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κατέλευσαν. Verrall has shown (Cl. R. xxiii. 36 f.) that the Greek writers are in substantial agreement as to the fate of Cyrsilus or Lycides, and that the transference of this famous case of lynching to the previous year (480 B. C.), when the Athenians retired before Xerxes, is a confusion due to Cicero's (de Off. iii. 11, § 48) misinterpretation of Demosthenes (de Cor. §§ 202, 204). It is clear from H. and Lycurgus (in Leocratem, § 122) that the lynching took place in Salamis, and was a well-known case recorded in a decree. Demosthenes' date (§ 202) is vague, ‘when the Athenians had the hardihood to abandon their land and city and take to their ships,’ but may as probably refer to the continued or repeated exodus of 479 as to 480 B. C.; and by stating (§ 202), in language reminiscent of H. (viii. 140), that Athens had received offers from the king of Persia, by which she might have kept her own land and been given more, Demosthenes really fixes the event to 479, since in 480 Xerxes never offered Athens any such terms. Cicero has blundered, and H. is confirmed by the Greek orators. Probably, however, he has inadvertently substituted an ominous (cf. vii. 180) patronymic (Lycides = son of Lycus, ‘wolfling’) for the victim's true name Cyrsilus. The lynching of Cyrsilus is paralleled by the fury of the Hollanders in tearing De Witt to pieces.

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