4 ARISTOPHANES.

walls of the city; a most fatal pestilence was thus caused in the second
year of the war. And it was but a small satisfaction to retaliate by
ravaging the coasts of the Peloponnesians, and by annually invading
the territory of Megara, a city which had concluded ‘an alliance with
Sparta, There had always been a peace party in the state, and when
Pericles died, early in the third year of the war, this party became more
powerful, At the same time the war party conducted affairs less pru-
dently. The cautious policy of Pericles was discarded for remote
expeditions and out-of-the-way schemes. Aristophanes, in this play,
exhibited in February, 425 (it is the earliest comedy that has come
down to us), sets forth the views of the advocates of peace. He
expresses the feeling of distress caused by the desolation of the coun-
try, and also the dislike felt by prudent politicians for the extravagant
ideas of the war party. The play, or, as I may call it for my present
purpose, the story, opens in the Athenian place of Assembly (Pnyx).
Diczopolis (Just-City), whose name I have Englished by “ Mr. Hon-
esty,” is sitting alone on one of the empty benches, and begins by
expressing his disgust at the indifference of his fellow-citizens.

“Dear me!” said Mr. Honesty to himself, as he
got up and walked about the empty place of As-
sembly at Athens, “how careless these people are
about their country! Look at them there, lounging
among the market stalls, and dodging the rope.!
Even the magistrates are not here. As for peace—
nobody gives a thought to it. For myself, I think of
nothing else: I am here the first thing in the morn-
ing, and it is always ‘peace,’ ‘peace’ with me.
How I hate the city! How I long to see the fields
again, my own village, and my poor little farm! No
fellows there bawling out, ‘Buy my charcoal!’ ‘Buy
my oil!’ ‘Buy my everything!’ There was no

1 A rope rubbed with red chalk, with which the police swept loiter-
ers into the place of Assembly.