348 HISTORY OF GREECE. Men with arms in their hands have always the option between death and imprisonment, and Grecian opinion was only mistaken "It however soon appeared, that though for a man like Cleon, unversed in military command, the undertaking was rash and the bragging promise abundantly ridiculous, yet the business was not so desperate as it was in the moment generally imagined : and in fact the folly of the Athenian people, in committing such a trust to such a man, far exceeded that of the man himself, whose impudence seldom carried him beyond the control of his cunning. He had received intelligence that Demosthenes had already formed the plan and was preparing for the attempt, with the forces upon the spot and in the neighborhood. Hence, his apparent moderation in tho demand for troops ; which he judici:usly accommodated to the gratification of the Athenian people, by avoiding to require any Athenians. He farther showed his judgment, when the decree was to be passed which was finally to direct the expedition, by a request which was readily granted, that Dfe mosthenes might be joined with him in the command." ( Mitford, Hist, of Greece, vol. iii, ch. xv, sect, vii, pp. 250-253.) It appears as if no historian could write down the name of Kleon with- out attaching to it some disparaging verb or adjective. We are here told in the same sentence that Kleon was an impudent braggart for promising the execution of the enterprise, and yet that the enterprise itself was perfectly feasible. We are told in one sentence that he was rash and ridiculous for promising this, unversed as he was in military command : & few words farther, we are informed that he expressly requested that the most competent man to be found, Demosthenes, might be named his colleague. We are told ot the cunning of Kleon, and that Kleon had received intelligence from Demosthenes, as if this were some private communication to himself. But Demos- thenes had sent no news to Kleon, nor did Kleon know anything which was not equally known to every man in the assembly. The folly of the people in committing the trust to Kleon is denounced, as if Kleon had sought it himself, or as if his friends had been the first to propose it for him. If the folly of the people was thus great, what are we to say of the knavery of the oligarchical party, with Nikias at their head, who impelled the people into this folly, for the purpose of ruining a political antagonist, and who forced Kleon into the post against his own most unaffected reluctance ? Against this manoeuvre of the oligarchical party, neither Mr. Mitford nor any other historian says a word. When Kleon judges circumstances rightly, as Mr Mitford allows that he did in this case, he has credit for nothing better thar, cunning. The truth is, that the people committed no folly in appointing Kle( n, for he justified the best expectations of his friends. But Nikias and hin friends committed great knavery in proposing it, since they fully believed that he would fail. And, even upon Mr. Mitford's statement of the case,
the opinion of Tin cydides which stands at the beginning of this no- fa i*
