XI WAR AND PEACE 299
was nowhere displayed more manifestly than in the chorus of
the Acharmam. This shows that the chorus is entirely lacking
in real 'personality'. The men of the chorus are not rn^n in
the usual meaning of the word, they represent the community
to which they belong. State or deme or whatever it may be, in
its contemporary but also in its historical existence; thev em-
body both present and past To exalt the heroic and military
type of Athenian citizen it was necessary to go back almost a
century
Was this because m a period of war the poets wished to
compare their own time with another period of war, and there-
fore neglected the Iong5 comparatively peaceful period between
the two great wars? There may be some truth in such an
assumption; it would at least be psychologically understand-
able.1 However, there was no lasting peace between 478 and
431, The fifteen years of Perikles* rule (446-432) were peace-
ful indeed, an age famous for its buildings and not for its
battles; but even these years were interrupted by the Samian
War and ended with the troubles about Kerkyra and Potldaia.
One reason why the land battles of the middle of the century
were not taken as examples of military achievements and war-
like spirit may have been that they were waged between Greeks
and Greeks. Occasionally, however, we find them mentioned,
and they are represented by the valiant Mvromdes,1 while the
naval battles against Persia of the same period such as Eurv-
medon and Cyprus are never alluded to. The reason for that
is clear. Even of the Persian War it is Marathon, and not
Salamis3 that is glorified. The comic poets were concerned
with the old prowess of Athenian hoplites rather than with
previous naval successes. The great importance of the fleet in
their own time was3 as we shall see, reflected by the come-
dians, but as their comit world was based on an essentially
conservative and even romantic outlook, the citizen-soldiers
of Marathon became their true ideal, as the product of ancient
valour and education.®
The 'Marathon-fighters', though in comedy they usually
appear faintly ridiculous, are in idea similar to our conception
1 I adopted this view in the first edition to the exclusion of what I now believe
Is a better explanation
2 Czi3 — L8oiff, E 303^; Eupolis 98,40 P, $if.
3 See above p 292.