Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/41

 rHILOSOPHEKS' VFfcW OF DESPOTS. 25 vengeance l of those whom he had injured, unless, indeed, hft could clothe himself with the mantle of religion, and stipulate with the people to become priest of some temple and deity ; in which case his new function protected him, just as the tonsure and the monastery sheltered a dethroned prince in the Middle Ages. 2 Several of the despots were patrons of music and poetry, and courted the good-will of contemporary intellectual men by invitation as well as by reward ; and there were some cases, such as that of Peisistratus and his sons at Athens, in which an attempt was made (analogous to that of Augustus at Rome) to reconcile the reality of personal omnipotence with a certain respect for preexisting forms. 3 In such instances the administration, though 1 Thucyd. ii, 63. Compare again the speech of Klcon, iii, 37-40, tif Tvpavvida -yup e^nre avTijr, f/v Tiafieiv HKV udinov tioKEi dvat, utyeivai tie The bitter sentiment against despots seems to be as old as Alkseus, and we find traces of it in Solon and Theognis (Theognis, 38-50; Solon, Frngm. vii, p. 32, ed. Schneidcwin). Phanias of Eresus had collected in a book the " Assassinations of Despots from revenge." (Tvpuvvuv avaipeaetf eic riuupiaf, Athenaeus, iii, p. 90; x, p. 438.) 2 See the story of Mieandrius, minister and successor of Polykrates of Samos, in Herodotus, iii. 142. 143. 3 Thucyd. vi, 54. The epitaph of Archcdike, the daughter of Hippias (which was inscribed at Lampsakus, where she died), though written by a great friend of Hippias, conveys the sharpest implied invective against the usual proceedings of the despots : 'H Trarpoc re Kdl avdpbf udstytiv r' ovaa rvpuvvuv Hat6uv T', ol'X yp&Tj voiiv if uracrda?i.iriv (Thuc. vi, 59). The position of Augustus at Eomc, and of Peisistratus at Athens, may be illustrated by a passage in Sismondi, Republiques Italiennes, vol. iv, ch. 26, p. 208: " Les petits monarques de chaque ville s'opposaient eux-memes a ce que leur pouvoir fill attribue, a. un droit hereditaire, parceque 1'heredite aurait presque toujours etc retorque centre eux. Ceux qui avaient succede & une republique, avaient abaisse dcs nobles plus anciens ct plus illnstres qn'eux : ceux qui avaient succede a d'autres seigneurs n'avaient tenu aucun compte clu droit de leurs predecesseurs, et se sentaient inte'resses a le nier. Us se lisnient dont mandataires du peuple: ils ne prenaient jamais le eommande- ment d'une ville, lors meme qu'ils Favaient soumise par les armes, sans se fairc attribncr par les anciens ou par Tassemble'e du peuple, selon que les unf ou les autres se montraient plus dociles, le titre et les pouvoirs de seigneur l. pour un an. ponr cinq ans, ou pour toute leur vie, avec un paic fix&t evoit Otre prise sur les de'nicrs de la commuuauteV VOL. III. 2