Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/232

214 214 HISTORY OF GKKECE. his enemies did not fabricate this charge, or impute it to him falsely ; though they were guilty of insidious and unprincipled manoeuvres to exasperate the public mind against him. Their machinations begin with the mutilation of the Herman ; an act of new and unparalleled wickedness, to which historians of Greece seldom do justice. Tt was not, like the violations of the myste- ries, a piece of indecent pastime committed within four walls, and never intended to become known. It was an outrage essentially public, planned and executed by conspirators for the deliberate purpose of lacerating the religious mind of Athens, and turning the prevalent terror and distraction to political profit. Thus much is certain ; though we cannot be sure who the conspirators were, nor what was their exact or special purpose. That the destruction of Alkibiades was one of the direct purposes of the conspirators, is highly probable. But his enemies, even if they were not among the original authors, at least took upon them- selves hali' the guilt of the proceeding, by making it the basis of treacherous machinations against his person. How their scheme, which was originally contrived to destroy him before the expedi- tion departed, at first failed, was then artfully dropped, and at length effectually revived, after a long train of calumny against the absent general, has been already recounted. It is among the darkest chapters of Athenian political history, indicating, on the part of the people, strong religious excitability, without any injustice towards Alkibiades ; but indicating, on the part of his enemies, as well as of the Hermokopids. generally, a depth of wicked contrivance rarely paralleled in political warfare. It is to these men, not to the people, that Alkibiadfis owes his expul- sion, aided indeed by the effect of his own previous character. In regard to the Hennas, the Athenians condemned to death after and by consequence of the deposition of Andokides a small number of men who may perhaps have been innocent vic- tims, but whom they sincerely believed to be guilty ; and whose death* not only tranquillized comparatively the public mind, but served as the only means of rescue to a far larger number of prisoners confined on suspicion. In regard to Alkibiades, they cam^ to no collective resolution, except that of recalling him to lake his trial, a resolution implying no wrong iirthose who voted