He approached the procession, and with a composed voice commanded them to deposite their arms, and file off towards a place which he indicated.

They obeyed the order, imagining he had something to communicate to them.

Then turning to his guards, Hippias bade them seize the weapons thus deposited, and he himself selected from the procession all whom he had reason to suspect, or on whose persons a dagger was found, for it was only with the open weapons of spear and shield that the procession was lawfully to be made.

Thus rose and thus terminated that conspiracy which gave to the noblest verse and the most enduring veneration the names of Harmodius and Aristogiton.

[242] III.