Theorica

Theorica (Gr. Θεωρικά) (also Theoric Fund and Festival Fund) was in ancient Athens the name for the fund of monies expended on festivals, sacrifices, and public entertainments of various kinds; and also monies distributed among the people in the shape of largesses from the state.

There were, according to Xenophon, more festivals at Athens than in all the rest of Greece. Besides those open to the whole body of the people, there were many confined to the members of each tribe, deme, and house. These last were provided for out of the private funds of the community who celebrated them. At the most important of the public festivals, there were not only sacrifices, but processions, theatrical exhibitions, gymnastic contests, and games, celebrated with great splendor and at a great expense.

Theorika was created or reinstated around 350 BCE, after the Social War (357-5 BCE), by the Athenian statesman Eubulus, an administrator to the theorikon treasury sometime after 354/3 until Cephisophon of Aphidna replaced him in 343/2, and Diophantus. The Social War had plunged Athens into serious military and financial difficulties, thus creating an incentive to help the Athenian people by means of largesse. It was established to provide enough money for poorer Athenian citizens to be able to purchase tickets for yearly festivals of public worship and theatrical productions, such as the Dionysia, Panathenaea, Eleusinia and Thargelia. A portion of the expense was defrayed by the individuals, upon whom the burden of λειτουργία devolved; but a considerable, and perhaps the larger, part was defrayed by the public treasury. The religious embassies to Delos and other places, and especially those to the Olympian, Nemean, Isthmian, and Pythian Games, drew largely upon public funds, though a part of the cost fell upon the wealthier citizens who conducted them.

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