Ah, well, it was milked for a lot during the Roman civil wars for sure, but the worst examples tended to just be that, examples. Caesar might make an example out of one city who shut its doors to him (for example when he left Epeiros and started into Thessaly after the siege at Dyrrachium), but then other cities would rarely face that sort of retribution later. They often would try to woo some cities also - Caesar and Pompey both made gifts and dedications in Athens in order to win them over. A lot of cities were coerced into supplying men, food, money, supplies, but some were able to stay out of the fray too. Athens was really unlucky: they supported Mithridates VI vs. Romans (lost), Pompey vs. Caesar (lost), Brutus and Cassius vs. Octavian/Anthony (lost), and Anthony vs. Octavian (lost), but didn't pay too much of a penalty because of their status and history.

The Athenians had also offered their entire army's help to the Romans to fight against Philip V, but they turned them down, asking for grain instead (estimated at 27,500 bushels of grain). No extreme fluctuations in prices in the Temple accounts of Delos are noted during these periods and very low interest rates there point to ready capital. Although some of the Hellenistic squabbling hurt mainland Greece, J.A.O. Larsen points out that there are many reasons to think Roman confiscations were not crippling to the Greeks (examples include Chalcis petitioning the senate in 169 to stop with heavy exactions and they agreed, putting an end to any arbitrary demands the senate itself had not approved of).