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STATESMEN- AND ORATORS. 175for nearly seventy years and; which, as we have already remarked, became the foundation of its greatness and itsPolitical affairs- andsplendour.negotiations were now tobe judged of by a new criterion* The foreign relationswere now the most important; and it was in conductingthem, that the first statesmen were employed. But theirsphere of action was by no means limited to Athens alone ;it was in some measure extended over the whole of Greece.The object of these men was, and could not but be, togain influence in a community, in which some inequalitywas produced by birth, (as certain families, like those of theEupatridae, were held superior to the rest, forming a sort ofnobility, and even a political party,) yet in which birth hadvery little influence on future consequence. In Athens, asin England, certain families or classes of families advocatedcertain politicalideas and principles, by means of which thedemocratic and aristocratic partieswere formed, and keptup amidst a variety of changes. But the history of Athensstill abounds in proofs,that the influence possessed over thepeople by no means depended on birth. Here, as in theother similar states, there were two methods of gaining suckinfluence ; by deeds in war, and in peace by counsel. Insome periods, military glory was the most esteemed; inothers, influence could be gained without it. In the earlyperiod, during the war with the Persians, the commandersof the armies were also statesmen; and how could it beotherwise ? But when the affairs of peace grew more important, a new course was opened to the man of genius. Yetit was long before the statesman, as such, could rise inAthens ;the qualificationsof a general long remained essential to his influence ; though the age finally came, inwhich the former began to be of more consequence than thelatter. We shall not therefore expose ourselves to the danger of being misapprehended, if we distinguish the threeperiods from one another the; first,in which the statesman was subordinate to the general the; next, in which thegeneral was subordinate to the statesman ;and the third, inwhich the statesman acted independently of the generalWithout any elaborate argument, the reader will immediately perceive^ that here a certain relation exists to theincreasing culture of the nation ;the mere military com-