The picture of the Athenian citizen that emerges from this study is neither bleak nor altogether reassuring. Democratic Athens, like other historic states, faced persistent challenges as it sought to ensure that its citizens would carry out their civic obligations. Although the bond between citizen and city was generally strong, Athenian citizens responded individually and diversely to their civic duties. In particular, concerns over person and property could, and did, lead to evasion and underperformance of civic obligations. Just as Athenians were prepared to act shrewdly to protect or advance their personal interests in their relations with one another, so too were they ready to do so in their relations with the city. The nature and intensity of the difficulties that arose as a result, however, varied in the different spheres of civic duty, and the city's responses to these challenges differed accordingly.

The conflict between citizen and state was especially salient in the area of financial obligations. Notwithstanding social pressures on the wealthy to be benefactors of their city, they were deeply concerned about depleting their fortunes through performance of liturgies and payment of the eisphora and therefore actively sought to defend their personal interests. Wealthy Athenians routinely concealed their wealth from the view of the city and of their rich peers, who might seek to transfer liturgies to them through antidosis. The troubled history of the eisphora and trierarchy attests to the ongoing struggle between the wealthy and the city over financial obligations.