Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/389

 DEATH OF THRASYBULUS. 367 exhausted island might be a doubtful benefit. Accordingly, he sailed from Lesbos along the western and southern coast of Asia Minor, levying contributions at Halikarnassus l and other places, until he came to Aspendus in Pamphylia ; where he also obtained money and was about to depart with it, when some misdeeds com- mitted by his soldiers so exasperated the inhabitants, that they attacked him by night unprepared in his tent, and slew him. 2 Thus perished the citizen to whom, more than to any one else, Athens owed not only her renovated democracy, but its wise, gen- erous, and harmonious working, after renovation. Even the philo- Laconian and oligarchical Xenophon bestows upon him a marked and unaffected eulogy. 3 His devoted patriotism in commencing and prosecuting the struggle against the Thirty, at a time when they not only were at the height of their power, but had plausible ground for calculating on the full auxiliary strength of Sparta, deserves high admiration. But the feature which stands yet more eminent in his character, a feature infinitely rare in the Grecian character, generally, is, that the energy of a successful leader was combined with complete absence both of vindictive antipathies for the past, and of overbearing ambition for himself. Content to live himself as a simple citizen under the restored democracy, he taught his countrymen to forgive an oligarchical party from whom they had suffered atrocious wrongs, and set the example himself of acquiescing, in the loss of his own large property. The gener- osity of such a proceeding ought not to count for less, because it was at the same time dictated by the highest political prudence. We find in an oration of Lysias against Ergokles (a citizen who served in the Athenian fleet on this last expedition), in which the latter is accused of gross peculation, insinuations against Thrasybulus, of having countenanced the delinquency, though coupled with praise of his general character. Even the words as they now stand are so vague as to carry little evidence ; but when we re-* 1 Lysias, Or. xxviii, cont. Erg. s. 1-20. 8 Xen. Hellen. iv, 8, 28-30 ; Diodor. xiv, 94. The latter states that Thrasybulus lost twenty-three triremes by a storm near Lesbos, which Xenophon does not notice, and which seems improb able. F.lvai, oiiruf
 * Xen, Hellen. iv, 8, 31. Kal &paov(3ov?i,of [i?v 6%, uu^a 6oKuv uvrjp ay&