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 RETURN OF THLICYDIDES TO ATHENS 201 before, and the memory of it vanished under the struiii and bloodshed and misery of the last fifteen years. The policy of Pericles, the idea of the Empire, the Demo- cracy itself, was utterly, hopelessly discredited in the circles where Thucydides naturally moved. The thinkers of the day took the line of the oligarchical writers, the line of Aristotle afterwards. Athenian history was the ' succession of demagogues,' Aristeides, Ephialtes, Pericles, Cleon, Cleophon, Callicrates — ^^ and from that time on in succession all who wei-e ready for the greatest extremes in general recklessness, and in pandering to the people for their immediate advantage!'^ The Democracy, fm. a moderate and modified form, had to be accepted ; but it was, as Alcibiades had pronounced it, ^ folly con- fessed^'^ and its leaders were all so many self-seeking adventurers. ' Pericles — whv, look at Stesimbrotus and the comedies of that day — he was just as bad as the worst of them ; and Aristeides the Just, we could tell some queer stories about him!' The men of the early fourth century are living among ruins, among shattered hopes, discredited ideals, blunted and bewildered aims. The best of them^ ^^ has seen the madness of the multitude. He knows that no politician is righteous, nor is there any champion of justice at whose - side he may fight and be saved!' In public life he would be "« man fallen among wild beasts!' It is better that he " retires under the shelter of a wall while the hurrying wind and the storm of dust and sleet go by!' Testifying solitarily among these is the old returned exile of the time of Pericles. His life is over now, without dis- tinction, his Athens ruined beyond recognition, the old mistress of his love dead and buried. But he keeps 1 Ar. Ath. Pol. xxviii. ^ -p^uc. vi. 89. ^ Plato, Rep. 496 D.