[184]
There is another thing that he did not understand,
that the Athenian democracy, never eager to acquire riches, coveted glory more
than any other possession in the world. Here is the proof: once they possessed
greater wealth than any other Hellenic people, but they spent it all for love of
honor; they laid their private fortunes under contribution, and recoiled from no
peril for glory's sake. Hence the People inherits possessions that will never
die; on the one hand the memory of their achievements, on the other, the beauty
of the memorials set up in their honor,—yonder Gate-houses, the
Parthenon, the porticoes, the docks—not a couple of jugs, or three or
four bits of gold plate, weighing a pound apiece, which you, Timocrates, will
propose to melt down again whenever the whim takes you.
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