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Herodotus emphasizes the liberality of the Alcmaeonids. The Isocratean school and other later writers (cf. Isocr. de Perm. 232; Ath. Pol. 19; Philoch. fr. 70; Demosth. c. Meid. 144) allege that they got control of a large sum of money by undertaking the contract, and used it to effect the expulsion of the Pisistratids. In the case of a similar restoration at Delos (B. C. H. xiv. 389), half the sum agreed on was given to the contractors when the contract was signed, and four-tenths more when the work was half-done. It is therefore possible (as alleged by Philochorus, l. c., and argued by Wilamowitz, A. and A. i. 33 f.) that the Alcmaeonids misapplied the contract-money, and subsequently after their restoration made splendid amends by their magnificent rebuilding of the temple (Pind. Pyth. vii. 10). But the story is late and may well be inspired by envy and malice. The wealth of the Alcmaeonids seems to have depended largely on their connexion with the East (cf. vi. 125), not on landed estates, presumably now confiscated, in Attica. Their reputation at Delphi makes the tale of embezzlement improbable, and supports the view taken by H.

πωρίνου ... Παρίου. Parian marble is the best for statues, and far more splendid than tufa or limestone, of which most of the older Greek temples are built. The French excavators at Delphi have found near the east façade of the temple, buried under the Sacred Way, two sets of archaic pediment-sculptures, one made of marble, the other of tufa. So, too, the architectural fragments are partly of tufa, partly of Parian marble, so far supporting H.'s account. Cf. Frazer, Paus. v, pp. 631-2; B. C. H. xx. (641 f.); Bury, Hermathena, x. 267 f.

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