The Bessemer indicator., 1893-10-07
soME PAMoUs sUlcIpss.
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SOME PAMoUe SUICIDES.
HstsA Hsa Whs Havs Prsssrrsd ssas.
Dsstr.etiss 80 Life.
Aristarchus starved himself 70
death out Of weariness Of Life.
Lucretius, tho great Latin poet,
stabbed himself In . fit Of disgust
with life.
Cassius fell by his own dagger,
after tho battle Of PhIlippi-the same
dagger. 1t Is said. with which ho
stabbed Caesar.
Homer, 1t Is said. hanged himself
In extreme old age because. after a
long trial, be could not solve tho
..Fisherman's Puzzle"
Saul. the first king OF Israel. killed
himself rather than be slain by the
Philistinea Defeated in battle and
his kingdom gone. he had n othing to
live for.
Like his great guest. Hannibal,
Mithridates killed himself by poison
to avoid falling into the hands OF tho
Romans. He preferred death to ap-
pearance in the triumphal procession
Of q Roman general
|
happy life until the age of 9S, when
one day he accidentally stumbled
and broke his thumb He interpreted
tho accident as summons from
earth, and SO hanged himself.
Cato was the typical Roman sui
eide. He killed himself with dag
ger on the approach OF Casar's
forces to Utica. knowing that the
cause OF liberty was lost, and being
unwilling to survive the downfall OF
his country.
Sardanapalus. the luxurious Orien-
tai monarch, finding himself hard
pressed by his enemies, gathered his
guards, his wives, concubines and
children together, with all his
treasures. and set fire to the build
ing, thus thwarting the hope his foes
entertained OF taking him alive.
Sappho killed herself by jumping
from the Lovers Leap, a Loucadian
cliff. This leap was often taken by
love-sick persons, who believed that
If they survived tho fall they would
be etfectually cured OF hopeless
passion. Tho leaps were always
witnessed by crowd of spectators,
and the wouldbe suicides were in no
way interfered with by the state.
Boats were in attendance below to
pick up the leapers If they came to
the surface of the sea after the
plunge. Sappho had passion Tor a
young man who did not return her
love, and leaped from tho cliff in
order to be cured.
Marc Antony gave the world for n
woman's love, but he found himself
so poorly compensated by the OK
change that, in desperation at the
approach of Octavus. and being in
formed that Cleopatra was endcavor-
ing to make terms for herself
by surrendering him he stab
bed himself with II dagger. Be-
ing revived. he received the message
sent by Cleopatra that she desired to
see him; he was carried to her place
OF refuge. Cleopatra and her maids
raised him by ropes to the window OF
the tower where the fallen queen
found her last home; he was lifted
in and died in her arms.
Defeated at Zama, Hannibal fed to
the East to avoid falling into tho
hands OF the Romans and found tenn
porary security in the dominions of
Mithridates. He melted this mon
arch to engage In Roman war. and
his advice as to its conduct being re-
jected. the war proved unsuccessful,
and Mithridates was req uired as one
of the conditions OF peace. to deliver
up Hannibal to his enemies, the
Romans. The unfortunate Carthagin-
ian heard Of his approaching fute,
swallowed the poison which for years
he had carried about his person. and
expired just as the envoy arrived to
take him in charge.
Suicide was fitting termination
to the career of a monster like Nero.
Deserted by every friend and in
momentary danger of falling into the
hands of his enemies, he could not
summon up courage to take his own
life.
By turns he wept. prayed to tho
gods. and cursed his fate. He
begged some Of the attendants to
die first, in order to teach him forti-
tude. They respectfully declined.
There was a knock on tho door of the
miserable abode in which he had
taken shelter. The soldiers sent by
the senate to arrest him had come.
In desperation he seized a dagger
and gave himself q slight wound in
the throat. But the effect would
have been a failure had not his
freedman lent assistance. and pushed
the dagger into vital point He
had sufficient strength left on
the entry OF the soldiers to mutter
something that they understood to
be "Is this your fidelity2" and imme.
diately expired, even in death his
countenance retaining the appalling
ferocity that distinguished it in life.