Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/221

 EXCITEMENT IX THE ASSEMBLY. 139 -'Athenians! I was myself a wrecked man in the battle ; I escaped only by getting upon an empty meal-tub ; but my ani- rades, perishing on the wrecks near me, implored me, if I should myself be saved, to make known to the Athenian people, that their generals had abandoned to death warriors who had bravely conquered in behalf of their country." Even in the most tranquil state of the public mind, such a communication of the last words of these drowning men, reported by an ear-witness, would have been heard with emotion ; but under the actual predisposing ex- citement, it went to the inmost depth of the hearers' souls, and marked the generals as doomed men. 1 Doubtless there were 1 Xenoph. Hellen, i, 7, 11. Hap?jA.&e 6e rif ef TT/I> iKKfyaiav UCFKUV, Lirl '^'oiif utyiruv cu'dijvai.' iiriaT&Aeiv 6' avry rovf a~o7JiVfj.Evovg luv <7U$y,, on ol arpa-rjyol OVK uvtiKovro rot)f upiarovs iiusp rf/r I venture to say that there is nothing in the whole compass of ancient oratory, more full of genuine pathos and more profoundly impressive, than this simple incident and speech ; though recounted in the most bald man ner, by an unfriendly and contemptuous advocate. Yet the whole effect of it is lost, because the habit is to dismiss every thing which goes to inculpate the generals, and to justify the vehement emotion of the Athenian public, as if it was mere stage-trick and falsehood. Dr. Thirlwall goes even beyond Xenophon, when he says (p. 119, vol. iv) : " A man was brought forward, who pretended he had been preserved by cling- ing to a meal-barrel, and that his comrades," etc. So Mr. Mitford : " A man was produced," etc. (p. 347). Now 7rapr;?.$e docs not mean, "he icas brought foricard:" it is a common word employed to signify one who comes forward to speak in the public assembly (see Thueyd. iii, 44, and the participle irapeh&tiv, in numerous places). Next, QaiJKuv, while it sometimes means pretending, sometimes also means simply affirming : Xenophon does not guarantee the matter affirmed, but neither does he pronounce it to be false. He uses ijtuaKuv in various cases where he himself agrees with the fact affirmed (see Hellen. i, 7, 12 ; Memo- rab. i, 2, 29 ; Cyropazd. viii, 3, 41; Plato, Ap. Socr. c. 6, p. 21 ). The people of Athens heard and fully believed this deposition ; nor do I see any reason why an historian of Greece should disbelieve it. There is nothing in the assertion of this man which is at all improbable ; nay, more, t is plain that several such incidents must have happened. If we take the smallest pains to expand in our imaginations the details connected with this painfully-interesting crisis at Athens, we shall sec that numerous stories cf tne same affecting character must have been in circulation ; doubtless man j fclsc, but many also perfectly true.