consoled the afflicted senate, animated the desponding citizens, and set all men an admirable example of courage and resolu tion; preserving his liberty, and sustaining his port in the midst of thirty tyrants, who made all else tremble, but could never shake the constancy of Socrates with their menaces Critias, who had been his pupil, was the first to declare most openly against him, taking offence at the free and bold discourses which he held against the government of the thirty. He went so far as to prohibit his instructing youth; but Socra tes, who neither acknowledged his authority nor feared the violent effects of it, paid no regard to so unjust an order. All the citizens of any consideration in Athens, and who re tained the love of liberty, quitted a place reduced to so hard and shameful a slavery, and sought elsewhere an asylum and retreat, where they might live in safety. At the head of these was Thrasybulus, a person of extraordinary merit, who beheld with the most lively affliction the miseries of his country. The Lacedæmonians had the inhumanity to endeavour to deprive those unhappy fugitives of this last resource. They published an edict to prohibit the cities of Greece from giving them re fuge, decreed that they should be delivered up to the thirty tyrants, and condemned all such as should contravene the ex. ecution of this edict to pay a fine of five talents. Only twe cities rejected with disdain so unjust an ordinance, Megara and Thebes; the latter of which made a decree to punish all persons whatsoever who should see an Athenian attacked by his enemies without doing his utmost to assist him. Lysias, an orator of Syracuse, who had been banished by the thirty, traised 500 soldiers at his own expence, and sent them to the aid of the common country of eloquence. Thrasybulus lost no time. After having taken Phyla, a small fort in Attica, he marched to the Piraus, of which he made himself master. The thirty flew thither with their troops, and a battle sufficiently warm ensued; but as the soldiers on one side fought with valour and vigour for their liberty, and on the other with indolence and neglect for the power of others, the success was not doubtful, but followed the better cause. The tyrants were overthrown. Critias was killed on the spot. And as the rest of the army were taking to flight, Thrasybulus cried out, "Wherefore do you fly from me as from a victor, p. 716, 717. * Xenoph. Memorab. 1. i. + Quingentos milites, stipendio suo instructos, in auxilium patria communis eloquentiæ misit. Justin. 1. v. c. 9. rather than assist me as the avenger of your liberty? We are not enemies, but fellow citizens; nor have we declared war against the city, but against the thirty tyrants." He conEinued with bidding them remember that they had the same o rigin, country, laws, and religion; he exhorted them to compassionate their exiled brethren, to restore their country to them, and resume their liberty to themselves. This discourse had suitable effects. The army, upon their return to Athens, expelled the thirty, and substituted ten persons to govern in their room, whose conduct proved no better than their's. It is a matter of surprise, that so sudden, so universal, so tenacious, and so uniform a conspiracy against the public good, should always actuate the several bodies of persons established in the administration of this government. This we have seen in the four hundred formerly chosen by Athens; again in the thirty; and now in the ten. And what augments our wonder is, that this passion for tyranny should possess so immediately republicans, born in the bosom of liberty, accustomed to an equality of condition on which it is founded, and principled from their earliest infancy in an abhorrence of all subjection and dependency. * There must be on the one side in power and authority some violent impulse to actuate in this manner so many persons, of whom many, no doubt, were not without sentiments of virtue and honour; and to banish so suddenly the principles and manners natural to them: and on the other an excessive propensity in the mind of man to subject his equals, to rule over them imperiously, to carry him on to the last extremes of oppression and cruelty, and to make him forget at once all laws, nature, and religion. The thirty being fallen from their power and hopes, sent deputies to Lacedæmon to demand aid. It was not Lysander's fault, who was sent to them with troops, that the tyrants were not re-established. But king Pausanias, moved with compas sion for the deplorable condition to which a city, once so flourishing, was reduced, had the generosity to favour the Athenians in secret, and at length obtained a peace for them. It was sealed with the blood of the tyrants, who, having taken arms to reinstate themselves in the government, and being present at a parley for that purpose, were all put to the sword, and left Athens in the full possession of its liberty. All the exiles were recalled. Thrasybulus at that time proposed the celebrated amnesty, by which the citizens engaged upon oath, * Vi dominationis convulsis. Tacit. that all past transactions should be buried in oblivion. The go. vernment was re-established upon its ancient footing, the laws restored to their pristine vigour, and magistrates elected with the usual forms. I cannot forbear observing in this place the wisdom and mo deration of Thrasybulus, so salutary and essential after so long a continuance of domestic troubles. This is one of the finest events in ancient history, worthy the Athenian lenity and be nevolence, and has served as a model to successive ages in good governments. Never had tyranny been more cruel and bloody than that the Athenians had lately thrown off. Every house was in mourning; every family bewailed the loss of some relation, It had been a series of public robbery and rapine, in which licence and impunity had authorized all manner of crimes. The people seemed to have a right to demand the blood of all accomplices in such notorious malversations, and even the interest of the state to authorize such a claim, that by exemplary severities such enormous crimes might be prevented for the future. But Thrasybulus rising above those sentiments from the superiority of his more extensive genius, and the views of a more discerning and profound policy, foresaw, that by giv ing in to the punishment of the guilty, eternal seeds of discord and enmity would remain, to weaken the republic by domestic divisions, which it was necessary to unite against the common enemy, and occasion the loss to the state of a great number of citizens, who might render it important services from the view itself of making amends for past misbehaviour. Such a conduct, after great troubles in a state, has always seemed, with the ablest politicians, the most certain and ready means to restore the public peace and tranquillity. Cicero, when Rome was divided into two factions upon the occasion of Cæsar's death, who had been killed by the conspirators, calling to mind this celebrated amnesty, proposed, after the example of the Athenians, to bury all that had passed in eternal oblivion. * Cardinal Mazarin observed to Don Lewis de Haro, prime minister of Spain, that this gentle and humane conduct in France had prevented the troubles and revolts of that kingdom from having any fatal consequences and "that the king had “not lost a foot of land by them to that day;" whereas the inflexible severity of the Spaniards" was the occasion that "the subjects of that monarchy, whenever they threw off * Let. XV. of Card. Maz. "the mask, never returned to their obedience but by the "force of arms; which sufficiently appears," says he, " in "the example of the Hollanders, who are in the peaceable "possession of many provinces that not an age ago were the 66 patrimony of the king of Spain." Diodorus Siculus takes occasion, from the thirty tyrants of Athens, whose immoderate ambition induced them to treat their country with the most excessive cruelties, to observe how unfortunate it is for * persons in power to want a sense of honour, and to disregard either the present opinion, or the judgment posterity will form of their conduct: for from the contempt of reputation the transition is too common to that of virtue itself. They may perhaps, by the awe of their power, suppress for some time the public voice, and impose a forced silence upon censure; but the more constraint they lay upon it during their lives, the more liberal will it be after their deaths of complaints and reproaches, and the more infamy and imputation will be affixed to their memories. The power of the thirty was of a very short duration; their guilt immortal, which will be remembered with abhorrence throughout all ages, whilst their names will be recorded in history only to render them odious, and to make their crimes detestable. He applies the same reflection to the Lacedæmonians, who, after having made themselves masters of Greece by a wise and moderate conduct, fell from that glory, through the severity, haughtiness, and injustice, with which they treated their allies. There is doubtless no reader, whom their abject and cruel jealousy, in regard to Athens enslaved and humbled, has not prejudiced against them; nor is there any resemblance in such behaviour of the greatness of mind and noble generosity of ancient Sparta; so much power have the lust of dominiou and prosperity over even virtuous men. Diodorus concludes his reflection with a maxin very true, though very little known. "The greatness and majesty of "princes," says he, (and the same may be said of all persons in high authority) can be supported only by humanity and justice with regard to their subjects: as on the contrary, "they are ruined and destroyed by a cruel and oppressive go. * Cetera principibus statim adesse: unum insatiabiliter parandum prosperam sui memoriam; nam contempta fama, cont mul virtutes -Quo magis socordiam eorum irrideri libet, qui præsenti potentia credunt extingui posse etiam sequentis ævi memoriam -sau a cuique decus po teritas rep ndit. Tacit. Annal. I. iv. c. 30 & 35. "vernment, which never fails to draw upon them the hatred "of their people." SECTION III, LYSANDER ABUSES HIS POWER IN AN EXTRAORDINARY MANNER. HE IS RECALLED TO SPARTA, As Lysander had the greatest share in the celebrated ex. ploits which had raised the glory of the Lacedæmonians to so high a pitch, so he had acquired a degree of power and authority, of which there was no example before in Sparta; but he suffered himself to be carried away by a presumption and vanity still greater than his power. He permitted the Grecian cities to dedicate altars to him as to a god, and to offer sacrifices, and sing hymns and canticles in honour of him. The Samians ordained by a public decree, that the feasts celebrated in honour of Juno, and which bore the name of that goddess, should be called "the feasts of Lysander." He had always a crowd of poets about him (who are often a tribe of venal flatterers), who emulated each other in singing his great exploits, for which they were magnificently paid. Praise is undoubtedly due to noble deeds, but diminishes their lustre when either forced or excessive. This sort of vanity and ambition, had he stopt there, would have hurt only himself, by exposing him to envy and contempt; but a natural consequence of it was, that through his arrogance and pride, in conjunction with the incessant flatteries of those around him, he carried the spirit of command and authority to an insupportable excess, and observed no longer any measures, either in rewarding or punishing. The absolute government of cities with tyrannic power were the fruits of his friendship, and the ties of hospitality with him; and only the death of those he hated, could put an end to his resentment and displeasure, without its being possible to escape his vengeance. What Sylla caused to be inscribed upon his tomb, might with equal propriety have been engraved upon Lysander's: That no man had ever surpassed him in doing good to his friends, or evil to his enemies. Treachery and perjury cost him nothing whenever they promoted his designs; nor was he less cruel than revengeful; of which what he did at Miletus is a sufficient proof. Appre hending that those who were at the head of the people would escape him, he swore not to do them any hurt. Those un *Plut. in Lys. p. 443-445. |