History of the Peloponnesian War

At any rate, the other prisoner persuaded this man that, even if he had not done the deed, he ought, having first secured immunity,[*](ie. promise of a free pardon.) to save himself and free the state from the prevailing suspicion; for, he said, he had a surer chance of saving his life by confessing, with the promise of immunity, than by denying the charge and undergoing trial.

Accordingly he informed against himself and others in the affair of the Hermae; and the people, delighted at getting the truth, as they thought, and already making much ado that they should not discover those who were plotting against the democracy, at once set free the informer and with him all the rest whom he had not denounced; but with regard to those who were accused they instituted trials and put to death all who had been arrested, while on those who had fled they passed sentence of death, offering a reward in money to anyone who killed them.

And in all this it was uncertain whether those who suffered had not been punished unjustly; the city at large, however, at the time was clearly benefited.

With regard to Alcibiades, the Athenians took the matter seriously, being urged on by his enemies, the men who had attacked him before he sailed. And thinking now that they had the truth about the Hermae, they were far more convinced that the profanation of the mysteries also, in which he was implicated, had been committed by him with the same intent, that is of conspiring against the people.

For it so happened that a small Lacedaemonian force, at the moment when they were in commotion about these matters, had come as far as the Isthmus in pursuance of some arrangement with the Boeotians. The opinion prevailed,, therefore, that it had come on agreement at his instigation, and not in the interest of the Boeotians; and that, if they had not themselves been beforehand in arresting the men on the strength of the information given, the city would have been betrayed. And once for a whole night they lay under arms in the precinct of Theseus within the walls.