Reluctance who, arriving at Peiræus, went into a barber's shop,

of the Athe

nians to be- and began to converse about it as upon a theme

lieve the full truth.

Terror and affliction at Athens.

which must of course be uppermost in every one's mind. The astonished barber, hearing for the first time such fearful tidings, ran up to Athens to communicate it to the archons as well as to the public in the market-place. The public assembly being forthwith convoked, he was brought before it, and called upon to produce his authority, which he was unable to do, as the stranger had disappeared. He was consequently treated as a fabricator of uncertified rumours for the disturbance of the public tranquillity, and even put to the torture'. How much of this improbable tale may be true, we cannot determine but we may easily believe that neutrals, passing from Corinth or Megara to Peiræus, were the earliest communicants of the misfortunes of Nikias and Demosthenes in Sicily during the months of July and August. Presently came individual soldiers of the armament, who had got away from the defeat and found a passage home; so that the bad news was but too fully confirmed. But the Athenians were long before they could bring themselves to believe, even upon the testimony of these fugitives, how entire had been the destruction of their two splendid armaments, without even a feeble remnant left to console them2.

As soon as the full extent of their loss was at length forced upon their convictions, the city presented a scene of the deepest affliction, dismay and

1 Plutarch, Nikias, c. 30. He gives the story without much confidence-Αθηναίους δέ φασι, &c.

2 Thucyd. viii. 1.

terror. Over and above the extent of private mourning, from the loss of friends and relatives, which overspread nearly the whole city-there prevailed utter despair as to the public safety. Not merely was the empire of Athens apparently lost, but Athens herself seemed utterly defenceless. Her treasury was empty, her docks nearly destitute of triremes, the flower of her hoplites as well as of her seamen had perished in Sicily without leaving their like behind, and her maritime reputation was irretrievably damaged; while her enemies, on the contrary, animated by feelings of exuberant confidence and triumph, were farther strengthened by the accession of their new Sicilian allies. In these melancholy months (October, November, 413 B.C.) the Athenians expected nothing less than a vigorous attack, both by land and sea, from the Peloponnesian and Sicilian forces united, with the aid of their own revolted allies--an attack which they knew themselves to be in no condition to repel'.

resolutions

nians

Board of

Probûli.

Amidst so gloomy a prospect, without one ray Energetic of hope to cheer them on any side, it was but poor adopted by satisfaction to vent their displeasure on the chief the Athespeakers who had recommended their recent disastrous expedition, or on those prophets and reporters of oracles who had promised them the divine blessing upon it. After this first burst both of 1 Thucyd. viii. 1. Πάντα δὲ πανταχοθεν αὐτοὺς ἐλύπει, &c.

2 Thucyd. viii. 1. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἔγνωσαν, χαλεποὶ μὲν ἦσαν τοῖς ξυμπροθυμηθεῖσι τῶν ῥητόρων τὸν ἔκπλουν, ὥσπερ οὐκ αὐτοὶ ψηφισάμενοι, &c.

From these latter words, it would seem that Thucydidês considered the Athenians, after having adopted the expedition by their votes, to have debarred themselves from the right of complaining of those speakVOL. VII. 2 K

grief and anger, however, they began gradually to look their actual situation in the face; and the more energetic speakers would doubtless administer the salutary lesson of reminding them how much had been achieved by their forefathers, sixty-seven years before, when the approach of Xerxes threatened them with dangers not less overwhelming. Under the peril of the moment, the energy of despair revived in their bosoms: they resolved to get together, as speedily as they could, both ships and money to keep watch over their allies, especially Euboea-and to defend themselves to the last. A Board of ten elderly men, under the title of Probûli, was named to review the expenditure, to suggest ers who had stood forward prominently to advise the step. I do not at all concur in his opinion. The adviser of any important measure always makes himself morally responsible for its justice, usefulness, and practicability; and he very properly incurs disgrace, more or less according to the case, if it turns out to present results totally contrary to those which he had predicted. We know that the Athenian law often imposed upon the mover of a proposition not merely moral, but even legal, responsibility; a regulation of doubtful propriety under other circumstances, but which I believe to have been useful at Athens.

It must be admitted however to have been hard upon the advisers of this expedition, that-from the total destruction of the armament, neither generals nor soldiers returning-they were not enabled to show how much of the ruin had arisen from faults in the execution, not in the plan conceived. The speaker in the Oration of Lysias-nepì dŋμεύσεως τοῦ Νικίου ἀδελφοῦ (Or. xviii. sect. 2) attempts to transfer the blame from Nikias upon the advisers of the expedition-a manifest injustice.

Demosthenes (in the Oration de Coronâ, c. 73) gives an emphatic and noble statement of the responsibility which he cheerfully accepts for himself as a political speaker and adviser-responsibility for seeing the beginnings and understanding the premonitory signs, of coming events, and giving his countrymen warning beforehand: ideiv rà πpáɣpura åpχόμενα καὶ προαισθέσθαι καὶ προειπεῖν τοῖς ἄλλοις. This is the just view of the subject; and applying the measure proposed by Demosthenês, the Athenians had ample ground to be displeased with their orators.

all practicable economies, and propose for the future such measures as occasion might seem to require. The propositions of these Probûli were for the most part adopted, with a degree of unanimity and promptitude rarely seen in an Athenian assembly -springing out of that pressure and alarm of the moment which silenced all criticism'. Among other economies, the Athenians abridged the costly splendour of their choric and liturgic ceremonies at home, and brought back the recent garrison which they had established on the Laconian coast. They at the same time collected timber, commenced the construction of new ships, and fortified Cape Sunium in order to protect their numerous transport ships in the passage from Euboea to Peiræus2.

1 Thucyd. viii. 1. πάντα δὲ πρὸς τὸ παραχρῆμα περιδες, ὅπερ φιλεῖ δῆμος ποιεῖν, ἑτοῖμοι ἦσαν εὐτακτεῖν: compare Xenoph. Mem. iii. 5, 5. 2 Thucyd. viii. 1-4. About the functions of this Board of Probûli, much has been said for which there is no warrant in Thucydidês-TŴV τε κατὰ τὴν πόλιν τι ἐς εὐτελειαν σωφρονίσαι, καὶ ἀρχήν τινα πρεσβυτέρων ἀνδρῶν ἑλέσθαι, οἵτινες περὶ τῶν παρόντων ὡς ἂν καιρὸς ᾖ προβουλεύσουσι. Πάντα δὲ πρὸς τὸ παραχρῆμα περιδεές, ὅπερ φιλεῖ δῆμος ποιεῖν, ἑτοῖμοι ἦσαν εὐτακτεῖν.

Upon which Dr. Arnold remarks-"That is, no measure was to be submitted to the people, till it had first been approved by this Council of Elders." And such is the general view of the commentators.

No such meaning as this, however, is necessarily contained in the word Пpóßovλot. It is indeed conceivable that persons so denominated might be invested with such a control; but we cannot infer it, or affirm it, simply from the name. Nor will the passages in Aristotle's Politics, wherein the word IIpóßovλo occurs, authorise any inference with respect to this Board in the special case of Athens (Aristotel. Politic. iv. 11, 9; iv. 12, 8; vi. 5, 10-13).

The Board only seems to have lasted for a short time at Athens, being named for a temporary purpose, at a moment of peculiar pressure and discouragement. During such a state of feeling, there was little necessity for throwing additional obstacles in the way of new propositions to be made to the people. It was rather of importance to encourage the suggestion of new measures, from men of sense and expe

Prodigious effect of the

upon all

Greeks

and allies of

Athens as

well as

neutrals

and even

on the Per

sians.

While Athens was thus struggling to make head catastrophe against her misfortunes, all the rest of Greece was full of excitement and aggressive scheming -enemies against her. So vast an event as the destruction of this great armament had never happened since the expedition of Xerxes against Greece. It not only roused the most distant cities of the Grecian world, but also the Persian satraps and the court of Susa. It stimulated the enemies of Athens to redoubled activity; it emboldened her subject-allies to revolt; it pushed the neutral states, who all feared what she would have done if successful against Syracuse, now to declare war against her, and put the finishing stroke to her power as well as to her ambition. All of them, enemies, subjects, and neutrals, alike believed that the doom of Athens was sealed, and that the coming spring would see her captured. Earlier than the ensuing spring, the Lacedæmonians did not feel disposed to act; but they sent round their instructions to the allies for rience. A Board destined merely for control and hindrance, would have been mischievous instead of useful under the reigning melancholy at Athens.

The Board was doubtless merged in the Oligarchy of Four Hundred, like all the other magistracies of the state, and was not reconstituted after their deposition.

I cannot think it admissible to draw inferences as to the functions of this Board of Probûli now constituted, from the proceedings of the Probûlus in Aristophanis Lysistrata, as is done by Wachsmuth (Hellenische Alterthumskunde, i. 2. p. 198), and by Wattenbach (De Quadringentorum Athenis Factione, p. 17-21, Berlin 1842).

Schömann (Ant. Jur. Pub. Græcor. v. xii. p. 181) says of these Пpóẞovλo" Videtur autem eorum potestas fere annua fuisse." I do not distinctly understand what he means by these words; whether he means that the Board continued permanent, but that the members were annually changed. If this be his meaning, I dissent from it. I think that the Board lasted until the time of the Four Hundred, which would be about a year and a half after its first institution.