 13. Age of the War Heroes 2. Society and Culture 479-461. Eastern and Western Hellas Compaired In the generation that defended Hellas against the assaults of Persia and Carthage, social conditions in the Western colonies and in the mother country, though outwardly presenting certain contrasts, were at basis similar. The same poets and philosophers ministered to the intellectual needs of both regions, and the temples of Acragas and Syracuse were not inferior in beauty to those of Agena and Olympia. In contrast with the material wealth and splendor of Sicily and Italy, we may place the steadier and more substantial character of Spartans and Athenians. The brief view of life and thought offered in this chapter aims to represent the Hellenes in general, and more particularly the Athenians, whose social life has for us a deeper interest as the precursor of the splendid age of Pericles. The Aristocratic Spirit of Athenian Society In spite of the democratic reforms of Klaistines, Athenian society remained aristocratic. Real leadership was still the exclusive prize to be striven for by a few great families. It is true that some of the most powerful Gentis had either been totally destroyed or brought to the verge of ruin. The Paisistrididae were in perpetual exile as men accursed of heaven. The condemnation of Maltiades had been a terrible blow to the Phylidae, and it required all the prestige of his son Simon, one through brilliant victories, magnificent generosity, and personal charm to rehabilitate the family. A greater disgrace had fallen upon the Alcmionidae, the gents of Klaistines, through their association with the tyrannists in the political struggles which intervened between the battles of Marathon and Salamis. They had paid the penalty in the ostracism of their representative Megacles, nephew of the famous lawgiver, and still more in the suspicion now hanging over them of having plotted with the enemy during the Marathonian campaign. These circumstances had tarnished the glory of their achievements in building a temple to Apollo at Delphi in victories at the great national games and in restoring the democracy at Athens. Yet they propped up their house by fortunate marriages. The hand of Agaristi, sister of Megacles, had been taken by Zanthippus, the Athenian admiral at Miceli, and an undoubted patriot. Years afterward, Isodicy, another daughter of the house, was given in marriage to Simon. It was left to a son of the former marriage, Pericles, to shed an eternal lustre of his mother's family, which during the, quote, period of the war heroes, end quote, had no enviable part in public life. Aristides, son of Lecymachus, was likewise a Eupathrid and married into the wealthy gents of Calius. On the question of his poverty, it may be granted as possible that in later life he lost his property through misfortune, yet he certainly had an estate, evidently a farm near Thalerum, sufficiently great to qualify him for the Archonship. Apparently his rival Themistocles, as has been explained, had common interests with the commercial class, but his membership in the gents of the Lycomidae, who were priests at the Shrine of Initiation at Phaela, their deem, proved seem to be of Eupathrid blood. Askelos, 524 to 456. In the same class with these men of action, may be placed one who desired above all things to be considered a loyal citizen who had done good service for his country at Marathon, the poet Askelos. In his days the man of deeds was greater than the artist, and it is almost in spite of himself that we describe him as a literary man, most creative of ancient dramatists. In his hands the action had greater scope, though still secondary to the chorus. Not merely the intense productivity of his genius, but the splendid qualities of his seven surviving dramas place him among the world's greatest poets. Pinder, about 520 to 441. Contemporary with Askelos lived Pinder, a Beotian, the most famous of Lyricists. Like Askelos he was nobly born, but he was also a priest by family right. We know him chiefly through his quarrel songs in honor of victors at the great national games. Of other poems we have a few precious fragments. A younger contemporary was Bacillides of Chias, a Lyric poet like Pinder, though inferior ingenious. The discovery, 1896, of a papyrus containing several entire odes of this poet, in addition to fragments, make him a useful source for the cultural history of the period. On Askelos, Pinder, and Bacillides, we have to depend largely for knowledge of the best thought and sentiment of Athens and Hellas in the age of Hieron, Themistocles, and Simon. Divine Virtues of the Aristocracy In a small class of Athenian nobles and in wider circles within less progressive states, there survived an intensely aristocratic spirit, which found brilliant expression in Pinder. For the glory of his class, he has transmuted into excellence certain blemishes of the Older mythology. In the loves of gods for mortal women, he sees the working of a beneficent purpose for grafting divine virtues on the human race. From such unions sprang the heroes of old, patterns of manly virtue. Their natures were the heritage of the families which they found it, and which formed the nobility of every Hellenic state. Fortunate is the city ruled by such a stock. Quote, Happy is Lesydemon, blessed is Thessaly, in both raineth erase sprung from one sire from Heracles, bravest in the fights, end quote. While the youthful scion of such a family wins the Pythian and the Olympic victories which Pinder celebrates in song, his elders apply themselves to politics. Quote, His noble brethren also will we praise, because they exalt and make great Thessalians commonwealth, for in the hands of good men lieth the good piloting of the cities wherein their fathers ruled, end quote. Natural Endowment vs. Acquired Learning In this aristocratic philosophy of life, a large place is inevitably held by natural endowment as contrasted with acquired skill. Yet nothing can be achieved without toil. Quote, By inborn worth doth one prevail mightily. Yet whoso hath but precepts is a vain man, and is feign now for this thing and now again for that. Yet a sure step pleneth he not at any time, but handleth countless enterprises with a purpose that achieveeth not. End quote. Quote, If one be born with excellent gifts, then may another who sharpeneth his natural edge speed him God-helping to an exceeding weight of glory. Without toil there hath triumphed a very few. End quote. Quote, Each hath his several art, but in straight paths it behooveeth him to walk, and to strive hard wherein his nature setteth him. Thus worketh strength in act, and mind in counsels. End quote. The Noble Youth Even in youth is made manifest the righteous mind of the ideal Lord. Quote, For he was a boy with boys, yet in counsels an old man of a hundred years, the evil tongue he rubbeth of its loud voice, and hath learned to uphore the insolent. Neither will he make strife against the good, nor tarry when he hath a deed in hand. A brief spanned hath opportunity for man, but of him it is known surely when it cometh, and he waiteth thereon a servant but no slave. End quote. The Nobility in War Such men of noble heritage and athletic training stood ready in need to endure the brunt of battle for their country. And when bronze-shielded Aries hath given one over to death, quote, Yet there remaineth for the valiant a recompense of renown. For let whoso amid the cloud of war from his beloved country wardeth off the bloody shower, and worketh havoc in the enemy's host know assuredly that for the race of his fellow citizens he maketh their renown wax mightily, yea, when he is dead even as while he was yet alive. End quote. Public and Social Service One too is he in worship, quote, at all festivals of the gods, devoted with guileless soul to peace and to the welfare of his state, end quote, employing his wealth for the public good in patronage of the arts cultivated by his class and in hospitality, quote, It is his spirit toward the company of his guests, yea, sweeter than the honeycomb, the toil of bees, end quote. A Social Gathering We catch interesting glimpses of the social life in the banquets of men. Ion, a poet of Chias, tells of such a social gathering which he attended at Athens when a boy. After the libation of wine to the gods, the guests asked Simon to sing, and he complied with such success as to win the warm applause of the company. Here was a man who had never studied music, but who to amuse his fellow guests was willing to sing probably a rollicking sailor song. Afterward, he told the company the cleverest thing he had done in his life, how in the division of spoils he had outwitted the wily Ionians under his command. But the joy of one of these banquets and the dreams stimulated by wine, Baccholades has well described, quote, When as the cups go swiftly round, a sweet subduing power warns the heart, and blending with the gifts of Dionysus, a presage of the Cyprian goddess flutters the mind. That power sends a man's thought scaring. Straightway, his tripping cities of their diadem of towers, he dreams that he shall be monarch of the world. His halls gleam with gold and ivory. Over the sunlit sea his sweet ships bring wealth untold from Egypt. Such are the raptures of the reveler's soul, end quote. Simon, youth and man. As a young man, Simon had acquired an enviable reputation for disorderly habits and excesses in drink. Handsome enough with his tall stature and thick curly locks, he displayed but a dull wit and won no better nickname than Simpleton. Yet in later years he developed a noble character able in command by land or sea, incorruptible, public spirited, social and generous. Any deemsman was at liberty uninvited to pluck his fruit or sit at his table. And whenever he went through the streets he was accompanied by servants who distributed clothes and money among the needy citizens. The social side of Themistocles. Themistocles, on the other hand, a man of superior dignity and a vastly greater mental power, lacked the faculty of unbending at social gatherings. Delighting in hospitality he gave some shoes banquets, and though he did not venture to sing to his guests, he kept in his home a famous lyricist for their entertainment. His social field, however, was the marketplace and the knicks. There he met the citizens and saluted each one by name, and they, pleased with this individual attention, thought there was no man in the world like Themistocles. They readily brought him their disputes for arbitration, and in such cases he always showed himself a just judge. Again when as general he was asked to break the law for the benefit of his friend Simonides, he replied, quote, you would be no good poet if you composed contrary to metrical rules, and I no good magistrate if I should grant a favor in violation of the laws, end quote. It was this reputation rather than that given him by enemies which caused Hellenic states to choose him arbitrator of their disputes. Like Tendency of Society, Askelos. In Athens, thought and custom gravitated irresistibly toward democracy. The great representative of the tendency was Aristides, whose whole heart was in the work of social and political equalization, whereas Themistocles, a man of aristocratic taste, championed the cause as a means to the aggrandizement of his fate. In literature, Askelos, though a Eupatrid glows with a passion for freedom and gives his sympathy without reserve to the lowly. Against the aristocratic tradition which made the Eupatrid good and God beloved, and the poor base and vicious, Askelos upholds a more rational view of right and wrong, and of their reward and punishments, quote, Death is no protection for a man who in full-fed insolence kicks into annihilation the mighty altar of justice, but the resistless child of A.T. tempts him on. To his prayer, no God lands an ear, but destroys the unjust men, end quote. In the poor, no less than in rich, live virtues, quote, Justice shines in smoke-grimed homes and honors the life that is righteous. With averted eyes, she leaves the gold-bespangled palaces by polluted hands defiled, and goes to the abode that is holy, not reverencing the power of wealth sealed with spurious renown, and all things she guides to their appointed end, end quote. He makes us understand the feelings of a woman who has been taken captive in war, enslaved and subjected to injustice and brutality, quote. And I, the gods have crushed me in the fall of my far-off war-leagered home, have hailed me from my father's house a thrall unto an evil doom, and I must brook the brutal recklessness. My life is not mine to control, which calls injustice justice must suppress the loathing of my soul, end quote. Such sentiments had their effect upon his audience. Perhaps his greatest social interest was in woman, whose traditional standing in society was now suffering impairment. The social standing of women, their social power. We have seen the great families of Athens connecting themselves closely with one another by intermarriage. It was still no uncommon thing, too, for a noble to take a wife from abroad. In fact, the number of great men descended from non-Athinian mothers in the period before and immediately after the Persian War is remarkable. They include Kleistenes, Miltiades, Simon, and Themistocles. However, these foreign women may have been received in society. They certainly brought no disgrace or political handicap upon their illustrious sons. The story that, because of the foreign extraction of his mother, Themistocles was base-born is an idle tale, invented probably by some ignorant returition. He was as thoroughly a citizen as Kleistenes and Simon, and had the same right to hold office. It was in full accord, too, with prevailing custom that he gave his daughter, Italia, in marriage to a citizen of Chias. The women who were thus taken and given in marriage were not mere pawns on the political chessboard. Whether at Athens or among her neighbors, high-born ladies were freer and wielded greater social influence in this aristocratic period than did those of the Periclean age and after. This fact is noticeable in the pages of Herodotus, who, having breathed the same aristocratic atmosphere, has been able to appreciate the power of woman in the earlier history of his race. We find the same condition reflected in the poetry of the age. In the opinion of Bacchelides, Agene could have no greater praise than the patriotic songs of her girls. Ye and thy glory is a theme for the high vaunt of some maiden, as oft with her white feet she moved over thy sacred soil, bounding lightly as a joyous fawn toward the flowery hills with her glorious neighbors and companions, and when they have crowned themselves with wreaths of young flowers and of wreaths in the festive fashion of their isle, they hymn thy power, O queen of the fries hospitable land." Undomestic women. The lyrics of Pinder, now extant, are not such as to light up for us the family circle, but here and there we discover in them a gleam of life within the household. Of undomestic women the Greeks had examples among the goddesses, especially military Athena and huntress Artemis. Naturally, they reappear in myths, and the type seems familiar to the poet. Such was Cyreni, who, quote, loved not the pacing to and fro before the loom, nor the delights of feasting with her fellows within the house, but with bronze javelins and a sword she fought against and slew wild beasts of prey. Yea, and much peace and surety she gave thereby to her father's herds," end quote. More frequent were the girls whose young minds were entranced by the beauty and the prowess of the youthful athlete. Not seldom, in song, was the bride a prize in foot or chariot race. The social freedom of her sex was such as to admit of a, quote, wedlock in which hearts are wedded, graced with marriage tables and the sound of many voices in hymenial song, such as the bride's girl mates are want to sing at eventide with merry menstrual sea," end quote. The ideal woman is the mother of warriors and athletes, the mistress of a household, wherein, quote, abided love steadfastly, end quote. This ideal may well have been realized in the life of Simon and his wife, Isodicy, of whom he was passionately fond, and whose death left him inconsolable. A poet friend tried in allergies to moderate his grief. The fact that poetry could be devoted to such a purpose may be placed among the indications of a higher social regard for a woman than can be proved for the following generation. Similarly, the wife of Themistocles had her own way with her husband, if indeed there be a grain of truth in the anecdote which represents Themistocles as speaking thus to his young son, quote, You have more power than anyone else in Greece. For the Athenians command the rest of the Greeks, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother, end quote. The emancipated woman, Elpinicy, the social freedom of young women. An example of the, quote, unquote, emancipated woman, strong of character and a power in politics, yet doubtless personally winsome, was Elpinicy, sister of Simon. Kaleas the wealthy, falling in love with her, obtained her hand in marriage. She charmed the famous painter Polygnetus, who introduced her portrait among the Trojan matrons in one of his great mural scenes. As an example of her political influence, we may cite the fact that she successfully intervened with Pericles in favor of her brother when he was prosecuted. A woman who thus freely walked in public could not escape the vile tongues of slander. We may feel confident, however, that her freedom wrought her no actual harm. It is significant, too, that there remained even in this age at least occasional love-making and courtship preliminary to marriage. This was true not only of Elpinicy, but of Themistocles' daughter, of two rivals the father favored, the man of worth, rather than the one who was wealthy, explaining that he preferred a man without riches to riches without a man. The presence of daughters at banquets given by their father is reflected in a drama by Escalus, quote, ah, often and often had her sire's holes thrilled to the glad outpouring of her songs by the table banquet laden, when the wine drops were spilled and the pure voiced maiden called down heaven's blessings in chants adoring, end quote. Under these circumstances, a girl, while willing to submit to the inevitable, might hope for a congenial mate and for happiness in marriage, quote, ah, hush, what thing fate meanest to bring, even that and none other must needs be tied. The purpose designed of the mighty mind of Zeus, none crosseth, nor turneth aside. Yet, oh, that my fate, that my wedded state, might now at the last be peace and bliss, such as many a woman had known ere this, end quote. They should have a voice, therefore, in choosing their husbands. The idea of brutally comparing girls to marry men they abhor, whom to escape they would gladly die, is denounced in the strongest terms by Escalus. This poet must have had an opportunity to study women, only possible on the assumption that they mingled socially with men, and he must have found excellent material for his dramatic portraits. His strongest human character is a woman, Queen Clytemnestra, who possessed great intellectual strength and a, quote, man's way-planning-hoping heart, end quote. In killing her husband, she but served as a link in the resistless chain of blood revenge. Social forces for the seclusion of women But the honorable and relatively free place of woman in society was not assured. There were forces at work for her seclusion, which likewise find a mouthpiece in one of the characters of Escalus, quote, never, either in trouble or in dear prosperity, may I have to dwell with womankind. For if they have the upper hand, their frontery is such that one cannot keep their company, and if they are in fear, they are a yet greater nuisance to the state. Matters out of doors are the care of the men. Let not a woman have a voice in them. Keep you at home, and thus cause no further mischief," end quote. An objection to her having a hand in affairs was found in certain alleged defects of her character, quote, it is natural to the impulsive character of woman to assent to what is pleasing in preference to what is certainly known. Too credulous the boundaries of her mind, and encroached on by swift inroads, and a report spread by her perishes by a quick fate, end quote. Dawn of a masculine age. After these restrictions on her activity, the next step was to rob woman of her motherhood. Contrary to the principle of Etik law, that the son could be alienated from the mother by no legal process whatsoever, the Apollo of this generation declares the son to be of no kin with the mother, the father, to be the only parent. At hand was the hard masculine age of Pericles, whose political intensity reduced woman and home life to a minimum. In keeping is the strongly masculine character of Athena. As president of the tribunal that voted the acquittal of arrestees for the murder of his mother, she renders her opinion in the following words, quote. With me it rests to give my sentence last. I to arrestees' cause shall add this vote. For mother is there none that gave me birth. I am holy, safe for marriage, with the male with all my soul, I take the father's side. Of so much less account I hold the death of her who slew her lord the household's head, end quote. The family. The hereditary curse. In spite of tendencies that tremental to woman, the family remained a sacred institution whose religious object was the worship of the dead and of the other household gods. It is meat that men grieve for the ills of their house, love their kin, and honor their parents next to God, quote. Even as the father's soul warmeth for his lawful son, and he prayeth that his children's children preserve and with acquired glory amplify the honors of the family, end quote. Any disturbance of this harmony is monstrous, quote. If there be enmity between kin, the fates stand aside and would feign hide the shame, end quote. Most highness is the shedding of kindred blood. Axion, the cane of Hellenic legend, the first to commit this awful sin, chained in punishment to a winged wheel, rise in everlasting agony. Far from being pardonable, this crime grows and produces other more terrible crimes. The house of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, is doomed to misfortune because it has offended the gods in various ways. Oedipus, haired to the power and the woes of the stock, is driven unwittingly to the commission of a dreadful sin. He suffers unspeakable agony of mind, and his children inherit the curse. His daughter Antigone is buried alive. His two sons kill each other in civil war. The whole family sinks to ruin. In this case, the guilt growing from generation to generation brings its legitimate punishment. Salvation through suffering. But the gods are merciful and have provided a way of escape from sin. This principle is illustrated in the house of Agamemnon. His father had committed an enormous crime, and he had inherited the curse. By it, he was driven madly to more serious offenses. He sacrificed his own daughter Iphigenia before sailing to Troy, and after capturing the city, he violated the temples and altars of its gods. When, therefore, he returned home, he reaped his reward, stabbed to death by his wife Clitimnestra. Next, their son's arrestees, as the avenger of his father, murdered his mother. The guilt he had inherited brought forth this monstrous fruit. Then the furies of his mother pursued him, tormenting him with the most intense suffering. But this agonizing experience brought him knowledge of the law of righteousness and of his duty to it. Suffering taught him obedience. Thereupon he was purified by Apollo at Delphi and acquitted by the council of the Areopagus, sitting under the presidency of Athena. In this way, the family was ultimately saved from the consequences of its guilt. Quote, Zeus has placed mortals in the path to wisdom, and has ordained that suffering bring instruction, for even in sleep the painful memory of woe, presenting itself to the heart, instills obedience, which comes thus to the unwilling, and surely this is a mercy of the gods, who sit on their awful thrones with power to compel. End quote. By these means, with God's aid, a family works out its own redemption in suffering. But for future tranquility, there is need of resignation. Quote, we shall know our fate clearly with the morning dawn. End quote. The growing love of peace. The tempering of justice with mercy described above isn't keeping with a growing spirit of kindliness, which expresses itself in diverse forms. In truth, we are surprised to discover in this martial age so much humanity, so strong yearnings for peace. In the poets, there is less of the glory of war than of its cruelty and suffering. Askelos details the soldier's hardships. Quote. Of travail might I tell Blig Bivouac, of iron bound coasts hard lying, groans and groans, who knows how many, through the straightened days, then came new ills on land to vex us more, hard by our foes' walls through the nights we lay, and dues from heaven, and reek of marshy med, down drizzled, clammy cleaving, rotting vest, and making man's hair like a wild beast's fell. But oh, to tell of winters that slew birds, by snows of ida made intolerable, of heats when on his midnoon couch the sea unrippled sank and slept, and no breath stirred. End quote. Inconceivably horrible is the sacking of a city. Quote. Pityable it is to thrust down to Hades, this venerable city captive of the savage spear, shamefully wasted in crumbling dust by the Achaean chief, a last that maids and matrons, their vesture rent, be dragged away by the hare as horses by the mane, while the people with mingled wailings meet their doom, and in their midst the rifled city cries aloud, I dread your evil fate. Sad that tender girls unwed should exchange the shelter of their homes for the bitter path of slavery, shall I not count the dead in better plight than they? Many are the ills a conquered city suffers. This man drags one captive, another he murders. That quarter he sets in flames. The whole town is sullied with smoke and arries raving wild, fans the flame violating religion. End quote. The poet grieves too with those at home for the dear ones lost in battle. Quote. Alas and alas for thy tale of these, dear friends, sea-whelmed, tossed to and fro, dead forms that sway with the tumbling seas in their endless ab and flow. They are mangled in dread sea-world pits wild, and the flesh that we loved is torn by the dumb-lipped child of the undefiled. For its lord doth devoid home mourn, and the childless fathers cry in a passion of agony, as the stroke that has fallen from on high now first to their ears is born. End quote. The chafing of the people under miseries caused by needless wars, their hatred of the magistrates who were responsible for these sufferings, made for peace, whose coming appears, quote, even as after the wintry gloom in the flower months, the earth blossomed with red roses, end quote. Consistently the poet prays God to defer unto the uttermost and impending trial of valor against foreign spears, end to, quote, grant unto the sons of the men of Etna, for long time a portion in good laws, and to make their people to dwell among the glories that the citizens have won, end quote. Quote, yea and peace mighty goddess brings forth wealth for mortals, and the flowers of honeyed song. Her gift it is that thy flesh of oxen and a fleecy sheep is burnt to the gods in yellow flame on carven altars, and that youths desport themselves with bodily feats and with flutes and rebels. The webs of red-brown spiders are on the iron bound handles of shields. Sharp pointed spears and two edged swords are a prey to rust. No blast of bronze trumpet is heard. Sleep of gentle spirit that comforts the heart at dawn is not stolen from the eyelids. Joyous feasting abounds in the streets, and songs in praise of youth flame forth. O kindly peace, daughter of righteousness exclaims pender, thou that makest cities great and holdest the supreme keys of councils and of wars, thou knowest how I like to give and take gentleness in due season. Thou also, if any have moved thy heart unto relentless wrath, doth terribly confront the enemy's might, and sinkest insolence in the sea, end quote. Religion, one supreme being. Not only the growing kindliness of the age, but also its religious spirit found their clearest expression in the poets, especially in Pindar and Askelos. The former was more conservative, the latter more progressive, yet both hold to the hereditary faith of their race, exalted and purified by splendid intelligence and brilliant imagination. In touch with the best thought of the age, they can only conceive of God as supreme above a host of celestial spirits. Here, thou whose thoughts are from times eternal, Zeus, blesser and blessed, creator supernal. Thou art throned, where the lordship of none thou obeyest. Beneath no stronger, thy scepter thou swayest. What purpose, soever, thy spirit conceiveth. The deed, as the word, thine hand achieveth, end quote. His knowledge is equally unlimited. Quote, if a man thinketh, then in doing ought he shall be hidden from God, he earth, end quote. Apollo, beside his unerring father, quote, giveth he to his own wisdom, his mind that knoweth all things. In lies it hath no part, neither in act nor in thought may God or man deceive him. At the everlasting center stone of deep murmuring earth, thou foretellest the future, and what shall come to pass, and whence it shall be, thou discernest perfectly, end quote. The gods are pure. The stories of the shameful doings of the heavenly powers are false tales cunningly devised. Such is the story that the gods once feasted on the shoulder of a boy, served up to them by the father, quote, but to me it is impossible to call one of the blessed gods cannibal, end quote. Similar fictions are the stories of their wars with one another, quote, O my mouth, fling this tale from thee, for to speak evil of gods is hateful wisdom, and loud and unmeasured words strike a note that trembeth upon madness. Of such things talk thou not, leave war of immortals and all strife aside, end quote. God is not only pure, but the author of all good, quote, from thee, O Zeus, cometh to mortals all high excellence, longer liveth their bliss who have thee in honor. From gods come all means of mortal valor, hereby come bards and men of mighty hand, and eloquent speech. The happiness that is planted by the favor of the gods is most abiding among men. It behooveeth thee, therefore, even in the midst of triumph, to pray that the favor of God be unfailing toward the fortune of thee and thine, end quote. The poetry and thought of Pinder and Askelos Pinder and Askelos combine, in the highest degree, power, splendor, and sublimity. Both walk on a high plain of religious and moral purity, but the pindaric glitter reflects the glory of earth and of the gods who lived no higher than Olympus, whereas the words of Askelos spring from a loftier spiritual and moral inspiration, yet mark the modesty of one in contrast with the almost pompous pride of the other. Askelos, as his epitaph teaches, wish to be remembered not by his splendid dramas, but by his parts in the battle of Marathon. Quote, This tomb, the dust of Askelos doth hide, euphoriant sun and fruitful gala's pride, how famed his valor Marathon may tell, and long haired meads, who knew it all too well, end quote. In Pinder's mind, the glory of the games is equaled only by the poet's art, his own calling he esteems above the statuary's skill, quote, No sculptor I, that I should fashion images to rest idly on their pedestals, end quote. His words are things of winged life and fleet motion, now honeybees flitting from tail to tail, now bronze-tipped javelins hurled from the hand, or darts shot from the muse's far-delivering bow, now rushing waves or a gale of glorious song. His finished poem, he aptly compares to a majestic palace, whose marbles glitter in the sunlight, quote, Golden pillars will I set up in the porch of the house of my song, as in a stately palace hall, for it beceemeth that in the forefront of the work the entablature shoot far its splendor, end quote. A minstrel of inborn genius, he is like the swift eagle who loves the lone bosom of the cold ether, while far below flock his rivals, men of acquired cleverness merely, quote, strong in the multitude of words, they are but crows that chatter vainly in strife against the divine bird of Zeus, end quote. Fine arts, importance of the age in art. The age was as notable for the fine arts as for lyric and dramatic poetry. In the history of art, it is designated as a quote unquote transition from the archaic style to the perfection of the Periclean age. All stages of growth, however, are transitions, and the art of the war generation had as positive merits as any other. In our political study of the Athens of this generation, we have noticed the fortification of the city as a political necessity, leaving its adornment for consideration as an element of culture. The dwellings of the citizens, even of the wealthy, remained modest in size and simple in adornment, quote. In private life, they practiced so great moderation that even if any of you knew which was the house of Aristides or Maltides, or any of the famous men of old, you would find it no more portentious than any of its neighbors, end quote. This quotation from Demosthenes epitomizes the character of the great men of the Marathonian generation who merged their personality in the citizen body. The most liberal patrons of art were Themistoclese and Simon. The former, with his own means, built near his residence, a shrine to quote unquote best counseling, Artemis, and began preparing the summit of the Acropolis to serve as the sacred precinct of Athena's temples. Then from the sale of spoil and captives taken at Eurimidon, Simon built the huge retaining wall along the south edge, which gives the hill its present steepness on that side and greatly enlarges the area of the summit. Under his supervision, too, was erected from the spoils of the conflict with Persia, a colossal bronze statue of Athena on the Acropolis to the west of the old Athena temple, which the Persians had left in ruins. The goddess stood erect, clad in full armor, her spear grasped in hand, rested upright on the ground. The visitor to Athens, sailing to Piraeus past Sonium, was made aware of this Athena by the gleam of the sun on her first known work, Aphidias, the most celebrated sculptor of all time. Marketplace, Agora. In the lower city, Simon devoted most of his attention to the marketplace, which lay north of the Areopagus. Here, in his age, and probably under his administration, the Athenians erected their council hall for the sessions of the 500, the Rotunda for the Pretanus, and other public buildings. Farther to the north, probably bordering the market on the west, was placed the king's porch and opposite it, on the east side, the painted porch. The former may have survived the Persian devastation. The latter was erected by a kinsman of Simon. In the former, the king held office and the council of the Areopagus met in special sessions. The plan of these early porches is not known. If, as has been reasonably conjectured, the Roman Basilica, name and form, was derived from the royal porch, Pasileus, Pasileke, at Athens, we must assume for the Athenian model an oblong building with an interior colonnade, and possibly in addition, a portico on the side that faced the market. Illustrations, barber cutting hair, and shoe shop from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Polygnotus, Battle of Marathon. Part of the interior mural space was occupied by frescoes, and the work of the painted porch was done by Polygnotus of Thasus, whom Simon had invited to Athens, and with whom other artists collaborated. The most famous of these pictures was the Battle of Marathon, which included among the combatants portraits of the polymar Calymecus, of Miltiades and Ascalus. Polygnotus was the first great Hellenic painter. No copy of any of his works has survived, and in truth we have little knowledge of his technique, or apart from vase decoration, of Greek painting in general. Undoubtedly he introduced the art of frescoing from Ionia, where it may have survived even from my knowing times. For the social condition of artists in that age, it is significant that he was a man of noble birth and of ample fortune, who wrought for the love of art and for the honor of the city he helped adorn. His art so far as we can judge was simple, with but a faint suggestion of perspective, yet dignified and noble, like the sculptures and dramas of the period. Shade trees, booths and shops. Other buildings, in and about the marketplace, need not detain us here. The plain trees planted by Simon in the open space, quite as much as the porticoes, afforded a welcome protection from the heat and glare of the sun. The southern part of the area served chiefly political uses, the northern trade. Dealers in bread, cheese, garlic, fish, wine, and other foodstuffs, in pots and pitchers, in oils, perfumes, and books, had their several wicker booths closely crowded here, and the noises of hawkers and customers, as they bartered and jangled, were like unto the uproar of the pandemonium. In the afternoon, trade yielded to lounging, social talk, and philosophic discussion. Nearby were the shops of barbers, perfumers, shoemakers, and other tradesmen, and to them the Athenians resorted in the evening for meeting friends and making new acquaintances. Theseus and the Thesium. Another building erected in the lower city in this period deserves consideration. Once Simon had conquered Cyrus, he brought home from that island what purported to be the bones of the hero Thesius, after they had rested there for 400 years. In pursuance of a Delphic Oracle, he built east of the marketplace a shrine to Thesius in which these relics were deposited. Quote, His tomb is a place of refuge for slaves and for all the poor and oppressed, because Thesius in life was the champion and the avenger of the poor, and always kindly hearkened to their prayers. It was in keeping with the humane spirit of that age, described above, that the Athenians transformed this mythical hero into a sympathetic protector of the lowly. The same process of thought made him the creator of his country's liberty, the founder of democracy. The Academy. Lastly among Simon's works may be mentioned his improvement of the academy, a precinct of Athena on the banks of the Cessiphus, northwest of Athens. A gymnasium had stood there from the age of the tyrants, but the spot was dry and unsheltered. Simon converted it into a public garden, well watered and shaded with plains, elms, and other trees, under which there were pleasant walks. There the Athenian boy was wont, quote, to run races beneath the sacred olives along with some modest age fellow, crowned with white olives, redolent of you and careless ease, and of leaf shedding white poplar rejoicing in the season of spring when the plain tree whispers to the elm, end quote. Temples and sculpture. While in our study of this age our interest has centered in Athens, we must bear in mind that equal or even greater public improvements were being made throughout Hellas, that thus far Athens received much more from the rest of Hellas than she gave. That she had neither temples nor works of utility that could compare with those of Akragas and Syracuse already mentioned. Agena II had a beautiful temple, apparently to local goddess Afeia, built about the time of the Battle of Salamis, and a quarter of a century later was finished the great temple to Zeus at Olympia. All these shrines had their decorative sculptures, often symbolical of the recent struggle for freedom. Great gains were made in the representation of the human form. The anatomy of the body was now vastly better known, and the fixedness of attitude and expression yielded to mobility and life. Monotony of pasture gave way to variety. Miran. The greatest artistic achievement of the age is to be credited to Miran of Athens, the most famous of athletic sculptors. We know him best from his discobulus, a bronze statue, several marble copies of which are extant. As a piece of sculpture can represent but a single attitude, it must tell its story by suggestion. This problem Miran was the first to solve. His discobulus stands, quote, at the top of the swing, and quote, with every muscle at its utmost tension. The body, wonderfully contorted, yet pleasing in its naturalness and harmony. We read in the momentary attitude the entire story of the, quote, unquote, record-breaking throw. A defect to be made good by later artists is the calmness of the face wholly out of keeping with the violent tension of the body. The charioteer of Delphi. With this piece we may contrast another work of the age by an unknown non-Athenian artist, the bronze statue of the charioteer of Delphi. Associated with it originally were chariot and four. The quiet dignity of bearing and the intelligent face, full of character and reserved strength, indicate no ordinary jockey, but a man fit to take part in the councils of state. For in this age, even kings did not despise the role of charioteer. It is, undoubtedly, the most excellent bronze Greek statue in existence. Illustration, charioteer at Delphi. The spirit of the age. The last two works mentioned represent contrasting aspects of the same great age, tremendous force, kept well in hand and austere dignity. These heroic qualities, subordinating prettiness, characterized the Marathonian warriors who dominated the generation. Back of their loud utterance and stiff stride is the stout heart and the high purpose. If a law of development has brought about this harmonious relation of fine arts to human character, that fact can only be taken as evidence of the spontaneous and organic growth of Hellenic civilization. End of Chapter 13. Chapter 14 of Hellenic History. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jane Bennett, Melbourne, Australia. Hellenic History by George Willis Botsford. Chapter 14. The Age of Pericles. One imperialism. One political and military. 461 to 445. Athens, now independent of Sparta, builds up a new alliance. 462 to 1. The Spartan insult to Athenian arms had paralyzed the Laconian faction within Athens and had brought to the front the party of Themistocles and Ephialtes, which was bent on making for their city an independent career in Hellenic politics. Having lived under a monarchy till after the Persian War, the Argives adopted a democratic constitution patent after the Athenian, and this reform prepared the way to a close alliance. Thessaly, too, whose cities were generally governed by the old nobility joined the new lead. Alliance with Megara, control of the Corinthian Gulf, 459. Soon afterward, the democratic party in Megara got the upper hand and sought of Athens protection from her more powerful neighbour Corinth, who was attempting forcibly to annex the little state. Athens welcomed the proposal, and by extending her protectorate over at Megara's, acquired a commercial position on the Corinthian Gulf. The arrangement secured for the new ally her independence and easy access to the Athenian markets, in which her people sold their garden products and their manufactured wares. In the following year, when the helots at Mount Hithome surrendered with the privilege of withdrawing from Peloponnesi, Athens settled them at Norpactus near the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf. She was ambitious to gain over this water, the control which she already exercised over the Seronic Gulf. Her principal motive to this policy was the further development of commas with Italy and Sicily. War between Athens and the Peloponnesians, 458 to 449. The aggression of Athens in these and other quarters, however, stirred her rivals Corinth and Aegina to war. These two states, which had once enjoyed a commercial and naval superiority over Athens, now found their trade choked by the rise of Piraeus and their very existence threatened by Athenian ambition. Well, now most of her forces were engaged elsewhere, Athens was able to overwhelm the combined navies of the army to besiege Aegina and to defeat a Corinthian army which had invaded Megoras. At this time the fear of a general war with Peloponnes determined Athens to enter vigorously upon the construction of long walls, begun by Cimon to connect the city with Piraeus. They ran parallel about four and a half miles in length and 550 feet apart, thus enclosing a broad, strongly fortified road from Athens to her chief source of supplies. After this completion the city could never be effectively besieged so long as her fleet held the sea. The enemy might invade Attica and destroy property but could not hope to carry the walls by assault. Meanwhile the Athenians, dwelling in security, could subsist indefinitely on imported food. Battle of Tenagra and of Inafaita 457, alliance with Biosia, Focus and Locres. This measure brought home to the neighbours of Athens, more forcibly than ever, the war-like intentions of the democratic city. The contagion of her aggressive spirit spread to her friends in Biosia and Focus but moved her rivals to more energetic opposition. The Peloponnesian League introduced an army into Biosia to encourage the aristocrats of that country in their resistance to Athens and especially to restore the Biosian League under the supremacy of Thebes, who through medism had lost her former leadership. The Athenians marched out to meet this army and a fierce battle ensued at Tenagra. Having won the victory the Peloponnesians returned home, leaving Thebes to defend her own supremacy. Two months later the Athenians again took the field, overthrew a Biosian army at Inafaita, and made themselves masters of all Biosia. Although in most towns they set up popular governments, it seems clear that in some cases they recognised and agreed to support existing oligarchies. Focus was already an ally. The Locrians were coerced into the League and compelled to give hostages. New Athenian alliances in Peloponnes, Fall of Egyna, 457-6. About the same time Athens conquered some territory from Corinth, and won most of Achia to her alliance. Already Troetson, in which from of old Ionian blood mingled with Dorian, had cast her lot with the kindred city that seemed destined to sweep all eastern Hellas within the sphere of her hegemony. After a siege of two years Egyna surrendered, dismantled her walls, and entered the Delian Confederacy, paying a tribute of thirty talents a year. Height of Athenian power on land, 456. The long walls were now completed, and Athens was secure from every attack by land and sea. The imperial ambition of Pericles seemed to be wholly justified. In a period of five years, Athens had built up a continental federation, including parts of Peloponnes, extending continuously from the Ismus to Thermopylae, and embracing intermittently the inconstant Thessalians. Time for organising this alliance, bad fare to create a power on land superior to the Peloponnesian League. The Egyptian expedition 459-4. The ambition of Athens however exceeded her strength. While in need of all her forces at home, she had dared to continue on a large scale her operations against Persia. In 465 Xerxes closed his inglorious reign, murdered by his Grand Vizier, and was succeeded by a son, Arta Xerxes, who was too good-natured and too feeble to maintain peace throughout the empire. His chief peril lay in the revolt of Egypt. Having previously sent a fleet of 200 ships against Cyprus, Athens diverted a squadron of it to the support of the rebellion, in the hope of striking the king at the weakest point in his defence, and of gaining control of the rich Nile valley. After several years of campaigning with various fortune in the neighbourhood of Memphis, the armament was destroyed, and few of the crews ever returned to their homes. An additional force of 50 triremes coming too late to their relief suffered the same fate. At the smallest estimate, this expedition entailed a loss of 90 ships with most of their crews. It was a terrible blow to Athens, and yet she could not rest till she had attempted to retrieve the disaster. Carmon's expedition to Cyprus 449, his death. After the Battle of Tanagra, in which 100 companions of Carmon had proved their loyalty and his by heroism unto death, the great Admiral was recalled from exile. In 450 he negotiated a five years truce with Sparta, and the next year led a fleet of 200 ships to attempt once more the liberation of Cyprus. He died during the siege of Scytium, but afterwards his troops won a victory by land and sea. It was the last battle in the 40 years war between Hellas and Persia. The fleet returned home, however, without gaining any permanent advantage. The death of Carmon was an irreparable loss. He had won more naval battles than any other Greek, under his command the Athenians attained to their widest dominion, and to the height of their political efficiency, peace with Persia 448. It was his greatest praise that after his death, Athenians began negotiations with the Persian king for peace. The two great expeditions recently sent to the eastern Mediterranean had brought only loss, and this seemed no hope of accomplishing anything by further effort. No one could take Carmon's place, and no great advocate of offensive war against Persia remained. Evidently too, Pericles began to recognise the limitations on the capacity of Athens, and preferred to husband her resources for the more immediate and narrow objects of his Aegean and peninsula policies. Before his state could via successfully with Persia, the dominion in the eastern Mediterranean, it was necessary for her to build up a broader and stronger empire at the expense of her near neighbours. The Athenians accordingly dispatched Kalius, once the husband of El Penechic, to Suso to make peace. The proud king refused to acknowledge formally the session of his Greek provinces in Asia Minor to Athens. He consented however, to leave them undisturbed by land and sea. Athens, on her part, agreed to cease her attacks upon the possessions of the great king. Though dissatisfied with the slight concession, the Athenians could only accept the terms. True, they were no longer free to indulge in lucrative wars of plunder and imperacy upon the Persian domain, but henceforth they had unrestricted opportunity for commerce with Asia and Egypt, which had once enriched the Asiatic Greeks, and now promised larger returns than aggressive wars and buccaneering. Battle of Coronia, 447, fall of the Athenian Continental League. While a certain advantage came to Athens from these eastern arrangements, she was unfortunate in the Continental Alliance recently formed. The Bioscian oligarchs, whom Athens had expelled from their cities, returned in force, and defeated a small detachment of Athenians, taking most of them prisoners. To secure their release, Athens agreed to evacuate Bioscia. This action entailed the loss of Locus and Focus. Soon afterward, Euboea and Meguro revolted, and a Peloponnesian army invaded Attica. Only the energy and diplomacy of Pericles snatched his city from this extreme peril. The Spartan king withdrew, perhaps was bribed, Meguro returned to the Peloponnesian League, and the Euboea revolt was crushed. The thirty years' peace, 446-5, Pericles and his colleagues saw clearly the exhaustion of their state. The disaster in Egypt, the substantial failure of the great expedition to Cyprus, the heavy loss in men from the domestic wars, and the vast expense of all these undertakings had overstrained the ability of Athens and had necessitated a breathing time. In 445 accordingly, after the Euboeic campaign, the Athenians agreed with the Peloponnesians to a thirty years' peace on the basis of the status quo. Athens gave up all her recently acquired continental allies, retaining only Plataea and Norpactus. On the other hand, she received an acknowledgement of her maritime empire. Neither party was to interfere with the allies of the other, but each remained free to make treaties with neutral states. The principle of the open door was established for their commercial relations, and it was agreed that disputes should be settled by arbitration. The lack of a clear understanding as to the means and method of arbitration, however, rendered the last mentioned article inoperative. However, faulty the terms, both parties to the treaty, freed from the heavy burden of the conflict, rejoiced in the advantages of mutual commerce, of internal recuperation, and improvement promised them by the truce. 2. The Athenian Empire Completion of the change from Confederacy to Empire, about 454 As the grand scheme of a grandestment at the expense of Persia and of Hellenic neighbours had for the time being failed, Pericles could now cherish no other political ambition than the more thorough consolidation of the maritime alliance and the strengthening of the city with a view to future efficiency. The policy of converting it into an empire, outlined by Aristides and developed by Cayman, was now brought to completion. One by one the states had been reduced to subjection till only Lesbos, Kios and Samos remained free. They paid no tribute but furnished naval forces for the wars waged under Athenian leadership. It was to their immediate interest to maintain the supremacy of Athens. Hence they willingly stood guard for her over the empire and even favoured the strengthening of her power. Thus it was on the proposition of the Samians that the treasury was transferred from Delos to Athens. The failure of the Egyptian expedition and the existence of war with the Peloponnesians made this change a measure of precaution for the safety of the fund. But the events so increased the preponderance of Athens as to mark, better than any other, the end of the transformation from Confederacy to Empire. The general congress, which had long been insignificant, now wholly disappeared. Athens became the centre of the system and Athena took the place of Apollo as its guardian deity. Use of the imperial funds, the tribute districts. It was the intention of Pericles to fulfil the duty of Athens towards the Confederacy by policing the Aegean Sea and to use the remainder of the tributes for purely Athenian objects including the payment of the citizens for civil as well as for military service and the erection of public works at the capital. For the more effective collection of tributes, he defied the empire into five districts, Ionia, the Helispont, Thrace, Caria and the islands. The levees were reapportioned every four years by Athenian officials. In case an allied state felt itself unjustly assessed, it could only petition for a reconsideration. New treaties with individual states. Generally, new treaties were made one by one with the individual states, imposed by the Athenian government and formally accepted by the allies. In Erythrae for example, a garrison was established whose commander was virtually governor of the city. Under him was a council of 120 taken annually by lot from the citizens above 30 years of age. All the Erythraeans swore to be faithful to Athens and the annual council took oath not to revolt or to encourage rebellion. The courts of the city retained jurisdiction in ordinary capital cases as well as in lesser crimes. The city was to send sacrificial victims to the Panathenaea and any Erythraean who chance to be present at the festival was to have a share of the offering. The relations were to be not merely political but religious and social. The treatment of Calces was somewhat more severe. The Ubeans had brought Athens into great danger by revolting at a critical moment and had wantonly massacred the crew of an Athenian ship. The worst offenders including the nightly class in Calcas were expelled and their lands occupied by Athenian colonists. The Calcidians were treated nearly the same as the Erythraeans. They were deprived however of the right to try capital cases involving disfranchisement, exile or death. Such offenses had to be brought before the Athenian courts. Other states were still more restricted in their jurisdiction. The Athenian colony planted in Histia had to send to the mother city all cases involving more than 10 drachmas. Extent of the Imperial jurisdiction. Ground has been taken by some modern scholars that these restrictions applied not only to crimes but also to civil suits between the members of the allied community. So much however cannot be proved by the sources. Such a requirement too would seem an intolerable incubus of bond and business altogether inconsonant with the Athenian aim to foster prosperity throughout her empire. Opponents of the Periclean policy naturally exaggerated the interference. Even on the most favorable interpretation however, the number of cases brought to Athens was great. Any citizen of an allied state was liable to appear before an Athenian court as plaintiff or defendant and this circumstance tended to foster in him a cringing spirit. He is compelled to behave as a supliant in the courts of justice and to grasp the hands of the jurymen as they come in. For this reason the allies find themselves more and more in the position of slaves to the Athenians. When no great interest of their own was at stake the Athenian jurors were impartial. Conscious of their high calling as imperial judges they loved and followed justice for its own sake. On the common ground of Attic law they met the allies as their equals. In the case of a community against an Athenian official their sympathies gravitated inevitably towards the former. Thus it was that the majority received better justice from Athens than formerly they had from their own local courts. The masses were assured protection from their oligarchs. The masters of the empire were stripped in collecting tribute and severe in punishment of rebellion but gentle in their treatment of the loyal to maintain our rights against equals to be politic with superiors and moderate towards inferiors is the way of safety. Imperial weights, measures and coins. For commercial reasons and quite as much through pride in their imperial rule the Athenians forced their money as well as their weights and measures upon the allies whose local mince were restricted to small denominations. For Athens and the islands the standard was still silver and the denomination most in use was the four drachma piece about 73 cents with its archaic head of Athena and the owl. An honest though inartistic coin as acceptable throughout the civilized world as French or British gold is today. In the Anatolian cities the standard was the electrum stata usually worth 25 silver drachmas. For coins of this metal were essential to trade with the interior and the Pontic region. The extension of attic weights, measures and coins along with the attic language and laws pointed to the ultimate consolidation of the empire in a single state. This end however could only have been reached through the long continuance of the empire. Lack of representation in the government of the empire. Citizenship in the leading city no ally demanded so far as we know and had it been offered few perhaps would have accepted. In far later time the wholesale extension of the Roman franchise to the Mediterranean world did not prove an unmixed good. The fundamental defect in the Athenian imperial system however is sufficiently obvious to us. The allies were given no hope of ever inquiring representation in the central government but were convinced that Athens was bent on forever maintaining her place not as president but as master. Hence the political leaders of the allied states with scarcely an exception seized every opportunity to revolt. It was this weakness accordingly that made the system short lived. As was formally noticed however the concentration of political power in the leading city was due to the allies even more than to the Athenians. Colonization of the empire. The policy of colonizing vacant lands of the empire with Athenians begun by Caimon continued under Pericles. Particularly the authors of rebellion were expelled and their lands occupied by Athenians. Colonies were established in Naxos, Andros and Sonope on the Black Sea and elsewhere. The earlier settlement in Caesanesi, Pericles enlarged and fortified. By these means he relieved the state of numerous idle agitators assisted the needy and overrode the allies by placing his colonists near them to watch their behavior. Under his administration at least 6,000 Athenians were thus disposed of. The members of the colony remaining Athenian formed a self-governing community. Relieved of service in the army they performed garrison duty. The allies regarded these colonies as an encroachment upon their territory and a menace to such freedom as they still retained. Though a temporary grievance the colonial policy tended to adhesize the allies and had time allowed would have served as a powerful factor in consolidating the empire into a single state. Material advantages brought by the empire. Athens brought to these subjects the blessings of peace and protection. Under the edges of a powerful navy the ships of her humblest ally could safely plow the sea to Egypt and Tyre to Pontus or to the pillars of Heracles. Through importations the luxuries of other lands became common comforts. The choice products of Italy and Sicily of Cyprus and Egypt and Lydia of Pontus and Peloponnesi or wherever else it may be are all swept into one centre through the sole means of the maritime empire. During a period of 67 years the profound quiet was disturbed by no invader and in most states by no domestic war. Skilled industry flourished, farms were well stocked and fields well tilled. In no period of the world's history has this region developed so great a prosperity, the feelings of the allies. Under these circumstances the feelings of the allies towards Athens mingled good with ill. It was a grievance to carry their cases to Athens and cringe like suppliance before the common men who composed the juries, a hardship to pay the annual tribute, although that was far less than would have been the cost of defending themselves however ineffectively. They felt sorely to the presence of Athenian garrisons and they cherished the genuine Hellenic love of sovereign independence for their cities. Yet positive antipathy was limited to the old families whom the empire had robbed of their political ascendancy and the scheming marketplace politicians who saw in revolt their way to leadership in the estates. The manufacturers and merchants who paid the bulk of the tribute must have been satisfied with the economic advantages assured them by Athenian rule and the multitude in every state were loyal. At present said a speaker in the Athenian assembly the popular party are everywhere our friends. They either do not join with the oligarchs or if compelled to do so they are always ready to turn against the authors of the revolt hence in going to war with a rebellious state you have the multitude on your side. Paradoxical as at first view it may seem the empire if we reckon by majorities was a more voluntary system than had been the confederacy it had become an organization not only for protection from foreign enemies but for the maintenance of democracy. The anti-imperialists little Athenians the imperial aims of Pericles roused opposition at Athens the banishment of Caimont had disorganized the conservatives but after the peace with Persia his kinsmen Thucydides son of Meletius gathered up the remnants of the party with a view to checking the schemes of Pericles he did not allow the notables to mix themselves up with the people in the public assembly as they had been want to do so that their dignity was lost in the masses but he collected them into a separate body and by thus concentrating their strength was able to use it to counterbalance that of the other party though undistinguished in war he was a better orator than Caimont and a farm or expert politician he charged against Pericles the negotiations with Persia as traitorous to Hellas the tyranny over the allies the transfer of the treasury to Athens and its use in decking out the city like a vain woman his party began to call Pericles a new Pysistratus and to denounce him as a real tyrant one of the comic poets asserted that the Athenians delivered into his hands the tribute from the towns the towns themselves the city walls to build or destroy the right of making either peace or war and all the wealth and produce of the land when however the conservatives appealed to ostracism they were rebuked by the banishment of their leader and again were utterly disorganized Pericles was therefore left unimpeded in his management of the empire the revolt of Samos 440 to 39 it was still no easy task to hold the empire together shortly after this ostracism trouble came from Samos the state which had been among the first to enter the Confederacy and which had most strenuously upheld the Athenian power it had gone to war with Miletus over the possession of Pryini a remarkable circumstance in view of the fact that Miletus was dependent the latter complained to Athens and Samos refused arbitration but revolted under the instigation of the oligarchs the Persians offered the aid of a Phoenician fleet Byzantium revolted in sympathy the existence of the empire came into extreme peril but the Athenians met the crisis with extraordinary promptness Pericles besieged the island bringing newly invented siege engines to bear upon the walls after nine months it surrendered and received the punishment formerly meted out to Naxos and Tharsos the empire emerged from the crisis more strongly cemented than before the slain were given a magnificent funeral and as Pericles descended from the speaker's stand after delivering the eulogy on the dead the women of Athens crowned him with wreaths and ribbons like a victorious athlete so highly did they value his service in that momentous campaign the black sea region the happy issue of this trouble left Pericles free to extend the prestige and power of Athens to the coasts of the Pontus sailing thither with a large splendidly equipped fleet he awakened in the native princes a feeling of respect for Athens and won to her the allegiance of several Greek cities in that region whose names appear thereafter in the lists of contributory states on the south shore he planted Athenian colonies doubtless however the chief object was to promote closer relations with the region on which Athens depended more and more for supplies for wheat and fish for ship timber metals dyes heights slaves and other commodities not merely the products of the sea and its coasts were thus brought to Athens and her neighbours but also those of the distant interior for from Olbia on the northern Pontic shore extended a great caravan route northeastward to the Ural mountains and Thins toward the rising sun through central Asia to the borders of China from these regions were imported furs drugs and gold the founding of Thuria 446 still earlier Pericles following the path marked out by Themistocles and adding political to commercial relations with the west had begun to contract alliances with the states of Sicily and Magna Grecia great expectations centered in the colony of Thuria sent out by him to the territory of Cyprus a city which had been totally destroyed by the men of Croton the country was marvelously fertile and Pericles may well have hoped to make the new city the great commercial depot of Athens in the west in composition however Thuria was a pan Hellenic foundation to which the Peloponnesian states as well as those of the Athenian Empire contributed settlers here in fact was a scheme of Pericles by which he hoped to go in Hellenic acknowledgement of the leadership of Athens a model city Thuria was to be in every sense a modern city Hippodamus a famous civil engineer from Miletus laid it out in broad straight streets crossing one another at right angles its laws were compiled by the sage Protagoras who collected what was best in those of ancient Locro of the various Calcidian cities of the cities of Peloponnesi and Crete and finally of Athens among these laws was a most enlightened provision for the compulsory education of children in schools supported by the state so far as we know this was the first body of law that rested upon a basis broader than the customs and ideas of a single state this character made it the germ of the law of nations and of the natural law afterward developed by the Romans the cultural significance of the colony therefore was extraordinary the non-Athenian element however dominated and as the antipathy between Peloponnesi and Athens between Dorians and Ionians grew bitter the colony was not only lost to its mother city but suffered grievously from civil strife furthermore the political complications of Athens with the west led ultimately to her interference in Sicilian affairs and to a disaster of which the Periclean Helens could not have even dreamed end of chapter 14 chapter 15 of Hellenic history this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jane Bennett Melbourne Australia Hellenic history by George Willis Botsford chapter 15 the age of Pericles to the Athenian democracy democracy the correlate of imperialism a necessary correlate of the foreign and imperial policy of Athens during this age was that her government should continue its progress towards absolute democracy for it was the masses who were chiefly interested in the plunder of conquest the extension of the empire and the concentration of jurisdiction in the hands of the popular courts the popular assembly ecclesia the essential institution of government was the popular assembly embracing theoretically and potentially all adult male citizens practically all with the leisure and inclination to attend the government did not as yet pay for attendance hence the masses were present but rarely on occasions of special interest or excitement during the Peloponnesian war the number seldom reached 5000 and must usually have been far smaller though the patriot considered it his duty to be present and to take an interest in public affairs one complains never in my lifetime man or boy was I so vexed as at this present moment to see the nicks at this time of the morning quite empty when the assembly should be full functions of the assembly from the time of Pericles there were four stated meetings every Britannia besides extraordinary sessions certain stated meetings were for special purposes the first assembly in each Britannia reviewed the conduct of magistrates suspending from office anyone accused of malversation and handing him over to a popular court for trial this was an extreme use of the principle of the recall in case of acquittal he resumed his office under these circumstances the magistrates deprived of all independence were limited strictly to executing the will of the assembly the same meeting considered the grain supply and the defense of the country the second assembly of the Britannia is assigned to suppliance and at this meeting anyone is free on depositing the suppliance olive branch to speak to the people on any matter public or private the two other meetings are occupied with the remaining subjects and the laws require them to deal with three questions connected with religion three relating to heralds and embassies and three on secular subjects restricted by the laws and by the 500 experience and self-restraint the principle was accepted that not the people but the law it's governed under the statutes of the fathers the assembly deliberated on the question proposed and all had a right to speak whether officers or private persons the measures were initiated by the 500 generally on the advice of a leading statesman and the people decided if few of us are originators says Pericles we are all sound judges of a policy Aristotle explains any member of the assembly taken separately is certainly inferior to the wise man the state however is made up of many individuals and as a feast to which all the guests contribute is better than a banquet furnished by one man so the multitude is a better judge of many things than an individual accepting when the people were violently moved by fear hatred or other like passion the principle here enunciate had undoubtedly held true especially in a body of men more experienced in public affairs and the more appreciative of their responsibility than could be any equally large gathering of citizens in a modern state the council of 500 the theory that under the laws the people themselves were sovereign that the whole folk year by year in parity of service is our king could not be put into strict practice the actual administration had to be trusted mainly to a smaller more wieldy body the council of 500 organized in 10 groups of foremen as previously explained these groups served in rotation as committees for governmental control and for initiating decrees affecting the administration much of the supervisory power formally wielded by the areopagites was transferred to this council 462 it examined accordingly the fitness of candidates for office arranged for their election or assortition and cooperated with them in most of their duties it kept a strict watch over them especially over those who handled money permitting no money to be received or dispersed apart from its supervision for a time it had full power to punish for misuse of office furthermore the council superintendent the construction repair and preservation of triremes or other vessels of war and of public buildings inspected the horses belonging to the state revised the list of the cavalry and attended to a great multitude of other duties the most noteworthy of its administrative functions inherited from the council of the areopagus was its guardianship of the constitution involving the right of exercising in crises the power of life and death over both officials and private citizens far from giving reign to license and lawlessness the pericles and democracy sternly enforced the moral discipline to which the people had grown accustomed under aristocratic rule the popular supreme court heliaya on one side the assembly was checked by the 500 as it was limited to the program drawn up by the preteneus on another side its action was as effectually controlled by the heliaya popular court the germ of this institution had existed from the time of solon that the absence of pay for servers reinforcing the general aristocratic spirit of the constitution had established the well-to-do in virtual control originally it was a court of appeal from the decisions of the archons who are men of experience and ability chosen for their special fitness from the two wealthiest classes the decline of the archonship especially through the introduction of sortition fulfilling the offers together with the general progress of democracy continually increased the importance of the jurors the age of pericles further democratized the archonship by opening it to the zeugatai henceforth any respectable citizen above the thetics senses however mean his ability was eligible because of their lack of knowledge of the law and their general mediocrity the archons could no longer act as judges but became mere clerks with the routine duty of preparing cases for trial and with a nominal presidency of the jury as will be explained below democratization of the law courts dicastria meanwhile with the gathering of the people into the city the attendance on the juries naturally increased finally after the overthrow of the council of the aria opicus in 462 in the same year pericles carried a measure for the payment of jurors probably at the rate of two opals a day this act completely democratized the institution as it enabled the poorest to attend regularly and in large numbers the introduction of pay should not be too hastily branded as an encouragement to idleness for the able-bodied generally preferred more immunerative and less confining employment the typical juror was an old man whose days of manual labor were passed he had served the state as a hoplite or oarsman and was now drawing his jurors fee in a lieu of a pension for which however he had to sit judging day by day from early morn till night many had country homes near Athens and in a comedy of Aristophanes we see them before daybreak trudging lantern in hand along the road to the city to be at court on time organization of the courts reasons for the large juries there were now 6 000 jurors drawn annually by lot 600 from each tribe applicants for the service had to be Athenians in the full exercise of their rights and at least 30 years of age at the beginning of the year they were put under oath to give their decisions according to law and in the absence of a statute covering the case according to their best judgment and conscience normally they were divided into juries of 501 although we occasionally hear of smaller and larger panels as the decision was by majority vote the odd number was to prevent a tie the most obvious ground for the large jury was to make bribery difficult nevertheless towards the end of the century the mischief crept in where upon the Athenians devised a complicated system of choosing jurors and of assigning them to the several cases with the result that a man could not ascertain on what case he was to sit till he had entered the courtroom this precautions substantially eliminated bribery the large number further more was to provide against intimidation the great nobles felt themselves above the laws and would have ridden roughshod over a jury of the modern type but dared not condemn so numerous an assembly of citizens the Athenians felt too that no smaller number could adequately represent the wishes and interests of the whole people who if democracy was to be more than a pretence must needs exercise judicial as well as legislative and executive functions pleaders addressed the jurors as citizens and democrats and in truth the courts were the stronghold of popular government to these considerations of the Athenians themselves we may add the fact important in cultural history that these large gatherings of men of inherent artistic temperament who in the assembly the theater and the public festivals had nursed their taste in beautiful prose and verse made possible the development of a judicial oratory of universal and eternal literary values these positive advantages were counterbalanced by defects a large audience is more subject to passion than a small group of men an Athenian jury was often moved by political feeling and especially when the accuser was known to entertain anti-popular sentiments he was less certain to obtain justice this defect however was but relative the courts has constituted undoubtedly dispensed fair judgments to a far larger proportion of the citizens than would have been possible under any other arrangement from the juristic point of view the system was defective in that it admitted neither of judges nor of a lawyer class the court was a jury without a judge under a mere chairman who possessed neither the knowledge nor the right to interpret the law or to guide the proceedings every man had to plead his own case he might in need have recourse to a professional retribution who had a smattering of legal knowledge and who for a fee would write his speech for him under these circumstances there was no such thing as case law or precedent hence there could be no consistency in the decisions attic law was simpler than is that of any modern state and it was assumed that every citizen was sufficiently acquainted with the code but in vain the jurors were disposed to pay little heed to the letter of the law and to estimate instead the character of the accuser and his value to the state has he served the community well they asked and if acquitted will he continue to render good service however childish it may seem to us this attitude of mind had its advantages in a small community in which the jurors were personally acquainted with the litigants it has been urged to by modern critics that the system fostered in the Athenians a litigious spirit and a quarrelfulness which shows itself even in the drama however that may be it was an institution well suited to the Athenian temperament and the typical old juror was thoroughly in love with his work in Aristophanes wasps when a certain grown-up son had confined his father at home behind bolts and bars a slave of the household gives the following reason for this severe discipline he is a law court lover no man like him judging is what he dotes on and he weeps unless he sits on the front bench of all at night he gets no sleep no not one grain or if he does the tiniest speck his soul flutters in dreams about the water clock the cop which crew from eventide he said was tampered with he knew to call him late bribed by officials whose accounts were due supper scarce done he clamors for his shoes hurries a daybreak to the court and sleeps stuck like a limpet to the doorpost there such is his frenzy and the more you chide him the more he judges so with bolts and bars we guard him straightly that he's stern not out the process of legislation in the time of Pericles laws were commonly drawn up by special committees appointed by the assembly the draft of such a law was reported to the 500 who brought it before the assembly for confirmation shortly after Pericles the following process was adopted in the first Britannia of every year the Thesma Theta brought the laws under review before the assembly first those relating to the 500 then the general statutes next those dealing with the nine archons and lastly with the other magistrates on this occasion any citizen could propose a new law and the repeal of the corresponding old one sufficient notice was given of such proposals by repeated readings in assembly and by posting near the marketplace in the fourth session of the same Britannia the assembly provided for the pay of a special body of jurors termed nomathetae legislators who were to pass upon the bills brought before them the number of nomathetae varied according to circumstances the proceedings before their body took the form of a trial in which the proposer of the new measure prosecuted the existing law which he wished to repeal it was defended by advocates appointed by the assembly then without taking part in the debate the nomathetae proceeded to vote in case of a majority in favour of the bill it became thereby a law safeguards of the process laws contrasted with decrees it is to be noted that legislation was possible but once a year and was surrounded with most careful safeguards by committing it to a limited number of mature citizens bound by oath the Athenians kept it from the storms of politics it is a remarkable fact too that the initiative only was vested in the assembly whereas the deliberation and the vote belonged to a jury that in other words the legislative function was not differentiated from the judicial the acts here under consideration were strictly laws memoi dealing with the fundamental and permanent things of government they are to be distinguished from decrees seppismata which had to do with the current administration a decree of the council alone held good for the official year but if approved by the people it was valid till repealed the writ against illegality grafe paranormal another function of the courts was the protection of the constitution the downfall of the council of the areopagus removed the last conservative check upon the government in the judgment of affialte's the people were no longer children in politics but had reached a maturity of experience that made them capable of protecting their own government without the aid of any form of paternalism the definite instrument in their hand for this purpose was the writ against illegality under this procedure any citizen could stop deliberation on any subject in the assembly by declaring under oath his intention to test the legality of the proposal before a popular court it was incumbent upon him accordingly to prosecute the proposer of the decree or law if convicted the accuser was liable to a heavy fine to disenfranchisement or even to death the prosecutor on the other hand who failed to obtain a fifth part of the votes was punishable with a fine of a thousand drachmas and disqualified from bringing further prosecutions this precaution was taken against ill-founded or malicious accusations originally the writ was applied only to actual illegality but in time politicians began to use it against any proposals which they could represent as detrimental to the community statesmen then found in it a weapon for assailing one another as a milder and less dangerous instrument of political warfare it superseded ostracism ordinary cases at law the great majority of cases before the courts however were of the ordinary civil and criminal types jurisdiction in homicide still remained with the ariopicites and the aphetide the archon according to the nature of the suit prepared the case for trial writing out and placing under seal the statements of plaintiff and defendant and the testimonies of witnesses the same authority presided over the court that tried the case the witnesses were present not to be cross questioned but merely to acknowledge their testimony the jurors not the chairman had a right to interrupt a speaker if he digressed or spoke obscurely and each party to the trial could interrogate the other and require an answer after the proceedings and testimonies were given the jurors without deliberation proceeded to vote by secret ballot a condemned man was executed without delay the judicial system applied to the allies the extension of Athenian jurisdiction over the allies greatly increased the amount of judicial business at Athens and necessitated a multiplication of the courts although many juries were engaged simultaneously in hearing suits throughout the year except on assembly days and festivals cases awaiting trial accumulated to the injury of the parties concerned while grumbling at delays the allies made no complaint of corruption or favoritism though far from ideal the system secured to the masses a large degree of justice and contributed to civilization a treasure of eloquence the magistrates the spirit of democracy found expression too in the multiplication of officials till the number became enormous Aristotle reckons seven hundred at home and a number unknown to us but doubtless large for the empire they usually served in boards normally of ten most of them were filled annually by lot without the privilege of reappointment on the theory that all citizens above the Thetes were competent to the ordinary duties of administration and were equally entitled to a share in it officers requiring special qualifications particularly military posts were elective and could be indefinitely repeated the generals Tartica since the great constitutional act of 487 to six the generals were the highest magistrates they not only commanded the army and navy but embraced most of the functions falling in a modern state to the ministry or cabinet they kept informed on foreign affairs conducted negotiations not otherwise provided for and requested the Britonias to call special sessions of the assembly in order to introduce foreign ambassadors they attended to the defences of the country and the preparations for war the assembly could leave all equal or confer the absolute command upon one or appoint one or more of the board to special duties like other officials the generals were subject to deposition and trial for maladministration the board had to keep in touch with the assembly and the member who excelled as orator and statesman inevitably took the lead of his colleagues it was through this position that Pericles governed during a great part of his administration any Athenian whether an officer or a private citizen who undertook to guide the policy of the state had to bear a heavier weight of responsibility than has been necessary in any less democratic form of government the masses who constituted the assembly fullers cobblers copper smiths stone masons hucksters and farmers could not be expected to have the same acquaintance with the details of policy especially in foreign relations that might be presupposed in a select body of public men such for instance as the roman senator or a modern parliament the democracy accordingly had to place greater trust in its advisers and require of the expert knowledge the statesman recognized this condition and ran his risk if his enterprise failed he was liable to severe punishment for having deceived the people where great interests are at stake explains an orator in the assembly we who advise ought to look further and weigh our words more carefully than you whose vision is limited and you should remember that we are accountable to nobody if he who gave and he who followed evil counsel suffered equally you would be more reasonable in your ideas but now whenever you meet with the reverse led away by the passion of the moment you punish the individual advisor for his error of judgment but your own error you condone the speaker recognized the necessity of the condition though he wished it might be different he knew well that the situation had its bright side if a statesman succeeded his glory was all the more splendid the democracy was far more inclined than the earlier aristocracy to hero as its great men in evidence we may adduce the almost unbearing loyalty with which the commons supported pericles during his long career end of section 15 the age of pericles the Athenian democracy