The ancient Greeks would have smelt a rat about releasing a murdered ‘on compassionate grounds’.
Al-Megrahi, being partly responsible for the murder of 270 people on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, has been released by Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill ‘on compassionate grounds’. Ancient Greeks would have smelled a rat.
Mytilene, a city-state on the island of Lesbos, revolted against Athens in 427 bc, and was brought to heel. The Athenian Assembly voted to punish them by executing all the adult males and enslaving the women and children. Next day, however, there was a change of feeling about such a ‘cruel and unprecedented’ act directed against innocent and guilty alike, and a second Assembly was called. Thucydides reports the two main speeches: Cleon for holding the line, Diodotus for executing only the guilty.
Cleon argues that Athens’s power depends on its strength. To show weakness is disastrous: ‘It is dangerous to you and will not make your enemies love you any more.’ Sucking up to such people will do no good: ‘You will not make them obey you by injuring your own interests to do them a favour.’ Changing one’s mind does no good: ‘It is fatal to pass measures and not abide by them.’ Besides, there is a lasting truth about human behaviour: ‘Humans despise those who treat them well, but look up to those who make no concessions.’
Cleon’s sentiments apply precisely to those who can see no case for releasing al-Megrahi. Diodotus, however, comes at the issue by asking what the consequences of carrying out the decision will be, and argues that to execute the innocent will alienate those who never opposed Athens in the first place — all it will achieve will be to ensure full turn-outs for future revolts, since innocence will act as no protection against punishment.
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