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power she boasts of and her ancient wealth is no romance or idle story, was his construction of the public and sacred buildings. Yet this was that of all his actions in the government which his enemies most looked askance upon and cavilled at in the popular assemblies, crying out how that the commonwealth of Athens had lost its reputation and was ill-spoken of abroad, for re

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moving the common treasure of the Greeks* from the isle of Delos into their own custody; and how that their fairest excuse for so doing, namely, that they took it away for fear the barbarians should seize it, and on purpose to secure it in a safe place, this Pericles had made unavailable, and how that "Greece cannot but resent it as a gross affront, and a piece of open tyranny, when she

*Those, namely, who were confederates of Athens: whose contributions for the common defence had at first been lodged at Delos.

sees the treasure which was contributed by her simply for the needs of the war wantonly lavished out by us upon our city, to gild her all over, and to adorn and set her forth, as it were some vain woman, hung round with precious stones and figures and temples, which cost a world of money." Pericles on the other hand informed the people, that they were under no obligation to give account of those moneys to their allies, so long as they maintained their defence, and kept off the barbarians from attacking them; while the allies, in the meantime, did not supply one horse or man or ship, but only found money for the service; "which money," said he, "is not theirs that give it, but theirs that receive it, if so be they perform the conditions upon which they receive it." And that it was good reason, that now the city was sufficiently provided and stored with all things necessary for the war, they should convert the overplus of its wealth to such undertakings, as would hereafter, when completed, give them eternal honour, and for the present, while in process, freely supply all the inhabitants with plenty. With their variety of workmanship and of occasions for service, which summon all arts and trades and require all hands to be employed about them, they do actually put the whole city in a manner into state-pay; while at the same time she is both beautified and maintained by herself. For as those who are of age and strength for war are provided for and maintained in the armaments abroad, by their pay out of the public stock; so it being his desire and design that the undisciplined mechanic multitude that stayed at home should not go without their share of public salaries, and yet should not have them given them for sitting still and doing nothing, to that end he thought fit to bring in speedily these vast

projects of buildings and designs of works, would be of some continuance before they finished, and would give employment to num arts, so that the part of the people that staye home might, no less than those that were at sea garrisons, or on expeditions, have a fair and just sion of receiving the benefit and having their sha the public moneys. The materials were stone, ivory, gold, ebony, cypress-wood; and the a

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trades that wrought and fashioned them were smit carpenters, moulders, founders and braziers, ston ters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers, painters, e derers, turners; those again that conveyed them town for use, merchants and mariners, and ship-n by sea; and by land, cartwrights, cattle-breeders goners, rope-makers, flax-workers, shoe-maker leather-dressers, road-makers, miners. And every in the same way as a captain in an army has his ticular company of soldiers under him, had its own

company of journeymen and labourers belonging to it banded together as in array, to be as it were the instrument and body for the performance of the service. So that, to say all in a word, the occasions and services of these public works distributed plenty through every age and condition.

As then grew the works up, no less stately in size 13 than exquisite in form, the workmen striving to outvie the material and the design with the beauty of their workmanship, yet the most wonderful thing of all was the rapidity of their execution. Undertakings, any one of which singly might have required, they thought, for their completion, several successions and ages of men, were every one of them accomplished in the height and prime of one man's political service. Although they say, too, that Zeuxis once having heard Agatharchus the painter boast of dispatching his work with speed and ease, replied, "I take a long time." For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty; the expenditure of time allowed to a man's pains beforehand for the production of a thing is repaid by way of interest with a vital force for its preservation when once produced. For which reason Pericles's works are especially admired, as having been made quickly to last long. For every particular piece of his work was immediately even at that time, for its beauty and elegance, antique; and yet in its vigour and freshness looks to this day as if it were just executed. There is a sort of bloom of newness upon those works of his, preserving them from the touch of time, as if they had some perennial spirit and undecaying vitality mingled in the composition of them. Phidias had the oversight of all the works and was surveyor-general,

though upon the various portions other great masters and workmen were employed. For Callicrates and Ictinus built the Parthenon; the chapel at Eleusis, for the celebration of the mysteries, was begun by Corœbus, who erected the pillars that stand upon the floor, and joined them to the architraves; and after his death Metagenes of Xypete, added the frieze and the upper line of columns; Xenocles of Cholargus formed the lantern on the top of the temple of Castor and Pollux; and the Long Wall, which Socrates says he himself heard Pericles propose to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates. This work Cratinus ridicules as long in finishing,

'Tis long, since Pericles, if words would do it,
Talk'd up the wall; yet adds not one stone to it.

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The Odeum or music-room, which in its interior was full of seats and ranges of pillars, and outside had its roof made to slope and descend from one single point at

*The architrave (epistylium, literally, on-column, in Greek) is the masonry immediately on the capitals; the frieze stands on the architrave; and the cornice on the frieze; cornice, frieze, and architrave together making the entablature.

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