Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/354

 330 fflSTORY OF GREECE. So powerful was this burst of fresh patriotism and unanimity after the battle of Tanagra, which produced the recall of Kimon, Kai ouxJ/Kiara Stj Tov TrpuiTov xpovov e-'i ye e/iov 'A^rjvaloL (paivovTOL ev ':zo7uTEvaav-Eg • nerpia yap rj re ig rovg oXiyovg Kal roOf ttoa.Xovc ^vyKpacic eyevETO ; Koi Ik TiovrjpCiv tuv irpayftaruv yevofxivuv tovto ■n-purov dvrjveyKe TTjv Tio'kiv. I may remark that the explanatory note of Dr. Arnold on this passage is less instructive than his notes usually are, and even involves, in my judgment, an eiToneous supposition as to the meaning. Dr. Arnold says : " It appears that the constitution as now fixed, was at first, in the opinion of Thucydides, the best that Athens had ever enjoyed within his memory ; that is, the best since the complete ascendency of the democracy effected under Perikles. But how long a period is meant to be included by the words rbv -purov xpovov, and when, and how, did the implied change take place 1 Tbv TrpCjTov xpnvov can hardly apply to the whole remaining term of the war, as if this improved constitution had been first subverted by the triumph of the oligarchy under the Thirty, and then superseded by the restoration of the old democracy after their overthrow. Yet Xenophon mentions no intermediate change in the government between the beginning of his history and the end of the war," etc. Kow I do not think that Dr. Arnold rightly interprets rbv npuTov xpovov. The phrase appears to me equivalent to tovtov tov xpovov Trpurov : the words TOV TtpCiTov xpovov, apply the comparison altogether to the period pre- ceding this event here described, and not to the period fi>Uowing it. '• And it was during this period first, in my time at least, that the Athenians most of all behaved like good citizens : for the Many and the Few met each other in a spirit of moderation, and this first brought up the city from its deep existing distress." No such comparison is intended as Dr. Arnold supposes, between the first moments after this juncture, and the subsequent changes : the comparison is between the political temper of the Athenians at this juncture, and their usual temper as far back as Thucydides could recollect. Xext, the words ev TTo7jTevaavTeg are understood by Dr. Arnold in a sense too special and limited, — as denoting merely the new constitution, or positive organic enactments, which the Athenians now introduced. But it appears to me that the words are of wider import : meaning the gen- eral temper of political parties, both reciprocally towards each other and towards the commonwealth: their inclination to relinquish antipathies, to accommodate points of difference, and to cooperate with each other heartily against the enemy, suspending those iSiag ^Oiorifiiac, Idia^ Jia/3o/laf Tzepl rij^ TOV Sfjinov TzpooTaaia^ (ii, 65) noticed as having been so mischiev- ous before. Of course, any constitutional arrangements introduced at such a period would partake of the moderate and harmonious spirit then preva- lent, and would therefore form a part of what is commended by Thucy- dides: but his commendation is not confined to them specially. Compare the phrase ii. 38. e/.Evdipu^ de to, te Trpdf rd Koivbv tio'^ltevohev, etc.