Artax. who were in the alliance, in order that peace or war Longim. might be agreed upon unanimously. This decree of the Lacedæmonians was made the fourteenth year of the truce; and was not owing so much to the complaints of the allies, as to the jealousy of the Athenian power, which had already subjected a considerable part of Greece. X Accordingly the allies were convened a second time. They all gave their votes, in their several turns, from the greatest city to the least, and war was resolved by a general consent. However, as they had not yet made any preparations, it was judged adviseable to begin them immediately; and while this was doing, in order to gain time, and observe the necessary formalities, to send ambassadors to Athens, to complain of the violation of the treaty. The first who were sent thither, reviving an an cient complaint, required of the Athenians to expel out of their city the descendants of those who had prophaned the temple of Minerva in the affair of * Cylon. As Pericles was of that family by the mother's side, the view of the Lacedæmonians, in their making this demand, was, either to procure his banishment or lessen his authority. However, it was not complied with. The second ambassadors required, that the siege of Potidea should be raised, and the liberty of gina restored, and above all, that the decree against the Megarians should be repealed; declaring, that otherwise no accommodation could take place. In fine, a third ambassador came, who took no notice of any of these particulars, but only said, that the Lacedæmonians were for peace; but that this could never be, except the Athenians should cease to infringe the liberties of Greece. * Thucyd. 1. i. p. 77-84, and 93. *This Cylon seized on the citadel of Athens above an hundred years before. Those who followed him, being besieged in it, and reduced to extreme famine, fled for shelter to the temple of Minerva, where they afterwards were taken out by force and cut to pieces. Those who advised this murder were declared guilty of impiety and sacrilege, and as such banished. How ever, they were recalled some time after. SECT XIV. Troubles excited against Pericles. He determines the Athenians to engage in war against the Lacedæmonians. 'PERICLES opposed all these demands with great Artax. vigour, and especially that relating to the Mega-Longim. rians. He had great credit in Athens, and at the same time had many enemies. Not daring to attack him at first in person, they cited his most intimate friends, and those for whom he had the greatest esteem, as Phidias, Aspasia, and Anaxagoras, before the people, and their design in this was, to sound how the people stood affected towards Pericles himself. Phidias was accused of having embezzled considerable sums in the casting the statue of Minerva, which was his master-piece. The prosecution having been carried on with the usual forms, before the assembly of the people, not a single proof of Phidias's pretended embezzlement appeared: For that artist, from beginning that statue, had, by Pericles's advice, contrived the workmanship of the gold in such a manner, that all of it might be taken off and weighed; which accordingly Pericles bid the informers do in presence of all the spectators. But Phidias had witnesses against him, the truth of whose evidence he could neither dispute nor silence; these were the fame and beauty of his works, the everexisting causes of the envy which attacked him. The circumstance which they could least forgive in him was, his having represented to the life (in the battle of the Amazons, engraved on the shield of the goddess) his own person, and that of Pericles 2: And, by an imperceptible art, he had so blended and incorporated these figures with the whole work, that it was impossible to erase them, without dis y Plut, in Pericl. p. 168, 169. 2 Aristot. in tractat. de mund. p. 613. Artax. figuring and taking to pieces the whole statue. PhiLongim. dias was therefore dragged to prison, where he came to his end, either by the common course of nature, or by poison. Other authors say, that he was only banished, and that after his exile he made the famous statue of Jupiter at Olympia. It is not possible to excuse, in any manner, the ingratitude of the Athenians, in thus making a prison or death the reward of a master-piece of art; nor their excessive rigour, in punishing, as a capital crime, an action that appears innocent in itself; or which, to make the worst of it, was a vanity very pardonable in so great an artist. a Aspasia, a native of Miletus in Asia, had settled in Athens, where she was become very famous, not so much for the charms of her person, as for her vivacity and solidity of wit, and her great knowledge. All the illustrious men in the city thought it an honour to frequent her house. Socrates himself used to visit her constantly; and was not ashamed to pass for her pupil, and to own that he had learnt rhetorick from her. Pericles declared also, that he was obliged to Aspasia for his eloquence, which so greatly distinguished him in Athens; and that it was from her conversation he had imbibed the prin ciples of the art of policy, for she was exceedingly well versed in the maxims of government. Their intimacy was owing to still stronger motives. Pericles did not love his wife; he resigned her very freely to another man, and supplied her place with Aspasia, whom he loved passionately, though her reputation was more than suspicious. Aspasia was therefore accused of impiety and a dissolute conduct; and it was with the utmost difficulty that Pericles saved her, by his intreaties and by the compassion he had raised in the judges, by shedding abundance of tears whilst her cause was pleading, a behaviour little consistent with the dignity of his character, and the rank of supreme head of the most powerful state of Greece. a Plut. in Menex. P. 235. A decree had passed, by which informations were Artax. ordered to be taken out against all such persons as Longim. denied what was ascribed to the ministry of the gods; or those philosophers and others who taught preternatural things, and the motions of the heavens, doctrines on this occasion considered injurious to the established religion. The scope and aim of this decree was, to make Pericles suspected with regard to these matters, because Anaxagoras had been his master. This philosopher taught, that one only intelligence had modified the chaos, and disposed the universe in the beautiful order in which we now see it; which tended directly to depreciate the gods of the pagan system. Pericles thinking it would be impossible for him to save his life, sent him out of the city to a place of safety. The enemies of Pericles seeing that the people approved and received with pleasure all these accusations, they impeached that great man himself, and charged him with embezzling the publick monies during his administration. A decree was made, by which Pericles was obliged to give in immediately his accompts; was to be tried for oppression and ra pine; and the cause to be adjudged by fifteen hundred judges. Pericles had no real cause of fear, because in the administration of the publick affairs his conduct had always been irreproachable, especially on the side of interest: He could not however but be under some apprehensions from the ill-will of the people, when he considered their great levity and inconstancy. One day when Alcibiades (then very young) went to visit Pericles, he was told that he was not to be spoke with, because of some affairs of great consequence in which he was then engaged. * Τα θεῖα μὴ νομίζοντας, ή λόγος περί των μεταρσίων διδάσκοντας. Anaxagoras teaching, that the divine intelligence alone gave a regular motion to all the parts of nature, and presided in the government of the universe; destroyed, by that system, the plurality of gods, their powers, and all the peculiar functions which were ascribed to them. Artax. Alcibiades enquiring what these mighty affairs were, Longim. was answered, that Pericles was preparing to give int his accompts. He ought rather, says Alcibiades, not to give them in: And indeed this was what Pericles at last resolved. To allay the storm, he made a resolution to oppose the inclination the people discovered for the Peloponnesian war no longer, preparations for which had been long carrying on, firmly persuaded that this would soon silence all complaints against him; that envy would yield to a more powerful motive; and that the citizens, when in such imminent danger, would not fail of throwing themselves into his arms, and submit implicitly to his conduct, from his great power, and exalted reputation. b This is what some historians have related; and the comick pocts, in the life-time, and under the eye as it were, of Pericles, spread such a report in publick, to sully, if possible, his reputation and merit, which drew upon him the envy and enmity of many. Plutarch, on this occasion, makes a reflection which may be of great service, not only to those in the administration of publick affairs, but to all sorts of persons, as well as of advantage in the ordinary commerce of life. He thinks it strange, when actions are good in themselves, and manifestly laudable in all respects, that men, purely to discredit illustrious personages, should pretend to dive into their hearts; and from a spirit of the vilest and most abject malice, should ascribe such views and intentions to them, as they possibly never so much as imagined. He, on the contrary, wishes, when the motive is obscure, and the same action may be considered in different lights, that men would always view it in the most favourable, and incline to judge candidly of it. He applies this maxim to the reports which had been spread concerning Pericles, as the fomenter of the Pelopon nesian war, merely for private views of interest; whereas, the whole tenor of his past conduct ought Þ Plut. de Herod. malign. p. §55, 856. |