Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/193

 SECOND AND THIRD YEARS OF THE WAR. 171 tfhich underminded his strength as well as his capacity. To a friend who came to ask after him when in this disease, Periklea replied by showing a charm or amulet which his female relations had hung about his neck, a proof how low he was reduced, and how completely he had become a passive subject in the hands of others. And according to another anecdote which we read, yet more interesting and equally illustrative of his character, it was during his last moments, when he was lying apparently unconscious and insensible, that the friends around his bed were passing in review the acts of his life, and the nine trophies which he had erected at different times for so many victories. He hec,vd what they said, though they fancied that he was past hearing, and interrupted them by remarking : " What you praise in my life, belongs partly to good fortune, and is, at best, com- mon to me with many other generals. ' But the peculiarity of which I am most proud, you have not noticed, no Athenian has ever put on mourning on my account." * Such a cause of self-gratulation, doubtless more satisfactory to recall at such a moment than any other, illustrates that long- sighted calculation, aversion to distant or hazardous enterprise, and economy of the public force, which marked his entire politi- cal career ; a career long, beyond all parallel, in the history of Athens, since he maintained a great influence, gradually swell- ing into a decisive personal ascendency, for between thirty and forty years. His character has been presented in very different lights, by different authors, both ancient and modern, and our materials for striking the balance are not so good as we could wish. But his immense and long-continued ascendency, as well as his unparalleled eloquence, are facts attested not less by his enemies than by his friends, nay, even more forcibly by the former than by the latter. The comic writers, who hated him, and whose trade it was to deride and hunt down every leading political character, exhaust their powers of illustration in setting forth both the one and the other : 2 Telekleides, Kratinus, Eupolis, 1 Plutarch, Perikles, c. 38. Mcineke. Cicero (De Orator, iii, 34; Brutus, 9-11) and Quintilian (ii, 16^ 19 ; x, 1 82) count only as witnesses at second-hand.
 * Plutarch, Perikles, c. 4, 8, 13, 16 ; Eupolis. A^UOJ, Fragm. vi, p. 459, ed.