Phocion

His enemies, however, ran along by his side and reviled him; and one of them actually came up and spat in his face. At this, as we are told, Phocion looked towards the magistrates and said: Will not someone stop this fellow’s unseemly behaviour? Again, when Thudippus, on entering the prison and seeing the executioner bruising the hemlock, grew angry and bewailed his hard fate, declaring it not fitting that he should perish with Phocion, Is it no satisfaction to thee, then, said Phocion, that thou art put to death in company with Phocion?

And when one of his friends asked him if he had any message for his son Phocus, Certainly, said he; my message is that he cherish no resentment against the Athenians. Again, when Nicocles, his most faithful friend, begged the privilege of drinking the drug first, O Nicocles, he said, thy request is grievous to me and painful; but since I have never in all my life denied thee any other favour, I grant thee this one also.

But when all the rest had drunk of it, the drug ran short, and the executioner refused to bruise another portion unless he were paid twelve drachmas, which was the price of the weight required. However, after a delay of some length, Phocion called one of his friends, and, asking if a man could not even die at Athens without paying for the privilege, bade him give the executioner his money.

It was the nineteenth day of the month Munychion,[*](Early in May, 318 B.C.) and the horsemen conducting the procession in honour of Zeus were passing by the prison. Some of them took off their garlands, and others gazed at the door of the prison with tears in their eyes. And it was thought by all those whose souls were not wholly savage and debauched by rage and jealousy, that an impious thing had been done in not waiting over that day, and so keeping the city pure from a public execution when it was holding festival.