ateleia had considerable
honorary value to the recipient, Oliver rightly argues that the commercial
benefits should not be downplayed.^56 The award of ateleia for commercial ser-
vices had one of two tangible benefits for the recipient: first, the honorand
could be made exempt from all obligations (excluding the trierarchy) and the
payment of taxes (apart from the eisphora) – ateleia panton; or, secondly, the
recipient could be freed from the burden of specific taxes such as the metoi-
kion – ateleia metoikiou – or the payment of the one-fiftieth tax.^57 As well as
bestowing ateleia on individuals, states could also make blanket grants to all
members of a particular group or community. Rubinstein suggests that blan-
ket grants were used to attract specific groups to the state who had bestowed
the privilege, a measure that could be especially effective if the services of
the target group were in high demand. An honorific inscription dating to
the 330s BCE illustrates how such grants could be used to entice commerce
to the Piraeus.^58 The decree specifies that the recipients, a group of unnamed
Achaean merchants, were exempt from ‘[all things],’ which, in all likelihood,
included import and export taxes.^59 Similarly, in 364 BCE the Athenians con-
ferred this privilege to all Sidonian traders who resided and exercised their
political rights in Sidon and who traveled to Athens on business (see discussion
earlier in the chapter).^60 As there is no evidence to suggest that the Achaeans
or the Sidonians were heavily involved in the grain trade, there is no reason to
conclude (pace Henry, Lambert, and Engen) that these awards were made in an
effort to procure grain supplies. Rather, they should be seen as part of a wider
strategy aimed at increasing the volume of transactions occurring in Athenian
markets, a policy that not only ensured that a variety of commodities reached
the Piraeus but also encouraged the expansion of markets.
Likewise, enktesis (the right to acquire land in Attica) and the bestowal of
gold crowns were both awarded to noncitizen merchants irrespective of the
commodities in which they dealt. The Athenians granted enktesis on six occa-
sions in recognition of commercial services, bestowing the honor on both
Greek and non-Greek recipients.^61 Prior to the mid-fourth century BCE, enk-
tesis had only been bestowed in recognition of military or political accom-
plishments: however, post 350 BCE, it began to be awarded in recognition of
commercial services.^62 This shift in policy is most reasonably interpreted as a
response to the changed political and economic circumstances following the
loss of the Second Athenian Confederacy. According to Xenophon (Vect. 2.6),
grants of enktesis could be used as an incentive to encourage foreign merchants