some great affair, in order to make his services always necessary to them, and that they might not be at leisure to examine, censure, and condemn his conduct.

He had the fate generally experienced by persons of his character, and of which they cannot reasonably complain. He never loved any one, himself being his sole motive, nor ever found a friend. He made it his merit and glory to amuse all men, and no body confided in, or adhered to him. His sole view was to live with splendor, and to lord it universally; and he perished miserably, abandoned by the whole world, and obliged at his death to the feeble services and impotent zeal of one only woman for the last honours rendered to his remains.

About this time died Democritus the philosopher, of whom more will be said elsewhere.

SECTION II.

THE THIRTY EXERCISE THE MOST HORRID CRUELTIES AT ATHENS,

THEY PUT THERAMENES TO DEATH.

THRASYBULUS

ATTACKS THE 1YRANTS, IS MASTER OF

ATHENS, AND RESTORES ITS

LIBERTY.

THE Council of thirty,' established at Athens by Lysander, committed the most execrable cruelties. Upon pretence of restraining the multitude within their duty, and to prevent seditions, they had caused guards to be assigned them, had armed three thousand of the citizens for that service, and at the same time disarmed

1 Xenoph. Hist. 1. ii. p. 462, et 479. Diod. I. xiv. p. 235-238. Justin. L. v. c. 8-10.

all the rest. The whole city was in the utmost ter. ror and dismay. Whoever opposed their injustice and violence became the victims of them. Riches were a crime, that never failed of drawing a sentence upon their owners, always followed with death and the confiscation of estates; which the thirty tyrants divided amongst themselves. They put more people to death, says Xenophon, in eight months of peace, than the enemies had done in a war of thirty years.

The two most considerable persons of the thirty were Critias and Theramenes, who at first lived in great union, and always acted in concert with each other. The latter had some honour, and loved his country. When he saw with what an excess of violence and cruelty his colleagues behaved, he declared openly against them, and thereby drew their resentment upon him. Critias became his most mortal enemy, and acted as informer against him before the senate, accus. ing him of disturbing the tranquillity of the state, and of designing to subvert the present government. Aṣ he perceived, that the defence of Theramenes was heard with silence and approbation, he was afraid that if the affair was left to the decision of the senate, they would acquit him. Having therefore caused a band of young men, whom he had armed with poniards to advance to the bar, he said that he thought it the duty of a supreme magistrate to prevent justice from being abused, and that, he should act conformably upon this occasion. "But," continued he, "as the law does not admit, that any of the three thousand should be put to death, without the consent of the senate, I exclude Theramenes from that number, and condemn him to die in

virtue of my own and my colleagues authority." Theramenes, upon these words, leaping upon the altar: "I demand," said he, "Athenians, that I may be tried according to the laws; which cannot be refused me without manifest injustice. Not that. I imagine that the goodness of my cause will avail me any thing, or the sanction of altars protect me, but I would show at least that my enemies respect neither the gods nor men. What most astonishes me is, that persons of your wisdom do not see that your own names may as easily be struck out of the list of the citizens as that of Theramenes." Critias upon this ordered the officers of justice to pull him down from the altar. An universal silence and terror ensued upon the sight of the armed soldiers that surrounded the senate. Of all the senators, only Socrates, whose disciple Theramenes had been, took upon him his defence, and opposed the officers of justice. But his weak endeavours could not deliver Theramenes, who was led to the place of execution, notwithstanding all he could do, through crowds of the citizens, who saw with tears, in the fate of a man equally considerable for his love of liberty, and the great services he had done his country, what they had to fear for themselves. When they presented him the hemloc, that is, the poison, which was the manner of putting the citizens of Athens to death, he took it with an intrepid air; and after having drank it, he poured, the bottom upon the table, after the usual manner observed in feasts, or public rejoicings, saying, " "This for the noble Critias." Xenophon relates this circumstance, inconsiderable in itself, to show, says he, the tranquillity of Theramenes in his last moments.

m

The tyrants, delivered from a colleague, whose presence alone was a continual reproach to them, no longer observed any measures. Nothing passed throughout the city but imprisonments and murders. Every body trembled for themselves or their friends. The general desolation had no remedy, nor was there any hope of regaining their liberty. Where had they then as many Harmodiuses as they had tyrants? Terror had taken entire possession of their minds, whilst the whole city deplored in secret their loss of liberty, without having one amongst them generous enough to attempt the breaking of its chains. The Athenian people seemed to have lost that valor, which, till then, had made them awful and terrible to their neighbours and enemies. They seemed to have lost the very use of speech; not daring to vent the least complaint, lest it should be made a capital crime in them. Socrates only continued intrepid. He consoled the afflicted senate, animated the desponding citizens, and set all men an admirable example of courage and resolution ; preserving his liberty, and sustaining his port, in the midst of thirty tyrants, who made all else tremble, but could never shake the constancy of Socrates with their menaces." Critias, who had been his pupil, was the first to declare most openly against him, taking offence at the free and bold discourses which he held against the government of the thirty. He went so far as to prohibit his instructing the youth; but Socrates, who neither acknowledged his authority nor feared the vio lent effects of it, paid no regard to so unjust an order.

m Harmodius formed a conspiracy for the deliverance of Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratides.

All the citizens of any consideration in Athens, and who retained the love of liberty, quitted a place reduced to so hard and shameful a slavery, and sought elsewhere an assylum and retreat, where they might live in safety. At the head of these was Thrasybulus, a person of extraordinary merit, who beheld with the most lively affliction the miseries of his country. The Lacedemonians had the inhumanity to endeavour to deprive those unhappy fugitives of this last resource. They published an edict to prohibit the cities of Greece from giving them refuge, decreed that they should be delivered up to the thirty tyrants, and condemned all such as should crontravene the execution of this edict, to pay a fine of five talents. Only two cities rejected with disdain so unjust an ordinance, Megara and Thebes; the latter of which, made a decree to punish all persons whatsoever who should see an Athenian attacked by his enemies without doing his utmost to assist him. Lysias, an orator of Syracuse, who had been banished by the thirty, raised five hundred soldiers at his own expense, and sent them to the aid of the common country of eloquence.

Thrasybulus lost no time. After having taken Phyla, a small fort in Attica, he marched to the Pireus, of which he made himself master. The thirty flew thither with their troops, and a battle sufficiently warm ensued; but as the soldiers on one side, fought with valor and vigor for their liberty, and on the other with indolence and neglect for the power of others, the success was not doubtful, but followed the better cause.

• Quingentos milites, stipendio suo instructos, in auxilium patriæ communis eloquentiæ misit. Justin. 1. v. c. 9.