Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/99

 DEMOCRACY RESTORED. 77 blies veie also held, in which nomothetoe, dikasts, and other in- stitutions essential to the working of the democracy, were consti- tuted. Various other votes were also passed ; especially one, on the proposition of Kritias, seconded by Theramenes, 1 to restore Alkibiades and some of his friends from exile ; while messages were farther despatched, both to him and to the armament at Samos, doubtless confirming the recent nomination of generals, apprizing them of what had recently occurred at Athens, as well as bespeaking their full concurrence and unabated efforts against the common enemy. Thucydides bestows marked eulogy upon the general spirit of moderation and patriotic harmony which now reigned at Athens, and which directed the political proceedings of the people. 2 But he does not countenance the belief, as he has been sometimes understood, nor is it true in point of fact, that they now intro- duced a new constitution. Putting an end to the oligarchy, and to the rule of the Four Hundred, they restored the old democracy i, a> of roi KOI?" OlHTTlVdf TrofareVOOlVTO, TOVTOVf [IEV Ul fj^E^.TiOV %Vyypd$lV T KOI U.TTO- ieinvvvai, etc. (Xcnophon, Hcllcn. ii, 3, 2-11.) Xcnophon calls Kritias and Chariklus the nomothetoe of the Thirty (Mcmor. i, 2, 30), but this is not democracy. For the signification of Nopo&errjf (applied most generally to Solon, sometimes to others, cither by rhetorical looseness or by ironical taunt), or No/iEderai, a numerous body of persons chosen and sworn, see Lysias cont. Nikomach. sects. 3, 33, 37 ; Andokides de Mysteriis, sects. 81-85, c. 14, p. 38, where the nomothetai are a sworn body of Five Hundred, exercising, con- jointly with the senate, the function of accepting or rejecting laws proposed to them. 1 Plutarch, Alkibiades, c. 33. Cornelius Nepos (Alkibiad. c. 5. and Dio- uorus, xiii, 38-42) mentions Theraraenes as the principal author of tho decree for restoring Alkibiades from exile. But the precise words of the elegy composed by Kritias, wherein the latter vindicates this proceeding to him- self, arc cited by Plutarch, and arc very good evidence. Doubtless many of the leading men supported, and none opposed, the proposition. vaioL QaivovTOL ev nofare vaavrf f perpia yup f/ re if rot)f oAfyouf /cat roi't. iroMovf l;vyKpacrif tytrero, nai in Ttovijpuv rdv TtpayfiuTuv ytvopivuv route irpurov uvriveynE rtjv TTO/.IV. I refer the reader to a note on this passage in one of my former vo'.umes, %nd on the explanation given of it by Dr. Arnold (see vol. v, ch. xlv, p 33C )
 * Thucyd. viii, 97. Ka< ov i/Ktarn 6fj rov irptirov xpovw t-xi ye fyoO 'A.&rj-