THE SENTENCE OF DEATH
In the fourth year of the Peloponnesian War the city of Mytilene threw
off the yoke of Athens. Mytilene was the capital of Lesbos, an island
near the coast of Asia. The city had belonged to the Delian league, and
when the league became the empire of Athens, the city remained faithful
to the empire. But as time passed the Mytileneans became afraid lest
Athens should treat them as she had treated the Samians, and should
make them subjects instead of allies.
While Athens was at war with Sparta she would have little time, thought
the Mytileneans, to trouble about their small island, so they revolted
and asked the Spartans to support them, if that should be necessary.
The Spartans promised to help the Mytileneans if the Athenians should
punish their disloyalty, but, as so often happened, they did not
attempt to keep their promise until it was too late.
Athens was angry when she heard of the revolt at Mytilene. Although
she could ill spare the men, she sent an army under a general named
Paches to blockade the town by sea and by land and so to starve her
into submission. At all costs Mytilene must not fall into the hands of
Sparta.
Before long, so strict was the blockade, food began to run short in
the hapless island, and the Spartans failed to send the help they had
promised.
But when the citizens were desperate with hunger, a messenger from
Sparta reached the town. He had passed the Athenian army unnoticed and
had entered Mytilene, to the delight of the starving people. When he
assured them that ships laden with corn were on the way and would reach
them soon, their joy was unbounded.
Day after day, week after week passed, but the Spartan ships did not
come, and hope began to die out of the hearts of the Mytileneans. It
was plain that they must either surrender or starve to death; so they
determined to surrender.
They sent for Paches, and agreed to give up the city, and to leave
their fate to be decided by the Athenian assembly. In the meantime
about one thousand of the inhabitants were sent as prisoners to Athens.
The Athenians had been bitterly angry with the Mytileneans for
revolting when their hands were already full with war at home and with
the misery caused by the plague. They were in no mood now to deal
mercifully with them.
Cleon, a leather-merchant, who by his own efforts had risen to a high
position in the State, roused the temper of the people by his rough and
noisy eloquence, and Pericles was no longer alive to restrain it, as he
had so often done, by his wiser, calmer speech.
When the assembly met, it was Cleon who proposed that all those able
to bear arms should be put to death, and that the women and children
should be sold as slaves. In its angry mood the assembly voted as Cleon
wished.
No sooner was the sentence of death passed, than a ship was despatched
to the island to bid Paches, the Athenian general, carry out the
terrible decision of the assembly.
But a little later, when the assembly broke up and escaped from the
influence of Cleon’s eloquence, the members began to be ashamed of
their cold-blooded sentence.
Ambassadors from Mytilene had come to Athens to plead the cause of
their people. When they saw that the Athenians were uneasy, they
persuaded them to call another meeting of the assembly the following
morning, to reconsider the sentence that they had passed.
Cleon had felt no regret at the fate of the rebels, and he was
indignant that the assembly should dream of revoking its decree. When
it met on the following day he spoke even more vehemently than before,
urging the members to see that the sentence was carried out.
But Diodotus, a noble Athenian, whose name has never been forgotten,
spoke as well as Cleon. So wise were his words that those who had
already wished to alter the sentence for pity’s sake, were now sure
that wisdom also demanded that the Mytileneans should be spared.
Diodotus won the day, for Cleon was defeated by a small majority.
No sooner was the sentence revoked than in hot haste a ship was manned,
and the crew was bidden to do its utmost to overtake the vessel
which was carrying the sentence of doom to Mytilene. Already it was
twenty-four hours since the ship had left Athens. Was it possible to
carry the good news in time?
The ambassadors promised large rewards to the oarsmen if they reached
the city before the terrible sentence had been carried out. In their
anxiety they provided barley, wine, oil for the crew.
There was no lack of zeal on the part of the sailors. They rowed with
all their strength, taking but scant rest, and eating the barley, which
had been soaked in wine and oil and made into cakes, as they sat at
their oars. They knew that on their speed depended the life or death of
thousands.
Swifter and swifter flashed the oars of the second ship. In the first
vessel the sailors pulled slowly, for they were in no haste to deliver
the dread tidings which they carried. And it was well that they had no
heart for their task, for with every muscle strained to the utmost the
crew of the second boat reached Mytilene only just in time.
The death sentence had already reached Paches, and he was preparing to
carry it out, when with a glad, triumphant shout the second boat swung
into the harbour, and the Mytileneans were saved.
But even so they paid heavily for their rebellion, for about thirty
of their leading citizens were executed, their fleet was taken by the
Athenians, and the walls of their city were destroyed.