It was thus that Evagoras was relieved from his besieging enemies,
and continued for the remainder of his life as tributary prince
of Salamis under the Persians. He was no farther engaged in war,
nor was his general popularity among the Salaminians diminished
by the hardships which they had gone through along with him.[59]
His prudence calmed the rankling antipathy of the Great King, who
would gladly have found a pretext for breaking the treaty. His
children were numerous, and lived in harmony as well with him as
with each other. Isokrates specially notices this fact, standing as
it did in marked contrast with the family-relations of most of the
Grecian despots, usually stained with jealousies, antipathies, and
conflict, often with actual bloodshed.[60] But he omits to notice
the incident whereby Evagoras perished; an incident not in keeping
with that superhuman good fortune and favor from the gods, of which
the Panegyrical Oration boasts as having been vouchsafed to the hero
throughout his life.[61] It was seemingly not very long after the
peace, that a Salaminian named Nikokreon formed a conspiracy against
his life and dominion, but was detected, by a singular accident,
before the moment of execution, and forced to seek safety in flight.
He left behind him a youthful daughter in his harem, under the care
of an eunuch (a Greek, born in Elis) named Thrasydæus; who, full of
vindictive sympathy in his master’s cause, made known the beauty of
the young lady both to Evagoras himself and to Pnytagoras, the most
distinguished of his sons, partner in the gallant defence of Salamis
against the Persians. Both of them were tempted, each unknown to
the other, to make a secret assignation for being conducted to her
chamber by the eunuch; both of them were there assassinated by his
hand.[62]
[59] Isokrates, Or. iii, (Nikokles) s. 40,—a passage which must
be more true of Evagoras than of Nikokles.
[60] Isokrat. Or. ix, s. 88. Compare his Orat. viii, (De Pace) s.
138.
[61] Isokrates, ib. s. 85. εὐτυχέστερον καὶ θεοφιλέστερον, etc.
[62] I give this incident, in the main, as it is recounted in the
fragment of Theopompus, preserved as a portion of the abstract
of that author by Photius (Theopom. Fr. 111, ed. Wichers and ed.
Didot).
Both Aristotle (Polit. v, 8, 10) and Diodorus (xv, 47) allude
to the assassination of Evagoras by the eunuch; but both these
authors conceive the story differently from Theopompus. Thus
Diodorus says—Nikoklês, the eunuch, assassinated Evagoras, and
became “despot of Salamis.” This appears to be a confusion of
Nikoklês with Nikokreon. Nikoklês was the son of Evagoras, and
the manner in which Isokrates addresses him affords the surest
proof that _he_ had no hand in the death of his father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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