The Importance of Money in Athens

We see heroic pride, which sees too great an act of generosity as itself a kind of belittling assault. Prominent athenians were always borrowing money to pursue their political projects. Less prominent ones were constantly worrying about their debts or how to collect from their own debtors. Pirates and kidnappers do business in cash, yet the loan sharks at a genus market place could not have operated without them. Ever since in athens, the result was extreme moral confusion.