Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/143

121 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 121 the popular cause. After he had been overthrown, the aristocracy was restored, but only for a short period, as the commons rose with vio- lence against the nobles, and founded a democracy, which however led to such a state of anarchy, that the expelled nobles found the means of regaining their lost power. Now the poetry of Theognis, so far as its political character extends, evidently falls in the beginning of this democracy, probably nearer to the 70th (500 B.C.) than the 60th Olympiad (540 B.C.) : for Theognis, although according to the ancient accounts he was born before the 60th Olympiad, yet from his own verses appears to have lived to the Persian war (Olymp. 75. 480 B. a). Re- volutions of this kind were in the ancient Greek states usually accom- panied with divisions of the large landed estates among the commons; and by a fresh partition of the Megarian territory, made by the democratic parly, Theognis, who happened to be absent on a voyage, was deprived of the rich heritage of his ancestors. Hence he longs for vengeance on the men who had spoiled him of his property, while he himself had only escaped with his life ; like a dog who throws every thing away in order to cross a torrent*, and the cry of the crane, which gives warning of the season of tillage, reminds him of his fertile fields now in other men's hands f. These fragments are therefore full of allusions to the violent political measures which in Greece usually accompanied the accession of the democratic party to power. One of the principal changes on such occasions was commonly the adoption into the sove- reign community of Periceci, that is, cultivators who were before excluded from all share in the government. Of this Theognis says J, " Cyrnus, this city is still the city, but a different people are in it, who formerly knew nothing of courts of justice and laws, but wore their country dress of goat skins at their work, and like timid deer dwelt at a distance from the town. And now they are the better class ; and those who were formerly noble are now the mean : who can endure to see these things?" The expressions good and bad men (ayadoi, kaOXol and kcikoI, deiXol), which in later times bore a purely moral signification, are evidently used by Theognis in a political sense for nobles and commons ; or rather his use of these words rests in fact upon the supposition that a brave spirit and honourable conduct can be expected only of men de- scended from a family long tried in peace and war. Hence his chief complaint is, that the good man, that is, the noble, is now of no account as compared with the rich man ; and that wealth is the only object of all. " They honour riches, and thus the good marries the daughter ol the bad, and the bad marries the daughter of the good : wealth cor- rupts the blood §. Hence, son of Polypas, do not wonder if the race of the citizens loses its brightness, for good and bad are confounded tog^e
 * v. 3 15. isnj. fd Kekker. v. 1297, seq. X 53, * e 1-