PERICLES: A Tale OF ATHENS IN THE EIGHTY-THIRD OLYMPIAD. BY THE AUTHOR OF "A BRIEF SKETCH OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1846. 1268. INTRODUCTION. BEFORE entering upon the perusal of the following pages, a brief introduction may be needful; for it is not a novel which is now presented to the reader. The individuals described, with a very few exceptions, did so act, and suffer, and think; and no other liberty has been taken than that of bringing the general law of the moral universe to bear upon some of the circumstances recorded in history, and to account for what would otherwise appear as isolated facts. Man is essentially the same in all ages, and so consequential are all his doings, that no further proof of insanity is required than a series of actions which could have no connection with each other. An isolated fact is not to be found in nature; and, therefore, the facts being recorded, I have merely endeavoured to give them the natural connection: as those who find a half erased inscription on an ancient monument endeavour to supply the context to the words which remain. In both cases it is, and must remain a conjecture; yet sometimes so supported by probability, that we feel tempted to receive it as truth. I must leave the learned reader to decide whether I have filled up the inscription aright; those who read for amusement only will probably feel more interest in the tale than in its truth. We of modern times have been singularly ungrateful to the Greeks; for though there is hardly any development of science which we do not owe to their early researches, which opened the mines of knowledge for after-labourers, very few have studied the people and the customs among which the human mind made such large strides; and to nine tenths of the reading world in England they are only known as a vain, turbulent, inquisitive people, who had fine sculptors and architects, but whose philosophers were mere pretenders to science, and whose language is only useful as being that of the New Testament. Yet there are many parts even of the New Testament which must be very imperfectly understood without a better knowledge than is generally possessed of the manners and customs of those among whom the great Apostle of the Gentiles had to preach the gospel. In endeavouring, therefore, to paint the Athenian as he lived and moved under his own bright sun, I have had a further object than that of merely writing an entertaining book— I have wished to make my reader understand the times and the people. Historical facts may be found else-where; yet even here I have been careful in ascertaining, as far as possible, the true chronological arrangement of events, and have inserted nothing that has not historical authority, or that does not so far accord with it that it may reasonably be admitted as a necessary filling up of an hiatus. Of course many of the minor characters must be representatives of a class rather than of any individual man. Leostratos has no place in history: Pheidias, we know, had a son, but we have no further mention of him. Ariphron and Glycera are likewise imaginary personages, as well as Metrodoros, Dicaios, and other artisans and slaves, with the exception of Euangelos, the faithful steward of Pericles. Dromeas the para site finds honourable mention in Athenæus, but it is likely that he lived at rather a later period than I have assigned to him. All Greek scholars know the difficulties attending the chronology of the period: one date, however, that of the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, is fixed, and from that others can be confidently inferred. The last fifteen years of Pericles' life he is said to have ruled without a competitor; and Heeren hereupon fixes the ostracism of Thucydides the Elder, B. C. 444, i. e. fifteen years before the death of the great Athenian minister. The various persecutions of his friends, from which he with such |