The Good Book (99 page)

20. And to fight them at as great distance as could be from the island;

21. But this proved a miscalculation. For on his departure, Melissus, the son of Ithagenes, a philosopher,

22. Being at that time the general in Samos, despising either the small number of the ships that were left or the inexperience of the commanders,

23. Prevailed with the citizens to attack the Athenians. And the Samians having won the battle,

24. And taken several of the men prisoners, and disabled several of the ships, were masters of the sea,

25. And brought into port all necessaries they wanted for the war, which they had not before.

26. Aristotle says, too, that Pericles had been once before this worsted by this Melissus in a sea fight.

27. The Samians, that they might requite the affront which had been put on them, branded the Athenian prisoners on their foreheads with the figure of an owl.

28. For so the Athenians had marked Samians before with a Samaena, which is a sort of ship, low and flat in the prow, so as to look snub-nosed,

29. But wide and large and well-spread in the hold, by which it both carries a large cargo and sails well.

30. And it was so called, because the first of that kind was seen at Samos, having been built by order of Polycrates the tyrant.

31. These brands upon the Samians’ foreheads, they say, are the allusion in the passage of Aristophanes, where he says, ‘For, oh, the Samians are a lettered people.’

32. Pericles, as soon as news was brought him of the disaster that had befallen his army, made all the haste he could to come in to their relief,

33. And having defeated Melissus, he immediately proceeded to hem them in with a wall, resolving to master them and take the town,

34. Rather with some cost and time than with the wounds and hazards of his citizens.

35. But as it was a hard matter to keep back the Athenians, who were vexed at the delay,

36. And were eagerly bent to fight, he divided the whole multitude into eight parts, and arranged by lot that that part which had the white bean should have leave to feast and take their ease while the other seven were fighting.

37. And this is the reason, they say, that people, when at any time they have been merry and enjoyed themselves, called it white day, in allusion to this white bean.

38. In the ninth month the Samians surrendered. Pericles pulled down their walls and seized their shipping,

39. And set a fine of a large sum of money upon them, part of which they paid down at once,

40. And they agreed to bring in the rest by a certain time, and gave hostages for security.

41. Duris the Samian makes a tragical drama out of these events, charging the Athenians and Pericles with a great deal of cruelty,

42. Probably with little regard to truth; for no other historians report such a thing.

43. Duris is likely to have exaggerated the calamities which befell his country, to create odium against the Athenians.

44. On his return to Athens Pericles took care that those who died in the war should be honourably buried,

45. And made a funeral harangue, as the custom is, in their commendation at their graves, for which he gained great admiration.

46. As he came down from the stage on which he spoke, the rest of the women came and complimented him, taking him by the hand, and crowning him with garlands and ribbons, like a victorious athlete in the games;

47. But Elpinice, coming near to him, said, ‘These are brave deeds, Pericles, that you have done, and such as deserve our chaplets;

48. ‘Who have lost us many a worthy citizen, not in a war with Phoenicians or Medes, like my brother Cimon, but for the overthrow of an allied and kindred city.’

49. As Elpinice spoke these words, Pericles, smiling quietly, replied with this verse: ‘Old women should not seek to be perfumed.’

50. Ion says that Pericles indulged very high and proud thoughts of himself for conquering the Samians,

51. Whereas Agamemnon was ten years taking a barbarous city, he had in nine months vanquished and taken the greatest and most powerful of the Ionians.

52. And indeed it was not without reason that he assumed this glory to himself, for, in real truth, there was much uncertainty and great hazard in this great war,

53. If so be, as Thucydides tells us, the Samian state was within a very little of wresting the whole power and dominion of the sea out of the Athenians’ hands.

Chapter 44

  1. After this, the Peloponnesian war beginning to break out in full tide, Pericles advised the people to help the Corcyraeans, who were being attacked by the Corinthians,

  2. And thereby to secure to themselves an island possessed of great naval resources, since the Peloponnesians were already all but in actual hostilities against Athens.

  3. The people readily consented to this, so Pericles dispatched Lacedaemonius, Cimon’s son, with ten ships, as if out of a design to affront him;

  4. For there was a great kindness and friendship betwixt Cimon’s family and the Lacedaemonians;

  5. So, in order that Lacedaemonius might lie the more open to a charge, or suspicion at least, of favouring the Lacedaemonians and playing false,

  6. If he performed no considerable exploit in this service, he allowed him a small number of ships, and sent him out against his will;

  7. And indeed he made it somewhat his business to hinder Cimon’s sons from rising in the state,

  8. Professing that by their very names they were not to be looked upon as native and true Athenians,

  9. But foreigners and strangers, one being called Lacedaemonius, another Thessalus and the third Eleus,

10. And they were all three of them, it was thought, born of an Arcadian woman.

11. Being, however, ill spoken of on account of these ten galleys, as having afforded but a small supply to the people that were in need,

12. And yet given a great advantage to those who might complain of the act of intervention,

13. Pericles sent out a larger force afterwards to Corcyra, which arrived after the fight was over.

14. And now the Corinthians, angry and indignant with the Athenians, accused them publicly at Lacedaemon,

15. And the Megarians joined with them, complaining that they were, contrary to common right and the articles of peace sworn among the Greeks,

16. Kept out and driven away from every market and from all ports under the control of the Athenians.

17. The Aeginetans, also, professing to be ill-used, made supplications in private to the Lacedaemonians for redress,

18. Though not daring openly to call the Athenians in question. In the meantime, also, Potidaea, under the dominion of the Athenians, but a colony formerly of the Corinthians,

19. Had revolted, and was beset with a formal siege, and was a further occasion of precipitating the war.

20. Despite all this, there being embassies sent to Athens, and Archidamus, the king of the Spartans,

21. Trying to bring most of the disputes to a fair resolution and to pacify the hearts of the allies,

22. It is likely that war would not have fallen upon the Athenians, if they could have been persuaded to repeal the ordinance against the Megarians.

23. Upon which account, since Pericles was the main opponent of repeal,

24. And stirred the Athenians’ passions to persist in their dispute with the Megarians, he was regarded as the sole cause of the war.

25. They say, moreover, that ambassadors went from Sparta to Athens on this very business,

26. And that when Pericles was urging a certain law which made it illegal to take down or withdraw the tablet of the decree, one of the ambassadors, Polyalces by name, said,

27. ‘Well, do not take it down then, but turn it; there is no law, I suppose, which forbids that.’

28. Which, though prettily said, did not change Pericles’ mind, for he bore much animosity towards the Megarians.

29. Even so, he proposed a decree that a herald should be sent to them, and the same also to the Lacedaemonians, with the accusation against the Megarians;

30. An order which certainly shows equitable and friendly proceeding enough.

31. The herald who was sent, by name Anthemocritus, died on the journey back, and it was believed that the Megarians had killed him.

32. Then Charinus proposed a decree against them, that there should be an irreconcilable and implacable enmity thenceforward between the two commonwealths;

33. And that if any one of the Megarians should set foot in Attica, he should die;

34. And that the commanders, when they take the usual oath, should, over and above that,

35. Swear that they will twice every year make an inroad into the Megarian country;

36. And that Anthemocritus should be buried near the Thracian Gates, which are now called the Dipylon, or Double Gate.

Chapter 45

  1. On the other hand, the Megarians, utterly denying the murder of Anthemocritus,

  2. Threw the whole matter upon Aspasia and Pericles, availing themselves of the famous verses in the Acharnians:

  3. ‘To Megara some of our madcaps ran, And stole Simaetha thence, their courtesan.

  4. ‘Which exploit the Megarians to outdo, Came to Aspasia's house, and took off two.'

  5. The true occasion of the quarrel is not easy to fathom. But all alike charge Pericles with the refusal to annul the decree.

  6. Some say he met the request with a positive refusal, out of a sense of pride and a view of the state's best interests,

  7. Believing that the demand made by the embassies was a test of Athens' will, and that a concession would be taken for weakness;

  8. While others say that it was out of arrogance and contentiousness, to show his own strength, that he slighted the Lacedaemonians.

  9. The worst motive of all, which is confirmed by most witnesses, is this: Phidias the sculptor had undertaken to make a statue.

10. Now he, being a great friend of Pericles, had many enemies because of this, who envied and maligned him;

11. Who brought an accusation against him of stealing gold that was to be used in making the statue.

12. Though the gold was weighed every day and none was found missing, still Phidias was committed to prison, and there died,

13. Some say, of poison, administered by Pericles' enemies, to raise a slander, or a suspicion at least, as though he had procured it.

14. About the same time, Aspasia was charged that she received into her house freeborn women for the use of Pericles.

15. And Diopithes proposed a decree, that public accusations should be laid against persons who neglected every view of the world but that of science,

16. Directing suspicion, by means of Anaxagoras, against Pericles himself.

17. The people receiving and admitting these accusations and complaints, at length came to enact a decree, at the motion of Dracontides,

18. That Pericles should bring in the accounts of the moneys he had expended, and lodge them with the Prytanes;

19. And that the judges, carrying their suffrage from the Acropolis, should examine and determine the business in the city.

20. This last clause Hagnon took out of the decree, and moved that the causes should be tried before fifteen hundred jurors,

21. Whether they should be styled prosecutions for robbery, or bribery, or any kind of malversation.

22. Pericles pleaded for the release of Aspasia, shedding, as Aeschines says, many tears at the trial, and personally entreating the jurors.

23. But fearing for Anaxagoras, he sent him out of the city. And finding that in Phidias' case he had lost the confidence of the people,

24. And wishing to avoid impeachment, he kindled the war against Sparta, which hitherto had smouldered quietly, and now blew it up into a flame;

25. Hoping, by that means, to disperse and scatter these complaints and charges;

26. For the city usually threw herself upon him alone, trusting to his sole conduct, when emergencies and great affairs and public dangers arose, by reason of his authority and the sway he bore.

27. These are variously alleged as the reasons which induced Pericles not to allow the people of Athens to yield to the proposals of the Lacedaemonians; but their truth is uncertain.

 

Chapter 46

  1. The Lacedaemonians, for their part, feeling sure that if they could once remove Pericles, they might impose what terms they pleased on the Athenians,

  2. Sent them word that they should expel the ‘pollution' with which Pericles on the mother's side was tainted, as Thucydides tells us, for her ancestors' part in expelling the sons of Pisistratus;

  3. But the issue proved quite contrary to what they expected; instead of bringing Pericles under suspicion,