Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/215

 EXCITEMENT AT THE APATLRIA. 193 Xenophou in his narrative describes this burst of feeling at the Apaturia as false and factitious, and the men in mourning as a number of hired impostors, got up by the artifices of Theram- enes, 1 to destroy the generals. But the case was one in which feeling at Athens towards these generals ; yyovftevoi xpyvai ry TUV ruv upsTy 7rrt/j' iKEivuv 6'iKrjv Xoftelv ; Lysias cont. Eratosth. s. 37. 1 Xenoph. Hcllen. i. 7, 8. 01 ovv ircpi rtiv Qijpafievr]v Trapeanevaaav u va i p. art a f^ovrctf, xal iv XPV KEKapfiiv ravrij TTJ eopry, Iva Trpdf rrpt iKK^Tjaiav tjnoieVjUf drj fvy- ovref TUV UTCO^U^OTUV. Here I adopt substantially the statement of Diodorus, who gives a juster and more natural description of the proceeding ; representing it as a spon- taneous action of mournful and vindictive feeling on the part of the kins- men of the deceased (xiii, 101). Other historians of Greece, Dr. Thirlwall not exccpted (Ilist. of Greece, ch. xxx, vol. iv, pp. 117-125), follow Xcnophon on this point. They treat the intense sentiment against the generals at Athens as " popular preju- dices 5 " " excitement produced by the artifices of Theramenes," (Dr. Thirl- wall, pp. 117-124.) (i Theramenes (he says) hired a great number of per- sons to attend the festival, dressed in black, and with their heads shaven, as mourning for kinsmen whom they had lost in the sea-fight." Yet Dr. Thirlwall speaks of the narrative of Xcnophon in the most un- favorable terms ; and certainly in terms no worse than it deserves (see p. 116, the note) : "It looks as if Xenophon had purposely involved the whole affair in obscurity.'' Compare also p. 123, where his criticism is equally severe. I have little scruple in deserting the narrative of Xcnophon, of which I think as meanly as Dr. Thirlwall, so far as to supply, without contradicting any of his main allegations, an omission which I consider capital and pre- ponderant. I accept his account of what actually passed at the festival of the Apaturia, but I deny his statement of the manoeuvres of Theram- cnSs as the producing cause. Most of the obscurity which surrounds these proceedings at Athens arises from the fact, that no notice has been taken of the intense and spontaneous emotion which the desertion of the men on the wrecks was naturally calcu- lated to produce on the public mind. It would, in my judgment, have been unaccountable if such an effect had not been produced, quite apart from all instigations of Theramenes. The moment that we recognize this capital fact, the series of transactions becomes comparatively perspicuous and explicable. Dr. Thirlwall, as well as Sicvcrs (Commantnt. do Xenophontis Hcllen. pp. 25-30), suppose Theramenes to have acted in concert with the oligarch ical party, in making use of this incident to bring about the ruin of gen- erals odious to them, several of whom were connected with Alkibiade"s. I TOL. VIII. 9 130C,