Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/389

 CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERHvLES. 365 than Perikles, who appears throughout his long public life to have manifested but little bitterness against political enemies. Unfortunately, our scanty knowledge of the history of Athens brings before us only some general causes and a few marked facts : the details and the particular persons concerned are not within our sight : yet the actual course of political events depends everywhere mainly upon these details, as well as upon the gen- eral causes. Before Ephialtes advanced his main proposition for abridging the competence of the senate of Areopagus, he appears to have been strenuous in repressing the practical abuse of mag- isterial authority, by accusations brought against the magistrates at the period of their regular accountability. After repeated efforts to check the practical abuse of these magisterial powers,! Ephialtes and Perikles were at last conducted to the proposition of cutting them down permanently, and introducing an altered system. We are not surprised to find that such proceedings provoked extreme bitterness of party-feeling, and it is probable that this temper may have partly dictated the accusation preferred against Kimon, about 463 B.C., after the surrender of Thasos, for alleged reception of bribes from the Macedonian prince Alexander, — an accusation of which he was acquitted. At this time the oligarch- ical or Kimonian party was decidedly the most powerful : and when the question was proposed for sending troops to aid the Lacedas- monians in reducing the revolted Helots on Ithome, Kimon carried the people along with him to comply, by an appeal to their gen- erous feelings, in spite of the strenuous opposition of Ephialtes.2 But when Kimon and the Athenian hoplites returned home, hav- ing been dismissed by Sparta under circumstances of insulting suspicion, as has been mentioned in the preceding chapter, the indignation of the citizens was extreme : they renounced their alliance with Sparta, and entered into amity with Argos. Of course the influence of Kimon, and the position of the oligarchi- ^ Plutarch, Perikles, c. 10 : compare Valer. Maxim, iii, 8, 4. 'E^tu/lrj^v IJep ovv, (j)o[3epdv bvra toIc o^iyapxiKolc Kol nepl rag EV-&vvag koI Siu^eig ruv rbv dfjfi^v uSiKovvTuv anapairriTov, hmliov'kevaavTEg ol ^;j;i9po( dt' 'Apttrro- iiKov Tov TavaypiKov Kpvcpaiug uvellov, etc. 2 Plutarch, Kimon, c. 16.