reece." This gave a Spartan just reason to
exclaim, on seeing an estimate of the enormous sums laid out in these
contests of the tragic poets, and the extraordinary pains taken by the
magistrates who presided in them,(219) "that a people must be void of
sense to apply themselves in so warm and serious a manner to things so
frivolous. For," added he, "games should be only games; and nothing is
more unreasonable than to purchase a short and trivial amusement at so
great a price. Pleasures of this kind agree only with public rejoicings
and seasons of festivity, and were designed to divert people at their
leisure hours; but should by no means interfere with the affairs of the
public, nor the necessary expenses of the government."

After all, says Plutarch, in the passage which I have already cited, of
what utility have these tragedies been to Athens, though so much boasted
by the people, and admired by the rest of the world? I find that the
prudence of Themistocles enclosed the city with strong walls; that the
fine taste and magnificence of Pericles improved and adorned it; that the
noble fortitude of Miltiades preserved its liberty; and that the moderate
conduct of Cimon acquired it the empire and government of all Greece. If
the wise and learned poetry of Euripides, the sublime diction of
Sophocles, the lofty buskin of AEschylus, have obtained equal advantages
for the city of Athens, by delivering it from impending calamities, or by
adding to its glory, I am willing (he goes on) that dramatic pieces should
be placed in competition with trophies of victory, the poetic theatre with
the field of battle, and the compositions of the poets with the great
exploits of the generals. But what a comparison would this be? On the one
side would be seen a few writers, crowned with wreaths of ivy, and
dragging a goat or an ox after them, the rewards and victims assigned them
for excelling in tragic poetry: on the other, a train of illustrious
captains, surrounded by the colonies which they founded, the cities which
they captured, and the nations which they subjected. It is not to
perpetuate the victories of AEschylus and Sophocles, but in remembrance of
the glorious battles of Marathon, Salamis, Eurymedon, and many others,
that so many feasts are celebrated every month with such pomp by the
Grecians.

The inference which Plutarch draws from hence, in which we ought to agree
with him, is,(220) that it was the highest imprudence in the At