SHORT DURATION OF DESPOTIC GOVERNMENT. 9? and lacerations of mind," Avhereby the internal Erinnys avenged the community upon the usurper who trampled them down. Far from considering success in usurpation as a justification of the attempt (according to the theories now prevalent respecting Cromwell and Bonaparte, who are often blamed because they kept out a legitimate king, but never because they seized an unauthorized power over the people), these philosophers regard the despot as among the greatest of criminals : the man who assassinated him was an object of public honor and reward, and a virtuous Greek would seldom have scrupled to carry his sword concealed in myrtle branches, like Harmodius and Aristo- geiton, for the execution of the deed. 1 A station which over- topped the restraints and obligations involved in citizenship, was understood at the same time to forfeit all title to the common sympathy and protection,' 2 so that it was unsafe for the despot to visit in person those great Pan-Hellenic games in which his own chariot might perhaps have gained the prize, and in which the theors, or sacred envoys, whom he sent as representatives of hia Hellenic city, appeared with ostentatious pomp. A government carried on under these unpropitious circumstances could nevei 1 See the beautiful Skolion of Kallistratus, so popular at Athens, xxvii, p. 456, apud Schncidewin, Poet. Grrcc. 'Ev pi-p-ov K?*a6l TO ftdof tyop'rjau, etc. Xenophon, Hiero, ii, 8. Oi rvpavvoi iruvref -xavTa.^ we 6iu iro^e/tiaf opevovrai. Compare Isokrates, Or. viii (De Pace), p. 182; Poljb. ii,59; Cicero, Orat. pro Milone, c. 29. Aristot. Polit. ii, 4, 8. 'E-el utiinovoi ye ~a fiiywra. 6iu ruf t>7rep;3o/luf, u?>A' ov dtu Tiivayaala olov Tvpavvovcrn>, ov% iva fi.fi pr/uat 6to ical al ritial fteyaXai, uv uiroKTeiwr/ rif, ov K?.-TIJV, d/./.a rvpavvov. There cannot be a more striking manifestation of the sentiment enter- tained towards a despot in the ancient world, than the remarks of Plutarch on Timoleon, for his conduct in assisting to put to death his brother, the despot Timophanes (Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 4-7, and Comp. of Timoleon with Paulus ^Emilius, c. 2). See also Plutarch, Comparison of Dion and Brutus, c. 3, and Plutarch, Prsecepta Reipublicte Gerendse, c. 11, p. 805 ; c. 17, p. 813; c. 32, p. 824, he speaks of the putting down of a despot ( n-pavviduv Kara/.vcif) as among the most splendid of human exploits, and the account given by Xenophon of the assassination of Jason of Pherse, Hellenic, vi, 4. 32. 2 Livy, xxxviii. 50. " Qui jus scquum pati non possit, in enm vim haud injatam esse."
