Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/518

 496 HISTORY OF CfltTECE. vidual; that the more liberal and generous dispositions, which deadened its malignity, were of steady efficacy, not easily over borne ; and that the condemnation ought to count as one of the least gloomy items in an essentially gloomy catalogue. Let us add, that as Sokrates himself did not account his own condemnation ind death, at his age, to be any misfortune, but rather a favorable dispensation of the gods, who removed him just in time to escape that painful consciousness of intellectual decline which induced Demokritus to prepare the poison for himself, so his friend Xenophon goes a step further, and while protesting against the verdict of guilty, extols the manner of death as a subject -of triumph; as the happiest, most honorable, and most gracious way, in which the gods could set the seal upon a useful and exalted life. 1 It is asserted by Diodorus, and repeated with exaggerations by other later authors, that after the death of Sokrates the Athe- nians bitterly repented of the manner in which they had treated him, and that they even went so far as to put his accusers to death without trial. 2 I know not upon what authority this statement is made, and I disbelieve it altogether. From the tone of Xeno- phon's " Memorabilia," there is every reason to presume that the memory of Sokrates still continued to be unpopular at Athens when that collection was composed. Plato, too, left Athens immediately after the death of his master, and remained absent for a long series of years : indirectly, I think, this affords a pre- sumption that no such reaction took place in Athenian sentiment as that which Diodorus alleges ; and the same presumption is countenanced by the manner in which the orator JEschines speaks of the condemnation, half a century afterwards. I see no reason to believe that the Athenian dikasts, who doubtless felt them- selves justified, and more than justified, in condemning Sokrates after his own speech, retracted that sentiment after his decease. Xen. Mem. iv, 8, 3 : " Dcnique Democritum postquam matura vctustas Admonuit memorcs motus languescere mentis, Spontc su letho scse obvius obtulit ipsc." (Lucretius, iii, 1052.) Diodor. xiv. 37, with Wessc 'ing's note ; Diog. Lae'rt. ii : 43 ; Argument ad Isokrat Or. xi, Bnsiris.