History of the Peloponnesian War

In the mean time, of all the stone Mercuries in the city of Athens, (they are, according to the fashion of the country, those well—known square figures, numerous both in private and sacred door—ways,) the greater part had their faces mutilated in one night. The perpetrators of this offence were known to no one;

but search was made for them, with great rewards for information offered at the public expense. Moreover, the people voted, that if any one knew any other act of impiety to have been committed, whoever wished, whether citizen, alien, or slave, should without fear give information of it. And they took the matter up more seriously [*]( Or the comparative may, perhaps, mean more seriously than they would have done under other circumstances. Or it may be used here, as in other places, with a force scarcely distinguishable from that of the positions) than it deserved;

for it was considered to be an omen of the expedition, and also to have been done on the strength of a conspiracy for bringing about a revolution, and for putting down the democracy.