They themselves condemned and executed Hagnonides,
while Phokion's son followed Epikurus and Demophilus, who fled the
country, discovered their place of refuge, and avenged himself upon
them. He is said to have been far from respectable in character; and
once, when attached to a common prostitute, who was the slave of a
brothel-keeper, he happened to attend one of the lectures of
Theodorus, who was surnamed "the atheist," in the Lyceum. As he heard
him say that "if it be noble to ransom one's male friends from
captivity, it must be equally so to ransom one's female friends; and
that, if it be right for a man to set free the man whom he loves, it
must be his duty to do likewise to the woman whom he loves," he
determined to use this argument for the gratification of his own
passion, and to conclude that the philosopher bade him purchase the
freedom of his mistress.

The treatment of Phokion reminded the Greeks of that of Sokrates, as
both the crime and the misfortune of the city in both cases was almost
exactly the same.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 622: Cic. ad Att. ii. 1. Dicit enim tanquam in Platonis
[Greek: politeia] non tanquam in faece Romuli sententiam. I have
translated Plutarch literally, though I have no doubt that the
occasion to which he alludes (which is not mentioned by Cicero, l.c.)
is that of the election to the praetorship, B.C. 55, when the worthless
adventurer Vatinius was preferred to Cato. M. Cato in petitione
praeturae, praelato Vatinio, repulsam tulit. Liv. Epit. cv. See also Val.
Max. vii. 5, and Merivale's 'History of the Romans,' vol. i. ch. ix.

The word [Greek: hupateia] is always used by Plutarch as the Greek
equivalent for the Roman title of consul.]

[Footnote 623: This saying of his is mentioned in the 'Life of
Demosthenes," c. 10.]

[Footnote 624: He was elected no less than forty-five times to the
annual office of Strategus or General of the city--that is, one of the
Board of Ten so denominated, the greatest executive function at
Athens.--Grote, 'Hist. of Greece,' Part ii. ch. lxxxvii.]

[Footnote 625: Meaning, why do you affect to be a Spartan, and yet
speak like an Athenian? See vol. iii. 'Life of Kleomenes,' ch. ix.]

[Footnote 626: Grote observes, in commenting on this passage, that
"Plutarch has no clear idea of the different contests carried on in
Euboea. He passes on, without a note of transition, from this war in
the island (in 349-348 B.C.) to the subsequent war in 341 B.C.