And, to be sure, the penalty he and all his family paid had been a terrible one. Even in defence of freedom, a crime such as Megacles had committed against the gods could not be readily forgiven. It had taken a full thirty years of furious foot-dragging by the Alcmaeonids before they were finally brought to court; but Megacles’ clan, in the end, around 600 BC, had all been sentenced to exile in perpetuity.
