Suicide: Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and PreventionWestcott, W. Wynn (William Wynn)
Philosophy
Suicide: Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention
Westcott, W. Wynn (William Wynn)
Suicide
PONTIUS PILATE, A.D. 36, Procurator of Judaea. Josephus. Antiquities,
xviii., 4, 1, 2, and also Eusebius, History, cap. ii. 7.
II.─CLASSICAL.
SESOSTRIS, or RAMESES the Great, King of Egypt, killed himself in
despair at having lost his sight.
MENON, 2000 B.C., Governor of Nineveh, first husband of Semiramis,
afterwards Queen of Assyria; he hung himself when Ninus the King became
enamoured of his wife.
AJAX, 1184 B.C., in the Trojan War, slew himself in a frenzy of anger
against Ulysses, to whom instead of to himself the armour of the dead
Hector had been allotted.
CODRUS, 1070 B.C., the last King of Athens; he was at war with the
Heraclidæ, an oracle had foretold that the victory would fall to the
nation whose king died in battle. Codrus entered the enemy’s camp in
disguise, provoked a quarrel with two of the soldiers, and was killed
by them.
DIDO, 1000 B.C., Princess of Tyre, widow of Sichæus, having founded
Carthage, stabbed herself on her funeral pile, to avoid marriage with
Jarbos, she having vowed eternal fidelity to her husband’s memory.
LYCURGUS, 900 B.C., Lawgiver of Sparta, prepared a code of laws for the
people, bound them to observe these laws during his absence, then left
the State, and destroyed himself. These laws remained in force for 700
years.
SARDANAPALUS, 759 B.C., King of Assyria, burned himself in his palace
with his wives.
ARISTODEMUS, 730 B. C. having killed his daughter to propitiate the
oracle at Delphi, slew himself on her tomb, from remorse.
CHARONDAS, 560 B.C., the Lawgiver of Catana, a Greek colony in Sicily,
made it a law, with the penalty of death, that no man should enter the
assembly armed: returning one day from pursuing some robbers beyond the
city, he entered the assembly to report, without having laid aside his
weapons. Being taxed with breaking his own laws, he slew himself on the
spot.
LUCRETIA, 510 B.C., wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, stabbed herself
in the presence of her husband and father as a protest against her
attempted rape by Sextus, son of Tarquinius Superbus.
ARTEMIDORUS, 479 B.C., threw his life away in the battle of Platæa.
THEMISTOCLES, 449 B.C., an Athenian General, was banished, and
ultimately poisoned himself.
ISOCRATES, 436 B.C., an Athenian orator, starved himself to death, on
account of the defeat of his countrymen in the battle of Cheronæa.
EMPEDOCLES, 435 B.C., poet and philosopher, threw himself into the
crater of Mount Etna.
APPIUS, THE DECEMVIR, 400 B.C., killed himself in prison, where he
was cast by the Tribunes after the storm of popular indignation which
followed his attempted seduction of Virginia.
DECIUS MUS, 338 B.C., Roman Consul, threw away his life in battle
against the Latins, as did his son, B.C. 296, and his grandson, B. C.
280.
DEMOSTHENES, 325 B.C., the most celebrated orator of antiquity,
poisoned himself to escape from the pursuit of the soldiers of
Antipater.
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