reat and wealthy households, but which made the debit and credit
exactly balance each other. One servant, Euangelos, kept all his
accounts, as no one else had either capacity or education enough to be
able to do so. These proceedings differed greatly from those of
Anaxagoras the philosopher, who left his house, and let his estate go to
ruin, while he pursued his lofty speculations. I conceive, however, that
the life of a philosopher and that of a practical politician are not the
same, as the one directs his thoughts to abstract ideas, while the other
devotes his genius to supplying the real wants of mankind, and in some
cases finds wealth not only necessary, but most valuable to him, as
indeed it was to Perikles, who assisted many of the poorer citizens. It
is said that, as Perikles was engaged in public affairs, Anaxagoras, who
was now an old man and in want, covered his head with his robe, and
determined to starve himself to death; but when Perikles heard of this,
he at once ran to him, and besought him to live, lamenting, not
Anaxagoras's fate, but his own, if he should lose so valuable a
political adviser. Then Anaxagoras uncovered his head, and said to him,
"Perikles, those who want to use a lamp supply it with oil."

XVII. As the Lacedaemonians began to be jealous of the prosperity of the
Athenians, Perikles, wishing to raise the spirit of the people and to
make them feel capable of immense operations, passed a decree, inviting
all the Greeks, whether inhabiting Europe or Asia, whether living in
large cities or small ones, to send representatives to a meeting at
Athens to deliberate about the restoration of the Greek temples which
had been burned by the barbarians, about the sacrifices which were due
in consequence of the vows which they had made to the gods on behalf of
Greece before joining battle, and about the sea, that all men might be
able to sail upon it in peace and without fear. To carry out this decree
twenty men, selected from the citizens over fifty years of age, were
sent out, five of whom invited the Ionian and Dorian Greeks in Asia and
the islands as far as Lesbos and Rhodes, five went to the inhabitants of
the Hellespont and Thrace as far as Byzantium, and five more proceeded
to Boeotia, Phokis, and Peloponnesus, passing from thence through Lokris
to the neighbouring continent as far as Akarnania and Ambrakia; while
the remainder journeyed through Euboea to the Oetaeans and the Malian
gulf, and to t