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.
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