However, Perikles thought that it would be a
very serious matter to fight for the very existence of Athens against
sixty thousand Peloponnesian and Boeotian[A] heavy-armed troops, and so
he pacified those who were dissatisfied at his inactivity by pointing
out that trees when cut down quickly grow again, but that when the men
of a State are lost, it is hard to raise up others to take their place.
He would not call an assembly of the people, because he feared that they
would force him to act against his better judgment, but, just as the
captain of a ship, when a storm comes on at sea, places everything in
the best trim to meet it, and trusting to his own skill and seamanship,
disregarding the tears and entreaties of the sea-sick and terrified
passengers; so did Perikles shut the gates of Athens, place sufficient
forces to ensure the safety of the city at all points, and calmly carry
out his own policy, taking little heed of the noisy grumblings of the
discontented. Many of his friends besought him to attack, many of his
enemies threatened him and abused him, and many songs and offensive
jests were written about him, speaking of him as a coward, and one who
was betraying the city to its enemies. Kleon too attacked him, using the
anger which the citizens felt against him to advance his own personal
popularity, as we see from the following lines of Hermippus:
"King of Satyrs, wherefore fear you
Spear to wield, and only dare to
Talk in swelling phrase, while yet you
Cower, Teles like,
And when goaded on, past bearing,
By our Kleon's tongue so daring,
Only gnash your teeth despairing,
Still afraid to strike.
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