freely gather what fruit they pleased,-Pericles, thus outdone in popular arts, by the advice of one Demonides of Ea, as Aristotle states, turned to the distribution of the public moneys; and in a short time having bought the people over, what with moneys allowed for shows and for service on juries, and what with other forms of pay and largess, he made use of them against the council of Areopagus, of which he himself was no member, as having never been appointed by lot either chief archon, or lawgiver, or king, or captain.* For from of old these offices were conferred on persons by lot, and they who had acquitted themselves duly in the discharge of them, became members of the court of Areopagus. And so Pericles, having obtained greater power and interest with the people, turned the efforts of his party against this council, with such success, that most of those causes and matters which had been used to be tried there, were, by the motion of Ephialtes, removed from its cognizance; Cimon, also, was banished by ostracism as a favourer Ostra of the Lacedæmonians and a hater of the people, Cimon, though in wealth and noble birth he was among the

* Epónymus, Thesmóthetes, Basileus, Polemarchus; titles of the different archons, the chief civic dignitaries, who, after the period of the Persian wars were appointed, not by election, but simply by lot, from the whole body of citizens. The actual ministers of the state, abroad as well as at home, were the ten stratégi, the generals or commanders (commanding by sea oftener than by land); these were elected and were men of eminence; Pericles himself (see below p. 79), Cimon, Nicias, Alcibiades. The Athenian years counted by the senior, the eponymous, or naming archon; but a list of the yearly generals, as of the consuls at Rome, would tell us much more of the real history of the time.

cism of

B.C. 461.

F

first, and had won several most glorious victories over the barbarians, and had filled the city with money and spoils of war; as is recorded in the history of his life. So vast an authority had Pericles obtained with the people. 10

gra, B.C.

the win

The ostracism was limited by law to ten years. But the Lacedæmonians, during its course, entering with a great army into the territory of Tanagra, and the AtheBattle nians going out against them, Cimon coming from his of Tana- banishment before his time was out, put himself in arms 457, in and array with those of his fellow-citizens that were of ter. his own tribe, and desired by his deeds to wipe off the suspicion of his favouring the Lacedæmonians, by venturing his own person along with his countrymen. But Pericles's friends, gathering in a body, forced him to retire as a banished man. For which cause also Pericles seems to have exerted himself more in that than in any battle, and to have been conspicuous above all for his exposure of himself to danger. All Cimon's friends also, to a man, fell together side by side, whom Pericles had accused with him of taking part with the Lacedæmonians. Defeated in this battle on their own frontiers, and expecting a new and perilous attack with return of spring, the Athenians now were full of regret and sorrow for the loss of Cimon, and repentance for their expulsion of him. Pericles, being sensible of this feeling, did not hesitate or delay to graRecall of tify it, and himself made the motion for recalling him home. He, upon his return, made a peace between the two cities; for the Lacedæmonians entertained as kindly a feeling towards him as they did the reverse towards Pericles and the other popular leaders. Yet some there are who say that Pericles did not propose the

Cimon.

order for Cimon's return till private articles of agreement had been made between them by means of Elpinice, Cimon's sister; that Cimon, namely, should go out to sea with a fleet of two hundred ships, and be commander-in-chief abroad, and make conquests in the king of Persia's territories, and that Pericles should have the power at home. Elpinice, it was thought, had before this time procured some favour for her brother at Pericles's hands, and induced him to be more remiss and gentle in urging the charge when Cimon was tried for his life; for Pericles was one of the committee appointed by the people to plead against him. And when Elpinice came and besought him in her brother's behalf, he answered, with a smile, "O, Elpinice, you are too old, too old a woman to meddle in such a business as this." But when the impeachment was made, he stood up but once to speak, merely to acquit himself of his commission, and withdrew, having done Cimon the least prejudice of any of his accusers. How then can one believe Idomeneus, who charges Pericles as if he had by treachery procured the murder of Ephialtes the popular statesman, one who was his friend, and of his own party in all his political course, out of jealousy, forsooth, and envy of his great reputation? This historian, having raked up, it seems, I know not whence, these stories, has befouled with them a man who, perchance, was not altogether free from fault or blame, but yet had a noble spirit, and a soul that was bent on honour; and where such qualities are, there can no such cruel and brutal passion find harbour or gain admittance. As to Ephialtes, the truth of the story, as Aristotle has told it, is this: that having made

11

himself formidable to the oligarchical party, by being an uncompromising asserter of the people's rights in calling to account and prosecuting those who any way wronged them, his enemies lying in wait for him, by the hand of Aristodicus the Tanagræan, privately dispatched him.

Cimon, while he was admiral, died in the isle of Death of Cyprus. And the aristocratical party feeling that PeriB.C. 449. cles was already before this grown to be the greatest

Cimon,

and foremost man of all the city, yet wishing there should be somebody in opposition against him, to blunt and turn the edge of his power, that it might not altogether be a monarchy, put forward Thucydides of Alopece, a discreet person, and a connection of Cimon's by marriage*, to conduct the opposition against him; who, indeed, though less a soldier than Cimon was, yet was better versed in speaking and political business, and keeping close guard in the city, and engaging with Pericles on the hustings, in a short time brought the government to an equality of parties. For he would not suffer those who were called the honest and good† to be scattered up and down and mix themselves, and be lost among the populace as formerly, diminishing and obscuring their superiority amongst the masses; but taking them apart by themselves and uniting them in one body, by their combined weight he was able, as it were, upon the balance, to make a counterpoise to the other party. For indeed there was from the beginning a sort of concealed split, or seam, as it might be in

The same who has already been mentioned, the son of Melesias.

† People of birth and education, the upper, or better, classes.

a piece of iron, marking the different popular and aristocratical tendencies; but the open rivalry and contention of these two opponents made the cut deep, and severed the city into the two parties called the people and the few. And so Pericles, at that time more than at any other, let loose the reins to the people, and made his policy subservient to their pleasure, contriving continually to have some great public show or solemnity, some banquet, or some procession or other in the town to please them, coaxing his countrymen like children, with such delights and pleasures as were not unedifying either. Besides that every year he sent out threescore galleys, on board of which there went numbers of the citizens, who were in pay eight months, learning at the same time and practising the art of seamanship. He sent, moreover, a thousand of them into the Chersonese as planters, to share the land among them by lot, and five hundred more into the isle of Naxos, and half that number to Andros; a thousand into Thrace to dwell among the Bisalta; and others into Italy, when the city Sybaris, which now was called Thurii, was to be repeopled. And this he did to ease and discharge the city of an idle, and, by reason of their idleness, a busy, meddling crowd of people; and at the same time to meet the necessities and restore the fortunes of the poor townsmen, and to intimidate also and check their allies from attempting any change, by posting such garrisons, as it were, in the midst of them.

That, however, which gave most pleasure and orna- 12 ment to the city of Athens, and caused the greatest admiration and even astonishment to all strangers, and at this day is Greece's only evidence that the