Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/387

 DEATH jY PHOKION. 355 Hieni doubtless, the gratification of this intense and unanimous vindictive impulse, — in their view not merely legitimate, but patriotic, — must have been among the happiest moments of life.i After sentence, the five condemned persons, Phokion, Niko- kles, Thudippus, Hegemon, and Pythoklcs, were consigned to the supreme magistrates of Police, called The Eleven, and led to prison for the purpose of having the customary dose of poison administered. Hostile bystanders ran alongside, taunting and reviling them. It is even said that one man planted himself in the front, and spat upon Phokion ; who tui-ned to the public officers and exclaimed — " Will no one check this indecent fel- low ? " This was the only emotion which he manifested ; in other respects, liis tranquillity and self-possession were resolutely maintained, during this soul-subduing march from the theatre to the prison, amidst the wailings of his friends, the broken spirit of his four comrades, and the fiercest demonstrations of antipathy from his fellow-citizens generally. One ray of comfort presented itself as he entered the prison. It was the nineteenth of the month Munychion, the day on which the Athenian Horsemen or Knights (the richest class in the city, men for the most part of oligarchical sentiments) celebrated their festal procession with wreaths on their heads in honor of Zeus. Several of these horsemen halted in passing, took off their wreaths, and wept as they looked through the gratings of the prison. Being asked Avhether he had anything to tell his son Phoku?, Phokion replied — "I tell him emphatically, not to hold evil memory of the Athenians." The draught of hemlock was then administered to all five — to Phokion last. Having been con- demned for treason, they were not buried in Attica ; nor were Phokion's friends allowed to light a funeral pile for the burning of his body ; which was carried out of Attica into the Megarid, by a hired agent named Konopion, and there burnt by fire ob- tained at Megara. The wife of Phokion, with her maids, poured libations and marked the spot by a small mound of earth ; she also collected the bones and brought them back to Athens in her ' Diodor. xviii. 66, 67 ; Plutarch, Phokion, 34, 35 ; Cornelius Nepos, Phokijn, 2, 3.