FAMOUS SUICIDES IN HISTORY.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 41

FAMOUS SUICIDES IN HISTORY.

Aristarchus starved himself to death out of weariness of life. Lucretius, the great Latin poet, stabbed himself in a fit of disgust with life. Cass'ius fell by his own dagger, after the battle of Philippi — the same dagger, it is said, with which he stabbed Caisar. Homer, it is said, hanged himself in extreme old age, because, atter a long trial, he could not solve the "Fisherman's Puzzle." Saul, the first King of Israel, killed himself rather than be slain by the Philistines. Defeated in battle and his kingdom gone, he had nothing to live for. Like his great guest, Hannibal, Mithridates killed himself by poison to avoid falling into the hands of <ha Kornaus. He preferred death to appearance in the tiiunaphul procession of a Roman general. The great Zeno lived a quiet and happy life uiitil the age of 98, when ono day he accidentally stumbled and bioke his thuaib. lie interpreted the accident as a summons from earth, and so be forthwith hanged himself. Oato was the typical lioiaua suicide. Ho killed hiia&eK

with a dagger on the approach of Cresar'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 Oriental monarch, finding himself hard pressed by his enemies, gathered his guard?, his wives, concubines, and children together, with all his treasures, and set fire to the building, thus thwarting the hope hi 3 foes entertained of taking him alive.

Sappho killed herself by jumping from the Lovers' Leap, a Leucadian cliff. This leap was often taken by love-sick persons, who believed that if they survived the fall thfty would be effectually cured of a hopeless passion. The leaps were always witnessed by a crowd of spectators, and the would-be 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 a passion for a youcg man who did not return her love, and leaped from the cliff in order to be cured. Marc Antony gave the world for a woman's love, but he found himself bo poorly compensated by the exchange that, in desperation at the approach of Octavius, and being informed that Cleopatra was endeavouring to make terms for herself by surrendering him, he stabbed himself with his dagger. Being 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 Queen found her last home; he was lifted in, and died in her arms.

Defeated at Zama, Hannibal fled to the East to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans, and found temporary security in the dominions of Mithridates. He incited this monarch to engage in a Roman war, and his advice as to its conduct being rejected, the war proved unsuccessful, and Mithridates was required, as one of the conditions of peace, to deliver up Hannibal to his enemies, the Romans. The unfortunate Carthaginian heard of his approaching fate, swallowed the poison which for years he had carried about his person, and expired just as the envoys arrived to lake him in charge. Suicide was a 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 the gods, and cursed his fate. He begged some of the attendants to die first, in order to teach him fortitude. They respectfully declined. There was a knock on the door of the miserable abode. Soldiers &ent by the Senate to arrest bim had come. In desperation he seized a dagger and gave himself a slight wound in the throat. But the effect would have been a failure had not his f reedmen lent assistance and pushed the dagger into a vital point. He had sufficient strength left on the entry of the soldiers to mutter, "Is this your fidelity 1 " and immediately expired, even in death his countenance retaining its appalling ferocity. — Cincinnati Enquirer.