Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/267

 OPPOSITION OF THERAMKNES. 245 went to Salamis and took part in the seizure of Leon. Though he thus braved all the wrath of the Thirty, it appears that they thought it expedient to leave him untouched. But the fact that they singled him out for such an atrocity, an old man of tried virtue, both private and public, and intellectually commanding, though at the same time intellectually unpopular, shows to what an extent they carried their system of forcing unwilling participants ; while the farther circumstance, that he was the only person who had the courage to refuse, among four others who yielded to intimidation, shows that the policy was for the most part successful. 1 The inflexible resistance of Sokrates on this occasion, stands as a worthy parallel to his conduct as prytanis in the public assembly held on the conduct of the generals after the battle of Arginusoe, described in the preceding chapter, wherein he obstinately refused to concur in putting an illegal question. Such multiplied cases of execution and spoliation naturally filled the city with surprise, indignation, and terror. Groups of malcontents got together, and exiles became more and more numerous. All these circumstances furnished ample material for the vehement opposition of Theramenes, and tended to increase his party : not indeed among the Thirty themselves, but to a cer- tain extent in the senate, and still more among the body of the citizens. lie warned his colleagues that they were incurring daily an increased amount of public odium, and that their govern- ment could not possibly stand, unless they admitted into partner- ship an adequate number of citizens, with a direct interest in its maintenance. He proposed that all those competent, by their property, to serve the state either on horseback or with heavy armor, should be constituted citizens ; leaving all the poorer freemen, a far larger number, still disfranchised. 3 Kritias anH 1 Plato, Apol. Sokrat. ut sup.: Xi-noph. Ilelk-n. ii, 4, 9-23. em's actually made this proposition : rfi fih>roi avv -otf dvvapevotf ' ^.f $' ITT-XUV Kal //tr' <ioiriduv u$e7.t Iv TI/I' -o/.ireiav, irpoa-dev upiarot iiy oil pi) v eiv a i, Koi vi-v ob fiera3u7J.o^tai. This proposition, made by Thcraincnus and rejected by the Thirty, explains the comment which he afterwards made, when they drew up theii special catalogue or roll of three thousand; which comment otherwise ao pears unsuitable
 * Xcnopli. Hellcn. ii, 3, 17, 19, 48. From sect. 48, we sec that Thcraro