CHAPTER XXXI
‘Usque adeone mori miserum est? * * *
* * * *
Descendam, magnorum haud unquam indignus avorum.’
Virgil: Æneid.
‘Is it, then, so very sad a thing to die?
I will descend, and ne’er unworthy prove
Of you, my mighty ancestors.’
Three months before the departure of Alkibiades from the court of Pharnabazos, Kritias had sent secret messages to Lysandros warning him of the growing feeling of regret among the Athenian people for the loss of their late strategos. He reminded the Spartan admiral that it was the part of a wise man never to despise the aspirations even of the abject—for Kritias still prided himself on his philosophy—and hinted that as long as the dreaded opponent of both of them was alive, the foolish people would continue to aspire. And who could tell, he added, what such a one as that might do?