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53. There they found that the vessel Salaminia had come from Athens to fetch Alcibiades, who1 had been put upon his trial by the state and was ordered home to defend himself. With him were summoned certain of the soldiers, who were accused at the same time, some of profaning the mysteries, others of mutilation of the Hermae. [2] For after the departure of the expedition the Athenians prosecuted both enquiries as keenly as ever. They did not investigate the character of the informers, but in their suspicious mood listened to all manner of statements, and seized and imprisoned some of the most respectable citizens on the evidence of wretches; they thought it better to sift the matter and discover the truth; and they would not allow even a man of good character, against whom an accusation was brought, to escape without a thorough investigation, merely because the informer was a rogue. [3] For the people who had heard by tradition that the tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons ended in great oppression, and knew moreover that their power was overthrown, not by Harmodius or any efforts of their own, but by the Lacedaemonians2 were in a state of incessant fear and suspicion.

1 The Salaminia comes to fetch Alcibiades. Excitement of the Athenians, who connect the mutilaton of the mutilation of the Hermae with the tradition of the Pisistratidae.

2 Cp. Herod. 5.65.

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