Of the twelve envoys who went on this mission, all except Phrynichus,
Antiphon, Archeptolemus, and Onomaklês, seem to have already escaped
to Dekeleia or elsewhere. Phrynichus, as I have mentioned a few
pages above, had been assassinated several days before. Respecting
his memory, a condemnatory vote had already been just passed by the
restored senate of Five Hundred, decreeing that his property should
be confiscated and his house razed to the ground, and conferring the
gift of citizenship, together with a pecuniary recompense, on two
foreigners who claimed to have assassinated him.[119] The other
three, Antiphon, Archeptolemus, and Onomaklês,[120] were presented
in name to the senate by the generals, of whom probably Theramenês
was one, as having gone on a mission to Sparta for purposes of
mischief to Athens, partly on board an enemy’s ship, partly through
the Spartan garrison at Dekeleia. Upon this presentation, doubtless a
document of some length and going into particulars, a senator named
Andron moved: That the generals, aided by any ten senators whom they
may choose, do seize the three persons accused, and hold them in
custody for trial; that the thesmothetæ do send to each of the three
a formal summons, to prepare themselves for trial on a future day
before the dikastery, on the charge of high treason, and do bring
them to trial on the day named; assisted by the generals, the ten
senators chosen as auxiliaries, and any other citizen who may please
to take part, as their accusers. Each of the three was to be tried
separately, and, if condemned, was to be dealt with according to
the penal law of the city against traitors, or persons guilty of
treason.[121]
[119] That these votes, respecting the memory and the death of
Phrynichus, preceded the trial of Antiphon, we may gather from
the concluding words of the sentence passed upon Antiphon: see
Plutarch, Vit. x, Oratt. p. 834, B: compare Schol. Aristoph.
Lysistr. 313.
Both Lysias and Lykurgus, the orators, contain statements about
the death of Phrynichus which are not in harmony with Thucydidês.
Both these orators agree in reporting the names of the two
foreigners who claimed to have slain Phrynichus, and whose claim
was allowed by the people afterwards, in a formal reward and vote
of citizenship, Thrasybulus of Kalydon, Apollodorus of Megara
(Lysias cont. Agorat. c. 18, 492; Lykurg. cont. Leokrat. c. 29,
p. 217).
Lykurgus says that Phrynichus was assassinated by night,
“near the fountain, hard by the willow-trees:” which is quite
contradictory to Thucydidês, who states that the deed was done
in daylight, and in the market-place. Agoratus, against whom the
speech of Lysias is directed, pretended to have been one of the
assassins, and claimed reward on that score.
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