deserving the sentence pronounced upon it by Thucydides, of being a mad boast which came true by accident, it was a reason able and even a modest anticipation of the future:[1] reserving the only really doubtful point in the case, whether the garrison of the island would be ultimately slain or made prisoners. Demos- thens, had he been present at Athens instead of being at Pylus, would willingly have set his seal to the engagement taken by Kleon.
I repeat with reluctance, though not without belief, the state- ment made by one of the biographers of Thucydides,[2] that Kleon was the cause of the banishment of the latter as a general, and has therefore received from him harder measure than was due in his capacity of historian. But though this sentiment is not prob- ably without influence in dictating the unaccountable judgment which I have just been criticizing, as well as other opinions relative to Kleon, on which I shall say more in a future chapter, I nevertheless look upon that judgment not as peculiar to Thu- cydides, but as common to him with Nikias and those whom we must call, for want of a better name, the oligarchical party of the time at Athens. And it gives us some measure of the prejudice and narrowness of vision which prevailed among that party at the present memorable crisis ; so pointedly contrasting with the clear- sighted and resolute calculations, and the judicious conduct in action, of Kleon, who, when forced against his will into the post of general, did the very best which could be done in his situation, he selected Demosthenes as colleague and heartily seconded hia operations. Though the military attack of Sphakteria, one of the
- ↑ The jest of an unknown comic writer (probably Eupolis or Aristopnanes, in one of the many lost dramas) against Kleon: "that he showed great powers of prophecy after the fact," ((
Greek characters), Lucian, Prometheus, c. 2,) may probably have reference to his proceedings about Sphakteria : if so, it is certainly undeserved. In the letter which he sent to announce the capture of Sphakteria and the prisoners to the Athenians, it is affirmed that he begar with the words (Greek characters) - This was derided by Enpolis, and is even considered as a piece of insolence, though it is difficult to see why (Schol. ad Aristophan. Plut. 322 ; Eergk, De Keliquiis Comaedia Antiquae, p. 362).
- ↑ Vit. Thucydidis. p KV, ed. Bekker.
