Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/508

 486 THE DECLINE AXD FALL land is abandoned to the vagrant Walachians. The Athenians are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their understandings ; but these qualities, unless ennobled by free- dom and enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and selfish cunning ; and it is a proverbial saying of the country, " From the Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the Greeks of Athens, good Lord, deliver us ! " This artful people has eluded the tyranny of the Turkish bashaws by an expedient which alleviates their servitude and aggravates their shame. About the middle of the last century, the Athenians chose for their protector the Kislar Aga, or chief black eunuch of the seraglio. This .Ethiopian slave, who possesses the Sul- tan's ear, condescends to accept the tribute of thirtj' thousand crowns ; his lieutenant, the Waywode, whom he annually con- firms, may reserve for his own about five or six thousand more ; and such is the policy of the citizens that they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppressive governor. Their private dif- ferences are decided by the archbishop, one of the richest prelates of the Greek church, since he possesses a revenue of one thousand pounds sterling ; and by a tribunal of the eight gerouti or eiders, chosen in the eight quarters of the city. The noble families cannot trace their pedigree above three hundred years ; but their principal members are distinguished by a grave demeanour, a fur cap, and the lofty appellation of arclion. By some, who delight in the contrast, the modern language of Athens is represented as the most corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of the vulgar Greek ; "'^ this picture is too darkly coloured ; but it would not be easy, in the country of Plato and Demosthenes, to find a reader, or a copy, of their works. The Athenians walk with supine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity ; and such is the debasement of their char- acter that they are incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors.'^'^ "9 Ducange, Glossar. Grcec. Prasfat. p. 8, who quotes for his author Theodosius Zygomalas, a modern grammarian [of the i6lh cent.]. Yet Spon (torn. ii. p. 194), and Wheler (p. 355), no incompetent judges, entertain a more favourable opinion of the Attic dialect. 8'^ Yet we must not accuse them of corrupting the name of Athens, which they still call Athini. From the eis t,,v 'erifi)v we have formed our own barbarism of Setines. [Setines comes from (a-Ta)^ 'A6r,va^.}