Prestwich.
_Suicide at Marseilles_ (Vol. vii., p. 180.).--In Montaigne's _Essays_ I
find,--
"In former times there was kept, in our city of Marseilles, a poison
prepared out of hemlock, at the public charge, for those who had a mind
to hasten their end, having first, before the Six Hundred, which were
their Senate, given an account of the reasons and motives of their
design; and it was not otherwise lawful than by leave from the
magistrate, and upon just occasion, to do violence to themselves. The
same law was also in use in other places."--Book ii. chap. iii., at
end.
This, however, is not the original authority required by your
correspondent.
In the earlier part of the same chapter, "Plutarch, _On the Virtuous Deeds
of Women_," is referred to as the authority for the statement which
Montaigne makes of
"The Milesian virgins, that by an insane compact hanged themselves, one
after another, until the magistrate took order in it, enacting, that
the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be drawn by the
same halter, stark naked, through the city."