The liturgy (, leitourgia, from λαός / Laos, "the people" and the root / ergon, "work" ) was in ancient Greece a public service established by the city-state whereby its richest members (whether citizens or resident aliens), more or less voluntarily, financed the State with their personal wealth. It took its legitimacy from the idea that "personal wealth is possessed only through delegation from the city". The liturgical system dates back to the early days of Athenian democracy, and included the constitutional duty of trierarchy, which gradually fell into disuse by the end of the 4th century BC, eclipsed by the development of euergetism in the Hellenistic period. However, a similar system was in force during the Roman empire.
Principles and types
The liturgy was the preferred mode of financing of the Greek city, to the extent that it allowed them to easily associate each public expense with a ready source of revenue. This flexibility makes it particularly suited to the unpredictability of the period. This also explains its widespread use, including in undemocratic cities such as Rhodes. However, no strict uniformity is found in the specific practices of these liturgies, either geographically (from one city to another) or over time (as changing times and circumstances confront the Greek cities).
One can classify liturgies into two main categories. Those associated with the liturgical or agonistic calendar (related to sporting and religious events) are mainly the gymnasiarchia (γυμνασιαρχία), that is to say, the management and financing of the gymnasium, and the choregia (χορηγία), the maintenance of the choir members at the theater for dramatic competitions. There were also many other minor liturgies. The hestiasis () was to fund the public dinner of the tribe to which the liturgist belonged; the architheoria () to lead delegations to the four sacred Panhellenic Games;, the arrhephoria () to cover the cost of the arrhephoroi, four girls of Athenian high society who brought the peplos to the Athena Parthenos, offered her cakes and dedicated white dresses adorned with gold, amongst others. There was considerable creativity in relation to the liturgy, "and with the practicality which characterised their attitude on the subject, the cities were capable of creating new liturgies in accordance with their immediate needs, or of suppressing them temporarily or permanently.". All of these liturgies are part of a religious festival and were recurring ().
By comparison, the military liturgies were used only when needed. The main one was the trierarchy, that is to say the equipment and maintenance of a trireme and its crew for a year. The trierarch was also to assume, under the direction of the strategos, the command of the ship, unless he choose to pay a concession and left the fighting to a specialist in which case the office was purely financial. Later the proeisphora was to carry the burden for his tax group or class (symmoriai) advancing the eisphora, the contribution levied from various wealthy social classes to compensate for the costs of the war. It has also been proposed to add to this number the hippotrophia (), namely the maintenance of the horses of the cavalry instituted after the Persian Wars, but it is not certain that this liturgy actually existed.
In 355-354 BC, Demosthenes estimated the number of Athenian calendar liturgies to be sixty per year. This figure is almost certainly seriously understated. The Dionysia alone required 23-32 choregoi, and in the following era we can add ten hestiatores to this number. The Panathenaia required at least 19 liturgists per year as against 30 (or perhaps 40) for the Greater Panathenaic Games which was held every four years; the Lenaia annually had 5 choregoi, and the Thargelia 10. Some liturgists were also required for other religious holidays, which must be added to the theoroi () of the Panhellenic Games and the oracle of Delphi. A careful calculation therefore reaches at least 97 civilian liturgists per year in Athens, and at least 118 in years of the Greater Panathenaia.