Note 125 — Chapter XLVIII · FROM THE BLOCKADE OF POTIDÆA DOWN TO THE END OF THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.

Thucydidês (i, 139), in assigning the reasons of this sentence of exclusion passed by Athens against the Megarians, mentions only the two allegations here noticed,—wrongful cultivation of territory, and reception of runaway slaves. He does not allude to the herald, Anthemokritus: still less does he notice that gossip of the day, which Aristophanês and other comedians of this period turn to account in fastening the Peloponnesian war upon the personal sympathies of Periklês, namely, that first, some young men of Athens stole away the courtezan, Simætha, from Megara: next, the Megarian youth revenged themselves by stealing away from Athens “two engaging courtezans,” one of whom was the mistress of Periklês; upon which the latter was so enraged that he proposed the sentence of exclusion against the Megarians (Aristoph. Acharn. 501-516; Plutarch, Periklês, c. 30).

Such stories are chiefly valuable as they make us acquainted with the political scandal of the time. But the story of the herald, Anthemokritus, and his death, cannot be altogether rejected. Though Thucydidês, not mentioning the fact, did not believe that the herald’s death had really been occasioned by the Megarians; yet there probably was a popular belief at Athens to that effect, under the influence of which the deceased herald received a public burial near the Thriasian gate of Athens, leading to Eleusis: see Philippi Epistol. ad Athen. ap. Demosthen. p. 159, R.; Pausan. i, 36, 3; iii, 4, 2. The language of Plutarch (Periklês, c. 30) is probably literally correct,—“the herald’s death appeared to have been caused by the Megarians,”—αἰτίᾳ τῶν Μεγαρέων ἀποθανεῖν ἔδοξε. That neither Thucydidês, nor Periklês himself, believed that the Megarians had really caused his death, is pretty certain: otherwise, the fact would have been urged when the Lacedæmonians sent to complain of the sentence of exclusion,—being a deed so notoriously repugnant to all Grecian feeling.