Abstract
Previous article FreeBack CoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreOn War Debts and Long-Term Interest RatesIn the year 490 BC, Athenians were about to confront King Xerxes’s army in the fields of Marathon. Just before marching out to the battlefield, the polemarch Callimachus made a vow to Artemis. “And while they had vowed to Artemis that for every man they might slay of the enemy they would sacrifice a goat to the goddess, they were unable to find goats enough; so they resolved to offer five hundred every year, and this sacrifice they are paying even to this day.” (Xenophon, Anabasis III, 2, 12) “In the battle of Marathon about six thousand and four hundred men of the foreigners were killed, and one hundred and ninety-two Athenians.” (Herodotus, The Histories VI, 117)The sacrifice was celebrated during the festival of Agrotera Thusia at least 500 years after Xenophon. This yields a yearly real interest rate paid to the gods of about 1/12, or 8.5%.[Xenophon, Anabasis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), Loeb Classical Library 90; Herodotus, The Histories (London: Penguin, 2003)](Suggested by Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe) Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 129, Number 4April 2021 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/714588 Views: 415 © 2021 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.
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