d depart.

There were other and worse forms of lawlessness which the plague
introduced at Athens. Men who had hitherto concealed their indulgence
in pleasure now grew bolder. For, seeing the sudden change--how the
rich died in a moment, and those who had nothing immediately inherited
their property--they reflected that life and riches were alike
transitory, and they resolved to enjoy themselves while they could,
and to think only of pleasure. Who would be willing to sacrifice
himself to the law of honor when he knew not whether he would ever
live to be held in honor? The pleasure of the moment and any sort of
thing which conduced to it took the place both of honor and of
expediency. No fear of God or law of man deterred a criminal. Those
who saw all perishing alike thought that the worship or neglect of the
gods made no difference. For offenses against human law no punishment
was to be feared; no one would live long enough to be called to
account. Already a far heavier sentence had been passed and was
hanging over a man's head; before that feeling, why should he not take
a little pleasure?

Such was the grievous calamity which now afflicted the Athenians;
within the walls their people were dying, and without, their country
was being ravaged. In their troubles they naturally called to mind a
verse which the elder men among them declared to have been current
long ago:

"A Dorian war will come and a plague with it."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 25: The Peloponnesian war broke out in 431 B.C., and lasted
until 404. Its result was the abasement of Athens and the elevation of
Sparta to supreme power in Greece. When it began, Athens with her
allies included all the coast cities of Asia Minor as far south as
Lycia, the cities bordering on the Thracian and Chalcidian shores, and
nearly all the islands of the AEgean Sea. Sparta at the same time was
leader in a confederacy of independent states, among which were nearly
all the Peloponnesian states, besides some of those in northern
Greece, those of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Athens was strong in her
navy, which comprized 300 galleys, while the Spartan strength lay in
her land forces. The treasury of Athens was full, that of Sparta weak.
After the war, the walls of Athens were demolished and she was
deprived of her foreign possessions. The government set over her was
an oligarchy of thirty persons, known in history as the thirty
tyrants. These men soon made their harsh rule so