70 , ARISTOPHANES.

We have longed for thee sore.
Still desiring again,
With a passionate pain,
In the sweet country-side
Of our farms to abide,
We who follow the trade
Of the tillers of land,
For our labours are paid
By the gifts of thy hand.
Not a flower, not a fruit,
Not a tender young shoot
Of the fig or the vine,
: But will fondly combine
Through the length and the breadth of our country to greet
The thrice welcome sound of thy home-coming feet.”

“Now,” said Hermes to the husbandmen, “I will
explain to you the cause of all the mischief. Phidias
began it by getting into trouble. Then Pericles, fear-
ing lest he should be involved with him, and knowing
your fierce temper, set the city in a blaze by his
decree against Megara! The smoke of that burning

1This has been mentioned in the Charcoal-burners. The first
charge brought against Phidias was that he had embezzled some of the
gold that was to be used for the statue of Athené. This he disproved
by weighing the metal, and showing that the quantity was correct.
Then he was accused of having introduced likenesses of himself and
Pericles into the battle-scene pictured on the shield of Athené. This
could not be denied, and the sculptor was thrown into prison, where he
died. That these attacks on Phidias were made by enemies of Peri-
cles, and with the idea of vexing and injuring him, is quite clear.
That they influenced him in his policy of encouraging Athens to resist
the Spartan demands, and so bringing on the Peloponnesian war, is
another matter. It is stated by Diodorus Siculus and by Plutarch.
But the causes of great political events are not to be found in personal
matters of this kind.