The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

THE TRIAL OF THE GENERALS 369
vengeance against those who had failed to rescue the survivors of the
battle and "begged the people to punish those who had allowed men
who had gladly died in defense of their country to go unburied."'"
Xenophon accuses Theramenes and his associates of hiring people
to pretend that they were relatives of the dead, of a trick, that is, to
stir up feeling against the generals." Some scholars have accepted this
charge." But we have good reasons to reject it. That Diodorus accepts
the authenticity of the mourners and says nothing of any part played
by Theramenes in their activities does not count for much, for his
account is brief and his attitude toward Theramenes friendly throughout.
More telling is the fact that Lysias, whose speeches contain much
denunciation of Theramenes, never accuses him of this deception or
mentions him in connection with Arginusae." Finally, suspicions of
such maneuvers could not have been widespread in the year 406/5, for
Theramenes was not one of those prosecuted when Athenian opinion
turned against the accusers of the generals, and he was sufficiently
popular to be elected general in the spring of 405. 54 It would have been
foolish and dangerous to organize such a fraud. The real mourners,
and, in any case, there would have been some, would easily recognize
the false ones. Besides it would have been reckless for Theramenes to
arouse public opinion in so general a way at a time when no one could
be sure which way sentiment would go or against whom the angry
mob might turn." Long ago Grote presented arguments that should
have settled the matter: "The case was one in which no artifice was
needed. The universal and self-acting stimulus of intense human sympathy
stand here so prominently marked, that it is not simply superfluous
but even misleading, to look behind for the gold and
machinations of a political instigator. "J 6
The intervention of the Apaturia clearly caused a great change in
the public mood. Grief and anger replaced the sympathy and understanding
with which many Athenians had received the generals' defense
at the first assembly. A member of the Council of 500
50 Diod. IJ.IOI.6.
jJI.].8.
nE.g., Busolt, GG Ill: 2, I6o3. Cloche (RHCXXX [1919], 48-49) does not go so far
as to believe in fraud and bribery but suggests that Theramenes merely urged the truly
bereaved to come to the assembly and remonstrate.
HEspecially u.62-78, but see also Il.J6.
54 Xen. I.7·35i Lys. q.IO.
HAndrewes, Phoenix XXVIII (1974), 118.
56
VIII, 19]-194·