The Anstrrc Cousistnicy of Pericles. 221 



keyot^Tdi 'A&)p'ctioi dice Ile^ixkia jit'ATiovg yeyofit^at, jj ncif TovfavTiov 6l«- 

 4fd-ccQ^fca In' ixtifov. tkvt/ yc<Q eycoye axovw, IleQixXiit nenoiXEvcu A&r^yaiovg 

 c'cQyovg x«i dtiXovg xcil kctkovg xai cpi'AaQyvQovg, elg yi()&o(poQU(v nqmop xcercc- 

 GTiqaccuTa. 



Avsv yuQ au>q)Qoaii'rfi x«l dtxawavf^rjg ki/uei^wi' xai yeiooicoy xal tsi^mu xcd 

 (foQMi' xal roiovTWf (plva^uov t^nen'ATqxaai rfji' no'Kiv oxav ovv s^^rj 17 xar«,3oA^ 

 avTr^ rfjs (CGd-evtiag, Tovg tote naQoi^rag cdnaaomai au[j(iov'/.ovg, ®€uiazox'Aia ()'i 

 xcd Kiuiora xcd IhoixXici iyxwfiic'caovcn^ tovg cdriovg Tciiv xccxwi'. 



Conceived in the same spirit are the words of Aristotle in his 

 Coustiiiition of Athens, xxvii. ]\Iaru cU tcvtcc jiQog lu Sr^fxayioyuv tX- 

 (^ouiog Uiciiy.'Aiovg, xcd tiqmtou evd'oxiuijaayiog ore xcczriyoQrjae tag tv'ivfctg Kificofog 

 aTQceTr^yovt'Tog v£og wV. drj/uonxcordQccf Iti crvft'i-irj yei'tG&at rr]f nokiTEucv . . . 

 inoir^o!: 6i xcd utoi^oifoQct r« dixccarrJQ/a IhQix'Arjg n^corog, cwiidri^ccyoiyMu nQog 

 Ttjy K/uoji'o? EvnoQiai'. 



For both Thucydides and Plato, Plutarch has a profound respect, 

 and their totally contradictory estimates of Pericles give him trouble, 

 He solves his difliculty by an amiable compromise. Both authorities 

 are right, hi the earlier part of his career, when struggling against 

 powerful rivals for the leadership of the people, Pericles was the 

 truckling demagogue of Plato ; but once secure in power and rid 

 of rivals, he changed and became the austere, compelling statesman 

 of Thucydides. Elsewhere Plutarch is not wholly impervious to the 

 influence of the mass of calumny and outrageous misrepresentation 

 which he tinds heaped upon Pericles b}' the multitudinous sources 

 at his disposal. A.t one time he is willing to make some concession, 

 and Pericles, though not the base assassin of Ephialtes, as Idomeneus 

 represented, was perhaps not in all points irreproachable (ndrri ,u£f 

 /■ffwf ovx ccfindrinTw), yet had a noble disposition and an ambitious 

 spirit, wherein no savage and bestial feelings could have their abode 

 (x, 6). He apparently accepts, at least he does not contradict, the 

 accusation that the Samian war was undertaken at the request of 

 Aspasia (xxv, 1). Again, in the matter of the Megarian decree 

 and the personal motives for its enactment ascribed to Pericles, he 

 suspends judgment. "Whatever the original ground for enacting 

 the decree — and it is no easy matter to determine this fact, — that 

 it was not rescinded all men alike la}' to the charge of Pericles. 

 Only, some say that he persisted in his refusal in a lofty spirit and 

 with a clear perception of the best interests of the cit}', regarding 

 the injunction laid upon it as a test of its submissiveness, and its 

 compliance as a confession of weakness ; while others hold that it 

 was rather with a sort of arrogance and love of strife, as well as 

 for the display of his power, that he scornfully defied the Lace- 

 daemonians " (xxxi, 1). And again, after rehearsing the malicious 



