56.
This Harmodius therefore that denied his suit, he disgraced as he before intended.
For when some had warned a sister of his, a virgin, to be present to carry a little basket in a procession, they rejected her again when she came and said that they had never warned her at all, as holding her unworthy the honour.
[2]
This was taken heavily by Harmodius;
but Aristogeiton, for his sake, was far more exasperated than he.
Whereupon, with the rest of the conspirators, he made all things ready for the execution of the design.
Only they were to stay the time of the holiday called the Great Panathenaea, upon which day only such citizens as lead the procession might, without suspicion, be armed in good number.
And they were to begin the fact themselves;
but the rest were to help them against the halberdiers.
[3]
Now the conspirators, for their better security, were not many;
for they hoped that such also as were not privy to it, if they saw it once undertaken, being upon this occasion armed, would assist in the recovery of their own liberty.
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thucydides. Thomas Hobbes. translator. London. Bohn. 1843.
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