98 HISTORY OF GREECE. by the Lacedaemonians at Perikles, the grand nephew of Kleis- thenes, and doubtless at the instance of his political enemies: religion required, it was pretended, that " the abomination of the goddess should be driven out." 1 If the Athenians complied with this demand, they would deprive themselves, at this critical mo" ment, of their ablest leader ; but the Lacedaemonians, not expect- ing compliance, reckoned at all events upon discrediting Per- ikles with the people, as being partly the cause of the war through family taint of impiety, 2 and this impression would doubtless be loudly proclaimed by his political opponents in the assembly. The influence of Perikles with the Athenian public had be- come greater and greater as their political experience of him was prolonged. But the bitterness of his enemies appears to have increased along with it ; and not long before this period, he had been indirectly assailed, through the medium of accusations against three different persons, all more or less intimate with him, his mistress Aspasia, the philosopher Anaxagoras, and the sculptor Pheidias. We cannot make out either the exact date, or the exact facts, of either of these accusations. Aspasia, daughter of Axiochus, was a native of Miletus, beautiful, well educated, and ambitious. She resided at Athens, and is affirmed, though upon very doubtful evidence, to have kept slave-girls to be let out as courtezans ; whatever may be the case with this report, which is most probably one of the scandals engendered by political animosity against Perikles, 3 it is certain that so re- 1 Thucyd. i, 126. tn&evov rovf 'A.dt)vaiov rb uyog i'AavvEiv rtjf -&eov.
- Thucyd. i, 127.
3 Plutarch, Perikles, c. 24. Respecting Aspasia, see Plato, Menexenus, c. 3, 4 ; Xenophon, Memorab. ii, 6, 36 ; Harpokration, v, 'Acmaaia. Aspasia was, doubtless, not an uncommon name among Grecian women ; we know of one Phoksean girl who bore it, the mistress of Cyrus the younger (Plu- tarch, Artaxer. c. 26). The story about Aspasia having kept slave-girls for hire, is stated by both Plutarch and Athenseus (xiii, p. 570) ; but we may well doubt whether there is any better evidence for it than that which L: actually cited by the latter, the passage in Aristopl anes, Acharn. 497-505 : - ipav 'AffTrao-f'af Tropva dvo or iropvaf Siio.
Athenaeus reads the latter, but th3 reading -ropva ivo appears in the re-
