Callias: A Tale of the Fall of Athens Part 19

"And he is wise?"

"Yes, indeed; there is no one like him; and so the G.o.d thought, for the Pythia declared him to be the wisest of men."

"I should dearly like to see him. Do you think it likely that he would come here, if I were to invite him? I would make it worth his while."

"I fear there is no chance of it. He never leaves Athens; never has left it except when he served abroad with the army, and as for money, he is quite careless about it."

"But he takes a fee for his teaching, I suppose."

"Not a drachma."

"Well, that astonishes me. Why, Georgias would not teach anyone for less than half a talent, and has got together, I suppose, a pretty heap of money by this time. But, perhaps, if I could not get the great man himself, I might get one of his disciples. Whom do men reckon to be the first among them?"

"I think that one Plato is the most famous. He was a poet when he was quite young, indeed he is young now, and had a great reputation; but he has given up poetry for philosophy."

"That seems a pity. I don't see why a man should not be both poet and philosopher. I am a little of both myself. Can you remember anything that he has written?"

"Yes; there was an epigram which everyone was repeating when I left Athens. It was written for the tomb of one of his fellow disciples."

"Let me hear it."

Callias repeated,

"In life like Morning star thy s.h.i.+ning head; And now the star of Evening 'mid the dead."

"Very pretty indeed. I have something very like it of my own. Would you like to hear it?"

Callias of course politely a.s.sented and expressed as much admiration as his conscience permitted, possibly a little more, for the composition was vapid and clumsy.

But though Dionysius was an indifferent composer, he had really a very strong interest in literary matters. Personal vanity had something to do with it, for he was fully convinced of his own abilities in this way; but he had a genuine pleasure in talking on the subject. This was indeed the first of many conversations which the young Athenian had with him. Politics were never mentioned again, but poetry, the drama, indeed every kind of literary work, supplied topics of unfailing interest. The drama was, perhaps, the despot's favorite topic. He had received not long before Callias' arrival, a copy of the play which was described in my first chapter, and was never tired of asking questions about various points of interest in it. It soon became evident that his special ambition lay in this direction.

"So, now that your two great men are gone," he said to the young Athenian, "you have no man of really the first rank among your dramatists?"

"I should say not," replied Callias. "Some think well of Iophon, who is the son of Sophocles. Others say that he would be nothing without his father. They declare that the old man helped him when he was alive, and that what he has brought out since his father's death is really not his own."

"Well," said Dionysius, "the stock will be exhausted before long. And there is no one, you say, besides him?"

"No one, certainly of any reputation."

"Then there would be a chance for an outsider? But would a dramatist that was not an Athenian be allowed to exhibit?"

"I know nothing to the contrary. But I do not know that there has ever been a case. Anyhow it would be easy to exhibit in the name of a citizen."

"An excellent idea! I shall certainly manage it somehow. The first prize at your festival would be almost as well worth having as the tyranny itself."[66]

It is not surprising that a ruler who cherished such tastes should have reckoned a library among the ornaments which were to make Syracuse the most splendid among Greek cities. In his Athenian guest he believed himself to have found a competent agent for carrying this purpose into effect; and Callias was in truth a well educated person who knew what books were worth buying. He was well acquainted with the literature of his own country and had a fairly competent knowledge of what had been produced elsewhere in Greece. For the next three years it was his employment, and one, on the whole not uncongenial to his tastes, to collect volumes for Dionysius. In Sicily there was little culture, but the Greek cities of Italy furnished a more fertile field. There was not indeed much in the way of _belles-lettres_. Works of this kind had to be imported for the most part, either from Athens, or from Lesbos, where the traditions of the school of Sappho and Alcaeus were not extinct, but books on philosophy and science, could be secured in considerable numbers. At Crotona, for instance, Callias was fortunate enough to secure a valuable scientific library which had been for some years in the family of Democedes, while at Tarentum he purchased a handsome collection of treatises by teachers of the school of Pythagoras.

This occupation was varied in the second year of his residence by an interesting mission to Rome. That city, the rising greatness of which so keen an observer as Dionysius was able to discern, was at this time sorely distressed by a visitation of famine, and had applied far and wide for help. The harvests of Sicily had been remarkably abundant, and Dionysius sent a magnificent present of a hundred thousand bushels of wheat, putting Callias in charge of the mission.

In spite of these honorable and not distasteful employments the young Athenian did not greatly like his position. It would indeed have been scarcely endurable to a soul that had been reared in an atmosphere of liberty, but for the fact that his work took him much away from Syracuse. Dionysius was all courtesy and generosity in his dealings with him; but he was a tyrant; there was iron under his velvet glove. It was therefore with a considerable feeling of relief that in the early spring of the third (or according to cla.s.sical reckoning) the fourth year after the fall of Athens, he received a missive from Xenophon couched in the following terms.[67]

"Meet me at Tarsus with all the speed you can. Great things lie before us, of which you will hear more at the proper time. Farewell."

Leave of absence was obtained with some difficulty, and towards the end of June, Callias found himself at the appointed place.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] See Thucydides, VII. 71.

[60] A very small s.p.a.ce yet remained to be erected when Gylippus and his Lacedaemonians broke through, relieved Syracuse, and practically decided the issue of the campaign.

[61] Coronea (447) and Delium (424) had been defeats inflicted by the Boeotians on the Athenian army at very critical periods when the victory of the latter must have had very far reaching results.

[62] The two were Selinus and Egesta.

[63] Commonly known by its Latinized name of Agrigentum.

[64] Tyranny, in its Greek sense, it may be explained, is the unconst.i.tutional rule of a single person. It does not necessarily connote, as in English, cruelty or oppression. Except in Sparta, where the kings, indeed, were only hereditary commanders-in-chief, there was no king in any Greek state. Wherever an individual ruled, he was, of necessity, a tyrant.

[65] Hermocrates, resenting the decree of banishment that had been pa.s.sed against him, attempted to make himself master of the city. He marched with the force that he had raised from Selinus, where he was encamped, and made such haste that he found himself with only a few companions far in advance, and close to the gates of Syracuse. While he halted to allow the army to come up, the leaders within the walls sallied out, overpowered the little party, and killed their leader.

There is very little doubt but that he had resolved to seize absolute power.

[66] Dionysius did actually compete many times. He is said to have gained the second and third prizes more than once; and finally in the last year of his life won the first honors for a play ent.i.tled "The Ransoming of Hector." One of the various accounts of his death attributes it to the excessive feasting in which he indulged on hearing of his victory.

[67] Athens capitulated in March, 404; Callias is supposed to have received the letter about August, 401.

CHAPTER XXI.

CYRUS THE YOUNGER.

Almost the first person that the Athenian saw when he disembarked at Tarsus was Xenophon. The latter was evidently in the highest spirits.

"You are come at exactly the right moment," he cried. "All is going well; but, three days ago, I should have said that all would end badly.

Cyrus and Clearchus have thrown for great stakes, and they have won; but at first the dice were against them. But I forget; you know nothing of what happened. I will explain. You know something about Cyrus, the Great King's brother?"

Callias a.s.sented.

"You know that he was scarcely contented to be what he was, in fact that he was disposed to claim the throne."

"I heard some talk of the kind when I was with Alcibiades."

"Listen then to what happened. Cyrus, to put a long story in a few words, collected by one means or another about thirteen thousand Greek soldiers. He gave out that he was going to lead them against the mountain tribes of Cilicia. But his real object has all along been to march up to Susa, and drive the King from his throne. Clearchus knew this; I fancy some others guessed it; I know I did for one. But the army knew nothing about it. Of course it had to come out at last. When we came to Tarsus, the men had to be told. If we were going to act against the Cicilian mountaineers, now was the time. If not, why had we been brought so far? When the truth was known there was a frightful uproar. The men declared that they would go back. It was madness, they said, for a few thousand men to march against the Great King. For four days I thought all was lost. Clearchus and Cyrus managed admirably. I will tell you all about it some day. Meanwhile it is enough to say that all is settled. The men have changed their tone completely. They talk of nothing but ransacking the treasuries of the King, and Cyrus is quite magnificent in his promises. He gives a great banquet to the officers to-night. I am going with Proxenus, who is my special friend among the generals, and I have no doubt that I can take you. Cyrus, I a.s.sure you, is a man worth knowing, and, though we should call him a barbarian, worth serving."

The Persian prince, when Callias came to make his acquaintance, bore out, and more than bore out, the high character which Xenophon had given of him. A more princely man in look and bearing never lived. That he was a stern ruler was well known, but his subjects needed stern methods; but for courtesy and generosity he could not be matched, and he had that genial manner which makes these qualities current coin in the market of the world. He was of unusual stature, his frame well knit and well proportioned, and his face, though slightly disfigured by scars which he had received in early life in a fierce death struggle with a bear, singularly handsome. Proxenus introduced his friend's friend as a young Athenian who had come to put his sword at his disposal, and Cyrus at once greeted him with that manner of friendliness and even comrades.h.i.+p which made him so popular. At the same time he made some complimentary remark about Athens, saying that the Athenians had been formidable enemies, and would hereafter, he hoped, be valuable friends.