of Medising: the pretext might be just, but the exactions were
unpopularly levied. Nor is it improbable that the accusations against
him of enriching his own coffers as well as the public treasury had
some foundation. Profoundly disdaining money save as a means to an
end, he was little scrupulous as to the sources whence he sustained a
power which he yet applied conscientiously to patriotic purposes.
Serving his country first, he also served himself; and honest upon one
grand and systematic principle, he was often dishonest in details.

His natural temper was also ostentatious; like many who have risen
from an origin comparatively humble, he had the vanity to seek to
outshine his superiors in birth--not more by the splendour of genius
than by the magnificence of parade. At the Olympic games, the base-
born son of Neocles surpassed the pomp of the wealthy and illustrious
Cimon; his table was hospitable, and his own life soft and luxuriant
[147]; his retinue numerous beyond those of his contemporaries; and he
adopted the manners of the noble exactly in proportion as he courted
the favour of the populace. This habitual ostentation could not fail
to mingle with the political hostilities of the aristocracy the
disdainful jealousies of offended pride; for it is ever the weakness
of the high-born to forgive less easily the being excelled in genius
than the being outshone in state by those of inferior origin. The
same haughtiness which offended the nobles began also to displease the
people; the superb consciousness of his own merits wounded the vanity
of a nation which scarcely permitted its greatest men to share the
reputation it arrogated to itself. The frequent calumnies uttered
against him obliged Themistocles to refer to the actions he had
performed; and what it had been illustrious to execute, it became
disgustful to repeat. "Are you weary," said the great man, bitterly,
"to receive benefits often from the same hand?" [148] He offended the