Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/460

 454 THE EEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. telligence or ability enough to direct the poor towards labor, and thus help them to escape honorably from tlieir misery and corruption. A few benevolent men attempted it, but they did not succeed. The result was, that the cities always floated between two revolu- tions, one to despoil the rich, the other to enable tliem to recover their fortunes. This lasted from the Pelo- ponnesian war to the conquest of Greece by the Romans. In every city the rich and the poor were two ene- mies living by the side of each other, the one coveting wealth, and the other seeing their wealth coveted. No relation, no service, no labor united them. The poor could acquire wealth only by despoiling the rich. The rich could defend their property only by extreme skill or by Ibrce. They regarded each other with the eyes of hate. There was a double conspiracy in every city; the poor conspired from cupidity, the rich from fear. Aristotle says the rich took the following oath among themselves: "I swear always to remain the enen?y of the people, and to do them all the injury in my power." ' It is impossible to say which of the two parties com- mitted the most cruelties and crimes. Hatred effaced in their hearts every sentiment of humanity. " There was at Miletus a Avar between the rich and the poor. At first the latter were successful, and drove the rich from the city ; but afterwards, regretting that they had not been able to slaughter them, they took their chil- dren, collected them into some threshing-floors, and had them trodden to death under the feet of oxen. The ' Aristotle, Politics, VIII. 7, 19 (V. 7). Plu'iarch, Lysan- der, 19.