Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/227

Rh referred to the Spartan government at home and an amnesty and general restitution of property was agreed upon. The old constitution seems to have at once revived, and, as it was now about June (B.C. 403), the Boulè of 500 and the Archons were appointed in the usual way—the Archon Eponymous being Euclides. All legal decisions made before the year of "anarchy" (B.C. 404–3) were to be held good, but a commission was appointed to redraft the laws founded on those of Solon, and this code was to be henceforth authoritative. The amnesty could be pleaded in bar of all proceedings against any citizen for what had been done in the year of anarchy.

The end of the Peloponnesian war and the year of anarchy that followed it saw other changes in Athens. The national character seems little to have changed. There still remained more than half a century during which the Athenians showed wonderful energy and a vigorous national life. But in some respects it coincided with the end of other things, especially in art and literature. Her three great tragedians were dead and had no worthy successors. Aristophanes was still alive and was still exhibiting comedies, but they lacked the old boldness in criticising public men and measures. As an historian Xenophon was a poor successor of Thucydides, though probably in general culture he was his superior. The Sophists, or Lecturers, who had visited Athens from time to time, had principally promoted the study of oratory or literature. They seldom professed to teach physical science, and in their instructions Ethics were generally treated as a branch of