Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/114

 96 ^SCHYLUS. a tragedian in B.C. 499', when, as we have already stated, he con- tended with Choerilus and Pratinas. Nine years after this he dis- tinguished himself in the battle of Marathon^, along with his brothers Cynegeirus and Ameinias, and the poet, who prided him- self upon his valour more than upon his genius, looked back to this as to the most glorious action of his life^. In 484 B.C. he gained his first tragic victory, and in 480 B.C. took part in the battle of Salamis, in which Ameinias gained the dpiarela : he also fought at Plat^ea. He celebrated the glorious contests which he had witnessed, in a tragic trilogy with which he gained the prize (472 B.c.)^. After all that has been written on the subject^, we are of opinion that ^schylus made only two journeys to Sicily. The first was in 468 B.C. according to the express testimony of Plutarch ^ ; and took place immediately after his defeat by young Sophocles, though it is difficult to believe Plutarch's assertion, that he left Athens in disgust at this indignity. As, however, it is stated that he went to the court of Hiero*^, and brought out a play at Syracuse to please that king, who died in 467 B.C., he must, if he was at Athens to contend with Sophocles, have started for Sicily immediately after the decision ; and he was then at Alax^^ov 6 KaWtadivT]^ ^(pyj irov, Xiyoov rots Tpayu}dias ev oivq} yparpeiv, i^opfjt,u>vTa Kal avadepixaivouTa tt]v ■^vx'qv. Lucian, Encom. Demosth. ; and by Evistathius, Odyss. 6', p. 1598. That he subsequently departed from his original reverence for the religion of Bacchus, we shall show in the text, and this was probably occasioned by his military connexion with the Dorians, and the love which he then acquired for the Dorian character and institutions. 1 Suidas in Max- 2 'El' P'O.xv crvvrjyoivl<xaTo Klcrx^^os 6 Trot^TTjs [er]d}[;'] uv AAAII. Marm. Arund. No. 49; Vit. Anonym. 3 Pausan. Attic. I. 4; Athenaaus, xiv. p. 627. In the epitaph which he is said to have composed for himself, he makes no mention of his tragedies, and speaks only of his warlike achievements : AtVxi^Xoj/ EiKpop'Mvos ''kOrivaiov To^e Kevdei 'Mvriixa KaratpdliJievov irvpo^bpoLO ViXas. 'AXktjv d' evboKLjiov Mapaddviov dtXcros av eiVot, Kai ^advxo-i-rrieLS Mrjdos iiriaTa/xevos. ^ Gruppe thinks (Ariadne, p. 154) that the Prometheus was acted first at Syra- cuse, and afterwards at Athens, under the poet's own superintendence: the Perseis, which we are here alluding to, fii-st at Athens, and afterwards in Sicily. ^ By Bockh, de Grcecce Tragcedicc Principibus, c. iv. v. ; Blomfield. Prcef. Pers. pp. xvi sqq. ; Hermann, de Eumen. Choro, ii. pp. 155 sqq. ; Welcker, Trilogie, pp. 516 fol. ; Lange, de JEschyli Vila, pp. 15 sqq. 6 Plutarch, Cimon, viii. ^ 'ATTTJpe dk els 'Jepwpa tov XiKcXias Tvpawov. Vit. Anonym. So Pausanias: Kal es 'ZvpaKoixxas Trpbs 'lepcoua Aiax^Xos Kal ili/JLCovidris iffToXr^aav. I. 1. Also Plutarch: Kat yap Kal ovtos [Alcrxi'Xos'} eh ^iKeXtav airrjpe Kal "Ztfiuvidrjs Trporepov. De Exilio.