[15:3] Lydiades rose from an obscure condition to a despotic sovereignty over Megalopolis, and probably with little scruple as to the means of elevation; but, becoming convinced that it was for the interest of the city to join the Achaean league as a free state, he abdicated the crown, and was chosen commander of the forces of the republic thus constituted. He died in battle.
[16:1] We are reminded here of the stanza in Byron’s song:—
“The tyrant of the Chersonese
Was freedom’s best and bravest friend;
That tyrant was Miltiades.
O that the present hour might send
Another despot of the kind!
Such chains as his were sure to bind.”
[16:2] Elpinice, whose first husband was Cimon, was his father’s daughter; but they had different mothers. In the earlier ages, for obvious reasons, kindred was reckoned only on the mother’s side, and the intermarriage of the children of the same father and different mothers was legal, and not unusual. We find traces of the lawfulness of such marriages in Hebrew history as late as the time of David. Cimon’s marriage was probably lawful; but public sentiment had then advanced so far as to render such a union discreditable, if not absolutely infamous. It is worthy of remark here that the Greek names for brother and sister, ἀδελφός and ἀδελφή, in their derivation and original use denote a relation on the mother’s side alone.
[16:3] The stories that have come down to us of the riotous living, recklessness, and debauchery of Themistocles as a young man almost transcend belief. It is related of him that he was once drawn in a carriage through the thronged market-place by four shameless women harnessed like horses.