destroyed enormous numbers of people, and among them most of the leading
men. And in this year died Camillus, at a ripe old age, full of years
and honours, more regretted by the Romans than all those who died of the
plague.
LIFE OF PERIKLES.
I. One day in Rome, Caesar, seeing some rich foreigners nursing and
petting young lapdogs and monkeys, enquired whether in their parts of
the world the women bore no children: a truly imperial reproof to those
who waste on animals the affection which they ought to bestow upon
mankind. May we not equally blame those who waste the curiosity and love
of knowledge which belongs to human nature, by directing it to
worthless, not to useful objects? It is indeed unavoidable that external
objects, whether good or bad, should produce some effect upon our
senses; but every man is able, if he chooses, to concentrate his mind
upon any subject he may please. For this reason we ought to seek virtue,
not merely in order to contemplate it, but that we may ourselves derive
some benefit from so doing. Just as those colours whose blooming and
pleasant hues refresh our sight are grateful to the eyes, so we ought by
our studies to delight in that which is useful for our own lives; and
this is to be found in the acts of good men, which when narrated incite
us to imitate them. The effect does not take place in other cases, for
we frequently admire what we do not wish to produce; indeed we often are
charmed with the work, but despise the workman, as in the case of dyes
and perfumery which we take pleasure in, although we regard dyers and
perfumers as vulgar artizans. That was a clever saying of Antisthenes,
who answered, when he heard that Ismenias was a capital flute-player,
"But he must be a worthless man, for if he were not, he would not be
such a capital flute-player!" and King Philip of Macedon, when his son
played brilliantly and agreeably on the harp at an entertainment, said
to him, "Are you not ashamed, to play so well?"
It is enough for a king, if he sometimes employs his leisure in
listening to musicians, and it is quite a sufficient tribute from him to
the Muses, if he is present at the performances of other persons.
II. If a man devotes himself to these trifling arts, the time which he
wastes upon them proves that he is incapable of higher things. No well
nurtured youth, on seeing the statue of Jupiter Olympius at Pisa, wishes
that he were a Pheidias, or that he were a Polykleitus on seeing the
statue of Juno at Argos, nor yet while he takes pleasure in poetry, does
he wish that he were an Anakreon, a Philetas, or an Archilochus; for it
does not necessarily follow that we esteem the workman because we are
pleased with the work. For this reason men are not benefited by any
spectacle which does not encourage them to imitation, and where
reflection upon what they have observed does not make them also wish to
do likewise; whereas we both admire the deeds to which virtue incites,
and long to emulate the doers of them.
We enjoy the good things which we owe to fortune, but we admire virtuous
actions; and while we wish to receive the former, we wish ourselves to
benefit others by the latter. That which is in itself admirable kindles
in us a desire of emulation, whether we see noble deeds presented before
us, or read of them in history. It was with this purpose that I have
engaged in writing biography, and have arranged this tenth book to
contain the lives of Perikles and of Fabius Maximus, who fought against
Hannibal, men who especially resembled one another in the gentleness and
justice of their disposition, and who were both of the greatest service
to their native countries, because they were able to endure with
patience the follies of their governments and colleagues. Of my success,
the reader of the following pages will be able to judge for themself.
III. Perikles was of the tribe Akamantis, and of the township of
Cholargos, and was descended from the noblest families in Athens, on
both his father's and mother's side. His father, Xanthippus, defeated
the Persian generals at Mykalé, while his mother, Agariste, was a
descendant of Kleisthenes, who drove the sons of Peisistratus out of
Athens, put an end to their despotic rule, and established a new
constitution admirably calculated to reconcile all parties and save the
country. She dreamed that she had brought forth a lion, and a few days
afterwards was delivered of Perikles. His body was symmetrical, but his
head was long out of all proportion; for which reason in nearly all his
statues he is represented wearing a helmet, as the sculptors did not
wish, I suppose, to reproach him with this blemish. The Attic poets
called him squill-head, and the comic poet, Kratinus, in his play
'Cheirones,' says,
"From Kronos old and faction,
Is sprung a tyrant dread,
And all Olympus calls him,
The man-compelling head."
And again in the play of 'Nemesis'
"Come, hospitable Zeus, with lofty head."
Telekleides, too, speaks of him as sitting
"Bowed down
With a dreadful frown,
Because matters of state have gone wrong,
Until at last,
From his head so vast,
His ideas burst forth in a throng."
And Eupolis, in his play of 'Demoi,' asking questions about each of the
great orators as they come up from the other world one after the other,
when at last Perikles ascends, says,
"The great headpiece of those below."
IV. Most writers tell us that his tutor in music was Damon, whose name
they say should be pronounced with the first syllable short. Aristotle,
however, says that he studied under Pythokleides. This Damon, it seems,
was a sophist of the highest order, who used the name of music to
conceal this accomplishment from the world, but who really trained
Perikles for his political contests just as a trainer prepares an
athlete for the games. However, Damon's use of music as a pretext did
not impose upon the Athenians, who banished him by ostracism, as a
busybody and lover of despotism. He was ridiculed by the comic poets;
thus Plato represents some one as addressing him,
"Answer me this, I humbly do beseech,
For thou, like Cheiron, Perikles did'st teach."
Perikles also attended the lectures of Zeno, of Elea, on natural
philosophy, in which that philosopher followed the method of Parmenides.
Zeno moreover had made an especial study of how to reduce any man to
silence who questioned him, and how to enclose him between the horns of
a dilemma, which is alluded to by Timon of Phlius in the following
verses:
"Nor weak the strength of him of two-edged tongue,
Zeno that carps at all."
But it was Anaxagoras of Klazomenae who had most to do with forming
Perikles's style, teaching him an elevation and sublimity of expression
beyond that of ordinary popular speakers, and altogether purifying and
ennobling his mind. This Anaxagoras was called Nous, or Intelligence, by
the men of that day, either because they admired his own intellect, or
because he taught that an abstract intelligence is to be traced in all
the concrete forms of matter, and that to this, and not to chance, the
universe owes its origin.
V. Perikles greatly admired Anaxagoras, and became deeply interested in
these grand speculations, which gave him a haughty spirit and a lofty
style of oratory far removed from vulgarity and low buffoonery, and also
an imperturbable gravity of countenance, and a calmness of demeanour and
appearance which no incident could disturb as he was speaking, while the
tone of his voice never showed that he heeded any interruption. These
advantages greatly impressed the people. Once he sat quietly all day in
the market-place despatching some pressing business, reviled in the
foulest terms all the while by some low worthless fellow. Towards
evening he walked home, the man following him and heaping abuse upon
him. When about to enter his own door, as it was dark, he ordered one of
his servants to take a torch and light the man home. The poet Ion,
however, says that Perikles was overbearing and insolent in
conversation, and that his pride had in it a great deal of contempt for
others; while he praises Kimon's civil, sensible, and polished address.
But we may disregard Ion, as a mere dramatic poet who always sees in
great men something upon which to exercise his satiric vein; whereas
Zeno used to invite those who called the haughtiness of Perikles a mere
courting of popularity and affectation of grandeur, to court popularity
themselves in the same fashion, since the acting of such a part might
insensibly mould their dispositions until they resembled that of their
model.
VI. These were not the only advantages which Perikles gained from his
intimacy with Anaxagoras, but he seems to have learned to despise those
superstitious fears which the common phenomena of the heavens produce in
those who, ignorant of their cause, and knowing nothing about them,
refer them all to the immediate action of the gods. Knowledge of
physical science, while it puts an end to superstitious terrors,
replaces them by a sound basis of piety. It is said that once a ram with
one horn was sent from the country as a present to Perikles, and that
Lampon the prophet, as soon as he saw this strong horn growing out of
the middle of the creature's forehead, said that as there were two
parties in the state, that of Thucydides and that of Perikles, he who
possessed this mystic animal would unite the two into one. Anaxagoras
cut open the beast's skull, and pointed out that its brain did not fill
the whole space, but was sunken into the shape of an egg, and all
collected at that part from which the horn grew. At the time all men
looked with admiration on Anaxagoras, but afterwards, when Thucydides
had fallen, and all the state had become united under Perikles, they
admired Lampon equally.
There is, I imagine, no reason why both the prophet and the natural
philosopher should not have been right, the one discovering the cause,
and the other the meaning. The one considered why the horn grew so, and
for what reason; the other declared what it _meant_ by growing so, and
for what _end_ it took place. Those who say that when the cause of a
portent is found out the portent is explained away, do not reflect that
the same reasoning which explains away heavenly portents would also put
an end to the meaning of the conventional signals used by mankind. The
ringing of bells, the blaze of beacon fires, and the shadows on a dial
are all of them produced by natural causes, but have a further meaning.
But perhaps all this belongs to another subject.
VII. Perikles when young greatly feared the people. He had a certain
personal likeness to the despot Peisistratus; and as his own voice was
sweet, and he was ready and fluent in speech, old men who had known
Peisistratus were struck by his resemblance to him. He was also rich, of
noble birth, and had powerful friends, so that he feared he might be
banished by ostracism, and consequently held aloof from politics, but
proved himself a brave and daring soldier in the wars. But when
Aristeides was dead, Themistokles banished, and Kimon generally absent
on distant campaigns, Perikles engaged in public affairs, taking the
popular side, that of the poor and many against that of the rich and
few, quite contrary to his own feelings, which were entirely
aristocratic. He feared, it seems, that he might be suspected of a
design to make himself despot, and seeing that Kimon took the side of
the nobility, and was much beloved by them, he betook himself to the
people, as a means of obtaining safety for himself, and a strong party
to combat that of Kimon. He immediately altered his mode of life; was
never seen in any street except that which led to the market-place and
the national assembly, and declined all invitations to dinner and such
like social gatherings, so utterly that during the whole of his long
political life he never dined with one of his friends, except when his
first cousin, Euryptolemus, was married. On this occasion he sat at
table till the libations were poured, upon which he at once got up and
went away. For solemnity is wont to unbend at festive gatherings, and a
majestic demeanour is hard to keep up when one is in familiar
intercourse with others. True virtue, indeed, appears more glorious the
more it is seen, and a really good man's life is never so much admired
by the outside world as by his own intimate friends. But Perikles feared
to make himself too common even with the people, and only addressed
them after long intervals--not speaking upon every subject, and, not
constantly addressing them, but, as Kritolaus says, keeping himself like
the Salaminian trireme for great crises, and allowing his friends and
the other orators to manage matters of less moment. One of these friends
is said to have been Ephialtes, who destroyed the power of the Council
of the Areopagus, "pouring out," as Plato, the comic poet, said, "a full
and unmixed draught of liberty for the citizens," under the influence of
which the poets of the time said that the Athenian people
"Nibbled at Euboea, like a horse that spurns the rein,
And wantonly would leap upon the islands in the main."
VIII. Wishing to adopt a style of speaking consonant with his haughty
manner and lofty spirit, Perikles made free use of the instrument which
Anaxagoras as it were put into his hand, and often tinged his oratory
with natural philosophy. He far surpassed all others by using this
"lofty intelligence and power of universal consummation," as the divine
Plato calls it;[A] in addition to his natural advantages, adorning his
oratory with apt illustrations drawn from physical science.
[Footnote A: Plato, Phaedrus.]
For this reason some think that he was nicknamed the Olympian; though
some refer this to his improvement of the city by new and beautiful
buildings, and others from his power both as a politician and a general.
It is not by any means unlikely that these causes all combined to
produce the name. Yet the comedies of that time, when they allude to
him, either in jest or earnest, always appear to think that this name
was given him because of his manner of speaking, as they speak of him as
"thundering and lightening," and "rolling fateful thunders from his
tongue." A saying of Thucydides, the son of Melesias, has been
preserved, which jestingly testifies to the power of Perikles's
eloquence. Thucydides was the leader of the conservative party, and for
a long time struggled to hold his own against Perikles in debate. One
day Archidamus, the King of Sparta, asked him whether he or Perikles was
the best wrestler. "When I throw him in wrestling," Thucydides answered,
"he beats me by proving that he never was down, and making the
spectators believe him." For all this Perikles was very cautious about
his words, and whenever he ascended the tribune to speak, used first to
pray to the gods that nothing unfitted for the present occasion might
fall from his lips. He left no writings, except the measures which he
brought forward, and very few of his sayings are recorded. One of these
was, that he called Aegina "the eyesore of the Peiraeus," and that "he
saw war coming upon Athens from Peloponnesus." Stesimbrotus tells us
that when he was pronouncing a public funeral oration over those who
fell in Samos, he said that they had become immortal, even as the gods:
for we do not see the gods, but we conceive them to be immortal by the
respect which we pay them, and the blessings which we receive from them;
and the same is the case with those who die for their country.
IX. Thucydides represents the constitution under Perikles as a democracy
in name, but really an aristocracy, because the government was all in
the hands of one leading citizen. But as many other writers tell us that
during his administration the people received grants of land abroad, and
were indulged with dramatic entertainments, and payments for their
services, in consequence of which they fell into bad habits, and became
extravagant and licentious, instead of sober hard-working people as they
had been before, let us consider the history of this change, viewing it
by the light of the facts themselves. First of all, as we have already
said, Perikles had to measure himself with Kimon, and to transfer the
affections of the people from Kimon to himself. As he was not so rich a
man as Kimon, who used from his own ample means to give a dinner daily
to any poor Athenian who required it, clothe aged persons, and take away
the fences round his property, so that any one might gather the fruit,
Perikles, unable to vie with him in this, turned his attention to a
distribution of the public funds among the people, at the suggestion, we
are told by Aristotle, of Damonides of Oia. By the money paid for public
spectacles, for citizens acting as jurymen and other paid offices, and
largesses, he soon won over the people to his side, so that he was able
to use them in his attack upon the Senate of the Areopagus, of which he
himself was not a member, never having been chosen Archon, or
Thesmothete, or King Archon, or Polemarch. These offices had from
ancient times been obtained by lot, and it was only through them that
those who had approved themselves in the discharge of them were advanced
to the Areopagus. For this reason it was that Perikles, when he gained
strength with the populace, destroyed this Senate, making Ephialtes
bring forward a bill which restricted its judicial powers, while he
himself succeeded in getting Kimon banished by ostracism, as a friend of
Sparta and a hater of the people, although he was second to no Athenian
in birth or fortune, had won most brilliant victories over the Persians,
and had filled Athens with plunder and spoils of war, as will be found
related in his life. So great was the power of Perikles with the common
people.
X. One of the provisions of ostracism was that the person banished
should remain in exile for ten years. But during this period the
Lacedaemonians with a great force invaded the territory of Tanagra, and,
as the Athenians at once marched out to attack them, Kimon came back
from exile, took his place in full armour among the ranks of his own
tribe, and hoped by distinguishing himself in the battle amongst his
fellow citizens to prove the falsehood of the Laconian sympathies with
which he had been charged. However, the friends of Perikles drove him
away, as an exile. On the other hand, Perikles fought more bravely in
that battle than he had ever fought before, and surpassed every one in
reckless daring. The friends of Kimon also, whom Perikles had accused of
Laconian leanings, fell, all together, in their ranks; and the Athenians
felt great sorrow for their treatment of Kimon, and a great longing for
his restoration, now that they had lost a great battle on the frontier,
and expected to be hard pressed during the summer by the Lacedaemonians.
Perikles, perceiving this, lost no time in gratifying the popular wish,
but himself proposed the decree for his recall; and Kimon on his return
reconciled the two States, for he was on familiar terms with the
Spartans, who were hated by Perikles and the other leaders of the common
people. Some say that, before Kimon's recall by Perikles, a secret
compact was made with him by Elpinike, Kimon's sister, that Kimon was
to proceed on foreign service against the Persians with a fleet of two
hundred ships, while Perikles was to retain his power in the city. It is
also said that, when Kimon was being tried for his life, Elpinike
softened the resentment of Perikles, who was one of those appointed to
impeach him. When Elpinike came to beg her brother's life of him, he
answered with a smile, "Elpinike, you are too old to meddle in affairs
of this sort." But, for all that, he spoke only once, for form's sake,
and pressed Kimon less than any of his other prosecutors. How, then, can
one put any faith in Idomeneus, when he accuses Perikles of procuring
the assassination of his friend and colleague Ephialtes, because he was
jealous of his reputation? This seems an ignoble calumny, which
Idomeneus has drawn from some obscure source to fling at a man who, no
doubt, was not faultless, but of a generous spirit and noble mind,
incapable of entertaining so savage and brutal a design. Ephialtes was
disliked and feared by the nobles, and was inexorable in punishing those
who wronged the people; wherefore his enemies had him assassinated by
means of Aristodikus of Tanagra. This we are told by Aristotle. Kimon
died in Cyprus, while in command of the Athenian forces.
XI. The nobles now perceived that Perikles was the most important man in
the State, and far more powerful than any other citizen; wherefore, as
they still hoped to check his authority, and not allow him to be
omnipotent, they set up Thucydides, of the township of Alopekae, as his
rival, a man of good sense, and a relative of Kimon, but less of a
warrior and more of a politician, who, by watching his opportunities,
and opposing Perikles in debate, soon brought about a balance of power.
He did not allow the nobles to mix themselves up with the people in the
public assembly, as they had been wont to do, so that their dignity was
lost among 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. From the beginning these two
factions had been but imperfectly welded together, because their
tendencies were different; but now the struggle for power between
Perikles and Thucydides drew a sharp line of demarcation between them,
and one was called the party of the Many, the other that of the Few.
Perikles now courted the people in every way, constantly arranging
public spectacles, festivals, and processions in the city, by which he
educated the Athenians to take pleasure in refined amusements; and also
he sent out sixty triremes to cruise every year, in which many of the
people served for hire for eight months, learning and practising
seamanship. Besides this he sent a thousand settlers to the Chersonese,
five hundred to Naxos, half as many to Andros, a thousand to dwell among
the Thracian tribe of the Bisaltae, and others to the new colony in
Italy founded by the city of Sybaris, which was named Thurii. By this
means he relieved the state of numerous idle agitators, assisted the
necessitous, and overawed the allies of Athens by placing his colonists
near them to watch their behaviour.