Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/145

 KLEOPHON THE DEMAGOGUE. 123 orreut King as a paymaster : she was robbed of the produce of Attica by the garrison of Dekeleia, while Peloponnesus was un- disturbed : all her power and influence depended upon superiority at sea, which Sparta could dispense with, and yet retain her pre eminence. 1 If we may believe Diodorus, all the most intelligent citizens in Athens recommended that this proposition should be accepted. Only the demagogues, the disturbers, those who were accustomed to blow up the flames of war in order to obtain profit for them- selves, opposed it. Especially the demagogue Kleophon, now enjoying great influence, enlarged upon the splendor of the recent victory, and upon the new chances of success now opening to them : insomuch that the assembly ultimately rejected tho proposition of Endius. 2 It was easy for those who wrote after the battle of ^Egospota- naos and the capture of Athens, to be wise after the fact, and to repeat the stock denunciations against an insane people, misled by a corrupt demagogue. But if, abstracting from our knowl- edge of the final close of the war, we look to the tenor of this proposition, even assuming it to have been formal and author- ized, as well as the time at which it was made, we shall hesitate before we pronounce Kleophon to have been foolish, much less corrupt, for recommending its rejection. In reference to the charge of corrupt interest in the continuance of war, I have already made some remarks about Kleon, tending to show that no such interest can fairly be ascribed to demagogues of that character. 3 They were essentially unwarlike men, and had quite as much chance personally of losing, as of gaining, by a state of war. Especially this is true respecting Kleophon, during the last years of the war, since the financial posture of Athens was then so unprosperous, that all her available means were ex- hausted to provide for ships and men, leaving little or no surplus for political peculators. The admirals, who paid the seamen by raising contributions abroad, might possibly enrich themselves, if go inclined ; but the politicians at home had much less chance of uch gains than they would have had in time of peace. Besides 1 Dioclor. xiii, 52. * Diodoi xiii. 53 ' See the preceding vol. vi ch liv, p. 455