Purifica tion of Delos, 426 B. C.

Quadriennial

festival

established at Delos.

influence at Athens, through his impregnable respectability, his
superiority to bribes, and his scrupulous superstition, as well as his
acquaintance with the details of military affairs. This homage paid
to mediocre respectability throws light on the character of the
Athenian democracy, and the strength of the conservative party.
Nicias belonged to the advocates of peace and was well-disposed
to Sparta, so that for several reasons he might be regarded as a suc-
cessor to Cimon. But his political opponents, though they constantly
defeated him on particular measures, never permanently undermined
his influence.
He understood the political value of gratifying in
small ways those prejudices of his fellow-citizens which he shared
himself; and he spared no expense in the religious service of the
state. As Thucydides says, he thought too much of divination and
omens. He had an opportunity of displaying his religious devotion
and his liberality on the occasion of the purification of the island of
Delos, which was probably undertaken to induce Apollo to stay the
plague. The dead were removed from all the tombs, and it was
ordained that henceforth no one should die or give birth to a child
on the sacred island. Those who were near to either should cross
over to Rheneia. The Athenians revived in a new form the old
festival, celebrated in the Homeric hymn to Apollo, the festival to
which "the long-robed Ionians gathered, and made thee glad, O
Phoebus, with boxing, dancing, and song." The games were restored,
and horse-races introduced for the first time. Four years later the
purification was perfected by the removal of all the inhabitants, and
the Persians accorded them a refuge at Adramyttion.

Conducting such ceremonies, Nicias was in his right place.
Unfortunately such excellence had an undue weight; and it should
be noted that this is one of the drawbacks of a city-state.
In a
large modern state, the private life and personal opinions of a states-
man have small importance and are not weighed by his fellow-
countrymen in the scale against his political ability, save in rare
exceptional cases. But in a small city the statesman's private life
is always before men's eyes, and his political position is distinctly
affected, according as he shocks or gratifies their prejudices and
predilections. A mediocre man is able, by judicious conforming, to
attain an authority to which his brains give him no claim. Pericles
was indeed so strong that his influence could survive attacks on his
morality and his orthodoxy. Nicias maintained his position because
he never shocked the public sense of decorum and religion by
associating with an Aspasia or an Anaxagoras. The Athenian
people combined in a remarkable degree the capacity of appreciating
both respectability and intellectual power; their progressive instinct
was often defeated by conservative prejudices.

Though Nicias was one of those Athenians who were not in full sympathy with the policy of Pericles and approved still less of the policy of his successors, he was thoroughly loyal to the democracy. But an oligarchical party still existed, secretly active, The and always hoping for an opportunity to upset the democratic oligarchical party. constitution. This party, or a section of it, seems to have been known at this time as the "Young Party." It included, among oi vewτepol. others who will appear on the stage of history some years later, the orator Antiphon, who was now coming into public notice in Antiphon. connexion with some sensational lawsuits. Against the dark designs of this party, as well as against the misconduct of generals, Cleon was constantly on the watch; he could describe himself in the Assembly as the "people's watch-dog." But at present these oligarchs were harmless; so long as no disaster from without befell Athens, they had no chance; all they could do was to make common cause with the other enemies of Cleon, and air their discontent in anonymous political pamphlets. Chance has preserved us a work of The pseudothis kind, written in one of these years by an Athenian of oligarchical Xenoviews. Its subject is the Athenian democracy, and the writerotic Αθηναίων professes to answer on behalf of the Athenians the criticisms which moreía, the rest of the Greeks pass on Athenian institutions. "I do not c. 424 B. C. like democracy myself," he says; "but I will show that from their point of view the Athenians manage their state wisely and in the manner most conducive to the interests of democracy." The defence is for the most part a veiled indictment; it displays remarkable acuteness, with occasional triviality. The writer has grasped and taken to heart one deep truth, the close connexion of the sea-power of Athens with its advanced democracy. It is just, he remarks, that the poor and the common folk should have more influence than the noble and rich; for it is the common folk that row the ships and make the city powerful, not the hoplites and the well-born and the worthy. Highly interesting is his observation that slaves and metics enjoyed what he considered unreasonable freedom and immunity at Athens: "Why, you may not strike one of them, nor will a slave make way for you in the street." And his malicious explanation is interesting too; the common folk dress so badly that you might easily mistake one of them for a slave or a metic, and then there would be a to-do if you struck a citizen. There is perhaps a touch of malice, too, in the statement that the commercial empire of Athens, which brought to her wharves the delicacies of the world, was affecting her language, as well as her habits of life, and filling it with foreign words.

An important feature in the political history of Athens in these years was the divorce of the military command from the leadership

Cleon's

position.

in the Assembly, and the want of harmony between the chief Strategoi and the Leaders of the People. The tradesmen who swayed the Assembly had no military training or capacity, and they were always at a disadvantage when opposed by men who spoke with the authority of a strategos on questions of military policy. Until recent years the post of General had been practically confined to men of property and good family. But a change ensued, perhaps soon after the death of Pericles, and men of the people were The comic poet Eupolis, in a play called the Demes-in which the great leaders, Miltiades and Themistocles, Aristides and Pericles, are summoned back to life that they may see and deplore degenerate Athens-meditates thus on the contrast between latterday generals and their predecessors:

Eupolis on elected.

the new

generals.

Borrowing from the temple treasures,

426, 425, 424, 423 B. C.

Men of lineage fair

And of wealthy estate.
Once our generals were,

The noble and great,

Whom as gods we adored, and as gods they guided and guarded the state.

Things are not as then.

Ah, how different far

A manner of men

Our new generals are,

The rascals and refuse our city now chooses to lead us to war!

He was ambitious to

Cleon was a man of brains and resolution. rule the state as Pericles had ruled it; and for this purpose he saw clearly that he must gain triumphs in the field as well as in the Assembly. Hitherto his main activity had been in the law-courts, where he called officers to account and maintained the safeguards of popular government. If he was to be more than an opposition leader, occasionally forcing measures through the Assembly, if he was to exercise a permanent influence on the administration, he must be ready, when a good opportunity offered, to undertake the post of strategos; and, supported by the experience of an able colleague, he need not disgrace himself. An understanding, therefore, between Cleon and the enterprising Demosthenes was one which seemed to offer advantages to both; acting together they might damage both the political and the military position of Nicias.

But before we pass to a famous enterprise, which was probably the result of such an understanding, we must note the great cost which the continuation of the war entailed. It was found necessary to borrow from the temple treasures, at a nominal interest, to defray the military expenses. But this was not enough. The financiers of Athens-and Cleon must probably bear a large share of the respon

sibility-induced the people to raise the tribute of the subject states. If the tribute was not doubled, it was very nearly doubled; the Raising of total amount, at the lowest estimate, did not fall far short of 1000 the tribute, talents. We possess considerable fragments of the stone on which 425 B.C. this assessment was written; it is a monument of the injustice of a list. democracy blinded by imperial ambition against which Thucydides son of Melesias had protested at an earlier stage. But at this stage,

Tribute

the raising of the tribute was a necessity; Athens could not retreat. There were indeed still men, especially among the Young Party, to lift up a voice on behalf of the Cities; and the glaring injustice of (Aristothe position of Athens was smartly ridiculed by Aristophanes, who phanes, Wasps, ironically suggested in one of his comedies that if the Cities were compelled to do their duty, each would enable twenty Athenians to live in idleness on the fat of the land, "on hare and beestings pudding."

422 B. C.)

the "trio

bolon"

It may seem strange to find that in a time of financial pressure, Cleon when it was necessary not only to introduce an extraordinary tax on introduces property but to afflict the allies with heavier burdens, Athens saw fit to increase her domestic expenditure. One of Cleon's most fee of the important measures was the raising of the judges' fee from one obol, dicasts at which it had been fixed by Pericles, to three obols. It would be (probably a mistake to consider this measure a mere bid for popularity. We 425-4 B.C.). shall hardly be wrong in regarding it as an attempt to relieve the distress which the yearly invasions of Attica and losses of the harvests inflicted upon the poorer citizens.

SECT. 10. THE ATHENIAN CAPTURE OF PYLOS

It was doubtless through the influence of Cleon that Demosthenes, 425 B.C. though he received no official command, was sent to accompany the fleet of forty ships which was now ready to start for the west, under Eurymedon and Sophocles. We have already seen this fleet at Corcyra assisting the People against the oligarchical exiles who had established themselves on Mount Istone. Demosthenes accompanied the expedition without any official command. He had a plan in his head for establishing a military post in the western Peloponnesus; and he was allowed to take advantage of the sailing of the fleet and use it according to his discretion. Arriving off the coast of Messenia, Demosthenes asked the commanders to put in at Pylos, but they had heard that the Peloponnesian fleet had already reached Corcyra, and demurred to any delay. But chance favoured the design of Demosthenes. Stress of weather drove them into the harbour of Pylos, and then Demosthenes pressed them to fortify the place. The task

Sphacteria.

was easy; for the place was naturally strong and there was an abundance of material, stone and timber, at hand. The commanders ridiculed the idea. "There are many other desert promontories in the Peloponnesus," they said, "if you want to waste the money of the city." But the stormy weather detained the ships; the soldiers were idle; and at length, for the sake of something to do, they adopted the project of Demosthenes and fell to the work of fortifying Pylos.

TopoThe features of the scene, which was now to become illustrious graphy of by a striking military episode, must be clearly grasped. The Pylos and high promontory of Pylos or Coryphasion was on three sides encompassed by water. Once it had been an island, but at this time it was connected with the mainland on the north side by a low sand-bar. If we go further back into prehistoric days, Pylos had been part of a continuous line of coast-cliff. In this line three rents were made, which admitted the sea behind the cliff and isolated the islands of Pylos and Sphacteria. Accumulation of sand gradually covered the most northern breach and reunited Pylos with the mainland, but the other openings were never filled up and Sphacteria still remains an island. Originally Pylos and Sphacteria, when they had been severed, formed the sea-wall of one great land-locked bay; but a curving sand-bar has gradually been formed, which now joins the mainland with the southern extremity of Pylos, and secludes a small lagoon of which Pylos forms the western side. It is impossible to say whether the formation of this sand-bar had perceptibly begun in the time of Demosthenes; but in any case it seems probable that it had not advanced so far as to hinder the waters behind Pylos from appearing to be part of a continuous bay. This north corner of the bay-now a marshy lagoon—was sheltered and afforded harbourage for ships; the rest of the bay-the modern bay of Navarino-had no good anchorage; but the whole sheet of water, by virtue of the northern corner, was called a harbour. It follows from what has been said that there were two entrances into the bay the narrow water which divides Pylos from Sphacteria, and the wide passage which severs the southern point of Sphacteria from the opposite mainland. We must distinguish. yet another smaller bay on the north side of the Pylos hill. The sand-bar which there connects Pylos with the mainland is of lunar shape and forms the little circular basin of Buphras, dominated by the height of Pylos on the south and a far lower, nameless hill on the north.

Athenian

fortifica

tions of

Pylos.

The length of Pylos is less than a mile. On the sea-side it was hard to land, and the harbour side was strongly protected by steep cliffs. Only in three places was it found necessary to build walls :