Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/44

 28 HISTORY OF GREECE. be otherwise than short-lived. Though the individual daring enough to seize it, often found means to preserve it for the term of his own life, yet the sight of a despot living to old age was rare, and the transmission of his power to his son still raore so. 1 Amidst the numerous points of contention in Grecian political morality, this rooted antipathy to a permanent hereditary ruler stood apart as a sentiment almost unanimous, in which the thirst for preeminence felt by the wealthy few, and the love of equal freedom in the bosoms of the many, alike concurred. It first began among the oligarchies of the seventh and sixth centuries B. C., a complete reversal of that pronounced monarchical senti- ment which we now read in the Iliad ; and it was transmitted by them to the democracies, which did not arise until a later period. The conflict between oligarchy and despotism preceded that between oligarchy and democracy, the Lacedaemonians standing forward actively on both occasions to uphold the oligarchical principle : a mingled sentiment of fear and repugnance led them to put down despotism in several cities of Greece during the sixth century B. c., just as, during their contest with Athens in 1 Plutarch, Sept. Sapient. Conviv. c. 2, p. 147, wf {purr/dels virb MOA 7ra/6pou TOV 'Iwvoc, Ti TTCipado^oTaTov eirj lapciKuc, unoKpivaio, rvpavvov yipovra. Compare the answer of Thales, in the same treatise, c. 7, p. 152. The orator Lysias, present at the Olympic games, and seeing the thcors of the Syracusan despot Dionysius also present, in tents with gilding and purple, addressed an harangue, inciting the assembled Greeks to demolish the tents (Lysite Aoyof 'OA.vfj.iria.Kbc, Fragm. p. 911, eel. Keisk. ; Dionys. Halicar. De Lysul Judicium, c. 29-30). Thcophrastus ascribed to Themis- toklcs a similar recommendation, in reference to the theors and the prize- chariots of the Syracusan despot Hiero (Plutarch, Themistokles, c. 25). The common-places of the rhetors afford the best proof how unanimous was the sentiment in the Greek mind to rank the despot among the most odious criminals, and the man who put him to death among the benefactors of humanity. The rhetor Theon, treating upon common-places, says : Ton-of iffrl hoyof avt-i)TiKbe 6/j.ohoyovfievov irpdjuaroc, IJTOI uftaprqpaToc, fj uvSpa-yatififMTOf. 'Earl yap Jtrrdf 6 Toirof 6 uev TIC, Kara ruv TT e IT o v ij- pevpivuv, olov Kara rvpavvov, Trpodorov, avdpotyovov, u eu- ro v' 6 6e TIC, virep TUV xpriarov TI tiiaTTETrpa-yfievuv olov inrep rvpav- VOKTOVOV, upiaTeuc, vofto&erov. ( Theon, Progymnasmata, c. vii, ap. Walz. Coll. Rhett. vol. i, p. 222. Compare Aphthonius, Progymn. c. vji, p. 82 of the same volume, and Dionysius Halikarn. Ars Rhetorica, x, 15, p. 390, ed. Reisk?.)