All these advantages, to repeat what I have said, may, I believe, be
traced primarily to the soil and position of Attica itself. But these
natural blessings may be added to: in the first place, by a careful
handling of our resident alien (1) population. And, for my part, I can
hardly conceive of a more splendid source of revenue than lies open
in this direction. Here you have a self-supporting class of residents
conferring large benefits upon the state, and instead of receiving
payment (2) themselves, contributing on the contrary to the gain of
the exchequer by the sojourners' tax. (3) Nor, under the term careful
handling, do I demand more than the removal of obligations which, whilst
they confer no benefit on the state, have an air of inflicting various
disabilities on the resident aliens. (4) And I would further relieve
them from the obligation of serving as hoplites side by side with the
citizen proper; since, beside the personal risk, which is great, the
trouble of quitting trades and homesteads is no trifle. (5) Incidentally
the state itself would benefit by this exemption, if the citizens were
more in the habit of campaigning with one another, rather than (6)
shoulder to shoulder with Lydians, Phrygians, Syrians, and barbarians
from all quarters of the world, who form the staple of our resident
alien class. Besides the advantage (of so weeding the ranks), (7) it
would add a positive lustre to our city, were it admitted that the
men of Athens, her sons, have reliance on themselves rather than on
foreigners to fight her battles. And further, supposing we offered our
resident aliens a share in various other honourable duties, including
the cavalry service, (8) I shall be surprised if we do not increase
the goodwill of the aliens themselves, whilst at the same time we add
distinctly to the strength and grandeur of our city.

(1) Lit. "metics" or "metoecs."

(2) {misthos}, e.g. of the assembly, the senate, and the dicasts.

(3) The {metoikion}. See Plat. "Laws," 850 B; according to Isaeus, ap.
Harpocr. s.v., it was 12 drachmae per annum for a male and 6
drachmae for a female.

(4) Or, "the class in question." According to Schneider (who cites the
{atimetos metanastes} of Homer, "Il." ix. 648), the reference is
not to disabilities in the technical sense, but to humiliating
duties, such as the {skaphephoria} imposed on the men, or the
{udriaphoria} and {skiadephoria} imposed on their wives and
daughters in attendance on the {kanephoroi} at the Panathenaic and
other festival processions. See Arist. "Eccles." 730 foll.;
Boeckh, "P. E. A." IV. x. (Eng. tr. G. Cornewall Lewis, p. 538).

(5) Or, reading {megas men gar o agon, mega de kai to apo ton tekhnon
kai ton oikeion apienai}, after Zurborg ("Xen. de Reditibus
Libellus," Berolini, MDCCCLXXVI.), transl. "since it is severe
enough to enter the arena of war, but all the worse when that
implies the abandonment of your trade and your domestic concerns."

(6) Or, "instead of finding themselves brigaded as nowadays with a
motley crew of Lydians," etc.

(7) Zurborg, after Cobet, omits the words so rendered.

(8) See "Hipparch." ix. 3, where Xenophon in almost identical words
recommends that reform.

In the next place, seeing that there are at present numerous building
sites within the city walls as yet devoid of houses, supposing the state
were to make free grants of such land (9) to foreigners for building
purposes in cases where there could be no doubt as to the respectability
of the applicant, if I am not mistaken, the result of such a measure
will be that a larger number of persons, and of a better class, will be
attracted to Athens as a place of residence.

(9) Or, "offer the fee simple of such property to."

Lastly, if we could bring ourselves to appoint, as a new government
office, a board of guardians of foreign residents like our Guardians of
Orphans, (10) with special privileges assigned to those guardians who
should show on their books the greatest number of resident aliens--such
a measure would tend to improve the goodwill of the class in question,
and in all probability all people without a city of their own would
aspire to the status of foreign residents in Athens, and so further
increase the revenues of the city. (11)

(10) "The Archon was the legal protector of all orphans. It was his
duty to appoint guardians, if none were named in the father's
will."--C. R. Kennedy, Note to "Select Speeches of Demosthenes."
The orphans of those who had fallen in the war (Thuc. ii. 46) were
specially cared for.

(11) Or, "help to swell the state exchequer."