THE HISTORY OF SUICIDE.
The history of Greece extends back to such a remote period that it is
not clearly evident what the general opinion on Suicide was among its
early inhabitants. However, a few landmarks occur. In such a dim past
as the time of the Trojan War, Ajax, one of the Grecian heroes, slew
himself, in a fit of passion, brought on by offended vanity. Lycurgus,
the legislator of Sparta, was one who killed himself for his country’s
good.
STRABO, the historian, in his Tenth Book, tells us that at Ceos, the
country of Simonides, B.C. 500, it was an established custom to allow
the act of self-destruction to persons who had attained the age of 60,
or who had become incapacitated by their infirmities. Several suicides
can be directly traced to oracles; the great Oracle at Delphi has
become especially notorious; Codrus, king of Athens, and Aristodemus,
killed themselves distinctly in consequence of these oracular
utterances.
There is a _tradition_ mentioned by Plutarch, Pliny, and Virgil, that
on the coast of Epirus, on the peninsula called Neritos (Virgil,
Æneid, iii., 271), overlooking the Ionian Sea, was the hill then named
Leucate, or Leucadia; here stood a Temple dedicated to Apollo, and
from this rock a suicidal leap into the sea became the common sequence
to disappointed love, for the Greeks of those times. Sappho, a poetess,
whose love for Phaon was unrequited, is said to have originated the
custom; an arm of the sea has, since then, cut off this promontory
from the mainland, and the island is now called St. Maur. Tradition is
evidence of the existence of a _custom_, even if it be objected to as
proof of an individual fact.
Timon of Athens, the Misanthrope, whose exact era is also uncertain, is
narrated to have been a suicide; he met with some curable accident, but
from his intense dislike of his fellowmen he refused all assistance,
and allowed himself to die unrelieved. This was the philosopher who is
said to have kept in his garden a fig-tree specially convenient for
hanging oneself on, and which he refrained from having cut down, so as
to be able to accommodate his friends. Shakespeare’s play “Timon of
Athens,” refers to this odd character.
The Spartans, that brave and hardy race, are known to have disapproved
of Suicide; it is narrated that an honourable burial was refused to
Artemidorus, who sacrificed his life unnecessarily at the battle of
Platœa, which was fought B. C. 479, between the united Greeks and the
Persians. Among the suicides of Greece, however, occur the names of
some of her greatest men, lawgivers, orators, generals, philosophers,
and statesmen; although we find in Greek custom more condemnation of
the practice than in Roman law.
In Thebes, it was a custom that no honours should be paid at the death
of a suicide, and no funeral rites were allowed; the body was ordered
to be burned in the absence of the relatives of the deceased.
At Athens, a suicide was not allowed to be burned and his ashes
preserved, as was the custom for the rich and great, if such died in
war, or by a natural death. See Samuel Petit, “De Legibus Atticis.”
The body was _buried_ instead, and the right hand struck off and buried
in a separate place. See Æschines, Ctesiphon, and in Plato, Laws, Book
ix., regulations are laid down for the burial of suicides.
Aristotle, in his Ethics, v., cap. xi., describes his views of the
crime, calling it a “sin against the state,” and adds that the memory
of the Suicide should be marked by infamy.
A reference to the List of Notable Suicides which follows in Chapter
III., will show that persons of the highest intelligence have committed
suicide at each epoch of ancient history.
In a survey of the history of Rome we find mention of an Epidemic of
Suicide among the soldiers of Tarquin the First; they were ordered to
the task of excavating sewers in Rome, and believing this work to be
derogatory to their dignity, they killed themselves in large numbers:
the tendency was checked by an edict that the bodies of all suicides
should be exposed to public view nailed on crosses. See Pliny, Nat.
Hist., Book xxvi. cap. xv.
But in the very long period during which the Roman state was advancing
to greatness, and throughout the times of the Republic, suicide was a
very rare occurrence.
In the later part of Rome’s history, during the empire, it became a
very prominent crime; when luxury and sloth predominated, and the
doctrines of the philosophers Zeno and Epicurus became fashionable,
suicide became rampant. In the reigns of Claudius, A.D. 42, and Nero,
A.D. 55, even Seneca, that cultured villain, acknowledged its practice
to be _excessively_ frequent, although he ultimately committed the
act himself. At this time the prevailing sentiment was thus tersely
expressed, “Mori licet cui vivere non placet,” in the language of the
Stoic school.
But throughout the whole history of Rome there was no statute declaring
it to be either a crime or a misdemeanour, and no punishment for
the attempt, among the people; but the soldiers of the state were
restrained by a Military Law, and the attempt punished by ignominy. One
such statute was published by the Emperor Hadrian, A.D. 138. See Digest
of Roman Law, “De re militari.”
VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Lib. 2, cap. 6, a Roman writer of the first century,
_circa_ A.D. 31, tells us that at Massilia, a colony, the Senate
kept a supply of poison, which was distributed to applicants for the
purpose of suicide, if the Senate thought their reasons sufficient. See
Montaigne, Essais, Liv. iv., chap. 3.
PLINY the Elder, A.D. 79, says there are three diseases, to escape any
one of which a man has a good title to destroy himself, and the worst
of these is stone in the bladder; and he adds, “it is a privilege of
man which Deity does not possess.”
TACITUS, d. A.D. 135, remarks that among the nobles, suicide was the
frequent result of misfortune, or the public disgrace of falling under
the displeasure of the Emperor.
MARCUS AURELIUS, _circa_ A. D. 150, is said to have remarked that “a
man had as much right to leave the world as he had to leave a room full
of smoke.”
DIOGENES LAERTIUS, _circa_ A. D. 220, tells us that the greatest
leaders of men advised the wise to its commission. Lib. viii., i. 66.
LIVY, CÆSAR, and TACITUS mention that the warlike, semi-savage races
who peopled North and West Europe, the Iberians, Gauls, Cimri, and
Germans, were all much addicted to self-slaughter, especially in order
to avoid slavery, and the shame of defeat.
LIVY also speaks of its prevalence among the people of Northern Africa,
in the time of Scipio, a Roman general, who was engaged in the Punic
wars, and who had ample opportunities of observation in those countries.
PLUTARCH, in his Life of Alexander the Great, narrates the death of the
Brahmin Calanus, who burned himself with much ceremony in the presence
of the Macedonian army, and apparently without any particular reason.
The Brahmin Sages of the Hindoo races taught the virtues of suicide, as
a mode of escape from the pangs of disease and the weakness of old age.
JOSEPHUS, in his “History of the Wars of the Jews,” Lib. vii., cap.
34, gives a full description of the frightful suicidal slaughter among
them at the siege of Jerusalem, in which he himself was engaged, and
in which self-destruction his faithful guard Simon begged him to
participate, and after its capture, some thousands, under Eleazar,
retired to the fortress of Massada, and there killed themselves to
avoid falling into the hands of the Romans.
The doctrines of Mohammed in respect to suicide are revealed in
numerous parts of the Koran; it is spoken of as a crime which rouses
all the anger of Allah, and warns believers that its commission will
be punished in another life. See Koran, iv., v. 33. “Do not kill
yourselves, for God is merciful, and whosoever killeth himself through
malice and wickedness, shall assuredly be burned in hell fire.”
A celebrated Ottoman says, “This crime is of a more grave nature than
homicide.” The Koran, Surah iii. v. 149, says, “Man does not die but by
the will of God, and at the end of his appointed time.”
And the Mohammedan races have throughout history exhibited an
avoidance of suicide, which is markedly seen where these dwell in
apposition to the Brahmin races of India, who have always rejoiced
in self-destruction; casting themselves into their sacred rivers,
and leaving their old people on the banks to be drowned; throwing
themselves beneath the wheels of their idol statues, and insisting on
the self-sacrifice of the widows of their nation.
Legoyt mentions that in Armenia, in ancient times, the house of a
suicide was cursed and then burnt.
The Tartar races of Central Asia avoid suicide.
In the ancient kingdom of Persia, it was a rare occurrence, no doubt
because it was forbidden by the Magian religion.
The only Mohammedans who have approved of suicide have been dissenters
from the pure faith of Islam; such sects as those of the Assassins
under the leadership of the Sheik Al Djebal, the “Old Man of the
Mountain,” and the disciples of Babek and Karmath, who massacred the
inhabitants of Mecca in the tenth century.
In China and in Japan, even up to our own times, Suicide has been
regarded as a virtue; life is held cheaply there, and if a mandarin
or other official be superseded, he turns quite naturally to suicide
as the proper end of his existence; but during the last few years in
Japan, especially where there has been intercourse with Europeans,
there are regulations intended to prevent it; ten years imprisonment is
the punishment for the attempt in the case of lovers.
Until lately it was the custom for a man of honour who had been
insulted by another, to rip his body open with a sword, in presence
of his opponent, calling on him to do likewise; the aggressor was
dishonoured for ever if he failed to do so.
The Peruvians and Mexicans, at the time of the Spanish conquest, killed
themselves in large numbers rather than be slain or made captive by the
invaders.─Falret.
The Priests of Ancient Egypt, who were the philosophers of the nation,
by their doctrines of a universal soul and metempsychosis, contributed
not a little to popularise suicide.─Bayle.
Sesostris, who had become blind, killed himself, with calmness and
reflection.
But at a later date, following the death of Cleopatra, it became even
more usual; a society existed for the purpose of associating together
persons desirous of self-inflicted death.─Buonafede.
Among the Chaldeans, as among the Hebrews, suicide seems to have been
rare.
On the coast of Malabar, it was the custom for wives to throw
themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands.─Voltaire. And among
the Negro races of Africa the same custom has been noted.
Among the aboriginal natives of the North American Continent, somewhat
similar customs prevailed to those referred to in India among the
Brahmins; wives and slaves had to sacrifice themselves at a chief’s
funeral.
The ancient Scandinavian tribes, the worshippers of Odin, anticipated
their entry after death into the Hall of Valhalla, otherwise “the hall
of those dead by violence,” and hence old persons and others who had
failed to die in battle, were led to seek death at their own hands.
Christianity, the greatest Religion, founded upon and springing from
the decadent Jewish Faith, at once condemned suicide, thus following up
the traditions which the Jews had preserved from their earliest times.
The Fathers of the Christian Church denounced it; St. Augustine in his
“City of God,” St. Chrysostom, and Thomas Aquinas, are particularly
prominent in inveighing against the enormity of the offence, and yet
even these condoned the sin in certain instances.
The Councils of the Church repeatedly censured it.
The Council of Arles, A.D. 452, condemned it as a crime, which could
only be due to diabolical energy.
The Council of Braga, A.D. 563, repeated the condemnation.
The Council of Auxerre, A.D. 578, inflicted a penalty on its
commission, viz.: no commemoration was to be made in the Eucharist, and
no Psalms were to be sung at the burial.
The Council of Troyes of the ninth century renewed these ecclesiastical
penalties.
Pope Nicholas I. says, “a suicide must be buried, but only lest the
omission should be offensive to others.”
Charlemagne adopted the principle of refusing the Mass, but allowed
psalms and charitable subscriptions for prayers for the dead to be
used, because, he said, “no one can sound the depths of God’s designs.”
The Roman Catholic canon law, section De Pœnitentia, assures us that
Judas committed a greater sin in killing himself than in betraying his
master Christ to a certain death.
In our own country we find the Anglo Saxon King Edgar assimilated the
crime of suicide to that of murder in general, and ordered that the
suicide was not to be buried in holy (_i.e._ consecrated) ground, and
neither psalms nor masses were to be used.
For several centuries afterwards, the civil lawgivers of England
remained content to allow suicide to fall under Ecclesiastical Law, but
at the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Statutes were incorporated with
the Statute law of the realm, thus constituting it a civil offence as
well as a great moral crime.
In France, Louis IX., Saint, d. 1270, enforced the penalty of the
confiscation of the property of a suicide; and by the criminal law of
Louis XIV., dated 1670, the statutes relating to suicide were revised,
and the body was ordered to be dragged at the cart’s tail.
It became the custom of Normandy to insist on forfeiture of estate if
the suicide was committed to avoid punishment, and not otherwise.
The Parliament of Toulouse also decided in this manner.
In the 14th century Charles V. imposed this law on all the country
under his dominion; and indeed it remained in force in France until
1789, when it was repealed by the National Assembly, because it impeded
human liberty of action. Suicide is not a crime in the Code Napoleon.
Yet in the early Christian centuries suicide lingered on as an
occasional virtue, either for the purpose of preserving the faith, or
to avoid apostacy, to procure the honour of martyrdom, or to retain the
crown of virginity: some eminent Christian teachers have considered
such deaths desirable. The Roman Catholic Saints Pelagia and Sophronia
were examples of canonised suicides; and two widows, Berenice and
Prosdocea, are praised by St. Chrysostom for destroying themselves to
avoid pollution.