FONDNESS FOR THEATRICAL REPRESENTATIONS, ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF THE DECLINE, degeneRACY, AND CORRUPTION OF THE ATHENIAN STATE.

WHEN We compare the happy times of Greece, in which Europe and Asia resounded with nothing but the fame of the Athenian victories, with the latter ages, when the power of Philip and Alexander the Great had in a manner subjected it, we shall be surprised at the strange alteration in the affairs of that republic. But what is most material is the investigation of the causes and progress of this declension; and these M. de Tourreil has discussed in an admirable manner, in the elegant preface to his translation of Demosthenes's

orations.

There were no longer at Athens any traces of that manly and vigorous policy equally capable of planning good, and retrieving bad success. Instead of that, there remained only an inconsistent loftiness, apt to evaporate in pompous decrees. They were no more those Athenians, who, when menaced by a deluge of barbarians, demolished their houses to build ships with the timber, and whose women stoned the abject wretch to death, that proposed to appease the grand monarch by tribute or homage. The love of ease and pleasure had almost extinguished that of glory, liberty, and independence. Pericles, that great man, so absolute that those who envied him treated him as a second Pisistratus, was the first author of this degeneracy and corruption. With the design of conciliating the favour of the people, he ordained, that upon such days as games or sacrifices were celebrated, a certain number of oboli should be distributed among them; and that, in the assemblies in which affairs of state were to be discussed, every individual should receive a certain pecuniary gratification in right of being present. Thus the members of the republic were seen for the first time to sell their care in the administration of the government, and to rank among servile employments the most noble functions of the sovereign power.

At

It was not difficult to foresee where so excessive an abuse would end; and to remedy it, it was proposed to establish a fund for the support of the war, and to make it capital to advise upon any account whatsoever, the application of it to other uses; but notwithstanding, the abuse always subsisted. first it seemed tolerable, while the citizen, who was supported at the public expense, endeavoured to deserve its liberality, by doing his duty in the field for nine months together. Every one was to serve in his turn, and whoever failed was treated as a deserter, without distinction; but at length the number of the transgressors carried it against the law, and impunity, as it commonly happens, multiplied their number. People accustomed to the delightful abode of a city where feasts and games ran in a perpetual circle, conceived an invincible repugnance for labour and fatigue, which they looked upon as unworthy of freeborn men.

It was therefore necessary to find amusement for this indolent people, to fill up the great void of an inactive, useless life. Hence arose principally their passion, or rather frenzy, for public shows. The death of Epaminondas, which seemed to promise them the greatest advantage, gave the final stroke to their ruin and destruction. "Their courage," says Justin,* "did not survive that illustrious Theban. Free from a rival, who kept their emulation alive, they sunk into a lethargic sloth and effeminacy. The funds for armaments by land and sea. were soon lavished upon games and feasts. The pay of the seaman and soldier was distributed to the idle citizen, enervated by soft and luxurious habits of life. The representations of the theatre were preferred to the exercises of the camp. Valour and military knowledge were entirely disregarded. Great captains were in no estimation, while good poets and excellent comedians engrossed universal applause.”

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Extravagance of this kind makes it easy to comprehend in what multitudes the people thronged to dramatic performances. As no expense was spared in embellishing them, exorbitant sums were sunk in the service of the theatre. "If," says Plutarch, an accurate calculation were to be made, what each representation of the dramatic pieces, cost the Athenians, it would appear, that their expenses in playing the Bacchanalians, the Phoenicians, dipus, Antigone, Medea, and Electra, (tragedies written either by Sophocles or Euripides,) were greater than those which had been employed against the Barbarians, in defence of the liberty, and for the preservation of Greece." This gave a Spartan just reason to exclaim, on seeing an estimate of the enormous sums laid out in these efforts of the tragic poets, and the extraordinary pains taken by the magistrates who presided in them, "That a people must be void of sense, to apply themselves in so warm and serious a manner to things so frivolous. For," added he, "games should be only games; and nothing is more unreasonable than to purchase a short and trivial amusement at so great a price. Pleasures of this kind agree only with public rejoicings and seasons of festivity, and were designed to divert people at their leisure hours, but should by no means interfere with the affairs of the public, nor the necessary expenses of the government."

"After all," says Plutarch, in a passage which I have already cited, "of what utility have these tragedies been to Athens, though so much boasted by the people, and admired by the rest of the world? We find, that the prudence of Themistocles inclosed the city with strong walls; that the fine taste and magnificence of Pericles improved and adorned it; that the noble fortitude of Miltiades preserved its liberty; and that the moderate conduct of Cimon acquired it the empire and government of all Greece." If the wise and learned poetry of Euripides, the sublime diction of Sophocles, the lofty buskin of Eschylus, have obtained equal advantages for the city of Athens, by delivering it from impending calamities, or by adding to its glory, I am willing, (he adds,) that "dramatic pieces should be placed in competition with trophies of victory, the poetic theatre with the field of battle, and the compositions of the poets with the great exploits of the generals." But what a comparison would this be? On the one side would be seen a few writers, crowned with wreaths of ivy, and dragging a goat or an ox after them, the rewards and victims assigned them for excelling in tragic poetry; on the other, a train of illustrious captains, surrounded with colonies which they founded, the cities which they captured, and the nations which they subjected. It is not to perpetuate the victories of Eschylus and Sophocles, but in remembrance of the glorious battles of Marathon, Salamis, Eurymedon, and many others, that so many feasts are celebrated every month with such pomp by the Grecians.

The conclusion which is hence drawn by Plutarch, in which we ought to join him, is, that it was the highest imprudence in the Athenians thus to prefer pleasure to duty, the passion for the theatre to the love of their country, trivial representations to application to public business, and to consume, in useless expenses and dramatic entertainments, the funds intended for the support of fleets and armies. Macedon, till then obscure and inconsiderable, well knew how to take advantage of the Athenian indolence and effeminacy ;§ and Philip, instructed by the Greeks themselves, among whom he had for several years applied himself successfully to the art of war, was not long before he gave Greece a master, and subjected it to the yoke, as we shall see in the sequel.

am now to open an entirely new scene to the reader's view, not unworthy

*Plut. de Glor. Athen. p. 349.

† Plut. Sympos, lib. vii. quest. vii. p. 710. † Αμαρτάνεσιν 'Αθηναῖοι μεγάλα, τὴν σπεδὴν εἰς τὴν παιδαιὰν καταναλίσκοντες, τετέστι μεγάλων ἀποστόλων δαπάνας καὶ στρατευμάτων ἐφύδια καταχορηγοῦντες εἰς τὸ θέατρον.

Quibus rebus effectum est, ut inter otia Græcorum, sordidum et obscu.um antea Macedonum nomen emergeret; et Philippus, obses triennio Thebis habitus, Epaminonda et Pelopidæ virtutibus eruditus, reg. num Macedoniæ Græcæ et Asia cervicibus, velut jugum servitutis, imponeret. Just. 1. vi. c. 9

his curiosity and attention. We shall see two states of no great consideration, Media and Persia, extend themselves far and wide, under the conduct of Cyrus, like a torrent or a conflagration, and with amazing rapidity, conquer and subdue many provinces and kingdoms. We shall see that vast empire setting the nations under its dominion in motion, the Persians, Medes, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians, and many others, and falling, with all the forces of Asia and the East, upon a country of very small extent, and destitute of all foreign assistance, I mean Greece. When, on the one hand, we behold so many nations united together, such preparations for war, made for several years, with so much diligence, innumerable armies by sea and land, and such fleets as the sea could hardly contain; and, on the other hand, two weak cities, Athens and Lacedæmon, abandoned by all their allies, and left almost entirely to themselves, have we not reason to believe, that these two little cities are going to be utterly destroyed and swallowed up by so formidable an enemy; and that no vestages of them will be left remaining? And. yet we shall find that they prove victorious, and, by their invincible courage, and the several battles they gained, both by sea and land, will make the Persian empire lay aside all thoughts of ever again turning their arms against Greece.

The history of the war between the Persians and the Greeks will illustrate the truth of this maxim, that it is not the number, but the valour of the troops, and the conduct of the generals, on which depends the success of military expeditions. The reader will admire the surprising courage and intrepidity of the great men at the head of the Grecian affairs, whom neither all the world in motion against them could deject, nor the greatest misfortunes disconcert; who undertook, with a handful of men, to make head against innumerable armies; who, notwithstanding such a prodigious inequality in forces, durst hope for success; who even compelled victory to declare on the side of merit and virtue, and taught all succeeding generations what infinite resources and expedients are to be found in prudence, valour, and experience; in a zeal for liberty and our country, in the love of our duty, and in all the sentiments of noble and generous souls.

This war of the Persians against the Grecians will be followed by another' among the latter themselves, but of a very different kind from the former. In the latter, there will scarce be any actions, but what in appearance are of little consequence, and seemingly unworthy of a reader's curiosity, who is fond of great events; in this he will meet with little besides private quarrels between certain cities, or some small commonwealths; some inconsiderable sieges, (excepting that of Syracuse, one of the most important related in ancient history,) though several of these sieges were of considerable duration; some battles between armies, where the numbers were small, and but little blood shed. What is it, then, that has rendered these wars so famous in history? Sallust informs us in these words; "The actions of the Athenians doubtless were great, and yet I believe they were somewhat less than fame reports them. But because Athens abounded in noble writers, the acts of that republic are celebrated throughout the whole world as the most glorious; and the gallantry of those heroes who performed them, has had the good fortune to be thought as transcendant as the eloquence of those who have described them."* Sallust, though jealous enough of the glory the Romans had acquired by a series of distinguished actions, with which their history abounds; yet he does justice in this passage to the Grecians, by acknowledging, that their exploits were truly great and illustrious, though somewhat inferior, in his opinion, to their fame. What is, then, this foreign and borrowed lustre, which the Athenian actions have derived from the eloquence of their historians? It is, that

* Atheniensium res gestæ, sicuti ego existimo, satis amplæ magnificæque fuerunt; verum aliquanto mi nores, tamen, quam fama feruntur. Sed quia provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia, per terrarum orbera Atheniensium facta pro maximis celebrantur. Ita eorum, quæ fecere, virtus tanta habetur, quantum eam verbis potuere extollere præclara ingenia.-Sallust. in Bell. Catilin.

the whole universe agrees in looking upon them as the greatest and most glorious that ever were performed. Per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maximis celebrantur. All nations, seduced and enchanted as it were with the beauties of the Greek authors, think the exploits of that people superior to any other thing that was ever done by any other nation. This, according to Sallust, is the advantage the Athenians have derived from the Greek authors, who have thus excellently described their actions; and very unhappy it is for us, that our history, for want of the like assistance, has left a thousand bright actions and fine sayings unrecorded, which would have been put in the strongest light by the ancient writers, and would have done great honour to our country.

But, however this may be, it must be confessed, that we are not always to judge of the value of an action, or the merit of the persons who shared in it, by the importance of the event. It is rather in such little sieges and engage ments as we find recorded in the history of the Peloponnesian war, that the conduct and abilities of a general are truly conspicuous. Accordingly it is observed, that it was chiefly at the head of small armies, and in countries of no great extent, that our best generals of the last age displayed their great capacity, and showed themselves not inferior to the most celebrated captains of antiquity. In actions of this sort, chance has no share, and does not cover any oversights that are committed. Every thing is conducted and carried on by the prudence of the general. He is truly the soul of the army, which neither acts nor moves but by his direction. He sees every thing, and is present every where. Nothing escapes his vigilance and attention. Orders are seasonably given and seasonably executed. Finesse, stratagems, false marches, real or feigned attacks, encampments, decampments, in a word, every thing, depends upon him alone.

On this account, the reading of the Greek historians, such as Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius, is of infinite service to young officers; because those historians, who were also excellent commanders, enter into all the particulars of the military art, and lead the readers, as it were by the hand, through all the sieges and battles they describe; showing them, by the example of the greatest generals of antiquity, and by a kind of anticipated experience, in what manner war is to be carried on.

Nor is it only with regard to military exploits, that the Grecian history affords us such excellent models. We shall there find celebrated legislators, able politicians, magistrates born for government, men who have excelled in all arts and sciences, philosophers that carried their inquiries as far as possible in those early ages, and who have left us such maxims of morality as might put many christians to the blush.

If the virtues of those who are celebrated in history may serve us for models in the conduct of our lives, their vices and failings, on the other hand, are no less proper to caution and instruct us; and the strict regard which a historian is obliged to pay to truth, will not allow him to dissemble the latter. through fear of eclipsing the lustre of the former. Nor does what I here ad vance contradict the rule laid down by Plutarch, on the same subject, in his preface to the life of Cimon.* He requires that the illustrious actions of great men be represented in their full light: but as to the faults, which may sometimes escape them through passion or surprise, or into which they may be drawn by the necessity of affairs, considering them rather as a certain degree of perfection wanting to their virtue, than as vices or crimes that proceed from any corruption of the heart; such imperfections as these, he would have the historian, out of compassion to the weakness of human nature, which produces nothing entirely perfect, content himself with touching very lightly; in the same manner as an able painter, when he has a fine face to

*In Cim. p. 479, 480.

† Ελλείματα μάλλον ἀρητῆς τίνος ή κακίας πονηρεύματα

draw, in which he finds some little blemish or defect, does neither entirely suppress it, nor think himself obliged to represent it with a strict exactness; because the one would spoil the beauty of the picture, and the other would destroy the likeness. The very comparison Plutarch uses, shows that he speak only of slight and excusable faults. But as to actions of injustice, violence, and brutality, they ought not to be concealed or disguised on any account; nor can we suppose that the same privilege should be allowed in history as in painting, which invented the profile to represent the side-face of a prince who had lost an eye, and by that means ingeniously concealed so disagreeable a deformity.* History, the most essential rule of which is sincerity, will by no means admit of such indulgences, as indeed would deprive it of its greatest advantage.

Shame, reproach, infamy, hatred, and the execrations of the public, which are the inseparable attendants on criminal and brutal actions, are no less proper to excite a horror for vice, than the glory, which perpetually attends good actions, is to inspire us with the love of virtue. And these, according to Tacitus, are the two ends which every historian ought to propose to himself, by making a judicious choice of what is most extraordinary both in good and evil, in order to occasion that public homage to be paid to virtue, which is justly due to it; and to create the greater abhorrence for vice, on account of the eternal infamy that attends it.t

The history which I am writing furnishes but too many examples of the latter sort. With respect to the Persians, it will appear by what is said of their kings, that those princes whose power has no other bounds than those of their will, often abandon themselves to all their passions; that nothing is more difficult than to resist the delusions of a man's own greatness, and the flatteries of those that surround him; that the liberty of gratifying all one's desires, and of doing evil with impunity, is a dangerous situation; that the best dipositions can hardly withstand such a temptation; that even after having begun their career favourably, they are insensibly corrupted by softness and effeminacy, by pride, and their aversion to sincere counsels; and that it rarely happens they are wise enough to consider that, when they find themselves exalted above all laws and restraints, they stand then most in need of moderation and wisdom, both in regard to themselves and others; and that in such a situation they ought to be doubly wise, and doubly strong, in order to set bounds within, by their reason, to a power that has none without.

With respect to the Grecians, the Peloponnesian war will show the miserable effects of their intestine divisions, and the fatal excesses into which they were led by their thirst of dominion, scenes of injustice, ingratitude, and perfidy, together with the open violation of treaties, or mean artifices and unworthy tricks to elude their execution. It will show, how scandalously the Lacedæmonians and Athenians debased themselves to the barbarians, in order to beg aids of money from them; how shamefully the great deliverers of Greece renounced the glory of all their past labours and exploits, by stooping and making their court to certain haughty and insolent satraps, and by going successively, with a kind of emulation, to implore the protection of the common enemy, whom they had so often conquered; and in what manner they employed the succours they obtained from them, in oppressing their ancient allies, and extending their own territories by unjust and violent methods.

On both sides, and sometimes in the same person, we shall find a surprising mixture of good and bad, of virtues and vices, of glorious actions and mean sentiments; and sometimes, perhaps, we shall be ready to ask ourselves, whether these can be the same persons and the same people, of whom such

Habet in pictura speciem tota facies. Apelles tamen imaginem Antigoni latere tantum altero ostendit, ut amissi oculi deformitas lateret.-Quintil. 1. ii. c. 13.

† Exequi sententias haud 'nstitui, nisi insignes per honestum aut notabili dedecore; quod praecipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur, utque pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate et infamia metus sit.Tacit. Annal. I. iii. 65.