t the assembly. He sedulously remained in the
background until he had something of importance to say, but he then
delivered his message with a skill, force, and animation that carried
all his hearers irresistibly away. His logic, wit, and sarcasm, his
clear voice, flashing eyes, and vigorous power of declamation, used only
when the occasion was important, gave him in time almost absolute
control in Athens, and had he sought to make himself a despot he might
have done so with a word; but happily he was honest and patriotic enough
to content himself with being the First Citizen of the State.

To make the people happy, and to keep Athens in a condition of serene
content, seem to have been leading aims with Pericles. He entertained
them with quickly succeeding theatrical and other entertainments, solemn
banquets, splendid shows and processions, and everything likely to add
to their enjoyment. Every year he sent out eighty galleys on a six
months' cruise, filled with citizens who were to learn the art of
maritime war, and who were paid for their services. The citizens were
likewise paid for attending the public assembly, and allowances were
made them for the time given to theatrical representations, so that it
has been said that Pericles converted the sober and thrifty Athenians
into an idle, pleasure-loving, and extravagant populace. At the same
time, that things might be kept quiet in Athens, the discontented
overflow of the people were sent out as colonists, to build up daughter
cities of Attica in many distant lands.

Thus it was that Athens developed from the quiet country town of the old
regime into the wealthiest, gayest, and most progressive of Grecian
cities, the capital of an empire, the centre of a great commerce, and
the home of a busy and thronging populace, among whom the ablest
artists, poets, and philosophers of that age of the world were included.
Here gathered the great writers of tragedy, beginning with AEschylus,
whose noble works were performed at the expense of the state in the
great open-air theatre of Dionysus. Here the comedians, the chief of
whom was Aristophanes, moved hosts of spectators to inextinguishable
laughter. Here the choicest lyric poets of Greece awoke admiration with
their unequalled songs, at their head the noble Pindar, the laureate of
the Olympic and Pythian games. Here the sophists and philosophers argued
and lectured, and Socrates walked like a king at the head of the
aristocracy