Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece by George Sarton

Author:George Sarton [Sarton, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

In the meanwhile, economic conditions had changed as fast and deeply as the political ones. The farms of Attica had been devastated during the war; the little farmers were the main victims; there appeared a new class of large landowners, manufacturers, bankers. Let us stop a moment to evoke one of these, Pasion, who had been a slave employed by other bankers, but manumitted by them as a reward for his zeal and fidelity. Pasion started a banking business of his own, together with a manufactory for the making of shields, and became the wealthiest man of his time; his benefactions to Athens were rewarded with the freedom of the city. When he died in 370 his freedman Phormion married his widow and took charge of his business and of his sons, Apollodoros and Pasicles. The former of these dissipated a good part of his patrimony. We are pretty well informed about Pasion, his business, and his family because of the law suits in which they were involved and the speeches of Isocrates and Demosthenes. The life of Pasion is very much like that of a self-made millionaire of today, and it throws light upon the capitalism that was growing in Athens while the government of the city and of other parts of Greece was festering.

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