Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/393

 SPARTAN CRUELTY. y/7 out the most forward and daring Helots, as the men from whom they had most to dread, they issued proclamation that every member of that class who had rendered distinguished services should make his claims known at Sparta, promising liberty to the most deserving. A large number of Helots came forward to claim the boon : not less than two thousand of them were approved, formally manumitted, and led in solemn procession round the temples, with garlands on their heads, as an inauguration to their coming life of freedom. But the treacherous garland only marked them out as victims for the sacrifice: every man of them forthwith disappeared, the manner of their death was an un- told mystery. For this dark and bloody deed, Thucydides is our witness,' and Thucydides describing a contemporaiy matter into which he had inquired. Upon any less evidence we should have hesitated to believe the statement ; but standing as it thus does above all suspicion, it speaks volumes as to the inhuman character of the Lacedaemonian government, while it lays open to us at the same time the intensity of their fears from the Helots. In the assassi- nation of this fated regiment of brave men, a large number of auxiliaries and instruments must have been concerned : yet Thu- cydides, with all his inquiries, could not find out how any of them perished : he tells us, that no man knew. "We see here a fact which demonstrates unequivocally the impenetrable mystery in which the proceedings of the Spartan government were wrapped, the absence not only of public discussion, but of public curio- sity, and the perfection with which the ephors reigned over the will, the hands, and the tongues, of their Spartan subjects. The Venetian Council of Ten, with all the facilities for nocturnal drowning which their city presented, could hardly have accom- plished so vast a coup-d'etat with such invisible means. And we may judge from hence, even if we had no other evidence, how little the habits of a public assembly could have suited either the temper of mind or the march of government at Sparta. Other proceedings, ascribed to the ephors against the Helots, are conceived in the same spirit as the incident just recounted 1 Thucyd. iv. 80. oil 6e ov Tro/lAw vo' * *ov rjfyuvtauv re avroijf "<il aidtlf fyadero oru rpoTro e/caorof