24.25
He
began by reviewing the past life of the dead conspirators, as though he were
putting them on their trial, and showed how all the scandalous and impious
crimes that had been committed since Hiero's death were the work of
Andranodorus and Themistus. "For what," he asked, "could a boy like
Hieronymus, who was hardly in his teens, have done on his own initiative?
His guardians and masters reigned unmolested because the odium fell on
another; they ought to have perished before Hieronymus or at all events
when he did. Yet these, men, deservedly marked out for death, committed
fresh crimes after the tyrant's decease; at first openly, when Andranodorus
closed the gates of the Island and, by declaring himself heir to the crown,
seized, as though he were the rightful owner, what he had held simply as
trustee. Then, when he was abandoned by all in the Island and kept at bay by
the whole body of the citizens who held the Achradina, he tried by secret
craft to attain the sovereignty which he had failed to secure by open
violence. He could not be turned from his purpose even by the favour shown
him and the honour conferred, when he who was plotting against liberty was
elected praetor with those who had won their country's freedom. But it was
really the wives who were responsible and who, being of royal blood, had
filled their husbands with a passion for royalty, for one of the men had
married Hiero's daughter, the other a daughter of Gelo." At these words
shouts rose from the whole assembly declaring that neither of these women
ought to live, and that no single member of the royal family ought to survive.
Such is the character of the mob; either they are cringing slaves or ruthless
tyrants. As for the liberty which lies between these extremes, they are
incapable of losing it without losing their self-respect, or possessing it
without falling into licentious excesses. Nor are there, as a rule, wanting
men, willing tools, to pander to their passions and excite their bitter and
vindictive feelings to bloodshed and murder. It was just in this spirit that the
praetors at once brought forward a motion which was adopted almost before
it was proposed, that all the blood royal should be exterminated. Emissaries
from the praetors put to death Demarata and Harmonia, the daughters of
Hiero and Gelo and the wives of Andranodorus and Themistus.
