SECOND AND THIRD YEARS OF THE WAR. 173 immediate favor, by always providing at home some public spf c- tacle, or festival, or procession, thus nursing up the city in elegant pleasures, and by sending out every year sixty triremes, manned by citizen-seamen on full pay, who were thus kept in prac- tice and acquired nautical skill." Now the charge here made against Perikles, and supported by allegations in themselves honorable rather than otherwise, of a vicious appetite for immediate pop- ularity, and of improper concessions to the immediate feelings of the people against their permanent interests, is precisely that which Thucydides, in the most pointed manner denies ; and not merely denies, but contrasts Perikles with his successors in the express circumstances that they did so, while he did not. The language of the contemporary historian 1 well deserves to be cited : " Perikles, powerful from dignity of character as well as from wisdom, and conspicuously above the least tinge of corrup- tion, held back the people with a free hand, and was their real leader instead of being led by them. For not being a seeker of power from unworthy sources, he did not speak with any view to present favor, but had sufficient sense of dignity to contradict of contending against the abundant private largesses of his rival, Kimon, resorted to the expedient of distributing the public money among the citi- zens, in order to gain influence ; acting in this matter upon the advice of his friend, Demonides, according to the statement of Aristotle. 1 Thucyd. ii, 65. 'E/ceZvof /j,sv (TLeptK^f) dvvardf uv r re at-tufiaTi Kal TIJ yvufir/, xprj /HUT uv re 6 tatyavuf a 6 upoTaTOf y svo fj.evof , KarelxE Tb TrA^tfof eAevi?epwf , Kal OVK yyero /za/l/lov VK 1 avrov fj ai'Tbf Tjye, 6iti. rd pri Krupevof e ov TcpoarjKovTuv TTJV 6vvap.iv TI hsyetv, uAV 1% UV ^ u^tuasi Kal TT/DOC boyfjv TI uvrenrelv. yovv alcr&oiro rt avrovf TrapH tcaipbv vftpsi Qapaovvra^, Xeyuv ETT rb Qopsla&ai Kal deSioraf av a/loyuf u,v-iK<r&ia-7] iru/iiv ercl TO -Bapaelv 'Eytyvero 6s Aoycj fj,i v 6-r][ioKpaTia, epyo 6s iiird rot) irpuTOV uvdpbf upxrj. Ol 6e varepov loot, avrol fj.uU.ov Trpbf u,7Jkr{kov^ 5vTf, KOI bpeyofj.Evoi TOV Trpurof l/caarog yiyveadai, tTpairovTO Ka&' fjdovus TU drjfiu Kal TU irpuyfiaTa kvdidovai. 'Ef uv, a?vAa re 7ro/./la, t'c iv neyakri iroXei Kal up%r/v i^ovffy, f//napT^r}, Kal 6 tf 2i/ceAav irhovf 6f oi> TOOOVTOV yvu^ri^ ufidpTTjua T/V, etc. Com]iare Plutarch, Nikias, c. 3. 'Agiucrif and ut-iupa, as used by .Thucydides, seem to differ in this respect: 'A/'u<nf signifies, a man's dignity, or pretensions to esteem and influence as felt and measured by himself; his sense of dignity ; 'Aiu[ia means his dignity, properly so called ; a? ft ft and appreciated by others. Sec i, 37,
41, 69.
