Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/40

 18 HISTORY OF GREECE. the gratification o^ personal appetite; abstinences remarkable enough in any Grecian despot to stamp his reign with letters of gold, and the more remarkable in Evagoras, since he had the sus- ceptible temperament of a Greek, though his great mental force always kept it under due control. 1 But he was also careful in inquiring into, and strict in punishing crime, yet without those demonstrations of cruel infliction by which an Oriental prince dis- played his energy. 2 His government was at the same time highly popular and conciliating, as well towards the multitude as towards individuals. Indefatigable in his own personal supervision, he examined everything for himself, shaped out his own line of pol- icy, and kept watch over its execution. 3 He was foremost in all effort and in all danger. Maintaining undisturbed security, he gradually doubled the wealth, commerce, industry, and military force, of the city, while his own popularity and renown went on increasing. Above all, it was his first wish to renovate, both in Salamis and in Cyprus, that Hellenism which the Phosnician despots of the last fifty years had done so much to extinguish or corrupt. For aid in this scheme, he seems to have turned his thoughts to Athens, with which city he was connected as a Teukrid, by gentile and legendary sympathies, and which was then only just ceasing to be the great naval power of the JEgean. For though we cannot exactly make out the date at which Evagoras began to reign, we 1 Isokrat. Or. ix, s. 53. rtjov^ievoq ruv i/dovuv, d/U' OVK uyo/ievof im' avruv, etc. 2 Isokr. Or. ix, 51. oiidivafiev atiintiv, roii; Se xprjarove ripuv, nai a66pa UEV UKUVTUV up%uv, voftifiuf <5e rot)f ! a/iapru vovraq Kohdfav (s. 58) of ov IJLOVOV TTJV iavrov Ttokiv nheiovof ugiav ircoiriaev, /lM Kal TOV TOKOV ofov, TOV irpiX ovra rr]v vrjaov, kirl irpaorriT a nal fierpi- 6 T 7i TO. irpofiyayev, etc. ; compare s. 81. These epithets, lawful punishment, mild dealing, etc., cannot be fully un- derstood except in contrast with the mutilations alluded to by Lysias, in the passage cited in a note on page 16, above; also with exactly similar mutilations, mentioned by Xenophon as systematically inflicted upon of- fenders by Cyrus the younger (Xenoph. Anabas. i, 9, 13). Ovdelf -yap %/j.uv (says Isokrates about the Persians) ovrug a'iK.i&Tai TOVS o/Kenzf, wf knelvoi roi)f kTiev&ifiovg Ko7idovatv Or. iv, (Paneg.) 142. 3 Isokrates, Or. is, (Evag.) s. 50-56. The language of the encomiast, though exaggerated, must doubtless be founded in truth, as the result shows.