Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/390

 372 fflSTORY OF GREEC2. the extreme penalty proposed by his accuser, except these vious services, which influenced the dikasts sufficiently to in- duce them to inflict the lighter punishment instead of the heavier, Now the whole amount of punishment inflicted consisted in a fine which certainly was not beyond his reasonable means of paying, or of prevailing upon friends to pay for him, since hjj son Ivimon actually did pay it. And those who blame th:) Athenians for ingratitude, unless they are prepared to main- tain the doctrine that previous services are to pass as full ac- quittal for future crime, have no other ground left except to say that the fine was too high ; that instead of being fifty talents, it ought to have been no more than forty, thirty, twenty, or ten talents. Whether they are right in this, I will not take upon me to pronounce. If the amount was named on behalf of the accused party, the dikastery had no legal power of diminish- ing it ; but it is within such narrow limits that the question actu- ally lies, when transferred from the province of sentiment to that of reason. It will be recollected that the death of Miltiades arose neither from his trial nor his fine, but from the hurt in his thigh. The charge of ingratitude against the Athenian popular juries really amounts to this, that, in trying a person accused of pres- ent crime or fault, they were apt to confine themselves too strictly and exclusively to the particular matter of charge, either forgetting, or making too little account of, past services which he might have rendered. Whoever imagines that such was the habit of Athenian dikasts, must have studied the orators to very little purpose. Their real defect was the very opposite : thej were too much disposed to wander from the special issue before them, and to be affected by appeals to previous services and con- i dementi con gli meriti del suoi cittadini : ma avendo ordinati i premi ad nna buona opera, e le pcne ad una cattiva, ed avendo premiato uno pei aver bene operato, se quel medesimo opera dipoi male, lo gastiga senza avere riguardo alcuno alle sue buone opere. E quando questi ordim sono bene osservati, una citta vive libera molto tempo : altrimenti sempre rovi- nera presto. Perche se. ad un cittadino che abbia fatto qualche eyreyia o/>era per la citta, si aggiunrje oltre alia ripuiazione, che queUa cosa gli arreca, unit an dacia e confidenza di potere senza temer pena, far ouakhe opera nan buona, di vcntera in breve tempo tanto insolente, che si risoltwrit oqn* civilfa/' Alaciiia "cl Discorsi sop. Tit. Livio, ch. 24.