He went to the palace, not like a victorious commander who had merited and might demand the greatest rewards, but like an offender who had come to supplicate a pardon for his crimes.

His reception was answerable; "_Exceptusque brevi osculo et nullo sermone, turbae servientium immixtus est_." Yet in that worst season of this worst of monarchical[9] tyrannies, modesty, discretion, and a coolness of temper, formed some kind of security, even for the highest merit.

But at Athens, the nicest and best studied behavior was not a sufficient guard for a man of great capacity.

Some of their bravest commanders were obliged to fly their country, some to enter into the service of its enemies, rather than abide a popular determination on their conduct, lest, as one of them said, their giddiness might make the people condemn where they meant to acquit; to throw in a black bean even when they intended a white one.
The Athenians made a very rapid progress to the most enormous excesses.
The people, under no restraint, soon grew dissolute, luxurious, and idle.

They renounced all labor, and began to subsist themselves from the public revenues.