οἱ δὲ Λακεδαιμόνιοι γινώσκοντες ὡς ἐκείνου καταλυθέντος εἰς πάντα μαλακωτέροις χρήσονται τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, ἐκέλευον αὐτοὺς τὸ ἄγος ἐλαύνειν τὸ Κυλώνειον, ᾧ τὸ μητρόθεν γένος τοῦ Περικλέους ἔνοχον ἦν, ὡς Θουκυδίδης ἱστόρηκεν. ἡ δὲ πεῖρα περιέστη τοῖς πέμψασιν εἰς τοὐναντίον· ἀντὶ γὰρ ὑποψίας καὶ διαβολῆς ὁ Περικλῆς ἔτι μείζονα πίστιν ἔσχε καὶ τιμὴν παρὰ τοῖς πολίταις, ὡς μάλιστα μισούντων καὶ φοβουμένων ἐκεῖνον τῶν πολεμίων.
The Lacedaemonians, perceiving that if he were deposed they would find the Athenians more pliant in their hands, ordered them to drive out the Cylonian pollution, in which the family of Pericles on his mother’s side was involved, as Thucydides states. But the attempt brought a result the opposite of what its makers designed, for in place of suspicion and slander, Pericles won even greater confidence and honor among the citizens than before, because they saw that their enemies hated and feared him above all other men.
διὸ καὶ πρὶν ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν τὸν Ἀρχίδαμον ἔχοντα τοὺς Πελοποννησίους προεῖπε τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, ἂν ἄρα τἆλλα δῃῶν ὁ Ἀρχίδαμος ἀπέχηται τῶν ἐκείνου διὰ τὴν ξενίαν τὴν οὖσαν αὐτοῖς, ἢ διαβολῆς τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἐνδιδοὺς ἀφορμάς, ὅτι τῇ πόλει καὶ τὴν χώραν καὶ τὰς ἐπαύλεις ἐπιδίδωσιν.
Therefore also, before Archidamus invaded Attica with the Peloponnesians, Pericles made public proclamation to the Athenians, that in case Archidamus, while ravaging everything else, should spare his estates, either out of regard for the friendly tie that existed between them, or with an eye to affording his enemies grounds for slander, he would make over to the city his lands and the homesteads thereon.
ἐμβάλλουσιν οὖν εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν στρατῷ μεγάλῳ Λακεδαιμόνιοι μετὰ τῶν συμμάχων, Ἀρχιδάμου τοῦ βασιλέως ἡγουμένου. καὶ δῃοῦντες τὴν χώραν προῆλθον εἰς Ἀχαρνὰς καὶ κατεστρατοπέδευσαν, ὡς τῶν Ἀθηναίων οὐκ ἀνεξομένων, ἀλλʼ ὑπʼ ὀργῆς καὶ φρονήματος διαμαχουμένων πρὸς αὐτούς.
Accordingly, the Lacedaemonians and their allies invaded Attica with a great host under the leadership of Archidamus the king. And they advanced, ravaging the country as they went, as far as Acharnae, where they encamped, supposing that the Athenians would not tolerate it, but would fight with them out of angry pride.
τῷ δὲ Περικλεῖ δεινὸν ἐφαίνετο πρὸς τοὺς ἑξακισμυρίους Πελοποννησίων καὶ Βοιωτῶν ὁπλίτας (τοσοῦτοι γὰρ ἦσαν οἱ τὸ πρῶτον ἐμβαλόντες) ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς τῆς πόλεως μάχην συνάψαι· τοὺς δὲ βουλομένους μάχεσθαι καὶ δυσπαθοῦντας πρὸς τὰ γινόμενα κατεπράϋνε, λέγων ὡς δένδρα μὲν τμηθέντα καὶ κοπέντα φύεται ταχέως, ἀνδρῶν δὲ διαφθαρέντων αὖθις τυχεῖν οὐ ῥᾴδιόν ἐστι.
Pericles, however, looked upon it as a terrible thing to join battle with sixty thousand Peloponnesian and Boeotian hoplites (those who made the first invasion were as numerous as that), and stake the city itself upon the issue. So he tried to calm down those who were eager to fight, and who were in distress at what the enemy was doing, by saying that trees, though cut and lopped, grew quickly, but if men were destroyed it was not easy to get them again.
τὸν δὲ δῆμον εἰς ἐκκλησίαν οὐ συνῆγε δεδιὼς βιασθῆναι παρὰ γνώμην, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ νεὼς κυβερνήτης ἀνέμου κατιόντος ἐν πελάγει θέμενος εὖ πάντα καὶ κατατείνας τὰ ὅπλα χρῆται τῇ τέχνῃ, δάκρυα καὶ δεήσεις ἐπιβατῶν ναυτιώντων καὶ φοβουμένων ἐάσας, οὕτως ἐκεῖνος, τό τε ἄστυ συγκλείσας καὶ καταλαβὼν πάντα φυλακαῖς πρὸς ἀσφάλειαν, ἐχρῆτο τοῖς αὑτοῦ λογισμοῖς, βραχέα φροντίζων τῶν καταβοώντων καὶ δυσχεραινόντων.
And he would not call the people together into an assembly, fearing that he would be constrained against his better judgement, but, like the helmsman of a ship, who, when a stormy wind swoops down upon it in the open sea, makes all fast, takes in sail, and exercises his skill, disregarding the tears and entreaties of the sea-sick and timorous passengers, so he shut the city up tight, put all parts of it under safe garrison, and exercised his own judgement, little heeding the brawlers and malcontents.
καίτοι πολλοὶ μὲν αὐτοῦ τῶν φίλων δεόμενοι προσέκειντο, πολλοὶ δὲ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἀπειλοῦντες καὶ κατηγοροῦντες, χοροὶ δʼ ᾖδον ᾄσματα καὶ σκώμματα πρὸς αἰσχύνην, ἐφυβρίζοντες αὐτοῦ τὴν στρατηγίαν ὡς ἄνανδρον καὶ προϊεμένην τὰ πράγματα τοῖς πολεμίοις. ἐπεφύετο δὲ καὶ Κλέων ἤδη, διὰ τῆς πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ὀργῇς τῶν πολιτῶν πορευόμενος ἐπὶ τὴν δημαγωγίαν,
And yet many of his friends beset him with entreaties, and many of his enemies with threats and denunciations, and choruses sang songs of scurrilous mockery, railing at his generalship for its cowardice, and its abandonment of everything to the enemy. Cleon, too, was already harassing him, taking advantage of the wrath with which the citizens regarded him to make his own way toward the leadership of the people,
ὡς τἀνάπαιστα ταῦτα δηλοῖ ποιήσαντος Ἑρμίππου· βασιλεῦ σατύρων, τί ποτʼ οὐκ ἐθέλεις / δόρυ βαστάζειν, ἀλλὰ λόγους μὲν / περὶ τοῦ πολέμου δεινοὺς παρέχεις, ψυχὴ δὲ Τέλητος ὕπεστιν; / κἀγχειριδίου δʼ ἀκόνῃ σκληρᾷ / παραθηγομένης βρύχεις κοπίδος, δηχθεὶς αἴθωνι Κλέωνι. /
as these anapaestic verses of Hermippus show:— Thou king of the Satyrs, why pray wilt thou not / Take the spear for thy weapon, and stop the dire talk / With the which, until now, thou conductest the war. / While the soul of a Teles is in thee? / If the tiniest knife is but laid on the stone / To give it an edge, thou gnashest thy teeth, / As if bitten by fiery Cleon. /
πλὴν ὑπʼ οὐδενὸς ἐκινήθη τῶν τοιούτων ὁ Περικλῆς, ἀλλὰ πρᾴως καὶ σιωπῇ τὴν ἀδοξίαν καὶ τὴν ἀπέχθειαν ὑφιστάμενος, καὶ νεῶν ἑκατὸν ἐπὶ τὴν Πελοπόννησον στόλον ἐκπέμπῶν αὐτὸς οὐ συνεξέπλευσεν, ἀλλʼ ἔμεινεν οἰκουρῶν καὶ διὰ χειρὸς ἔχων τὴν πόλιν, ἕως ἀπηλλάγησαν οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι. θεραπεύων δὲ τοὺς πολλοὺς ὅμως ἀσχάλλοντας ἐπὶ τῷ πολέμῳ, διανομαῖς τε χρημάτων ἀνελάμβανε καὶ κληρουχίας ἔγραφεν· Αἰγινήτας γὰρ ἐξελάσας ἅπαντας διένειμε τὴν νῆσον Ἀθηναίων τοῖς λαχοῦσιν. ἦν δέ τις παρηγορία καὶ ἀφʼ ὧν ἔπασχον οἱ πολέμιοι.
However, Pericles was moved by no such things, but gently and silently underwent the ignominy and the hatred, and, sending out an armament of a hundred ships against the Peloponnesus, did not himself sail with it, but remained behind, keeping the city under watch and ward and well in hand, until the Peloponnesians withdrew. Then, by way of soothing the multitude, who, in spite of their enemies’ departure, were distressed over the war, he won their favour by distributions of moneys and proposed allotments of conquered lands; the Aeginetans, for instance, he drove out entirely, and parcelled out their island among the Athenians by lot. And some consolation was to be had from what their enemies suffered.
καὶ γὰρ οἱ περιπλέοντες τὴν Πελοπόννησον χώραν τε πολλὴν κώμας τε καὶ πόλεις μικρὰς διεπόρθησαν, καὶ κατὰ γῆν αὐτὸς ἐμβαλὼν εἰς τὴν Μεγαρικὴν ἔφθειρε πᾶσαν. ᾗ καὶ δῆλον ἦν ὅτι πολλὰ μὲν δρῶντες κατὰ γῆν κακὰ τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, πολλὰ δὲ πάσχοντες ὑπʼ ἐκείνων ἐκ θαλάττης, οὐκ ἂν εἰς μῆκος πολέμου τοσοῦτον προὔβησαν, ἀλλὰ ταχέως ἀπεῖπον, ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὁ Περικλῆς προηγόρευσεν, εἰ μή τι δαιμόνιον ὑπηναντιώθη τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις λογισμοῖς.
For the expedition around the Peloponnesus ravaged much territory and sacked villages and small cities, while Pericles himself, by land, invaded the Megarid and razed it all. Wherein also it was evident that though their enemies did the Athenians much harm by land, they suffered much too at their hands by sea, and therefore would not have protracted the war to such a length, but would have speedily given up, just as Pericles prophesied in the beginning, had not a terrible visitation from heaven thwarted human calculations.
νῦν δὲ πρῶτον μὲν ἡ λοιμώδης ἐνέπεσε φθορὰ καὶ κατενεμήθη τὴν ἀκμάζουσαν ἡλικίαν καὶ δύναμιν· ὑφʼ ἧς καὶ τὰ σώματα κακούμενοι καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς παντάπασιν ἠγριώθησαν πρὸς τὸν Περικλέα, καὶ καθάπερ ἰατρὸν ἢ πατέρα τῇ νόσῳ παραφρονήσαντες ἀδικεῖν ἐπεχείρησαν, ἀναπεισθέντες ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ὡς τὴν μὲν νόσον ἡ τοῦ χωριτικοῦ πλήθους εἰς τὸ ἄστυ συμφόρησις ἀπεργάζεται,
As it was, in the first place, a pestilential destruction fell upon them and devoured clean the prime of their youth and power. It weakened them in body and in spirit, and made them altogether wild against Pericles, so that, for all the world as the mad will attack a physician or a father, so they, in the delirium of the plague, attempted to do him harm, persuaded thereto by his enemies. These urged that the plague was caused by the crowding of the rustic multitudes together into the city,
θέρους ὥρᾳ πολλῶν ὁμοῦ χύδην ἐν οἰκήμασι μικροῖς καὶ σκηνώμασι πνιγηροῖς ἠναγκασμένων διαιτᾶσθαι δίαιταν οἰκουρὸν καὶ ἀργὴν ἀντὶ καθαρᾶς καὶ ἀναπεπταμένης τῆς πρότερον, τούτου δʼ αἴτιος ὁ τῷ πολέμῳ τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς χώρας ὄχλον εἰς τὰ τείχη καταχεάμενος καὶ πρὸς οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις τοσούτοις χρώμενος, ἀλλʼ ἐῶν ὥσπερ βοσκήματα καθειργμένους ἀναπίμπλασθαι φθορᾶς ἀπʼ ἀλλήλων, καὶ μηδεμίαν μεταβολὴν μηδʼ ἀναψυχὴν ἐκπορίζων.
where, in the summer season, many were huddled together in small dwellings and stifling barracks, and compelled to lead a stay-at-home and inactive life, instead of being in the pure and open air of heaven as they were wont. They said that Pericles was responsible for this, who, because of the war, had poured the rabble from the country into the walled city and then gave that mass of men no employment whatever, but suffered them, thus penned up like cattle, to fill one another full of corruption, and provided them no change or respite.
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