Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/63

 FEELINGS AT OLYMPIA. 37 in the Hellenic world j 1 means beyond the reach of any contem- porary, and surpassing even Hiero or Thero of former days, whose praises in the odes of Pindar he probably had in his mind He counted, probably with good reason, that his splendid legation, chariots, and outfit of acting and recitation for the poems, would surpass everything else seen on the holy plain ; and he fully ex pected such reward as the public were always glad to bestow on rich mon who exhausted their purses in the recognized vein of Hellenic pious ostentation. Ic this high wrought state of expec- tation, what does Dionysius hear, by his messengers returning from the festival ? That their mission had proved a total failure, and even worse than a failure ; that the display had called forth none of the usual admiration, not because there were rivals on the ground equal or superior, but simply because it came from him ; that its very magnificence had operated to render the explosion of antipathy against him louder and more violent ; that his tents in the sacred ground had been actually assailed, and that access to sacrifice, as well as to the matches, had been secured to him only by the interposition of authority. We learn indeed that his char- iots failed in the field by unlucky accidents ; but in the existing temper of the crowd, these very accidents would be seized as oc- casions for derisory cheering against him. To this we must add explosions of hatred, yet more furious, elicited by his poems, put- ting the reciters to utter shame. At the moment when Dionysius expected to hear the account of an unparalleled triumph, he is thus informed, not merely of disappointment, but of insults to himself, direct and personal, the most poignant ever offered by Greeks to a Greek, amidst the holiest and most frequented cere- mony of the Hellenic world. 2 Never in any other case do we 1 Thucyd. vi. 16. Ol yup 'EAA^vef KCII inrep Svva/uiv fiei^u rjfj.iJv TTJV Kokw ivouiaav, r 6ianpeirel rr/c 'OAii/iTuwfe tfewptaf (speech of Alkibiades). Ill, 112) of Isokrates, in which the Spartans are made to feel keenly their altered position after the defeat of Leuktra : especially the insupportable pain of encountering, when they attended the Olympic festival, slights or disparagement from the spectators, embittered by open taunts from the re Established Messenians instead of the honor and reverence which they had become accustomed to expect. This may help us to form some estimate of the painful sentiment of Dipuysics, when his envoys returned from the Olympic festival of 384 B. c VOL. XI. 4
 * See a striking passage in the discourse called Archidamus (Or. vi. s.