“And after Pericles?” he said. “Cleon, of course.”
“Why not? The man of the people for the people, but no philosophers nor actors. So, Pericles is sick, is he? Listen, Anytos? Who is Nicias?”
“He is a grandee who believes in oracles.”
“Don’t attack the oracles. I certainly do not believe in them, but a State requires for its stability a certain uniformity in everything—laws, customs, and religion. Therefore I support the gods of the State—and what belongs to them.”
“I also support the gods of the State, so long as the people do.”
The two orators began to be mutually weary, and Cleon wished for solitude in order to hatch the eggs which Anytos had laid for him. Therefore he remarked, “You say that Nicias....”
“I am going to bathe,” broke in Anytos; “otherwise I will get no sleep to-night.”
“But Alcibiades, who is he?”
“He is the traitor Ephialtes, who will lead the Persian King to Thermopylae.”
“The Persian King in the east, Sparta in the south.”