the first public assembly, and his numerous partisans voting in the
second, doubtless contributed much to that result, and by his own
desire. But to ascribe to his bribes and intrigues the violent and
overruling emotion of the Athenian public, is, in my judgment, a
supposition alike unnatural and preposterous both with regard to them
and with regard to him.
When the senate met, after the Apaturia, to discharge the duty
confided to it by the last public assembly, of determining in
what manner the generals should be judged, and submitting their
opinion for the consideration of the next assembly, the senator
Kallixenus—at the instigation of Theramenês, if Xenophon is to be
believed—proposed, and the majority of the senate adopted, the
following resolution: “The Athenian people having already heard, in
the previous assembly, both the accusation and the defence of the
generals, shall at once come to a vote on the subject by tribes. For
each tribe two urns shall be placed, and the herald of each tribe
shall proclaim: All citizens who think the generals guilty, for not
having rescued the warriors who had conquered in the battle, shall
drop their pebbles into the foremost urn; all who think otherwise,
into the hindmost. Should the generals be pronounced guilty, by the
result of the voting, they shall be delivered to the Eleven, and
punished with death; their property shall be confiscated, the tenth
part being set apart for the goddess Athênê.”[287] One single vote
was to embrace the case of all the eight generals.[288]
[287] Xenoph. Hellen. i, 7, 8, 9.
[288] Xenoph. Hellen. i. 7, 34.
The unparalleled burst of mournful and vindictive feeling at the
festival of the Apaturia, extending by contagion from the relatives
of the deceased to many other citizens,—and the probability thus
created that the coming assembly would sanction the most violent
measures against the generals,—probably emboldened Kallixenus
to propose, and prompted the senate to adopt, this deplorable
resolution. As soon as the assembly met, it was read and moved by
Kallixenus himself, as coming from the senate in discharge of the
commission imposed upon them by the people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account