Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/385

CHANGES --■ 1 ATHKNS UXDEU PERIKLES. 361 of the Delian confederacy, etc. All these circumstances tended to open new veins of hope and feeling, and new lines of action, in the Athenians between 480— 4G0 B.C., and by consequence to render the interference of the senate of Areopagus, essentially old-fashioned and conservative as it was, more and more difficult. But at the very time when prudence would have counselled that it should have been relaxed or modified, the senate appear to have rendered it stricter, or at least to have tried to do so : which could not fail to raise against them a considerable body of enemies. Not merely the democratical innovators, but also the representatives of new interests generally at Athens, became opposed to the senate as an organ of vexatious repression, em- ployed for oligarchical purposes. i From the character of the senate of Areopagus, and the an- cient reverence with which it was surrounded, it served naturally as a centre of action to the oligarchical or conservative party, — that party which desired to preserve the Blleisthenean constitu- tion unaltered, with undiminished authority, administrative as well as judicial, both to individual magistrates and to the collec- tive Areopagus. Of this sentiment, at the time of which we are now speaking, Kimon was the most conspicuous leader, and his brilliant victories at the Eurymedon, as well as his exploits in other warlike enterprises, doubtless strengthened very much his political influence at home. Tho same party also probably included the large majority of rich and old families at Athens ; who, so long as the magistracies were elected and not chosen by lot, usually got themselves chosen, and had every interest in keeping the power of such offices as high as they could. More- over, the party was farther strengthened by the pronounced support of Sparta, imparted chiefly through Kimon, proxenus of Sparta at Athens. Of course, such aid could only have been indirect, yet it appears to have been of no inconsiderable mo- ment, — for when we consider that ^gina had been in ancient ' Plutarch. Reipub. Ger. Prsecept. p. 805. Ovk uyvou de, on ^ovXijv riveg i-ax^f/ icai 6?.iyapxtKi/v KoAovaavTEC, ua—ep ^E<j>ia?.rTic 'Ai9^v7?fft koI ^opfiiuv nap' ^H/.eloir, divofiiv u/ia /cat 66^av eaxov. About the oligarchical character of the Areopagitcs, see Dcinarchus cont. Bemosthen. pp 46. 98. VOL. V. 10