+ henry floris schopenhauer (arthur’s father) – 1805 John robeck (defender of suicide, see alvarez) – 1735 * richard smith & wife (to protest poverty) 1732 Jeremiah clarke (composer) – december 1707 Henry tilson (artist, for unrequited love) – 1695 Vatel (chef, on “ruining” louis XIV’s dinner) – 1671 Pietro testa (roman engraver & painter of the bizarre, “the suicide of cato”) -1650įrancesco borromini (revolutionary architect) – august 1667 Girolamo cardano (astrologer who predicted his date of death) – 1576įrancesco bassano the younger (jumped from window) – 1592Īndre pujon (anagramming his name to “pendu a rion”, he travelled to the town of rion to commit murder, so as to be hanged) – 16? beringer of basle (jumps off roof, is buried in churchyard, it rains for a week straight, is dug up and thrown in the rhine) – june, 1439 * joan of arc (jeanne d’arc, jeanneton d’arc – burned 5/30/31, it was murder, but you know she could have submitted) – 1431 Yom tob (plus 500 other jews, self-defense, in york, england) – march 1190 Peregrinus (cynic, in olympic games flames) – 165 a.d. Nero (having lost all, to spite his opponents, like hitler) – june, 68 a.d.Įleazar ben jair (and 960 others at masada, self-defense) – april, 73 a.d. Petronius (self-defense, elegantly, against nero) – 66 a.d. Seneca & paulina (he in self-defense, against nero) – 65 a.d. Lucan (poet, historian, thinker, nero ex-favorite, self-defense, failed tyrannicide) – 65 a.d. Trung sisters (viet military generals, self-defense vs. so did early church fathers tertullian and origen) – 27 a.d.Īrria (to set an example to her condemned husband paetus) – 42 a.d. * jesus (borges contends donne though in a veiled way, strenuously maintained jesus was a suicide. Gavius apicius (author of earliest extant cookbook, in despair at decline of his food budget) – circa 25 a.d. Marc antony (self-defense, against octavian, whose sister he’d dumped for cleopatra) – august, 30 b.c.Ĭleopatra (grief at the death of antony and loss of egypt, and self-defense against octavian) – august, 30 b.c.
* cato uticensis “the younger” (self-defense, against caesar, in defense of a free state) – 46 b.c.Ĭassius (self-defense, against antony & octavian) – 42 b.c. Ptolemy (married sister cleopatra, self-defense against caesar, in the nile) – 47 b.c. Mithradates (persian antagonist of rome, immune to poison, so slain by a loyal guard) – 63 b.c. Hannibal (self-defense against rome) – 183 b.c. Sophonisba (self-defense against scipio) – 203 b.c. Isocrates (age 98, starved) – autumn 338 b.c.ĭemosthenes (self-defense, against alexander’s successor antipater) – 322 b.c.ĭecius (inspiring roman victory by charging enemy ranks, also attributed to both his father and son) – 295 b.c. * socrates (in furtherance of the rule of law – he refused offers of escape) – 399 b.c. * lucretia (to protest her rape) – 509 b.c.Ĭleomenes (in a fit of insanity) – 490 b.c. * cherondas (lawgiver, for accidently breaking his own law) – 550 b.c. Zeno (age 98, after breaking his toe on a turtle) – 764 b.c.Īristodemus (on daughter’s grave, having offered her life for an oracular guarantee to hold off the spartans) – 714 b.c. Saul (paranoid king of israel, self-defense) – 1013 b.c
* codrus (to fulfill oracle’s prediction of athenian victory) – c.1050 b.c. * samson (also, simultaneously, tyrannicide ) – c.1090 b.c. aias, in grief at death of achilles) – c. thonos connolerous, assyrian king, under siege, by fire) – 3215 b.c.Īegeus (namesake of aegean sea, father of theseus, at false report of son’s death) – c. + = inspirational (influenced illustrious work) * = altruistic (whose goal is the public good. – Elliott SmithĪlvah bessie’s mccarthy & blacklist suicides
‘Depressing’ isn’t a word I would use to describe my music … there is some sadness in it – there has to be so that the happiness in it will matter. Those who trade blows with the entire world achieve dignity but pay a very high price because they are sure to be defeated.