ach pretty much
their own peculiar mode of speech, habit of life, and style of dress,
the Athenians have adopted a composite type, (7) to which all sections
of Hellas, and the foreigner alike, have contributed.

(1) Reading after Kirchhoff, {ettous ge... kan ei meizon en, ton
dia k.t.l.} See Thuc. i. 143; Isocr. "de Pace," 169 A; Plut.
"Them." 4 (Clough, i. 235).

(2) Lit. "they are superior to their allies."

(3) Reading with Kirchhoff, {dia khreian... dia deos}.

(4) Or, "the army marching along the seaboard to the rescue."

(5) Or, "a variety of dialects."

(6) Or, "maintain somewhat more."

(7) Or, "have contracted a mixed style, bearing traces of Hellenic and
foreign influence alike." See Mahaffy, "Hist. of Greek Lit." vol.
ii. ch. x. p. 257 (1st ed.); cf. Walt Whitman, "Preface to"
original edition of "Leaves of Grass," p. 29--"The English
language befriends the grand American expression: it is brawny
enough and limber and full enough, on the tough stock of a race,
who through all change of circumstances was never without the idea
of a political liberty, which is the animus of all liberty; it has
attracted the terms of daintier and gayer and subtler and more
elegant tongues."

As regards sacrifices and temples and festivals and sacred enclosures,
the People sees that it is not possible for every poor citizen to do
sacrifice and hold festival, or to set up (8) temples and to inhabit
a large and beautiful city. But it has hit upon a means of meeting the
difficulty. They sacrifice--that is, the whole state sacrifices--at the
public cost a large number of victims; but it is the People that keeps
holiday and distributes the victims by lot amongst its members. Rich men
have in some cases private gymnasia and baths with dressing-rooms, (9)
but the People takes care to have built at the public cost (10) a number
of palaestras, dressing-rooms, and bathing establishments for its own
special use, and the mob gets the benefit of the majority of these,
rather than the select few or the well-to-do.

(8) Reading with Kirchhoff, {istasthai}.

(9) See Jebb, "Theophr. Char." vii. 18, p. 202.

(10) Reading with Kirchhoff, {demosia}.

As to wealth, the Athenians are exceptionally placed with regard to
Hellenic and foreign communities alike, (11) in their ability to
hold it. For, given that some state or other is rich in timber for
shipbuilding, where is it to find a