Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/39

 OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE DESPOTS. 23 the cause of the difference : the opposition of the tongue was a beneficial substitute for the opposition of the sword. The rise of these despots on the ruins of the previous oli- garchies was, in appearance, a return to the principles of the heroic age, the restoration of a government of personal will in place of that systematic arrangement known as the City. But the Greek mind had so far outgrown those early principles, that. no new government founded thereupon could meet with willing acquiescence, except under some temporary excitement. At first, doubtless, the popularity of the usurper, combined with the fervor of his partizans and the expulsion or intimidation of opponents, and farther enhanced by the punishment of rich oppressors, was sufficient to procure for him obedience ; and prudence on his part might prolong this undisputed rule for a considerable period, perhaps even throughout his whole life. But Aristotle intimates that these governments, even when they oegan well, had a constant tendency to become worse and worse discontent manifested itself, and was aggravated rather than repressed by the violence employed against it, until at length the despot became a prey to mistrustful and malevolent anxiety, losing any measure of equity or benevolent sympathy which might once have animated him. If he was fortunate enough to bequeathe his authority to his son, the latter, educated in a corrupt atmosphere and surrounded by parasites, contracted disposition.-! yet more noxious and unsocial : his youthful appetites were more ungovernable, while he was deficient in the prudence and vigor which had been indispensable to the self-accomplished rise of his father. 1 For such a position, mercenary guards and a fortified acropolis were the only stay, guards fed at the expense of the citizens, and thus requiring constant exactions on behalf of that which was nothing better than a hostile garrison. It was essential to the security of the despot that he should keep down the spirit drifiayuyovai fiev, 6C uireipiav <5e TIJV nofafiiKuv OVK 7rmi9ei>ra<, TTS.J/V el xov fipaxv TI yeyove TOIOVTOV. 1 Aristot. Polit. v, 8, 20. The whole tenor of this eighth chapter (of the fifth book) shows how unrestrained were the personal passions, the lust as ivell as the anger, of a Grecian -i-pawor. Toi> rot ri'pavvov fvot'deiv ov f>a'6iof fSophokles ap. Schol. Aristides, TC! Hi, p. 291, ed. Dindorf).