Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- CHAPTER XVII FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ATHENIAN MARITIME ASCENDANCY TO THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA
- CHAP. XVIII FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE TO THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES BETWEEN ATHENS AND CORINTH, WITH A GENERAL VIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF PERICLES
- CHAP. XIX CAUSES AND OCCASIONS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
- CHAP. XX FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR TO THE END OF THE THIRD YEAR
- CHAP. XXI FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
- CHAP. XXII FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTH YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR TO THE GENERAL PACIFICATION OF SICILY
- CHAP. XXIII FROM THE GENERAL PACIFICATION OF SICILY TO THE PEACE OF NICIAS
- CHAP. XXIV FROM THE PEACE OF NICIAS TO THE CONQUEST OF MELOS
- CHAP. XXV THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF GYLIPPUS IN SICILY
- CHAP. XXVI THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION FROM THE ARRIVAL OF GYLIPPUS TO ITS CLOSE
- APPENDIX
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- CHAPTER XVII FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ATHENIAN MARITIME ASCENDANCY TO THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA
- CHAP. XVIII FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE TO THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES BETWEEN ATHENS AND CORINTH, WITH A GENERAL VIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF PERICLES
- CHAP. XIX CAUSES AND OCCASIONS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
- CHAP. XX FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR TO THE END OF THE THIRD YEAR
- CHAP. XXI FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
- CHAP. XXII FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTH YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR TO THE GENERAL PACIFICATION OF SICILY
- CHAP. XXIII FROM THE GENERAL PACIFICATION OF SICILY TO THE PEACE OF NICIAS
- CHAP. XXIV FROM THE PEACE OF NICIAS TO THE CONQUEST OF MELOS
- CHAP. XXV THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF GYLIPPUS IN SICILY
- CHAP. XXVI THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION FROM THE ARRIVAL OF GYLIPPUS TO ITS CLOSE
- APPENDIX
Summary
NOTE TO PAGE 24. ON A PRETENDED POWER OF THE AREOPAGUS.
Some readers may perhaps be surprised to find no mention made here of a prerogative, which they may have seen elsewhere attributed to the Areopagus, and which it is said to have retained even to the time of the change effected by Pericles and Ephialtes. Till that time, we have been informed by a modern historian, the Areopagus directed all issues from the public treasury. The assertion is one of those—very numerous in the work where it occurs — which have owed their success neither to the force of testimony nor of reasoning, but simply to the placid assurance with which they are advanced. We have seen indeed (Vol. II. p. 296.) an extraordinary case, in which the Areopagus seems to have assumed such a power. But if any one thinks this a sufficient proof of the general assertion, we could only reply by the old Greek jest, of the simpleton who carried a brick about as a sample of a house, or by the Roman story, of the youth who finding a fragment of a boat on the beach, was seized with the desire of building a ship. It is one of those statements which can hardly be refuted until some attempt has been made to prove them. But we may observe that the very fact of Aristotle's mentioning the report on this subject for which Plutarch cites his authority — and after all it was no more than a report, and Clidemus (Plut. Them. 10.) gave a different account of the matter — raises the strongest presumption that, if true, it was an extraordinary case.
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- A History of Greece , pp. 459 - 468Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1836