140 HISTORY OF GREECK- miserable, amidst the almost universal gratitude of Corimh. Ut his strong fraternal affection for Timophanes, his previous conduct leaves no doubt. Such affection had to be overcome before he ac- companied his tyrannicidal friends to the acropolis, and doubtless flowed back with extreme bitterness upon his soul, after the deed was done. But when to this internal source of distress, was add- ed the sight of persons who shrank from contact with him as a fratricide, together with the sting of the maternal Erinnys he became agonized even to distraction. Life was odious to him ; he refused for some time all food, and determined to starve himself to death. Nothing but the pressing solicitude of friends prevent- ed him from executing the resolve. But no consoling voice could impart to him spirit for the duties of public life. He fled the city and the haunts of men, buried himself in solitude amidst his fields in the country, and refrained from seeing or speaking to any one. For several years he thus hid himself like a self-condemned crim- inal ; and even when time had somewhat mitigated the intensity of his anguish, he still shunned every prominent position, performing nothing more than his indispensable duties as a citizen. An interval of twenty years 1 had now elapsed from the death of Timophanes, to the arrival of the Syracusan application for aid. During all this time, Timoleon, in spite of the sympathy and willingness of admiring fellow-citizens, had never once chosen to undertake any important command or office. At length the vox Dei is heard, unexpectedly, amidst the crowd ; dispelling the tormenting night- mare which had so long oppressed his soul, and restoring him to healthy and honorable action. There is no doubt that the conduct of Timoleon and JEschylus in killing Timophanes was in the highest degree tutelary to Cor- inth. The despot had already imbrued his hands in the blood of his countrymen, and would have been condemned, by fatal neces- sity, to go on from bad to worse, multiplying the number of vic- tims, as a condition of preserving his own power. To say that the deed ought not to have been done by near relatives, was tan- tamount to saying, that it ought not to have been done at all ; for none but near relatives could have obtained that easy access which enabled them to effect it. And even Timoleon and JEschy- 1 Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 7.
