Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/276

 254 HISTORY OF GEEECE. which he was suffering. " Hold your tongue (said Satyrtis to him), or you will suffer for it." " And if I do hold my tongue (replied Theramenes), shall not 1 suffer for it also ? " He was conveyed to prison, where the usual draught of hemlock was speedily administered. After he had swallowed it. there remained a drop at the bottom of the cup, which he jerked out on the floor (according to the playful convivial practice called the Kottabus, which was supposed to furnish an omen by its sound in falling, and after which the person who had just drank handed the goblet to the guest whose turn came next) : " Let this (said he) be for the gentle Kritias." 1 The scene just described, which ended in the execution of Theramenes, is one of the most striking and tragical in ancient history; in spite of the bald and meagre way in which it is recounted by Xenophon, who has thrown all the interest into the two speeches. The atrocious injustice by which Theramenes perished, as well as the courage and self-possession which he displayed at the moment of danger, and his cheerfulness even in the prison, not inferior to that of Sokrates three years afterwards, naturally enlist the warmest sympathies of the reader in his favor, and have tended to exalt the positive estimation of his character. During the years immediately succeeding the restora- tion of the democracy, 2 he was extolled and pitied as one of tho first martyrs to oligarchical violence : later authors went so far as to number him among the chosen pupils of Sokrates. 3 But 1 Xenoph. Hellen ii, 3, 56. 2 See Lysias, P-. xii, cont. Eratosth. s. 66. 3 Diodor. xiv, 5. Diodorus tells us that Sokrates and two of his friends were the only persons who stood forward to protect Theramenes, when Satyrus was dragging him from the altar. Plutarch (Vit. x, Orat. p. 836) ascribes the same act of generous forwardness to Isokratts. There is no good ground for believing it, either of one or of the other. None but sen- ators were present ; and as this senate had been chosen by the Thirty, it in not likely that cither Sokrates or Isokrates were among its members. If Sokrates had been a member of it, the fact would have been noticed and brought out in connection with his subsequent trial. The manner in which Plutarch (Consolat. ad Apollon. c. 6, p. 105) states the death of Theramenes, that he was " tortured to death " by the Thirty is an instance of his loose speaking. r/ompare Cicero about the death of Theramenes (Tuscul. Disp. i, 40, 96)