Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/204

186 1 86 HISTORY OP GREECE hand. Such intrigues leave but short moments of tranquillity tc our city ; they condemn it to an intestine discord worse than foreign war, and have sometimes betrayed it even to despots and usurpers. However, if you will listen to me, I will try and prevent anything of this sort at present ; by simple persuasion to you, by chastisement to these conspirators, and by watchful denunciation of the oligarchical party generally. Let me ask, indeed, what is it that you younger nobles covet ? To get intc command at your early age ? The law forbids you, because you are yet incompetent. Or, do you wish not to be under equal laws with the many ? But how can you pretend that citizens of the same city should not have the same rights ? Some one will tell me 1 that democracy is neither intelligent nor just, and that the 1 Thucyd. vi, 39. tyf/asi TIC 8n nonpar lav OVTE ^vverbv our' laov elvai, -ov(, $ exovras T& xpyftara nal upxeiv apiara fiefoiarovf. 'Ej'w 6i ?ifu, Trpura uev, dt/fiov ^vftirav wvofi.u.(r&ai, ohiyapxiav 6e fiepof eireim, tyvhaKaf fiev upiarovf elvai XP 7 ! P&TUV T oi)f nhovaiovf, ffovfevaai f nai ravTa buoiuf KOI Kara ueprj Kal ^v/jTravra ev dqfWKpa-ia. laouoipelv. Dr. Arnold translates $v"kaK.aq ^p^aruv, " having the care of the public purse," as if it were tyvkattaq TUV SrjfMoaiuv xpnuufuv. But it seems to me that the words carry a larger sense, and refer to the private property of these rich men, not to their functions as keepers of what was collected from tax- ation or tribute. Looking at a rich man from the point of view of the public, he is guardian of his own property nntil the necessities of the state require that he should spend more or less of it for the public defence or benefit : in the interim, he enjoys it as he pleases, but he will for his own interest take care that the property does not perish (compare vi. 9). This is the service which he renders, quatenus. rich man, to the state ; he may also serve it in other ways, but that would be by means of his personal qualities ; thus he may, for example, be intelligent as well as rich (fwrrof as well as n'hovffiog), and then he may serve the state as counsellor, the second of the two categories named by Athenagoras. What that orator is here negativing is, the better title and superior fitness of the rich to exercise command, which was tho claim put forward in their behalf. And he goes on to indicate what is their real position and service in a democracy ; that they are to enjoy the revenue, and preserve the capital, of their wealth, subject to demands for public purposes when necessary, but not to expect command, unless they are personally competent. Properly speaking, that which he h re affirms is true of the small lots of properly taken in the mass, as well as of the large, and is one of the grounds of defence of private property against com- munism. But the rich man's property is an appreciable item to the state,