Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/69

ARCHELAUS. -EURIPIDEb. 47 there until his death in 406 or 405 B. c. Archelaus also invited Sokrates, who declined the invitation, and appears to have shown some favor to Plato. 1 He perished in the same year as Sokrates (399 B. c.), by a violent death; two Thessalian youths, Krateuas and Hellanokrates, together with a Macedonian named Dekamnichus, being his assassins during a hunting-party. The first two were youths to whom he was strongly attached, but whose dignity he had wounded by insulting treatment and non-perform- ance of promises ; the third was a Macedonian, who, for having made an offensive remark upon the bad breath of Euripides, had been given up by the order of Archelaus t<) the poet, in order that he might be flogged for it. Euripides actually caused the sen- tence to be inflicted ; but it was not till six years after his death that Dekamnichus, who had neither forgotten nor forgiven the affront, fouud the opportunity of taking revenge by instigating and aiding the assassins of Archelaus. 2 These incidents, recounted on the authority of Aristotle, and relating as well to the Macedonian king Archelaus as to the Athenian citizen and poet Euripides, illustrate the political con- trast between Macedonia and Athens. The government of the former is one wholly personal, dependent on the passions, tastes, appetites, and capacities, of the king. The ambition of Archelaua leads both to his crimes for acquiring the throne, and to his im- proved organization of the military force of the state afterwards ; his admiration for the poets and philosophers of Athens make? 1 Aristotel. Rhetoric, ii, 24 ; Seneca, de Beneficiis, v, 6 ; ^Elian, V. H. xiv, 17. 2 See the statements, unfortunately very brief, of Aristotle (Politic, v, 8, 10-13). Plato (Alkibiad. ii, c. 5, p. 141 D), while mentioning the assassi- nation of Archelaus by his naidiKa represents the motive of the latter dif- ferently from Aristotle, as having been an ambitious desire to possess him- self of the throne. Diodorus (xiv, 37) represents Krateuas as having killed Archelaus unintentionally in a hunting-party. Kal TTJ<; 'Afj^eAaov r5' faf&eaeuf Ae/ca/w/^of TjyefJ.uv eytvero, Trapogvvuv efievove Trpoi-of airiov 6s Trig bpyrjf, on avrbv E&fiuKe ^atmyucra. ~u T^oiT/Ty 6 <5e TZvpiiridTjf e^aAerratviv sli^ovroq ~i avrov elfOVQO- deiav TOV oro^arof (Arist. Pol. 1. c.). Dekamnichus is cited by Aristotle as one among the examples of persons actually scourged : which proves that Euripides availed himself of the pnvi loge accorded by Archelaus.