Aristotle, Economics

[1350b] [1] The men, unable to believe that Timotheus would have sacrificed so large a sum to them unless he was in truth expecting the money, made no further claim for pay until he had completed his dispositions.

At the siege of Samos,¹ Timotheus sold the crops and other country property to the besieged Samians themselves, and thus obtained plenty of money to pay his men. But finding the camp was short of provisions owing to the arrival of reinforcements, he forbade the sale of milled corn, or of any measure less than 1 1/2 bushels of corn or 8 1/2 gallons of wine or oil. Accordingly the officers bought supplies wholesale and issued them to their men; the reinforcements thenceforth brought their own provisions, and sold any surplus on their departure. In this way the needs of the soldiers were satisfactorily met.

Didales the Persian was able to provide for the daily needs of his mercenaries from the enemy's country; but had no coined money to give them. When their pay became due, and they demanded it, he had recourse to the following trick. [20] He called a meeting, and told the men that he had plenty of money, but that it was stored in a certain fortress, which he named. He then broke up his encampment and marched in that direction. On reaching the neighborhood of the fortress, he himself went on ahead, and entering the place seized all the silver vessels in the temples. He then loaded his mules in such a way that this plate was exposed, thus suggesting that silver formed the entire load; and so continued his march. The soldiers, beholding the plate and supposing that they convoyed a full load of silver, were cheered by the expectation of their pay. They were informed however by Didales that they would have to take it to Amisus to be coined—a journey of many days, and in the winter season. And during all this time, he continued to employ the army without giving it more than its necessary rations.

Moreover, all the craftsmen in the army, and the hucksters who traded with the soldiers by barter, were under his personal control, and enjoyed a complete monopoly.

When Taos,² king of Egypt, needed funds for an expedition he was making, Chabrias of Athens advised him to inform the priests that to save expense it was necessary to suppress some of the temples together with the majority of the attendant priests.