VII. — The Austere Consistenxv of Pericles. 

 (Plutarch's Pericles ix-xv.) 



After an unusuall}- lengthy and formal introduction (i, iij, Plutarch 

 announces as subjects for the tenth book of his Parallel Lives. 

 Pericles and Fabius Maximus, di/dqwu xatd re uk uX'/Mg aQi^mg o^oU«v. 



aQyot'TMi/ dyytouoavyas iocfih^uwrcawi/ rccis nazQiai ytvouii'toy. At the outset, 

 then, there is no derogator}' note in his estimate of Pericles. 



In chapters iii-vi, Plutarch, in customary manner, treats of the 

 yii'og. 7ic<cdeic(, and ^»og of Pericles. Here also, in spite of the 

 jibes of the Comic Poets and the unfriendly testimony of Ion, no 

 shade of detraction is admitted among the portrait-painter's colors. 



Chapter vii describes the entrance of Pericles into public life- 

 When Aristides was dead, Themistocles in banishment, and Cimon 

 was kept by his campaigns for the most part abroad, ovtm <)»; 

 (ftQcw o Ih(Jiy.'A^i; ko drjfx([) nQoaEviiyif erairoV, at^zl tuw Tr'Aovaicof xal oUyo'v 

 id TMf 7To'k'ku)v xcd TiEPr^xwv ii'Ko^ivoi nuqd Tr[v aviov qxaiv rixtma di,fJ.oTixr,y 

 oiaav. !-JAA', a'? toixe, dsdicvg fxtf vnoxpUc ni^intatiy TVQCtyt'idog, oQajf d ccqigto- 

 XQttTixoy Tuv KiuiDva xai dictifigoi'img vno zoti' xa'AMf xccya&wy ceyd(J(Of aya- 

 7jMij.ii'oy, v7ifj'Axi-£ Tovg no'k'Aohg da(pd'Aeini' f^sy savToi, dvva^ty Si xai txtivov 

 TiaQaaxtvuUuEi'og. Here a slightly derogatory note is heard, which 

 is wholly inconsistent with the testimou}' following as to the general 

 demeanor of Pericles. " He made a different ordering in his way 

 of life. On one street only in the city was he to be seen walking, 

 — the one which took him to the market-place and the council- 

 chamber. Invitations to dinner and all familiar and friendl}' inter- 

 course he declined. . . . Seeking to avoid the satiety which springs 

 from continual intercourse, he made his approaches to the people 

 by intervals, as it were, not speaking on every question, nor ad- 

 dressing them on every occasion, but offering himself like the vSala- 

 minian trireme, as Critolaus says, for great emergencies. The rest 

 of his policy he carried out by commissioning his friends and other 

 public speakers." This is certainly not the demeanor of a man who 

 " courts the favor of the multitude that he ma}' secure safet}^ for 

 himself and power to wield against his rival." Nor in the follow- 

 ing chapter (viii),\ devoted to a description of the " grand manner " 

 of Pericles, of his irresistible eloquence, and to a record of some 



