Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/507

 KLEON AS AN ACCUSER. 483 inconsistent with a high sense of public duty. And Plutarch recounts an anecdote respecting Kleon, that, on first beginning his political career, he called his friends together, and dissolved his intimacy with them, conceiving that private friendships would distract him from his paramount duty to the commonwealth. 1 Moreover, the reputation of Kleon as a frequent and unmeas- ured accuser of others, may be explained partly by a passage of his enemy Aristophanes : a passage the more deserving of confi- dence as a just representation of fact, since it appears in a comedy (the " Frogs") represented (405 B.C.) fifteen years after the death of Kleon, and five years after that of Hyperbolus, when the poet had less motive for misrepresentations against either. In the " Frogs," the scene is laid in Hades, whither the god Dionysus goes, in the attire of Herakles and along with his slave Xanthias, for the purpose of bringing up again to earth the deceased poet Euripides. Among the incidents, Xanthias, in the attire which his master had worn, is represented as acting with violence and insult towards two hostesses of eating-houses ; con- suming their substance, robbing them, refusing to pay when called upon, and even threatening their lives with a drawn sword. Upon which the women, having no other redress left, announce their resolution of calling, the one upon her protector Kleon, the other on Hyperbolus, for the purpose of bringing the offender to justice before the dikastery.' 2 This passage shows us, if infer- ences on comic evidence are to be held as admissible, that Kleon and Hyperbolus became involved in accusations partly by help- ing poor persons who had been wronged to obtain justice before the dikastery. A rich man who had suffered injury might apply The remarks made too by Latin critics on the style and temper of Cato'a speeches, might almost seem to be a translation of the words of Thucy- dides about Kleon. Pronto said about Cato : " Concionatur Cato infeste^ Gracchus turbulcnte, Tullius copiose. Jam in judiciis scevit idem Cato, triumphal Cicero, tumultuatur Gracchus." Sec Diibner's edition of Mcy. er's Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta. p 117 (Paris, 1837). 1 Plutarch, Reip. Ger. Prsecept. p. 806. Compare two other passages in the same treatise, p. 805, where Plutarch speaks of the UKOVOLO. nal Ocivcrtjt of Kleon ; and p. 812, where he says, with truth, that Kleon was not at all qualified to act as general in a campaign. 21*
 * Aristophan. Ran. 566-576.