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100 ANCIENT GREECE. [OIIAP. vxn.connexion with the preceding observation Athens;gainedthe importancewhich she had for the world, by means ofher supremacy over the other states. It was that winchmade her conspicuousin the historyof mankind. The importancewhich she gained was immediately of a politicalnature ;but every thing of a vast and noble character,, forwhich Athens was distinguished, was inseparably connectedwith her political greatness.We will disguise no one of^thomost fatalabuses, of which the consequences were finallyto Athens herself; but we cannot limit our view to thenarrow range adopted by those, who make the abuses thecriterion of their judgment.The allies, by committing the conduct of the war toAthens, expressly acknowledged that cityto be the first inGreece, and this was silently acknowledged by the otherstates; for Sparta, which alone was able to rival it instrength, voluntarily withdrew into the background* 1Athenshad the consciousness of deserving this rank ;for the freedom of Greece had had its originthere. But it was desirousof preserving its high station, not by force alone, but byshowing itself to be the first in every thing, which accordingto the views of the Greeks could render a city illustrious.Its temples were now to be the most splendid ; its works ofart the noblest ;its festivals and its theatres the most beautiful and the most costly.But for the supremacy of Athens,Pericles never could have found there a sphere of actionworthy of himself; no Phidias, no Polygnotus, no Sophoclescould have flourished. For the public spirit of the Athenianproceeded from the consciousness, that he was the firstamong the Grecians; and nothing but that public spiritcould have encouraged and rewarded the genius, which wascapable of producing works like theirs.Perhaps their verygreatness prepared the fall of Athens; but if they weredoomed to suffer for it,the gratitude due to them frommankind, is not on that account diminished.The supremacy of Athens was, as the nature of the wholeconfederation makes apparent, immediately connected withits naval superiority ;for the allied states were all islands ormaritime cities. Thus the expressions of supreme commandand dominion of the 2 sea, that is, the dominion ol} Thucyd. i. 95. 2eo\a