The Alarm Bell Is Clanging

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The most famous instance of this in Athens was the prosecution of Socrates.  Following its defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, Athens was briefly ruled by “Thirty Tyrants,” an oligarchical, anti-democratic clique.  But democrats soon rose up and overthrew the oligarchy, re-establishing the democracy.  A few years later, some ardent democrats prosecuted Socrates, seeking his death.

Socrates was not himself a politician.  He said that his “voice” or “sign” told him not to be a politician.  Nonetheless, he had many friends and acquaintances among politicians, including anti-democratic politicians.  And the was known to be a critic of democracy, which, by giving power to average men, gave power to men who (in his opinion) were intellectually and morally deficient.  Socrates also had a low opinion of oligarchs, who (in his opinion) were so stupid and wicked as to place great value on wealth. 

But the prosecutors of Socrates figured that, since he was an anti-democrat, he must be pro-oligarch; there was no third possibility.  And so, with the help of a jury they could rely on, they did him in.

In Rome, Cicero, when consul, suppressed the Cataline conspiracy by putting the conspirators to death without a trial.  He did this on the advice of the Senate.  Strictly speaking, these executions were illegal, since Roman law, read literally, guaranteed that no citizen could be put to death without first being tried and convicted.  But an honored custom allowed, in emergency situations, that a criminal might be executed without trial — provided the Senate passed the so-called “ultimate decree” ordering his death.  In executing the conspirators without trial, then, Cicero was doing something that, while technically illegal, was generally thought to be right. 

Cicero boasted that he was the savior of his country.  He would tell us, if he could, that what he did in violating the letter of the law was like what Abraham Lincoln did when he illegally suspended habeas corpus at the beginning of the Civil War.

A few years later, Roman political winds shifted, and Publius Clodius — a man who hated Cicero, a hatred Cicero cordially reciprocated — initiated a prosecution of Cicero for the “illegal” execution of the Cataline conspirators.  Faced with this, and faced too with the prospect of being tried before a highly partisan jury, Cicero did the prudent thing.  Unlike Socrates, who disliked leaving Athens, Cicero left Rome for a while, going into voluntary exile for a few years and practicing his Greek until the political winds shifted again, which they did.  He returned home and never went on trial — although he was eventually murdered by another of his political foes, Mark Antony.