id not distress him. He was building the
Parthenon and making Athens the wonder of the world: this was enough.

* * * * *

The Greeks at their best were barbarians; at their worst, slaves. The
average intelligence among them was low; and the idea that they were
such a wonderful people has gained a foothold simply because they are so
far off. The miracle of it all is that such sublimely great men as
Pericles, Phidias, Socrates and Anaxagoras should have sprung from such
a barbaric folk. The men just named were as exceptional as was
Shakespeare in the reign of Elizabeth. That the masses had small
appreciation of these men is proven in the fact that Phidias and
Anaxagoras died in prison, probably defeating their persecutors by
suicide. Socrates drank the cup of hemlock, and Pericles, the one man
who had made Athens immortal, barely escaped banishment and death by
diverting attention from himself to a foreign war. The charge against
both Pericles and Phidias was that of "sacrilege." They said that
Pericles and Phidias should be punished because they had placed their
pictures on a sacred shield.

Humanity's job-lot was in the saddle, and sought to wound Pericles by
attacking his dearest friends: so his old teacher, Anaxagoras, was made
to die; his beloved helper, Phidias, the greatest sculptor the world has
ever known, suffered a like fate; and his wife, Aspasia, was humiliated
by being dragged to a public trial, where the eloquence of Pericles
alone saved her from a malefactor's death; and it is said that this was
the only time when Pericles lost his "Olympian calm."

The son of Pericles and Aspasia was one of ten generals executed because
they failed to win a certain battle. The scheme of beheading
unsuccessful soldiers was not without its advantages, and in some ways
is to be commended; but the plan reveals the fact that the Greeks had so
little faith in their leaders that the threat of death was deemed
necessary to make them do their duty. This son of Pericles was declared
illegitimate by law; another law was passed declaring him legitimate:
and finally his head was cut off, all as duly provided in the statutes.
Doesn't this make us wonder what this world would have been without its
lawmakers? The particular offense of Anaxagoras was that he said Jove
occasionally sent thunder and lightning with no thought of Athens in
mind. The same subject is up for discussion yet, but no special penal