Indictment presented by Thes

salus, son of Kimon, against Alkibiadês.

put these hostages to death, whenever it thought fit.

Such incidents materially aided the enemies of Alkibiadês in their unremitting efforts to procure his recall and condemnation. Among them were men very different in station and temper: Thessalus son of Kimon, a man of the highest lineage and of hereditary oligarchical politics-as well as Androklês, a leading demagogue or popular orator. It was the former who preferred against him in the senate the memorable impeachment, which, fortunately for our information, is recorded verbatim.

"Thessalus son of Kimon, of the Deme Lakiadæ, hath impeached Alkibiadês son of Kleinias, of the Deme Skambônidæ, as guilty of crime in regard to the Two Goddesses Dêmêtêr and Persephonê-in mimicking the mysteries and exhibiting them to his companions in his own house-wearing the costume of the Hierophant-applying to himself the name of Hierophant; to Polytion, that of Daduch; to Theodorus, that of Herald-and addressing his remaining companions as Mysts and Epopts: all contrary to the sacred customs and canons, of old established by the Eumolpidæ, the Kerykes, and the Eleusinian priests'."

Similar impeachments being at the same time

1 Plutarch, Alkib. c. 22. Θεσσαλος Κίμωνος Λακιάδης, ̓Αλκιβιάδην Κλεινίου Σκαμβωνίδην εἰσήγγειλεν ἀδικεῖν περὶ τὼ θεὼ, τὴν Δήμητρα καὶ τὴν Κόρην, ἀπομιμούμενον τὰ μυστήρια, καὶ δεικνύοντα τοῖς αὐτοῦ ἑταίροις ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ, ἔχοντα στολὴν, οἵανπερ ἱεροφάντης ἔχων δεικνύει τὰ ἱερὰ, καὶ ὀνομάζοντα αὐτὸν μὲν ἱεροφάντην, Πολυτίωνα δὲ δᾳδοῦχον, κήρυκα δὲ Θεόδωρον Φηγεέα· τοὺς δ ̓ ἄλλους ἑταίρους, μύστας προσαγορεύοντα καὶ ἐπόπτας, παρὰ τὰ νόμιμα καὶ τὰ καθεστηκότα ὑπὸ τὸ Εὐμολπιδῶν καὶ κηρύκων καὶ τῶν ἱερέων τῶν ἐξ Ἐλευσῖνος.

to send for

home from

presented against other citizens now serving in Resolution Sicily along with Alkibiadês, the accusers moved Alkibiades that he and the rest might be sent for to come Sicily to be home and take their trial. We may observe that tried. the indictment against him is quite distinct and special, making no allusion to any supposed treasonable or anti-constitutional projects. Probably however these suspicions were pressed by his enemies in their preliminary speeches, for the purpose of inducing the Athenians to remove him from the command of the army forthwith, and send for him home. For such a step it was indispensable that a strong case should be made out: but the public was at length thoroughly brought round, and the Salaminian trireme was despatched to Sicily to fetch him. Great care however was taken, in sending this summons, to avoid all appearance of prejudgment, or harshness, or menace. trierarch was forbidden to seize his person, and had instructions to invite him simply to accompany the Salaminian home in his own trireme; so as to avoid the hazard of offending the Argeian and Mantineian allies serving in Sicily, or the army itself'.

The

army as if

home:

makes his

escape at

It was on the return of the Athenian army-from Alkibiadês their unsuccessful attempt at Kamarina, to their quits the previous quarters at Katana-that they found the to come Salaminian trireme newly arrived from Athens with this grave requisition against the We may be sure that Alkibiadês received private Peloponneintimation from his friends at Athens, by the sus. same trireme, communicating to him the temper of the people; so that his resolution was speedily

1 Thucyd. vi. 61.

general. Thurii, and

retires to

taken. Professing to obey, he departed in his own trireme on the voyage homeward, along with the other persons accused; the Salaminian trireme being in company. But as soon as they arrived at Thurii in coasting along Italy, he and his companions quitted the vessel and disappeared. After a fruitless search on the part of the Salaminian trierarch, the two triremes were obliged to return to Athens without him. Both Alkibiadês and the rest of the accused (one of whom' was his own cousin and namesake) were tried, condemned to death on non-appearance, and their property confiscated; while the Eumolpidæ and the other Eleusinian sacred families pronounced him to be accursed by the gods, for his desecration of the mysteries and recorded the condemnation on a plate of lead.

Probably his disappearance and exile were acceptable to his enemies at Athens: at any rate, they thus made sure of getting rid of him; while had he come back, his condemnation to death, though probable, could not be considered as certain. In considering the conduct of the Athenians towards Alkibiades, we have to remark, that the people were guilty of no act of injustice. He had committed at least there was fair reason for believing that he had committed-an act criminal in the estimation of every Greek ;-the divulgation and pro1 Xenoph. Hellen. i. 2, 13.

2 Thucyd. vi. 61; Plutarch, Alkib. c. 22-33; Lysias, Orat. vi. cont. Andokid. sect. 42.

Plutarch says that it would have been easy for Alkibiadês to raise a mutiny in the army at Katana, had he chosen to resist the order for coming home. But this is highly improbable. Considering what his conduct became immediately afterwards, we shall see good reason to believe that he would have taken this step, had it been practicable.

fanation of the mysteries. This act-alleged against him in the indictment very distinctly, divested of all supposed ulterior purpose, treasonable or otherwise was legally punishable at Athens, and was universally accounted guilty in public estimation; as an offence at once against the religious sentiment of the people and against the public safety, by offending the Two goddesses (Dêmêtêr and Persephonê), and driving them to withdraw their favour and protection. The same demand for legal punishment would have been supposed to exist in a Christian Catholic country, down to a very recent period of history-if instead of the Eleusinian mysteries we suppose the Sacrifice of the Mass to have been the ceremony ridiculed; though such a proceeding would involve no breach of obligation to secrecy. Nor ought we to judge what would have been the measure of penalty formerly awarded to a person convicted of such an offence, by consulting the tendency of penal legislation during the last sixty years. Even down to the last century it would have been visited with something sharper than the draught of hemlock, which is the worst that could possibly have befallen Alkibiadês at Athens-as we may see by the condemnation and execution of the Chevalier de la Barre at Abbeville in 1766. The uniform tendency of Christian legislation', down to a recent period, leaves no room for reproaching the Athenians

1 To appreciate fairly the violent emotion raised at Athens by the mutilation of the Hermæ and by the profanation of the Mysteries, it is necessary to consider the way in which analogous acts of sacrilege have been viewed in Christian and Catholic penal legislation, even down to the time of the first French Revolution.

I transcribe the following extract from a work of authority on French

VOL. VII.

U

with excessive cruelty in their penal visitation of offences against the religious sentiment. On the contrary, the Athenians are distinguished for comcriminal jurisprudence-Jousse, Traité de la Justice Criminelle, Paris 1771, part iv. tit. 27. vol. iii. p. 672 :—

"Du Crime de Leze-Majesté Divine.-Les Crimes de Leze Majesté Divine, sont ceux qui attaquent Dieu immédiatement, et qu'on doit regarder par cette raison comme les plus atroces et les plus exécrables. -La Majesté de Dieu peut être offensée de plusieurs manières.—1. En niant l'existence de Dieu. 2. Par le crime de ceux qui attentent directement contre la Divinité: comme quand on profane ou qu'on foule aux pieds les saintes Hosties; ou qu'on frappe les Images de Dieu dans le dessein de l'insulter. C'est ce qu'on appelle Crime de LezeMajesté Divine au premier Chef.”

Again in the same work, part iv. tit. 46. n. 5, 8, 10, 11. vol. iv. p. 9799:

"La profanation des Sacremens et des Mystères de la Réligion est un sacrilège des plus exécrables. Tel est le crime de ceux qui emploient les choses sacrées à des usages communs et mauvais, en dérision des Mystères; ceux qui profanent la sainte Eucharistie, ou qui en abusent en quelque manière que ce soit ; ceux qui en mépris de la Réligion, profanent les Fonts-Baptismaux ; qui jettent par terre les saintes Hosties, ou qui les emploient à des usages vils et profanes; ceux qui, en dérision de nos sacrés Mystères, les contrefont dans leurs débauches; ceux qui frappent, mutilent, abattent, les Images consacrées à Dieu, ou à la Sainte Vierge, ou aux Saints, en mépris de la Réligion; et enfin, tous ceux qui commettent de semblables impiétés. Tous ces crimes sont des crimes de Leze-Majesté divine au premier chef, parce qu'ils s'attaquent immédiatement à Dieu, et ne se font à aucun dessein que de l'offenser."

"...La peine du Sacrilège, par l'Ancien Testament, étoit celle du feu, et d'être lapidé.—Par les Loix Romaines, les coupables étoient condamnés au fer, au feu, et aux bêtes farouches, suivant les circonstances.-En France, la peine du sacrilège est arbitraire, et dépend de la qualité et des circonstances du crime, du lieu, du temps, et de la qualité de l'accusé.— Dans le sacrilège au premier chef, qui attaque la Divinité, la Sainte Vierge, et les Saints, v. g. à l'égard de ceux qui foulent aux pieds les saintes Hosties, ou qui les jettent à terre, ou en abusent, et qui les emploient à des usages vils et profanes, la peine est le feu, l'amende honorable, et le poing coupé. Il en est de même de ceux qui profanent les Fonts-Baptismaux; ceux qui, en dérision de nos Mystères, s'en moquent et les contrefont dans leurs débauches: ils doivent être punis de peine capitale, parceque ces crimes attaquent immédiatement la Divinité."

M. Jousse proceeds to cite several examples of persous condemned. to death for acts of sacrilege, of the nature above described.