Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/387

MILTIADES DIES OF HIS WOUND. 36$ escape impossible, so that there would be no special motive for departing from the usual practice, and imprisoning him forth- with : moreover, if he was not imprisoned forthwith, he would not be imprisoned at all, since he cannot have lived many days after his trial. 1 To carry away the suffering general in his couch, incapable of raising himself even to plead for his own life, from the presence of the dikasts to a prison, would not only have been a needless severity, but could hardly have failed to imprint itself on the sympathies and the memory of all the be- holders ; so that Herodotus would have been likely to hear and mention it, if it had really occurred. I incline to believe there- fore that Miltiades died at home : all accounts concur in stating that he died of the mortal bodily hurt which already disabled him even at the moment of his trial, and that his son Kimon paid the fifty talents after his death. If he could pay them, probably his father could have paid them also. And this is an additional reason for believing that there was no imprisonment, for noth- ing but non-payment could have sent him to prison ; and to rescue the suffering Miltiades from being sent thither, would have been the first and strongest desire of all sympathizing friends. Thus closed the life of the conqueror of Marathon. The last act of it produces an impression so mournful, and even shocking, his descent from the pinnacle of glory to defeat, mean tam- pering with a temple-servant, mortal bodily hurt, undefended ignominy, and death under a sentence of heavy fine, is so abrupt and unprepared, that readers, ancient and modern, have not been satisfied without finding some one to blame for it : we must except Herodotus, our original authority, who recounts the trans- action without dropping a single hint of blame against any one To speak ill of the people, as Machiavel has long ago observed,- is a strain in which every one at all times, even under a demo- cratical government, indulges with impunity and without provok- 1 The interval between his trial and his decease is expressed in Herodottu (vi, 136) by the difference between the present participle ayTropevov and the past participle amrevrof rov fitjpov. 2 Machiavel, Discorsi sopra Tito Livio, cap. 58. " L' opinione contro ai popoli nasce, perche dei popoli ciascun dice male senza paura, e liberamente ancoia mentre che regnano : dei principi si parla sempre con mille timori mille rispetti." TOL. IV. 10 240C.