also versed in affairs of state, and understood every thing immediately. We may judge of this from the orations of Demosthenes, whose style, we know, is ardent, brief, and concise. III. "As they naturally inclined to relieve persons of a low condition and mean circumstances, so were they fond of conversations seasoned with pleasantry, and calculated to make people laugh."* They assisted persons of a mean condition, because from such they had nothing to apprehend in regard to their liberty, and saw in them the characters of equality and resemblance with themselves. They loved pleasantry, and showed in that that they were men, but men abounding with humanity and indulgence, who understood raillery, who were not prone to take offence, nor over delicate in point of respect to be paid them. One day when the assembly was fully formed, and the people had already taken their places and sat down, Cleon, after having made them wait his coming a great while, appeared at last with a wreath of flowers upon his head, and desired the people to adjourn their deliberations to the next day. "For to-day," said he, "I have business. I have been sacrificing to the gods; and I am to entertain some strangers, my friends, at supper." The Athenians, setting up a laugh, rose and broke up the assembly. At Carthage, such a pleasantry would have cost any man his life who had presumed to vent it, and to take such a liberty with a proud, haughty, jealous, morose people, of a genius averse to complacency, and less inclined to humour. Upon another occasion, the orator Stratocles, having informed the people of a victory, and caused sacrifices to be offered in consequence, three days after, news came of the defeat of the army. As the people expressed their discontent and resentment upon the false information, he asked them, "of what they had to complain, and what harm he had done them, in making them pass three days more agreeably than they would otherwise have done?" IV. "They were pleased with hearing themselves praised, and could not bear to be railed at, or criticised." The least acquaintance with Aristophanes and Demosthenes will show, with what address and effect they employed praises and criticism with regard to the people of Athens.‡ "When the republic enjoyed peace and tranquillity," says Plutarch in another place," the Athenian people diverted themselves with the orators who flattered them; but in important affairs, and emergencies of the state, they became serious, and gave the preference to those whose custom it had been to oppose their unjust desires; such as Pericles, Phocion, and Demosthenes. V. "They kept those who governed them in awe, and showed their hu manity even to their enemies." The people of Athens made good use of the talents of those who distinguished themselves by their eloquence and prudence; but they were full of suspicion, and kept themselves always on their guard against the superiority of genius and ability; they took pleasure in restraining their courage, and lessening their glory and reputation. This may be judged from the ostracism, which was instituted only as a curb on those whose merit and popularity ran too high, and which spared neither the greatest nor the most worthy persons. The hatred of tyranny and tyrants, which was in a manner innate with the Athenians, made them extremely jealous and apprehensive for their liberty with regard to those who governed. In regard to their enemies, they did not treat them with rigour; they did not make an insolent use of victory, nor exercise any cruelty towards the vanquished. The amnesty decreed after the tyranny of the thirty, shows that they could forget the injuries which had been done them. * Ωσπερ των ανδρων τους αδόξοις και ταπεινοις βοηθειν προθυμότερος, ύτως των λόγων της παι νιώδεις και γελοίος ασπαζεται και προτιμα. ↑ Xenoph. de Athen. Rep. p. 691. * Τοις μεν επαινεσιν αυτόν μάλισα χαίρει, τοις δε σκωπτεσιν ήκιςα δυσχεραίνει. Plut. in Phocion. p. 746. Η Φοβερός εσιν άχρι των αρχόντων είτα φιλανθρωπος άχρι των πσεμιών. 364 To these different characteristics, which Plutarch unites in the same passages of his works, some others may be added, extracted principally from the same author. VI. It was from this fund of humanity and benevolence, of which I have now spoken, and which was natural to the Athenians, that they were so attentive to the rules of politeness, and so delicate in point of just behaviour; qualities which one would not expect to find among the common people.* In the war against Philip of Macedon, having intercepted one of his couriers, they read all the letters he carried, except that of Olympias his wife, which they returned sealed up and unopened, out of regard to conjugal love and secrecy, the rites of which are sacred, and ought to be respected even among enemies. The same Athenians, having decreed that a strict search should be made after the presents distributed by Harpalus among the orators, would not suffer the house of Callicles, who was lately married, to be visited, out of respect for his bride, who had not long been home. Such behaviour is not very common; and upon like occasions people do not stand much upon forms and politeness.f VII. The taste of the Athenians for all arts and sciences is too well known to require dwelling long upon it in this place. Besides which, I shall have occasion to speak of it with some extent elsewhere. But we cannot, without admiration, behold a people, composed for the most part, of artisans, husbandmen, soldiers, and mariners, carrying delicacy of taste in every thing to so high a degree of perfection, which seems the peculiar attribute of a more exalted condition and noble education. VIII. It is no less wonderful, that this people should have such great views and should rise so high in their pretensions. In the war which Alcibiades caused them to undertake, fired with vast projects and unbounded hopes, they did not confine themselves to the taking of Syracuse, or the conquest of Sicily, but had already in idea added Italy, Peloponnesus, Libya, the Carthaginian gates, and the empire of the sea to the pillars of Hercules. Their enterprise failed; but they had formed it, and the taking of Syracuse, which seemed no great difficulty, might have enabled them to put it in execution. IX. The same people, so great, and we may say so haughty in their projects, had nothing of that character in other respects. In what regarded the expense of the table, dress, furniture, private buildings, and, in a word, private life, they were frugal, simple, modest, and poor; but sumptuous and magnificent in every thing public, and capable of doing honour to the state. Their victories, conquests, wealth, and continual intercourse with the people of Asia Minor, introduced neither luxury, gluttony, pomp, nor vain profusion among them. Xenophon observes, that a citizen could not be distinguished from a slave by his dress. The richest inhabitants, and the most famous generals, were not ashamed to go to market themselves.§ It was very glorious for Athens to have produced and formed so many persons illustrious in the arts of war and government; in philosophy, eloquence, poesy, painting, sculpture, and architecture; to have alone furnished more great men in every other department, than any other city in the world; except perhaps Rome, which had imbibed learning and arts from her, and knew how to improve her lessons to the best advantage; to have been in a manner the school of almost all the world; to have served, and still continue to serve, as the model for nations which pride themselves most upon the excellency of taste; in a word, to have taught the language, and prescribed the laws of all that regards the talents and productions of the mind. The part of this history, wherein I shall treat of the sciences and learned men that rendered Greece illustrious, with the arts, and those who excelled in them, will set this in a clear light. Πατριον αυτοίς και σύμφυτον ην το φιλανθρωπον. In Pelop. p. 230. Μεγα φρονεί, μεγάλων ορέγεται· Plut. in Demetr. p. 898. De Rep. Athen. p. 693. Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes "Greece taken, took her savage victors' hearts, X. I shall conclude this description of the Athenians with one more attribute, which cannot be denied them, and appears evidently in all their actions and enterprises; and that is, their ardent love of liberty. This was their darling passion, and great principle of policy. We see them, from the commenceinent of the war with the Persians, sacrificing every thing to the liberty of Greece. They abandoned, without the least regret, their lands, estates, city, and houses, and removed to their ships in order to fight the common enemy, whose view was to enslave them. What could be more glorious for Athens, than, when all the allies were trembling at the vast offers made her by the king of Persia, to answer his ambassador by the mouth of Aristides, that all the gold and silver in the world was not capable of tempting them to sell their own, or the liberty of Greece ?* It was from such generous sentiments that the Athenians not only became the bulwark of Greece, but preserved the rest of Europe, and all the western world, from the invasion of the Persians. These great qualities were mingled with great defects, often the very reverse of them, such as we may imagine in a fluctuating, light, inconstant, and capricious people, like the Athenians. SECTION VI.-COMMON CHARACTER OF THE LACEDÆMONIANS AND ATHENIANS. I CANNOT refuse giving a place here to what Mr. Bossuet says upon the character of the Lacedæmonians and Athenians. The passage is long, but will not appear so, as it includes all that is wanting to a perfect knowledge of the genius of both these people. Among all the republics of which Greece was composed, Athens and Lacedæmon were undoubtedly the principal. No people could possess more wit than the Athenians, nor more solid sense than the Lacedæmonians. Athens affected pleasure; the Lacedæmonian manner of living was hard and laborious. Both loved glory and liberty; but the liberty of Athens tended to licentiousness. The love of power among the Lacedæmonians, though restricted by severe laws at home, was the more ardent to extend itself abroad. Athens also was fond of power, but upon another principle, in which interest had a share with glory. Her citizens excelled in the art of navigation, and the sovereignty at sea had enriched her. To continue in the sole possession of all commerce, there was nothing she would not have subjected to her power; and her riches, which inspired this passion, supplied her with the means of gratifying it. On the contrary, at Lacedæmon money was in contempt. As all the laws tended to make the latter a military republic, the glory of arms was the sole object that engrossed her citizens. From thence she naturally affected dominion; and the more she was above interest, the more she abandoned herself to ambition. Lacedæmon, from her regular life, was steady and determinate in her maxims and measures. Athens was more lively and active, but the people had too much control. Their laws and philosophy had indeed the most happy effect upon excellent natural capacities like theirs; but reason alone was not capable of keeping them within due bounds. A wise Athenian, who perfectly knew the genius of his country, informs us, that fear was necessary to keep those too ardent and free spirits in order; and that it was impossible to govern them, after the victory at Salamin had removed their fears of the Persians.† They were therefore ruined by the glory of their great actions, and the supposed security of their present condition. The magistrates were no longer heard; and as Persia was afflicted with excessive slavery, so Athens, says Plato, experienced all the evils of excessive liberty. These two great republics, so opposite in their manners and conduct, interfered with each other in the design they had each formed of subjecting all Greece; so that they were always enemies, more from the contrariety of their interests, than the dissimilarity of their genius. • Plut, in Aristid. p. 324. Plat. I. iii. de Leg. The Grecian cities were against submitting to the dominion of either the one or the other; for, besides the desire of preserving their liberty, they found the empire of those two republics too-grievous to bear. That of the Lacedæmonians, who were observed to have something almost brutal in their character, was severe. A government too rigid, and a life too laborious, rendered their tempers too haughty, austere, and imperious in power: besides which, it could never be expected to live in peace under the authority of a city, which, formed for war, could not support itself but by continuing perpetually in arms.* So that the Lacedæmonians were capable of attaining to command, and all the world were afraid they should do so.t The Athenians were naturally obliging and agreeable. Nothing was more delightful to behold than their city, in which feasts and games were perpetual: their wit, liberty, and the various passions of men, daily exhibited new objects; but the inequality of their conduct disgusted their allies, and was still more insupportable to their own subjects. It was impossible for them not to experience the extravagance and caprice of a flattered people, which is, according to Plato, somewhat more dangerous than the same excesses in a prince vitiated by flattery.† These two cities did not permit Greece to continue in repose. We have seen the Peloponnesian and other wars, which were always occasioned or fomented by the jealousy of Lacedæmon and Athens. But the same jealousies which involved Greece in troubles, supported it in some measure, and prevented its falling into the dependence of either the one or the other of those republics. The Persians soon perceived this condition of Greece; and accordingly the whole mystery of their politics consisted in keeping up those jealousies, and fomenting those divisions. Lacedæmon, which was the most ambitious, was the first that gave them occasion to enter into the quarrels of the Greeks. They engaged in them from the sole view of making themselves masters of the whole nation; and, industrious to weaken the Greeks by their own arms, they waited only the opportunity to crush them altogether. The states of Greece, in their wars, regarded only the king of Persia, whom they called the Great King, or "the King," by way of eminence, as if they had already been of the number of his subjects. But it was impossible that the ancient spirit of Greece should not revive, when they were upon the point of falling into slavery, and the hands of the barbarians.§ The petty kings of Greece undertook to oppose this great king, and to ruin his empire. But with a small army, disciplined as we have related, Agesilaus, king of Sparta, made the Persians tremble in Asia Minor, and showed that it was not impossible to subvert their power || The divisions of Greece alone put a stop to his conquests. The famous retreat of the ten thousand, who, after the death of the younger Cyrus, made their way in a hostile manner through the whole Persian empire, and returned into their own country, fully demonstrated to Greece that her soldiery was invincible, and that only their domestic divisions could subject them to an enemy too weak to resist their united force. We shall see, in the sequel of this history, how Philip king of Macedon, taking advantage of these divisions, succeeded at length, between address and force, in making himself little less than the sovereign of Greece, and in obliging the whole nation to march under his colours against the common enemy. What he had only planned, his son Alexander brought to perfection, who showed the wondering world, how much ability and valour avail against the most numerous armies, and the most formidable preparations. ↑ Xenoph. de Rep. Lacon. Aristot. Polit. 1. i. p. 4. Plat. de Rep. 1, viii, THE HISTORIES OF DIONYSIUS AND HIS SON, TYRANTS OF SYRACUSE SYRACUSE had for about sixty years enjoyed the liberty gained by the expulsion of the family of Gelon. The events which passed in that interval, except the invasion of the Athenians, are of no great importance, and little known; but those which follow are of a different nature, and make amends for the chasm; I mean the reigns of Dionysius and his son, tyrants of Syracuse; the first of whom governed thirty-eight, and the latter twelve years.* As this history is entirely foreign to what passed in Greece at the same time, I shall relate it in this place altogether and by itself; observing only, that the first twenty years of it, upon which I am now entering, agree almost in point of time with the last preceding twenty years. This history will present to our view a series of the most odious and horrid crimes, though it abounds at the same time with instruction. When on the one side we behold a prince, the declared enemy of liberty, justice, and laws, trampling on the most sacred rights of nature and religion, inflicting the most cruel torments upon his subjects, beheading some, burning others for a slight word, delighting and feasting himself with human blood, and gratifying his savage inhumanity with the sufferings and miseries of every age and condition,t can we deny a truth, which the pagan world itself has confessed, and Plutarch has taken occasion to observe in speaking of the tyrants of Sicily," that God in his anger gives such princes to a people, and makes use of the impious and the wicked to punish the guilty and the criminal?" On the other side, when the same prince, the dread and terror of Syracuse, is perpetually anxious, and trembling for his own life, and, abandoned to remorse and regret, can find no person in his whole state, not even his wives or children, in whom he can confide; who will not think with Tacitus, “that it is not without reason that the oracle of wisdom has declared, that if the hearts of tyrants could be seen, we should find them torn in pieces with a thousand evils; it being certain, that the body does not suffer more from inflictions and torments, than the minds of such wretches from their crimes, cruelties, and the injustice and violence of their proceedings.‡ The condition of a good prince is quite different. He loves his people, and is beloved by them: he enjoys a perfect tranquillity within himself, and lives with his subjects as a father with his children. Though he knows that * After having been expelled for more than ten years, he re-ascended the throne, and reigned two or three years. Erit Dionysius illic tyrannus, libertatis, justitiæ, legum exitium-Alios uret, alios verberabit, alios ob levem offensam jubebit detruncari.-Senec. de Consol. ad Marc. c. xvii. Sanguine humano non tantum gaudet, sed pascitur; sed ut suppliciis omniam ætatum crudelitatem insatiabilem explet.--Id de Benef. 1. vii. c. 19. Neque frustra præstantissimus sapientiæ firmare solitus est, si negludantur tyrannorum mentes, posse axpici, laniatus et ictus; quando, ut corpora verberibus, ita sævitia, libidine, malis consultis animus dilacere tur.-Tacit. Anmal. I. vec6. |