Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/271

IX cities — discord that in some instances reaches to a terrible pitch of recklessness, and points to a complete absence of the spirit of compromise and reason which we have met with at Athens and Rome. In all such cases the phenomena are much the same; the few, the comfortable, the rich, the well-born, the good and honourable, as they were variously called, are at feud with the many, or, as their enemies called them, the base, the bad, the low-born. In these States it is plain that no union of hearts has been achieved, and that the government must necessarily be in the hands of one party or the other, and that the party in power will deal harshly with its opponents. And, in fact, throughout the fifth century almost every City-State is either a decided oligarchy or a decided democracy, and as the oligarchies have the stronger tradition and greater experience to help them, they for the most part are found to have the government in their hands. They sometimes even succeed in getting rid altogether of the most dangerous portion of the many, who leave the city in a body, not to return as did the plebs at Rome; and sometimes it is the many who turn the few out of house and home, as the only way of securing themselves against political intrigues and conspiracies.

Instances of this uncompromising and fatal spirit are to be found in abundance both in Herodotus and Thucydides, who often relate them with apparent indifference, as though they were too common to call for special emphasis. But let us