Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/305

CHANGE IN THE ATHENIANS. 27S The love of peace, either in a community or in an individual. usually commands sympathy without farther inquiry, though there are times of growing danger from without, in which the adviser of peace is the worst guide that can be followed. Since the Pelo- ponnesian war, a revolution had been silently going on in Greece, whereby the duties of soldiership had passed to a great degree from citizen militia into the hands of paid mercenaries. The re- sident citizens generally had become averse to the burden of mili- tary service ; while on the other hand the miscellaneous aggregate of Greeks willing to carry arms anywhere and looking merely for pay, had greatly augmented. Very differently had the case once stood. The Athenian citizen of 432 B. c. by concurrent testi- mony of the eulogist Perikles and of the unfriendly Corinthians was ever ready to brave the danger, fatigue, and privation, of foreign expeditions, for the glory of Athens. " He accounted it holidaywork to do duty in her service (it is an enemy who speaks ] ) ; he wasted his body for her as though it had been the body of another." Embracing with passion the idea of imperial Athens, he knew that she could only be upheld by the energetic efforts of her individual citizens, and that the talk in her public 1 I have more than once referred to the memorable picture of the Athe- nian character, in contrast with the Spartan, drawn by the Corinthian envcy at Sparta in 432 B. c. (Thucyd. i. 70, 71). Among the many attributes, in- dicative of exuberant energy and activity, I select those which were most required, and most found wanting, as the means of keeping back Philip. 1. Ilapu 6'vvaniv TO%fj.7]Tal, Kal irapa -yvu^v KivSvvevral, Kal enl rcl( 2. "AOKVOI Trpof fyitif ^ueA/ly/raf, Kal uTrodj] urjral Ttpb<; roi/f (in opposition to you, Spartans). 3. Tof fj.ev aujjaatv u^AOTpiururoif virep T Xpuvrai, ry yvufj.ri 6e oiKeioTa-'y if -b Trpuaaeiv TI iinsp avrijf, etc. 4. K a ravr a /J.ETU irovuv nuv ra Kal K ivdvvuv 6 1' oho v TOV aluvu /j.ox-&ovai, Kal uirohavovaiv eXu^t a -a T;^ b Trap^o vru v, 6ia TO uel KTucr&ai Kal /J.^TS koprfyv i/l/lo r t. 7/yet<T- &ai T) rd ra Seovra Trpugai, l-Vftfoptlv re oi>% fyaaov -ffav^iav uTrpay- fiova i] aaxoMav FTTIITOVOV, etc. To the same purpose Perikles expresses himself in his funeral oration of the ensuing year ; extolling the vigor and courage of his countrymen, as alike forward and indefatigable yet as combined also with a love of pub- lic discussion, and a taste for all the refinements of peaceful and intelle^ tual life (Thucyd. ii. 40, 41).