to the despot Peisistratus; and as his own voice was
sweet, and he was ready and fluent in speech, old men who had known
Peisistratus were struck by his resemblance to him. He was also rich, of
noble birth, and had powerful friends, so that he feared he might be
banished by ostracism, and consequently held aloof from politics, but
proved himself a brave and daring soldier in the wars. But when
Aristeides was dead, Themistokles banished, and Kimon generally absent
on distant campaigns, Perikles engaged in public affairs, taking the
popular side, that of the poor and many against that of the rich and
few, quite contrary to his own feelings, which were entirely
aristocratic. He feared, it seems, that he might be suspected of a
design to make himself despot, and seeing that Kimon took the side of
the nobility, and was much beloved by them, he betook himself to the
people, as a means of obtaining safety for himself, and a strong party
to combat that of Kimon. He immediately altered his mode of life; was
never seen in any street except that which led to the market-place and
the national assembly, and declined all invitations to dinner and such
like social gatherings, so utterly that during the whole of his long
political life he never dined with one of his friends, except when his
first cousin, Euryptolemus, was married. On this occasion he sat at
table till the libations were poured, upon which he at once got up and
went away. For solemnity is wont to unbend at festive gatherings, and a
majestic demeanour is hard to keep up when one is in familiar
intercourse with others. True virtue, indeed, appears more glorious the
more it is seen, and a really good man's life is never so much admired
by the outside world as by his own intimate friends. But Perikles feared
to make himself too common even with the people, and only addressed
them after long intervals--not speaking upon every subject, and, not
constantly addressing them, but, as Kritolaus says, keeping himself like
the Salaminian trireme for great crises, and allowing his friends and
the other orators to manage matters of less moment. One of these friends
is said to have been Ephialtes, who destroyed the power of the Council
of the Areopagus, "pouring out," as Plato, the comic poet, said, "a full
and unmixed draught of liberty for the citizens," under the influence of
which the poets of the time said that the Athenian people

"Nibbled at Euboea, like a horse that spurns t