Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/396

378 378 HISTORY OF GREECE. state of Hellenic affairs the adherence of Samos to the Athe- nians ; who immediately recognized the new democracy, and granted to it the privilege of an equal and autonomous ally. The Saurian people confiscated and divided among themselves the property of such of the geomori as were slain or banished : l the remainder were deprived of all political privileges, and were even forbidden to intermarry with any of the families of the remaining citizens. 2 We may fairly suspect that this latter prohibition is 1 Thucyd. via, 21. 'Evevero c5c Kara TOV xpovov TOVTOV Kal ij EV ETrav liar a a if VTTO TOV df/pov T olf SvvaTolf, p.era 'Adrjvaiuv, ol erv^ov ev rpiat vaval Kapovref. Kal 6 67/fj.of 6 Za/uuv if diaicomovf HKV TLVaf TOVf TTUVTOf TUV OWdTUV UTTEKTElVe, TETpaKOOlOVf SE (JIV/TJ fyfllUGaVTEf, KOI avTol TTJV y7jv avT&v icai o'lKiaf VEifiupsvoi, 'Adnvaiuv re ctyiaiv GVTOVO- uiav ftETa ravra uf (3e/3aioif ijftr) if>nioa/j.EVUv, ru 'Xonra ditjKOW TT/V, Kal Tolf yeufiopoif [isTedidooav oitrs U/JMV ovdevbf, ovre EKfioiivai oW Trap' iKslvuv oW if itcEivovf ovisvl STI TOV dijfiov i^r/v. 2 Thacyd. viii, 21. The dispositions and plans of the " higher people " at Samos, to call in the Peloponncsians and revolt from Athens, are fully ad- mitted even by Mr. Mitford, and implied by Dr. Thirhvall, who argues that the government of Samos cannot have been oligarchical, because, if it had been so, the island would already have revolted from Athens to the Pclo- T K>nnesians. Mr. Mitford says (ch. xix, sect, iii, vol. iv, p. 191 ) : " Meanwhile the body of the higher people at Samos, more depressed than all others since their reductio i on their former revolt, were proposing to seize the opportunity that seemed to offer through the prevalence of the Peloponnesian arms, of mending their condition. The lower people, having intelligence of their design, rose upon them, and, with the assistance of the crews of three Athenian ships then at Samos, overpowered them," etc. etc. etc. " The massacre and robbery were rewarded by a decree of the Athenian people, granting to the perpetrators the independent administration of the affairs of their island ; which, since the last rebellion, had been kept under the immediate control of the Athenian govenvnent." To call this a massacre is perversion of language. It was an insurrection and intestine conflict, in which the "higher people" were vanquished, bat of which they also were the beginners, by their conspiracy which Mr. Mitford himself admits as a fact to introduce a foreign enemy into the '. ' .n 1. Does he imagine that the "lower people " were bound to sit still s".d see this done ? And what means had they of preventing it, except by insurrection ; which inevitably became bloody, because the " higher people '' WCTC a strong party, in possession of the powers of government, with great HII.-UIM of resistance. The loss on the part of the assailants is not made known to u?, nor indeed the loss in KO far as it fell on the followers of the