The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians [5]
a land power is debarred from doing; as for instance, ravage the territory of a superior, since it is always possible to coast along to some point, where either there is no hostile force to deal with or merely a small body; and in case of an advance in force on the part of the enemy they can take to their ships and sail away. Such a performance is attended with less difficulty than that experienced by the relieving force on land.[4] Again, it is open to a power so dominating by sea to leave its own territory and sail off on as long a voyage as you please. Whereas the land power cannot place more than a few days' journey between itself and its own territory, for marches are slow affairs; and it is not possible for an army on the march to have food supplies to last for any great length of time. Such an army must either march through friendly territory or it must force a way by victory in battle. The voyager meanwhile has it in his power to disembark at any point where he finds himself in superior force, or, at the worst, to coast by until he reaches either a friendly district or an enemy too weak to resist. Again, those diseases to which the fruits of the earth are liable as visitations from heaven fall severely on a land power, but are scarcely felt by the navel power, for such sicknesses do not visit the whole earth everywhere at once. So that the ruler of the sea can get in supplies from a thriving district. And if one may descend to more trifling particulars, it is to this same lordship of the sea that the Athenians owe the discovery, in the first place, of many of the luxuries of life through intercourse with other countries. So that the choice things of Sicily and Italy, of Cyprus and Egypt and Lydia, of Pontus or Peloponnese, or wheresoever else it be, are all swept, as it were, into one centre, and all owing, as I say, to their maritime empire. And again, in process of listening to every form of speech,[5] they have selected this from one place and that from another--for themselves. So much so that while the rest of the Hellenes employ[6] each pretty much their own peculiar mode of speech, habit of life, and style of dress, the Athenians have adopted a composite type,[7] to which all sections of Hellas, and the foreigner alike, have contributed.
[1] Reading after Kirchhoff, {ettous ge . . . kan ei meizon en, ton dia k.t.l.} See Thuc. i. 143; Isocr. "de Pace," 169 A; Plut. "Them." 4 (Clough, i. 235).
[2] Lit. "they are superior to their allies."
[3] Reading with Kirchhoff, {dia khreian . . . dia deos}.
[4] Or, "the army marching along the seaboard to the rescue."
[5] Or, "a variety of dialects."
[6] Or, "maintain somewhat more."
[7] Or, "have contracted a mixed style, bearing traces of Hellenic and foreign influence alike." See Mahaffy, "Hist. of Greek Lit." vol. ii. ch. x. p. 257 (1st ed.); cf. Walt Whitman, "Preface to" original edition of "Leaves of Grass," p. 29--"The English language befriends the grand American expression: it is brawny enough and limber and full enough, on the tough stock of a race, who through all change of circumstances was never without the idea of a political liberty, which is the animus of all liberty; it has attracted the terms of daintier and gayer and subtler and more elegant tongues."
As regards sacrifices and temples and festivals and sacred enclosures, the People sees that it is not possible for every poor citizen to do sacrifice and hold festival, or to set up[8] temples and to inhabit a large and beautiful city. But it has hit upon a means of meeting the difficulty. They sacrifice--that is, the whole state sacrifices--at the public cost a large number of victims; but it is the People that keeps holiday and distributes the victims by lot amongst its members. Rich men have in some cases private gymnasia and baths with dressing- rooms,[9] but the People takes care to have built at the public cost[10] a number of palaestras, dressing-rooms, and bathing establishments for its own special use, and the mob gets the benefit
[1] Reading after Kirchhoff, {ettous ge . . . kan ei meizon en, ton dia k.t.l.} See Thuc. i. 143; Isocr. "de Pace," 169 A; Plut. "Them." 4 (Clough, i. 235).
[2] Lit. "they are superior to their allies."
[3] Reading with Kirchhoff, {dia khreian . . . dia deos}.
[4] Or, "the army marching along the seaboard to the rescue."
[5] Or, "a variety of dialects."
[6] Or, "maintain somewhat more."
[7] Or, "have contracted a mixed style, bearing traces of Hellenic and foreign influence alike." See Mahaffy, "Hist. of Greek Lit." vol. ii. ch. x. p. 257 (1st ed.); cf. Walt Whitman, "Preface to" original edition of "Leaves of Grass," p. 29--"The English language befriends the grand American expression: it is brawny enough and limber and full enough, on the tough stock of a race, who through all change of circumstances was never without the idea of a political liberty, which is the animus of all liberty; it has attracted the terms of daintier and gayer and subtler and more elegant tongues."
As regards sacrifices and temples and festivals and sacred enclosures, the People sees that it is not possible for every poor citizen to do sacrifice and hold festival, or to set up[8] temples and to inhabit a large and beautiful city. But it has hit upon a means of meeting the difficulty. They sacrifice--that is, the whole state sacrifices--at the public cost a large number of victims; but it is the People that keeps holiday and distributes the victims by lot amongst its members. Rich men have in some cases private gymnasia and baths with dressing- rooms,[9] but the People takes care to have built at the public cost[10] a number of palaestras, dressing-rooms, and bathing establishments for its own special use, and the mob gets the benefit