Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/121

 BEGINNING OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 99 markable were her own fascinations, her accomplishments, and her powers, not merely of conversation, but even of oratory and ccivcd text of Aristophanes. Critics differ, whether 'A<77ra<rzf is the geni- tive case singular of 'Aartaaia, or the accusative plural of the adjective aanucnof. I believe that it is the latter ; but intended as a play on the word, capable of being understood either as a substantive or as an adjective umraaiaf nopvas dvo, or 'AaTtaaiaf Ttopvaf 6vo. There is a similar play on the word, in a line of Kratinus, quoted by Plutarch, Perikles, c. 24. At the time, if ever, when this theft of the Megarian youth took place, Aspasia must have been the beloved mistress and companion of Perikles ; and it is inconceivable that she should have kept slave-girls for hire then, whatever she may have done before. That reading and construction of the verse above cited, which I think the least probable of the two, has been applied by the commentators of Thu- cydides to explain a line of his history, and applied in a manner which I am persuaded is erroneous. When the Lacedaemonians desired the Athe- nians to repeal the decree excluding the Mcgarians from their ports, the Athenians refused, alleging that the Megarians had appropriated some lands which were disputed between the two countries, and some which were eycn sacred property, and also, that " they had received runaway slaves from Athens" aal avSpcnroSuv vwodo^Tjv ruv adiaTapevuv (i, 139). The Scholiast gives a perfectly just explanation of these last words of or< JoiAouf avruv utrotyevyovTaf bSe%ovTO. But Wasse puts a note to the pas sage to this effect " Aspasics servos, v, Athenaeum, p. 570 ; Aristoph. Acharn. 525, et Schol." This note of Wasse is adopted and transcribed by the three best and most recent commentators on Thucydides. Poppo, Goller, and Dr. Arnold. Yet, with all respect to their united authority, the supposition is neither natural, as applied to the words, nor admissible, aa regards the matter of fact. 'AvSpinroda utyiaraneva mean naturally (not Aspasice serves, or more properly servas, for the very gender ought to have made Wasse suspect the correctness of his interpretation, but) the run- away slaves of proprietors generally in Attica ; of whom the Athenians lost so prodigious a number after the Lacedaemonian garrison was estab- lished at Dekeleia (Thucyd. vii, 28 : compare i, 142 ; and iv, 118, about the avTd(j.o7ioi). Periklos might well set forth the reception of such runaway slaves as a matter of complaint against the Megarians, and the Athenian public assembly would feel it so likewise : moreover, the Megarians are charged, not with having stolen away the slaves, but with harboring them (vKodoxrjv). But to suppose that Perikles, in defending the decree of ex- clusion against the Megarians, would rest the defence on the ground that some Megarian youth had run away with two girls of the cortege of Aspa- sia, argues a strange conception both of him and of the people. If such an incident ever really happened, or was even supposed to have happened, we may be sure that it would be cited by his opponents, as a means of