Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/216

 200 HISTORY OF GREECE. enough seriously to alarm and afflict their fellow-citizens, while their party at home, and the general dissension within the walls, reduced Mitylene to despair. In this calamitous condition, the Mityleneans had recourse to Pittakus, who with his great rank in the state (his wife helonged to the old gens of the Penthilids), courage in the field, and reputation for wisdom, inspired greater confidence than any other citizen of his time. He was by uni- versal consent named JEsymnete or dictator for ten years, with unlimited powers : l and the appointment proved eminently suc- cessful. How effectually he repelled the exiles, and maintained domestic tranquillity, is best shown by the angry effusions of Al- kfeus, whose songs (unfortunately lost) gave vent to the political hostility of the time, in the same manner as the speeches of the Athenian orators two centuries afterwards, and who in his vigor- ous invectives against Pittakus did not spare even the coarsest nicknames, founded on alleged personal deformities. 2 Respecting the proceedings of this eminent dictator, the contemporary and reported friend of Solon, we know only in a general way, that he succeeded in reestablishing security and peace, and that at the end of his term he voluntarily laid down his authority, 3 an evi- dence not only of probity superior to the lures of ambition, but also of that conscious moderation during the period of his dicta- torship which left him without fear as a private citizen afterwards He enacted various laws for Mitylene, one of which was sufficiently curious to cause it to be preserved and commented on, for it prescribed double penalties against offences committed by men in a state of intoxication. 4 But lie did not (like Solon at Athens) 1 Aristot. Folit. iii,9, 5, 6; Dionys. Ilalik. Ant. Rom. v, 73: Plehn, Les- biaca, pp. 46-50. 2 Diogcn. Laiirt. i, 81. 3 Strabo, xiii, p. 617 ; Diogcn. Laort. i, 75; Valcr. Maxim, vi, 5. 1 4 Aristot. Polit. ii, 9, 9 ; Rhetoric ii, 27, 2. A ditty is said to have been sang by the female grinding-slaves in Lesbos, when the mill went heavily : 'AA, /j.v%a, d/let not -yiip IlirraKof A, Tdf ut]'u7.a<; MtriMuvaf flaaifavuv, "Grind, mill, grind; for Pittakus also grinds, the master of great Mitylcnu." This has the air of a genuine com- position of the time, set forth by the enemies of Pittakus, and imputing to him (through a very intelligible metaphor) tyrannical con .iuct; though both Plutarch (Sept Sap. Conv. c. 14, p. 157) and Diogcne? Laiirt. (i, 8M con-