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.
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