ABSTRACT
This is what Moses Finley writes at the beginning of his chapter, 'Landlords and peasants', in The Ancient Economy (1973a), 95. His postulate has turned out to be one of many useful dogmas on which one is forced to take a stand; indeed, others like Lewis, Roesch and Pleket have already declared that they are at variance on what was the traditional conception, prior to Finley. 162
Whereas instances to illustrate Greek norms are customarily taken from Xenophon or from the court speeches and, reluctantly, from the contemporary philosophers, Finley, and before him Andreades, refers solely to Tertullian from the second century AD (Apologeticus 13.6). This means that contemporary, relevant, specific expressions concerning the attitude of the Greeks towards direct tax on agricultural produce and arable land are lacking, and that we have recourse solely to their practice. We shall have to define what is meant by the expression 'a tithe or other forms of direct tax on the land'.
