Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/130

 108 HISTORY Of GREECE. of Thrace, he could also lend the aid of Athenian naval and mil- itary art, not merely to princes in Thrace, but to others even be yond those limits, since we learn that Amyntas king of Mace* donia became so attached or indebted to him as to adopt him for his son. 1 When sent by the Athenians to Persia, at the request of Phamabazus (about 378 B. c. apparently), Iphikrates had fair ground for anticipating that a career yet more lucrative was open- ing before him. 2 1 JEschines, Fals. Leg. c. 13. p. 249. At what time this adoption took place, we cannot distinctly make out ; Amyntas died in 370 B.C., while from 378-571 B. c., Iphikrates seems to have been partly on service with the Persian satraps, partly in command of the Athenian fleet in the Ionian Sea (see Rehdantz, Vitae Iphicratis, etc. ch. 4). Therefore, the adoption took place at some time between 387-378 B. c.; perhaps after the restoration of Amyntas to his maritime dominions by the Lacedaemonian expedition against Olynthus 382-380 B. c. Amyutas was so weak and insecure, from the Thessalians, and other land-neighbors (see Demosth. cont. Aristokrat. p. 657. s. 112), that it was much to his ad- vantage to cultivate the favor of a warlike Athenian established on tha Thracian coast, like Iphikrates. 2 From these absences of men like Iphikrates and Chabrias, a conclusion has been drawn severely condemning the Athenian people. They were sc envious and ill-tempered (it has been said), that none of their generals could live with comfort at Athens ; all lived abroad as they could. Cor- nelius Nepos (Chabrias, c. 3) makes the remark, borrowed originally from Theopompus (I?r 117, ed.Didot), and transcribed by many modern com mentators as if it were exact and literal truth " Hoc Chabrias nuntio (i e. on being recalled from Egypt, in consequence of the remonstrance of Phamabazus) Athenas rediit neque ibi diutius est moratus quam fuit ne cesse. Non enim libenter erat ante oculos civium suorum, quod et vivebat laute, et indulgebat sibi liberalius, quam ut invidiam vulgi posset effugere Est enim hoc commune vitium in magnis liberisque civitatibus, ut invidia glorise comes sit, et libenter de his detrahant, quos eminere videant altius ; neque animo asquo pauperes alienam opulentium intuentur fortunam. Ita- que Chabrias, quoad ei licebat, plurimum aberat. Neque vero solus ille aberat Athenis libenter, sed omnes fere principes fecerunt idem, quod tantum se ab invidia putabant abfuturos, quantum a conspectu suorum recessissent. Itaque Conon plurimum Cypri vixit, Iphicrates in Thracia, Timotheus Lesbi, Chares in Sigeo." That the people of Athens, among other human frailties, had their fair share of envy and jealousy, is not to be denied ; but that these attributes belonged to them in a marked or peculiar manner, cannot (in my judg- ment) be shown by an)- evidence extant, and most assuredly is not shown by the evidence here aJuded to.