52 msTORY OP GREECE. flexible ranks, the sea-service that of mutability and adventure* Such was the idea strongly entertained by Plato and other phi* losophers :i though -we may remark that they do not render jus» tice to the Athenian seaman, whose training was far more perfect and laborious, and his habits of obedience far more complete,2 than that of the Athenian hoplite, or horseman : a training be- ginning with Themistokles, and reaching its full perfection about the commencement of the Peloponnesian war. In recommending extraordinary efforts to create a navy as well as to acquire nautical practice, Themistokles displayed all that sagacious appreciation of the circumstances and dangers of the time for which Thucydides gives him credit : and there can be no doubt that Aristeides, though the honester politician of the two, was at this particular crisis the less essential to his country. Not only was there the struggle with ^gina, a maritime power equal or more than equal, and within sight of the Athenian harbor, — * but there was also in the distance a still more formidable contin- gency to guard against. The Persian armament had been driven with disgrace from Attica back to Asia ; but the Persian mon- arch still remained with undiminished means of aggression and increased thirst for revenge ; and Themistokles knew well that the danger from that quarter would recur greater than ever. He believed that it would recur again in the same way, by an expe- dition across the -^gean like that of Datis to Marathon ;3 against voyages, they aequii-e a liberality of notion which we expect only among gentlemen, while in their domestic circumstances their conduct is suitable to their conaition. The Greeks are all traditionary historians, and possess much of that kind of knowledge to which the term learning is usually ap- plied. This, mingled with the other information of the Hydriots, gives them that advantageous character of mind which I think they possess." ' Plato, Legg. iv, pp. 705, 706. Plutarch, Themistokles, c. 19. Iso- krat@s, Panathenaic, c. 43. Plutarch, Philopcemen. c. 14. TiTifjv ^Eirafiecvuvdav fiev evioi Myovmv oKvovvTa yevaat tuv Kara ■&akaaaav uiieTiELuv rove; TToXtrag, bnug avru fii) }.L-&uaLv uvtI fiovi/iiuv ottXituv^ Kara HXaruva, vavTai yevofievoi nal diaip dapevTtg, uTvpaKTov ek T^g 'Afftof /cat Tuv vfiauv aneTi^Elv kKovaiug: com- pare vii, p. 301.
- See the remarkable passage in Xenophon (Memorab. iii, 5, 19), attest-
ing that the Hoplites and the Hippeis, the persons first in rank in the city were also the most disobedient on military service. ' Thucyd. i, 93. iduv (Themistokles) ttjq fSaaiMug ffrpanuc rfiv aari ^a?^»oav Ho6ov Evnopuripav Trjg Kard. yifv oivav.
