Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/63

 PERICLES 35 first in either wealth or influence, yet so transcendent were the abilities of Peri- cles that he rapidly rose to the highest power in the state as the leader of the dominant democracy. The sincerity of his attachment to the popular party has been questioned, but without a shadow of evidence. At any rate, the measures which, either personally or through his adherents, he brought forward and caused to be passed, were always in favor of ex- tending the privileges of the poorer class of the citizens, and, if he diminished the spirit of reverence for the ancient insti- tutions of public life, he enlisted an im- mense body of citizens on the side of law. He extended enormously, if he did not originate, the practice of distributing gratuities among the citizens for military service, for acting as dicast and in the Ecclesia and the like, as well as for ad- mission to the theatre then really a great school for manners and instruction. Pericles seems to have grasped very clear- ly, and to have held as firmly, the modern radical idea, that as the state is supported by the taxation of the body of the citi- zens, it must govern with a view to general interests rather than to those of a caste alone. About 463, Pericles, through the agency of his follower, Ephialtes, struck a great blow at the influence of the oligarchy, by causing the decree to be passed which deprived the Areopagus of its most important political powers. Shortly after the democracy obtained an- other triumph in the ostracism of Cimon (461.) During the next few years the political course pursued by Pericles is less clearly intelligible to us, but it is safe to say that in general his attitude was hostile to the desire for foreign conquest or territorial aggrandizement, so prevalent among his ambitious fellow-citizens. Shortly after the battle of Tanagra (45 7), in which he showed conspicuous cour- age, Pericles magnanimously carried the measure for the recall of Cimon. His successful expeditions to the Thracian Chersonese, and to Sinope on the Black Sea, together with his colonies planted at Naxos, Andros, Creus in Eubcea, Brea in Macedonia, and yEgina, as well as Thurii in Italy, and Amphipolis on the Strymon, did much to extend and confirm the naval supremacy of Athens, and afford a means of subsistence for her poorer citizens. But his greatest project was to form, in concert with the other Hellenic states, a grand Hellenic confed- eration in order to put an end to the mutually destructive wars of kindred peo- ples, and to make Greece one mighty nation, fit to front the outlying world. The idea was not less sagacious than it was grand. Had it been accomplished,