to the great comic genius; and Thucydides, a born aristocrat, of
strong oligarchical sympathies, looked with cold scorn and aversion on
the coarse mechanic, [Footnote: Cleon was a tanner by trade.] who
presumed to usurp the place, and ape the style, of a true leader like
Pericles.

In the previous debate Cleon had been the chief promoter of the
murderous sentence passed against Mytilene; and when the question was
brought forward again, he made a vehement harangue, the substance of
which has been preserved by Thucydides. In this speech he appears as a
practised rhetorical bravo, whose one object is to vilify his
opponents, and throw contempt on their arguments, by an unscrupulous
use of the weapons of ridicule, calumny, and invective. He reproaches
the magistrates for convening a second assembly, in a matter which had
already been decided; and this was, in fact, strictly speaking, a
breach of the constitution. He laughs at the Athenians as weak
sentimentalists, always inclined to mercy, even when mercy was
suicidal. Of the subject communities he speaks as if they were mere
slaves and chattels, outside the pale of humanity, to be kept down
with the scourge and the sword. "Let the law prevail," cries this
second Draco. "The law is sacred, and must not be moved. You are so
clever that you will not live, by fixed rule and order, and you deride
the approved principles of political wisdom. Every one of you wants to
be a lawgiver, a statesman, and a reformer, and to manage the public
affairs in his own way. We, who understand your true interests, are
bound to resist this mood of lawless extravagance, and keep you in the
right path, whether you will or no."

Then preserving the same tone, as of one who is exposing an outrageous
paradox, Cleon proceeds to deal with the actual subject of debate. To