Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/227

 51-54] RECALL OF ALCIBL4DES 219 them, declaring that their oath"^ bound them not to receive the Athenians if they came with more than one ship, unless they themselves sent for a greater number. So they sailed away without effecting their purpose. They then disembarked on a part of the Syracusan territory, which they ravaged. But a few Syracusan horse coming up killed some of their light-armed troops who were straggling. They then returned to Catana. There they found that the vessel Salaminia had come 53 from Athens to fetch Alcibiades, who The Salammia comes had been put upon his trial by the to fetch Alcibiades. Ex- state and was ordered home to defend "t^>"^"t of the A then- . 7ans, ivho connect the himself. With him were summoned „,„tiiation of the Her- certain of the soldiers, who were accused maeivith the tradition at the same time, some of profaning the "f*'" Pi^i^tratidae. mysteries, others of mutilation of the Hermae. For after the departure of the expedition the Athenians prosecuted both enquiries as keenly as ever. They did not investi- gate the character of the informers, but in their suspicious mood listened to all manner of statements, and seized and imprisoned some of the most respectable citizens on the evidence of wretches ; they thought it better to sift the matter and discover the truth ; and they would not allow even a man of good character, against whom an accusation was brought, to escape without a thorough investigation, merely because the informer was a rogue. For the people, who had heard by tradition that the tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons ended in great oppression, and knew more- over that their power was overthrown, not by Harmodius or any efforts of their own, but by the Lacedaemonians '>, were in a state of incessant fear and suspicion. Now the attempt of Aristogiton and Harmodius arose 54 out of a love afiiair, which I will narrate at length ; and the narrative will show that the Athenians themselves give quite an inaccurate account of their own tyrants, and " Cp. iv. 65 init. '' Cp. Herod, v. 65.