New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-30
FREEMAN'S SICILY.
THE ATIIENIAN AND CARTIIAGINIAN IN
VASIONS

Times. BY Edward 4. Freeman Volume III The
Athenan and CarthagniGn lnyasOns. With maps
PIP. xxxv $50. The Clarendon Pres
From one point of vicw history is a process
unbroken in its continuity. But from another
point Of view it is a matter OF days, so few that
% they might almost be numbered on the fingers OF
two hands, days in which werc concentrated ell
the anxieties and hopes and powers Of humanity
all the seemingly blind forces that are grouped
under that indefinite phrase, the nature Of things
and all the influences that appear to the limited
vision of men accidental. In moment the
current of life turned in new direction
and in the twinklng of an eye the face of the
world was changed. One such day there was in
the long disastrous conflict between Athens and
Syracuse For the ages that were to follow 1t
was a matter of comparatively small Importance
where the blame lay for that struggle 10 the
death between men and cities that should have
been bound TO each other by the closest ties OF
friendship. From start to finish Athens was
wrong but even if it could be imagined, under
the conditions then existing. that she was right.
Q victory for her would have been calamity to
civilization. Athens had been raised to the con-
troll of the Greek world almost in spite of herself
Ages Of growth along the lines usual in the narrow
civic politics Of Hellas rendered her unfit for the
continuous exercise Of power over wide area
and q varied population. By the very necessities
question great or small solely from her own little
akfopolis Nor was it possible for her to broaden
her political system Her greatest politician
Perices supposed that he had done something to
broaden it when lie enlarged the citizenship.
What he actually did was 10 turn all Athens into
. semi-oficial aristOcracy ruling over demos that
Gas scattered in islands and cities and colonies
here and there from the Pontic Sea to the Cor
inthian Gulf, His speech over the relics of the
heroes Of Marathon sounded the keynote Of the
Athenian policy. That speech, indeed, marked
m epoch II formulated the highest ideal OF
freedom that was possible in his time. the high
est ideal that ever could he attained in old
Greece It advocated the freedom of all citizens
alike, but those were to be the citizens of one
CITY, OF people who not Athenians, Perices
took no heed except where he obliged to by
ties of race that were felt often to be strong and
quite rs often TO be weak. II has been said
that Athens fell because she attempted to convert
her political system from the original aristocr2cy
into democracy. This is mistake AS Mr..
Freeman shows indirectly in one of the luminous
essays added by way of appendix TO this volume,
the msapprshcnsion grew out of the laundering
definition of democracy given by Aristotle AS q
man OF good birth, Aristotle knew something ABOUT
aristocracy; as the tutor Of Alexander he learned
something about monarchy; but he never studied
democracy enough to know what he meant by 1t
when he used the word To Athcnagoras, of
Syracuse, TO Percles, the Athenian statesman, 10
Isocrates, the Athcnian orator, TO Puarch and to
Dio Chrysostom, late as they were, democracy
meant not the rule of one class-the lowest and
most numerous--of the people over other classes,
but the common rule Of the whole people. Widcn
that definition to a conception in which all man.
kind arc included and you have the thought I'D
Abraham Lincoln's government OF the people, nv
the people, for the people" Now Aristotle heia
in theory though he not always consistent
In his use of the words. that the difference De
tween oligarchy and democracy was essentially
the difference between wealth and poverty Inc
question OF numbers is accidental. Inc RUE OIL
many rich over few poor would be an ollgarchy'
not democracy. The case will never happen,
but that does not affect the principle The fact
was that Aristotle hated and despised the people
lie shut his eyes to the vices Of one-man power
or the rulershp of the few and TO the virtues OF
rule nv the many As Mr.. Freeman says: End
less confusion has been the result; it ls mainly
owing to this strange fancy of Aristotle that
word so honorable in the mouth OF Fericles ana
Polybios should have got the meaning winch IL
often has in the mouths of modern babblers.'
II Pericles had really understood the full pur-
mort of his own words he would have Sought 10
confer the benefits he reserved for Athenians' on
all the people whom fear Of Persia had driven 10
take refuge under the protection OF the Atlc capi-
tai That would have been true democracy but
he was confined by tradition TO the vain effort to
make all Athenians equal and all the rest OF the
Ucl,encs subordinate Nevertheless, TO the men
nj Athens who loved their city, and who knew
what the policy of Periclcs had done TO sweeten
, md cnnoble life in the city which Phidias had
made beautiful the thought OF all these things was
\ source of inspiration not wholly selfish liey
Willingly gave their lives for Athens. when Meas
drew out his ships and his troops In tic "re''
IIarbor of Syracusc for the last hopeless na'te.
the most hcartfting words that he coud say
70 his countrymen were those IN winch he
awakened their memory OF tire freest OF all
cities. the city which meddlcd less than any
other with the personal freedom of all its citizens
II the impossible could be accomplished. Athens
would have won that battle.
When nation has made all the progress that
H. eau make in civilization, When it has eXerted
all the force il is master OF in the worus ne
half; then, whether it die at once or linger for
ages it must yield place to some other nation
rcadv with new ideas and new force to move
humanity forward another stadium. What Athens
had 10 teach the world in politics was already
learned Great as she still! was by reason or
numbers and wealth, she lad already begun to 1--we
In the past. But cities had risen in the Far West
in the almost unknown island Of Sicily where
men of Greek origin had grown up unhampered
by the traditions that fcttered the minds OF Ola
lIellas. As it has happened many times since, so
IL happened then that cOonlsts, despised by th0s'
who would have been their countrymcn if they
had remained in the mother country, thought
out something far in advance OF the old world
ideas and become the moulders to a greater or
less degree of civilization. AS Pcriclcs was at
hand OPPORTUNITY TO say the best word for |
Athenian freedom that could he said, so there
rose in far-on Syracuse man not so great as
Rricles, either in thought or decd. but really with
the word that suited the time, word so fit, so |
reasonable. that men TO whose ears IL came acted |
upon it with common impulse as il 1t had been |