opposition, it turned partly upon the pacific policy of Periklês towards the Persians, partly upon his expenditure for home ornament. Thucydidês contended that Athens was disgraced in the eyes of the Greeks, by having drawn the confederate treasure from Delos to her own acropolis, under pretence of greater security, and then employing it, not in prosecuting war against the Persians,[1] but in beautifying Athens by new temples and costly statutes. To this Periklês replied, that Athens had undertaken the obligation, in consideration of the tribute-money, to protect her allies and keep off from them every foreign enemy,—that she had accomplished this object completely at the present, and retained a reserve sufficient to guarantee the like security for the future;—that, under such circumstances, she owed no account to her allies of the expenditure of the surplus, but was at liberty to expend it for purposes useful and honorable to the city. In this point of view it was an object of great public importance to render Athens imposing in the eyes both of the allies and of Hellas generally, by improved fortifications,—by accumulated ornaments, sculptural and architectural,—and by religious festivals,—frequent, splendid, musical, and poetical.
Such was the answer made by Periklês in defence of his policy against the opposition headed by Thucydidês. And as far as we can make out the ground taken by both parties, the answer was perfectly satisfactory. For when we look at the very large sum which Periklês continually kept in reserve in the treasury, no one could reasonably complain that his expenditure for ornamental purposes was carried so far as to encroach upon the exigences of defence. What Thucydidês and his partisans appear to have urged, was, that this common fund should still
- ↑ Plutarch Periklês, c. 12.διέβαλλον ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλεσίαις βοῶντες, ὡς ὁ μὲν δῆμος ἀδοξεὶ καὶ κακῶς ἀκούει τὰ κοινὰ τῶν Ελλήνων χρήματα πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐκ Δήλου μεταγαγὼν, ἣ δ' ἕνεστιν αὐτῷ πρὸς τυὺς ἐγκαλοῦντας εὐπρεπεστάτη τῶν προφάσεων, δείσαντα τοὺς βαρβάρους ὲκεῖθεν ἀνελὲσθαι καὶ φυλάττειν ἐν ὀχυρῷ τὰ κοινὰ, ταύτην ἀνῄρηκε Περικλῆς, etc.
Compare the speech of the Lesbians, and their complaints against Athens, at the moment of their revolt in the fourth year of the Peloponnesian war (Thucyd. iii, 10); where a similar accusation is brought forward,—ἐπαιδὴ δὲ ἑώρωμεν αὐτοὺς (the Athenians) τὴν μὲν τοῦ Μηδοῦ ἐχθρὰν ὕνιέντας, τὴν δὲ τὸν ξυμμάχων ἑσύλωσιν ἐπαγαμένους, etc.
