LYSANDER

The treasure-chamber of the Acanthians at Delphi has this

inscription: "The spoils which Brasidas and the Acanthians took from

the Athenians." And, accordingly, many take the marble statue, which

stands within the building by the gates, to be Brasidas's; but,

indeed, it is Lysander's, representing him with his hair at full

length, after the old fashion, and with an ample beard. Neither is

it true, as some give out, that because the Argives, after their

great defeat, shaved themselves for sorrow, that the Spartans

contrariwise triumphing in their achievements, suffered their hair to

grow; neither did the Spartans come to be ambitious of wearing long

hair, because the Bacchiadae, who fled from Corinth to Lacedaemon,

looked mean and unsightly, having their heads all close cut. But

this, also, is indeed one of the ordinances of Lycurgus, who, as it

is reported, was used to say, that long hair made good-looking men

more beautiful, and ill-looking men more terrible.

Lysander's father is said to have been Aristoclitus, who was not

indeed of the royal family, but yet of the stock of the Heraclidae.

He was brought up in poverty, and showed himself obedient and

conformable, as ever anyone did, to the customs of his country; of a

manly spirit, also, and superior to all pleasures, excepting only

that which their good actions bring to those who are honored and

successful; and it is accounted no base thing in Sparta for their

young men to be overcome with this kind of pleasure. For they are

desirous, from the very first, to have their youth susceptible to

good and bad repute, to feel pain at disgrace, and exultation at

being commended; and anyone who is insensible and unaffected in

these respects is thought poor spirited and of no capacity for

virtue. Ambition and the passion for distinction were thus implanted

in his character by his Laconian education, nor, if they continued

there, must we blame his natural disposition much for this. But he

was submissive to great men, beyond what seems agreeable to the

Spartan temper, and could easily bear the haughtiness of those who

were in power, when it was any way for his advantage, which some are

of opinion is no small part of political discretion. Aristotle, who

says all great characters are more or less atrabilious, as Socrates

and Plato and Hercules were, writes, that Lysander, not indeed early

in life, but when he was old, became thus affected. What is singular

in his character is that he endured poverty very well, and that he

was not at all enslaved or corrupted by wealth, and yet he filled his

country with riches and the love of them, and took away from them the

glory of not admiring money; importing amongst them an abundance of

gold and silver after the Athenian war, though keeping not one

drachma for himself. When Dionysius, the tyrant, sent his daughters

some costly gowns of Sicilian manufacture, he would not receive them,

saying he was afraid they would make them look more unhandsome. But

a while after, being sent ambassador from the same city to the same

tyrant, when he had sent him a couple of robes, and bade him choose

which of them he would, and carry to his daughter: "She," said he,

"will be able to choose best for herself," and taking both of them,

went his way.

The Peloponnesian war having now been carried on a long time, and it

being expected, after the disaster of the Athenians in Sicily, that

they would at once lose the mastery of the sea, and erelong be routed

everywhere, Alcibiades, returning from banishment, and taking the

command, produced a great change, and made the Athenians again a

match for their opponents by sea; and the Lacedaemonians, in great

alarm at this, and calling up fresh courage and zeal for the

conflict, feeling the want of an able commander and of a powerful

armament, sent out Lysander to be admiral of the seas. Being at

Ephesus, and finding the city well affected towards him, and

favorable to the Lacedaemonian party, but in ill condition, and in

danger to become barbarized by adopting the manners of the Persians,

who were much mingled among them, the country of Lydia bordering upon

them, and the king's generals being quartered there a long time, he

pitched his camp there, and commanded the merchant ships all about to

put in thither, and proceeded to build ships of war there; and thus

restored their ports by the traffic he created, and their market by

the employment he gave, and filled their private houses and their

workshops with wealth, so that from that time, the city began, first

of all, by Lysander's means, to have some hopes of growing to that

stateliness and grandeur which now it is at.

Understanding that Cyrus, the king's son, was come to Sardis, he went

up to talk with him, and to accuse Tisaphernes, who, receiving a

command to help the Lacedaemonians, and to drive the Athenians from

the sea, was thought, on account of Alcibiades, to have become remiss

and unwilling, and by paying the seamen slenderly to be ruining the

fleet. Now Cyrus was willing that Tisaphernes might be found in

blame, and be ill reported of, as being, indeed, a dishonest man, and

privately at feud with himself. By these means, and by their daily

intercourse together, Lysander, especially by the submissiveness

of his conversation, won the affections of the young prince, and

greatly roused him to carry on the war; and when he would depart,

Cyrus gave him a banquet, and desired him not to refuse his

good-will, but to speak and ask whatever he had a mind to, and that

he should not be refused anything whatsoever: "Since you are so

very kind," replied Lysander, "I earnestly request you to add one

penny to the seamen's pay, that instead of three pence, they may now

receive four pence." Cyrus, delighted with his public spirit, gave

him ten thousand darics, out of which he added the penny to the

seamen's pay, and by the renown of this in a short time emptied the

ships of the enemies, as many would come over to that side which gave

the most pay, and those who remained, being disheartened and

mutinous, daily created trouble to the captains. Yet for all

Lysander had so distracted and weakened his enemies, he was afraid to

engage by sea, Alcibiades being an energetic commander, and having

the superior number of ships, and having been hitherto, in all

battles, unconquered both by sea and land.

But afterwards, when Alcibiades sailed from Samos to Phocaea, leaving

Antiochus, the pilot, in command of all his forces, this Antiochus,

to insult Lysander, sailed with two galleys into the port of the

Ephesians, and with mocking and laughter proudly rowed along before

the place where the ships lay drawn up. Lysander, in indignation,

launched at first a few ships only and pursued him, but as soon as he

saw the Athenians come to his help, he added some other ships, and,

at last, they fell to a set battle together; and Lysander won the

victory, and taking fifteen of their ships, erected a trophy. For

this, the people in the city being angry, put Alcibiades out of

command, and finding himself despised by the soldiers in Samos, and

ill spoken of, he sailed from the army into the Chersonese. And this

battle, although not important in itself, was made remarkable by its

consequences to Alcibiades.

Lysander, meanwhile, inviting to Ephesus such persons in the various

cities as he saw to be bolder and haughtier-spirited than the rest,

proceeded to lay the foundations of that government by bodies of ten,

and those revolutions which afterwards came to pass, stirring up and

urging them to unite in clubs, and apply themselves to public

affairs, since as soon as ever the Athenians should be put down, the

popular governments, he said, should be suppressed, and they should

become supreme in their several countries. And he made them believe

these things by present deeds, promoting those who were his friends

already to great employments, honors, and offices, and, to gratify

their covetousness, making himself a partner in injustice and

wickedness. So much so, that all flocked to him, and courted and

desired him, hoping, if he remained in power, that the highest wishes

they could form would all be gratified. And therefore, from the very

beginning, they could not look pleasantly upon Callicratidas, when he

came to succeed Lysander as admiral; nor, afterwards, when he had

given them experience that he was a most noble and just person, were

they pleased with the manner of his government, and its

straightforward, Dorian, honest character. They did, indeed, admire

his virtue, as they might the beauty of some hero's image; but their

wishes were for Lysander's zealous and profitable support of the

interests of his friends and partisans, and they shed tears, and were

much disheartened when he sailed from them. He himself made them yet

more disaffected to Callicratidas; for what remained of the money

which had been given him to pay the navy, he sent back again to

Sardis, bidding them, if they would, apply to Callicratidas himself,

and see how he was able to maintain the soldiers. And, at the last,

sailing away, he declared to him that he delivered up the fleet in

possession and command of the sea. But Callicratidas, to expose the

emptiness of these high pretensions, said, "In that case, leave Samos

on the left hand, and, sailing to Miletus, there deliver up the ships

to me; for if we are masters of the sea, we need not fear sailing by

our enemies in Samos." To which Lysander answering, that not

himself, but he, commanded the ships, sailed to Peloponnesus, leaving

Callicratidas in great perplexity. For neither had he brought any

money from home with him, nor could he endure to tax the towns or

force them, being in hardship enough. Therefore, the only course

that was to be taken was to go and beg at the doors of the king's

commanders, as Lysander had done; for which he was most unfit of any

man, being of a generous and great spirit, and one who thought it

more becoming for the Greeks to suffer any damage from one another,

than to flatter and wait at the gates of barbarians, who, indeed, had

gold enough, but nothing else that was commendable. But being

compelled by necessity, he proceeded to Lydia, and went at once to

Cyrus's house, and sent in word, that Callicratidas, the admiral, was

there to speak with him; one of those who kept the gates replied,

"Cyrus, O stranger, is not now at leisure, for he is drinking." To

which Callicratidas answered, most innocently, "Very well, I will

wait till he has done his draught." This time, therefore, they took

him for some clownish fellow, and he withdrew, merely laughed at by

the barbarians; but when, afterwards, he came a second time to the

gate, and was not admitted, he took it hardly and set off for

Ephesus, wishing a great many evils to those who first let themselves

be insulted over by these barbarians, and taught them to be insolent

because of their riches; and added vows to those who were present,

that as soon as ever he came back to Sparta, he would do all he could

to reconcile the Greeks, that they might be formidable to barbarians,

and that they should cease henceforth to need their aid against one

another. But Callicratidas, who entertained purposes worthy a

Lacedaemonian, and showed himself worthy to compete with the very

best of Greece, for his justice, his greatness of mind and courage,

not long after, having been beaten in a sea-fight at Arginusae, died.

And now affairs going backwards, the associates in the war sent an

embassy to Sparta, requiring Lysander to be their admiral, professing

themselves ready to undertake the business much more zealously, if he

was commander; and Cyrus, also, sent to request the same thing. But

because they had a law which would not suffer any one to be admiral

twice, and wished, nevertheless, to gratify their allies, they gave

the title of admiral to one Aracus, and sent Lysander nominally as

vice-admiral, but, indeed, with full powers. So he came out, long

wished for by the greatest part of the chief persons and leaders in

the towns, who hoped to grow to greater power still by his means,

when the popular governments should be everywhere destroyed.

But to those who loved honest and noble behavior in their commanders,

Lysander, compared with Callicratidas, seemed cunning and subtle,

managing most things in the war by deceit, extolling what was just

when it was profitable, and when it was not, using that which was

convenient, instead of that which was good; and not judging truth to

be in nature better than falsehood, but setting a value upon both

according to interest. He would laugh at those who thought that

Hercules's posterity ought not to use deceit in war: "For where the

lion's skin will not reach, you must patch it out with the fox's."

Such is the conduct recorded of him in the business about Miletus;

for when his friends and connections, whom he had promised to assist

in suppressing popular government and expelling their political

opponents, had altered their minds, and were reconciled to their

enemies, he pretended openly as if he was pleased with it, and was

desirous to further the reconciliation, but privately he railed at

and abused them, and provoked them to set upon the multitude. And as

soon as ever he perceived a new attempt to be commencing, he at once

came up and entered into the city, and the first of the conspirators

he lit upon, he pretended to rebuke, and spoke roughly, as if he

would punish them; but the others, meantime, he bade be courageous,

and to fear nothing now he was with them. And all this acting and

dissembling was with the object that the most considerable men of the

popular party might not fly away, but might stay in the city and be

killed; which so fell out, for all who believed him were put to

death.

There is a saying, also, recorded by Androclides, which makes him

guilty of great indifference to the obligations of an oath. His

recommendation, according to this account, was to "cheat boys with

dice, and men with oaths," an imitation of Polycrates of Samos, not

very honorable to a lawful commander, to take example, namely, from a

tyrant; nor in character with Laconian usages, to treat gods as ill

as enemies, or, indeed, even more injuriously; since he who

overreaches by an oath admits that he fears his enemy, while he

despises his God.

Cyrus now sent for Lysander to Sardis, and gave him some money, and

promised him some more, youthfully protesting in favor to him, that

if his father gave him nothing, he would supply him of his own; and

if he himself should be destitute of all, he would cut up, he said,

to make money, the very throne upon which he sat to do justice, it

being made of gold and silver; and, at last, on going up into Media

to his father, he ordered that he should receive the tribute of the

towns, and committed his government to him, and so taking his leave,

and desiring him not to fight by sea before he returned, for he would

come back with a great many ships out of Phoenicia and Cilicia,

departed to visit the king.

Lysander's ships were too few for him to venture to fight, and yet

too many to allow of his remaining idle; he set out, therefore, and

reduced some of the islands, and wasted Aegina and Salamis; and from

thence landing in Attica, and saluting Agis, who came from Decelea to

meet him, he made a display to the land-forces of the strength of the

fleet, as though he could sail where he pleased, and were absolute

master by sea. But hearing the Athenians pursued him, he fled

another way through the islands into Asia. And finding the

Hellespont without any defense, he attacked Lampsacus with his ships

by sea; while Thorax, acting in concert with him with the land army,

made an assault on the walls; and so, having taken the city by storm,

he gave it up to his soldiers to plunder. The fleet of the

Athenians, a hundred and eighty ships, had just arrived at Elaeus in

the Chersonese; and hearing the news, that Lampsacus was destroyed,

they presently sailed to Sestos; where, taking in victuals, they

advanced to Aegos Potami, over against their enemies, who were still

stationed about Lampsacus. Amongst other Athenian captains who were

now in command was Philocles, he who persuaded the people to pass a

decree to cut off the right thumb of the captives in the war, that

they should not be able to hold the spear, though they might the oar.

Then they all rested themselves, hoping they should have battle the

next morning. But Lysander had other things in his head; he

commanded the mariners and pilots to go on board at dawn, as if there

should be a battle as soon as it was day, and to sit there in order,

and without any noise, expecting what should be commanded, and in

like manner that the land army should remain quietly in their ranks

by the sea. But the sun rising, and the Athenians sailing up with

their whole fleet in line, and challenging them to battle, he, though

he had had his ships all drawn up and manned before daybreak,

nevertheless did not stir. He merely sent some small boats to those

who lay foremost, and bade them keep still and stay in their order;

not to be disturbed, and none of them to sail out and offer battle.

So about evening, the Athenians sailing back, he would not let the

seamen go out of the ships before two or three, which he had sent to

espy, were returned, after seeing the enemies disembark. And thus

they did the next day, and the third, and so to the fourth. So that

the Athenians grew extremely confident, and disdained their enemies,

as if they had been afraid and daunted. At this time, Alcibiades,

who was in his castle in the Chersonese, came on horseback to the

Athenian army, and found fault with their captains, first of all that

they had pitched their camp neither well nor safely, on an exposed

and open beach, a very bad landing for the ships, and, secondly, that

where they were, they had to fetch all they wanted from Sestos, some

considerable way off; whereas if they sailed round a little way to

the town and harbor of Sestos, they would be at a safer distance from

an enemy, who lay watching their movements, at the command of a

single general, terror of whom made every order rapidly executed.

This advice, however, they would not listen to; and Tydeus angered

disdainfully, that not he, but others, were in office now. So

Alcibiades, who even suspected there must be treachery, departed.

But on the fifth day, the Athenians having sailed towards them, and

gone back again as they were used to do, very proudly and full of

contempt, Lysander sending some ships, as usual, to look out,

commanded the masters of them that when they saw the Athenians go to

land, they should row back again with all their speed, and that when

they were about half-way across, they should lift up a brazen shield

from the foredeck, as the sign of battle. And he himself sailing

round, encouraged the pilots and masters of the ships, and exhorted

them to keep all their men to their places, seamen and soldiers

alike, and as soon as ever the sign should be given, to row up boldly

to their enemies. Accordingly when the shield had been lifted up

from the ships, and the trumpet from the admiral's vessel had sounded

for battle, the ships rowed up, and the foot soldiers strove to get

along by the shore to the promontory. The distance there between the

two continents is fifteen furlongs, which, by the zeal and eagerness

of the rowers, was quickly traversed. Conon, one of the Athenian

commanders, was the first who saw from the land the fleet advancing,

and shouted out to embark, and in the greatest distress bade some and

entreated others, and some he forced to man the ships. But all his

diligence signified nothing, because the men were scattered about;

for as soon as they came out of the ships, expecting no such matter,

some went to market, others walked about the country, or went to

sleep in their tents, or got their dinners ready, being, through

their commanders' want of skill, as far as possible from any thought

of what was to happen; and the enemy now coming up with shouts and

noise, Conon, with eight ships, sailed out, and making his escape,

passed from thence to Cyprus, to Evagores. The Peloponnesians

falling upon the rest, some they took quite empty, and some they

destroyed while they were filling; the men, meantime, coming unarmed

and scattered to help, died at their ships, or, flying by land, were

slain, their enemies disembarking and pursuing them. Lysander took

three thousand prisoners, with the generals, and the whole fleet,

excepting the sacred ship Paralus, and those which fled with Conon.

So taking their ships in tow, and having plundered their tents, with

pipe and songs of victory, he sailed back to Lampsacus, having

accomplished a great work with small pains, and having finished in

one hour, a war which had been protracted in its continuance, and

diversified in its incidents and its fortunes to a degree exceeding

belief, compared with all before it. After altering its shape and

character a thousand times, and after having been the destruction of

more commanders than all the previous wars of Greece put together, it

was now put an end to by the good counsel and ready conduct of one

man.

Some, therefore, looked upon the result as a divine intervention, and

there were certain who affirmed that the stars of Castor and Pollux

were seen on each side of Lysander's ship, when he first set sail

from the haven toward his enemies, shining about the helm; and some

say the stone which fell down was a sign of this slaughter. For a

stone of a great size did fall, according to the common belief, from

heaven, at Aegos Potami, which is shown to this day, and had in great

esteem by the Chersonites. And it is said that Anaxagoras foretold,

that the occurrence of a slip or shake among the bodies fixed in the

heavens, dislodging any one of them, would be followed by the fall of

the whole of them. For no one of the stars is now in the same place

in which it was at first; for they, being, according to him, like

stones and heavy, shine by the refraction of the upper air round

about them, and are carried along forcibly by the violence of the

circular motion by which they were originally withheld from

falling, when cold and heavy bodies were first separated from the

general universe. But there is a more probable opinion than this

maintained by some, who say that falling stars are no effluxes, nor

discharges of ethereal fire, extinguished almost at the instant of

its igniting by the lower air; neither are they the sudden combustion

and blazing up of a quantity of the lower air let loose in great

abundance into the upper region; but the heavenly bodies, by a

relaxation of the force of their circular movement, are carried by an

irregular course, not in general into the inhabited part of the

earth, but for the most part into the wide sea; which is the cause of

their not being observed. Daimachus, in his treatise on Religion.

supports the view of Anaxagoras. He says, that before this stone

fell, for seventy-five days continually, there was seen in the

heavens a vast fiery body, as if it had been a flaming cloud, not

resting, but carried about with several intricate and broken

movements, so that the flaming pieces, which were broken off by this

commotion and running about, were carried in all directions, shining

as falling stars do. But when it afterwards came down to the ground

in this district, and the people of the place recovering from their

fear and astonishment came together, there was no fire to be seen,

neither any sign of it; there was only a stone lying, big indeed, but

which bore no proportion, to speak of, to that fiery compass. It is

manifest that Daimachus needs to have indulgent hearers; but if what

he says be true, he altogether proves those to be wrong who say that

a rock broken off from the top of some mountain, by winds and

tempests, and caught and whirled about like a top, as soon as this

impetus began to slacken and cease, was precipitated and fell to the

ground. Unless, indeed, we choose to say that the phenomenon which

was observed for so many days was really fire, and that the change in

the atmosphere ensuing on its extinction was attended with violent

winds and agitations, which might be the cause of this stone being

carried off. The exacter treatment of this subject belongs, however,

to a different kind of writing.

Lysander, after the three thousand Athenians whom he had taken

prisoners were condemned by the commissioners to die, called

Philocles the general, and asked him what punishment he considered

himself to deserve, for having advised the citizens as he had done,

against the Greeks; but he, being nothing cast down at his calamity,

bade him not accuse him of matters of which nobody was a judge, but

to do to him, now he was a conqueror, as he would have suffered, had

he been overcome. Then washing himself, and putting on a fine cloak,

he led the citizens the way to the slaughter, as Theophrastus writes

in his history. After this Lysander, sailing about to the various

cities, bade all the Athenians he met go into Athens, declaring that

he would spare none, but kill every man whom he found out of the

city, intending thus to cause immediate famine and scarcity there,

that they might not make the siege laborious to him, having

provisions sufficient to endure it. And suppressing the popular

governments and all other constitutions, he left one Lacedaemonian

chief officer in every city, with ten rulers to act with him,

selected out of the societies which he had previously formed in the

different towns. And doing thus as well in the cities of his

enemies, as of his associates, he sailed leisurely on, establishing,

in a manner, for himself supremacy over the whole of Greece. Neither

did he make choice of rulers by birth or by wealth, but bestowed the

offices on his own friends and partisans, doing everything to please

them, and putting absolute power of reward and punishment into their

hands. And thus, personally appearing on many occasions of bloodshed

and massacre, and aiding his friends to expel their opponents, he did

not give the Greeks a favorable specimen of the Lacedaemonian

government; and the expression of Theopompus, the comic poet, seemed

but poor, when he compared the Lacedaemonians to tavern women,

because when the Greeks had first tasted the sweet wine of liberty,

they then poured vinegar into the cup; for from the very first it had

a rough and bitter taste, all government by the people being

suppressed by Lysander, and the boldest and least scrupulous of the

oligarchical party selected to rule the cities.

Having spent some little time about these things, and sent some

before to Lacedaemon to tell them he was arriving with two hundred

ships, he united his forces in Attica with those of the two kings

Agis and Pausanias, hoping to take the city without delay. But when

the Athenians defended themselves, he with his fleet passed again to

Asia, and in like manner destroyed the forms of government in all the

other cities, and placed them under the rule of ten chief persons,

many in every one being killed, and many driven into exile; and in

Samos, he expelled the whole people, and gave their cities to the

exiles whom he brought back. And the Athenians still possessing

Sestos, he took it from them, and suffered not the Sestians

themselves to dwell in it, but gave the city and country to be

divided out among the pilots and masters of the ships under him;

which was his first act that was disallowed by the Lacedaemonians,

who brought the Sestians back again into their country. All Greece,

however, rejoiced to see the Aeginetans, by Lysander's aid, now

again, after a long time, receiving back their cities, and the

Melians and Scionaeans restored, while the Athenians were driven out,

and delivered up the cities.

But when he now understood they were in a bad case in the city

because of the famine, he sailed to Piraeus, and reduced the city,

which was compelled to surrender on what conditions he demanded. One

hears it said by Lacedaemonians that Lysander wrote to the Ephors

thus: "Athens is taken;" and that these magistrates wrote back to

Lysander, "Taken is enough." But this saying was invented for its

neatness' sake; for the true decree of the magistrates was on this

manner: "The government of the Lacedaemonians has made these orders;

pull down the Piraeus and the long walls; quit all the towns, and

keep to your own land; if you do these things, you shall have peace,

if you wish it, restoring also your exiles. As concerning the number

of the ships, whatsoever there be judged necessary to appoint, that

do." This scroll of conditions the Athenians accepted, Theramenes,

son of Hagnon, supporting it. At which time, too, they say that when

Cleomenes, one of the young orators, asked him how he durst act and

speak contrary to Themistocles, delivering up the walls to the

Lacedaemonians, which he had built against the will of the

Lacedaemonians, he said, "O young man, I do nothing contrary to

Themistocles; for he raised these walls for the safety of the

citizens, and we pull them down for their safety; and if walls make a

city happy, then Sparta must be the most wretched of all, as it has

none."

Lysander, as soon as he had taken all the ships except twelve, and

the walls of the Athenians, on the sixteenth day of the month

Munychion, the same on which they had overcome the barbarians at

Salamis, then proceeded to take measures for altering the government.

But the Athenians taking that very unwillingly, and resisting, he

sent to the people and informed them, that he found that the city had

broken the terms, for the walls were standing when the days were past

within which they should have been pulled down. He should,

therefore, consider their case anew, they having broken their first

articles. And some state, in fact, the proposal was made in the

congress of the allies, that the Athenians should all be sold as

slaves; on which occasion, Erianthus, the Theban, gave his vote to

pull down the city, and turn the country into sheep-pasture; yet

afterwards, when there was a meeting of the captains together, a man

of Phocis, singing the first chorus in Euripides's Electra, which

begins,

Electra, Agamemnon's child, I come

Unto thy desert home,

they were all melted with compassion, and it seemed to be a cruel

deed to destroy and pull down a city which had been so famous, and

produced such men.

Accordingly Lysander, the Athenians yielding up everything, sent for

a number of flute-women out of the city, and collected together all

that were in the camp, and pulled down the walls, and burnt the ships

to the sound of the flute, the allies being crowned with garlands,

and making merry together, as counting that day the beginning of

their liberty. He proceeded also at once to alter the government,

placing thirty rulers in the city, and ten in the Piraeus: he put,

also, a garrison into the Acropolis, and made Callibius, a Spartan,

the governor of it; who afterwards taking up his staff to strike

Autolycus, the athlete, about whom Xenophon wrote his "Banquet," on

his tripping up his heels and throwing him to the ground, Lysander

was not vexed at it, but chid Callibius, telling him he did not know

how to govern freemen. The thirty rulers, however, to gain

Callibius's favor, a little after killed Autolycus.

Lysander, after this, sails out to Thrace, and what remained of the

public money, and the gifts and crowns which he had himself received,

numbers of people, as might be expected, being anxious to make

presents to a man of such great power, who was, in a manner, the lord

of Greece, he sends to Lacedaemon by Gylippus, who had commanded

formerly in Sicily. But he, it is reported, unsewed the sacks at the

bottom, took a considerable amount of silver out of every one of

them, and sewed them up again, not knowing there was a writing in

every one stating how much there was. And coming into Sparta, what

he had thus stolen away he hid under the tiles of his house, and

delivered up the sacks to the magistrates, and showed the seals were

upon them. But afterwards, on their opening the sacks and counting

it, the quantity of the silver differed from what the writing

expressed; and the matter causing some perplexity to the magistrates,

Gylippus's servant tells them in a riddle, that under the tiles lay

many owls; for, as it seems, the greatest part of the money then

current, bore the Athenian stamp of the owl. Gylippus having

committed so foul and base a deed, after such great and distinguished

exploits before, removed himself from Lacedaemon.

But the wisest of the Spartans, very much on account of this

occurrence, dreading the influence of money, as being what had

corrupted the greatest citizens, exclaimed against Lysander's

conduct, and declared to the Ephors, that all the silver and gold

should be sent away, as mere "alien mischiefs." These consulted

about it; and Theopompus says, it was Sciraphidas, but Ephorus, that

it was Phlogidas, who declared they ought not to receive any gold or

silver into the city; but to use their own country coin which was

iron, and was first of all dipped in vinegar when it was red hot,

that it might not be worked up anew, but because of the dipping might

be hard and unpliable. It was also, of course, very heavy and

troublesome to carry, and a great deal of it in quantity and

weight was but a little in value. And perhaps all the old money was

so, coin consisting of iron, or in some countries, copper skewers,

whence it comes that we still find a great number of small pieces of

money retain the name of obolus, and the drachma is six of these,

because so much may be grasped in one's hand. But Lysander's friends

being against it, and endeavoring to keep the money in the city, it

was resolved to bring in this sort of money to be used publicly,

enacting, at the same time, that if anyone was found in possession

of any privately, he should be put to death, as if Lycurgus had

feared the coin, and not the covetousness resulting from it, which

they did not repress by letting no private man keep any, so much as

they encouraged it, by allowing the state to possess it; attaching

thereby a sort of dignity to it, over and above its ordinary utility.

Neither was it possible, that what they saw was so much esteemed

publicly, they should privately despise as unprofitable; and that

everyone should think that thing could be nothing worth for his own

personal use, which was so extremely valued and desired for the use

of the state. And moral habits, induced by public practices, are far

quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the

failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at

large. For it is probable that the parts will be rather corrupted by

the whole if that grows bad; while the vices which flow from a part

into the whole, find many correctives and remedies from that which

remains sound. Terror and the law were now to keep guard over the

citizens' houses, to prevent any money entering into them; but their

minds could no longer be expected to remain superior to the desire of

it, when wealth in general was thus set up to be striven after, as a

high and noble object. On this point, however, we have given our

censure of the Lacedaemonians in one of our other writings.

Lysander erected out of the spoils brazen statues at Delphi of

himself, and of every one of the masters of the ships, as also

figures of the golden stars of Castor and Pollux, which vanished

before the battle at Leuctra. In the treasury of Brasidas and the

Acanthians, there was a trireme made of gold and ivory, of two

cubits, which Cyrus sent Lysander in honor of his victory. But

Alexandrides of Delphi writes in his history, that there was also a

deposit of Lysander's, a talent of silver, and fifty-two minas,

besides eleven staters; a statement not consistent with the generally

received account of his poverty. And at that time, Lysander, being

in fact of greater power than any Greek before, was yet thought to

show a pride, and to affect a superiority greater even than his power

warranted. He was the first, as Duris says in his history, among the

Greeks, to whom the cities reared altars as to a god, and sacrificed;

to him were songs of triumph first sung, the beginning of one of

which still remains recorded: --

Great Greece's general from spacious Sparta we

Will celebrate with songs of victory.

And the Samians decreed that their solemnities of Juno should be

called the Lysandria; and out of the poets he had Choerilus always

with him, to extol his achievements in verse; and to Antilochus, who

had made some verses in his commendation, being pleased with them, he

gave a hat full of silver; and when Antimachus of Colophon, and one

Niceratus of Heraclea, competed with each other in a poem on the

deeds of Lysander, he gave the garland to Niceratus; at which

Antimachus, in vexation, suppressed his poem; but Plato, being then a

young man, and admiring Antimachus for his poetry, consoled him for

his defeat by telling him that it is the ignorant who are the

sufferers by ignorance, as truly as the blind by want of sight.

Afterwards, when Aristonus, the musician, who had been a conqueror

six times at the Pythian games, told him as a piece of flattery, that

if he were successful again, he would proclaim himself in the name of

Lysander, "that is," he answered, "as his slave?"

This ambitious temper was indeed only burdensome to the highest

personages and to his equals, but through having so many people

devoted to serve him, an extreme haughtiness and contemptuousness

grew up, together with ambition, in his character. He observed no

sort of moderation, such as befitted a private man, either in

rewarding or in punishing; the recompense of his friends and guests

was absolute power over cities, and irresponsible authority, and the

only satisfaction of his wrath was the destruction of his enemy;

banishment would not suffice. As for example, at a later period,

fearing lest the popular leaders of the Milesians should fly, and

desiring also to discover those who lay hid, he swore he would do

them no harm, and on their believing him and coming forth, he

delivered them up to the oligarchical leaders to be slain, being in

all no less than eight hundred. And, indeed, the slaughter in

general of those of the popular party in the towns exceeded all

computation; as he did not kill only for offenses against himself,

but granted these favors without sparing, and joined in the execution

of them, to gratify the many hatreds, and the much cupidity of his

friends everywhere round about him. From whence the saying of

Eteocles, the Lacedaemonian, came to be famous, that "Greece could

not have borne two Lysanders." Theophrastus says, that Archestratus

said the same thing concerning Alcibiades. But in his case what had

given most offense was a certain licentious and wanton self-will;

Lysander's power was feared and hated because of his unmerciful

disposition. The Lacedaemonians did not at all concern themselves

for any other accusers; but afterwards, when Pharnabazus, having been

injured by him, he having pillaged and wasted his country, sent some

to Sparta to inform against him, the Ephors taking it very ill, put

one of his friends and fellow-captains, Thorax, to death, taking him

with some silver privately in his possession; and they sent him a

scroll, commanding him to return home. This scroll is made up thus;

when the Ephors send an admiral or general on his way, they take two

round pieces of wood, both exactly of a length and thickness, and cut

even to one another; they keep one themselves, and the other they

give to the person they send forth; and these pieces of wood they

call Scytales. When, therefore, they have occasion to communicate

any secret or important matter, making a scroll of parchment long and

narrow like a leathern thong, they roll it about their own staff of

wood, leaving no space void between, but covering the surface of the

staff with the scroll all over. When they have done this, they write

what they please on the scroll, as it is wrapped about the staff; and

when they have written, they take off the scroll, and send it to the

general without the wood. He, when he has received it, can read

nothing of the writing, because the words and letters are not

connected, but all broken up; but taking his own staff, he winds the

slip of the scroll about it, so that this folding, restoring all the

parts into the same order that they were in before, and putting what

comes first into connection with what follows, brings the whole

consecutive contents to view round the outside. And this scroll is

called a staff, after the name of the wood, as a thing measured is by

the name of the measure.

But Lysander, when the staff came to him to the Hellespont, was

troubled, and fearing Pharnabazus's accusations most, made haste to

confer with him, hoping to end the difference by a meeting together.

When they met, he desired him to write another letter to the

magistrates, stating that he had not been wronged, and had no

complaint to prefer. But he was ignorant that Pharnabazus, as it is

in the proverb, played Cretan against Cretan; for pretending to do

all that was desired, openly he wrote such a letter as Lysander

wanted, but kept by him another, written privately; and when they

came to put on the seals, changed the tablets, which differed not at

all to look upon, and gave him the letter which had been written

privately. Lysander, accordingly, coming to Lacedaemon, and going,

as the custom is, to the magistrates' office, gave Pharnabazus's

letter to the Ephors, being persuaded that the greatest accusation

against him was now withdrawn; for Pharnabazus was beloved by the

Lacedaemonians, having been the most zealous on their side in the war

of all the king's captains. But after the magistrates had read the

letter they showed it him, and he understanding now that

Others beside Ulysses deep can be,

Not the one wise man of the world is he,

in extreme confusion, left them at the time. But a few days after,

meeting the Ephors, he said he must go to the temple of Ammon, and

offer the god the sacrifices which he had vowed in war. For some

state it as a truth, that when he was besieging the city of Aphytae

in Thrace, Ammon stood by him in his sleep; whereupon raising the

siege, supposing the god had commanded it, he bade the Aphytaeans

sacrifice to Ammon, and resolved to make a journey into Libya to

propitiate the god. But most were of opinion that the god was but

the presence, and that in reality he was afraid of the Ephors, and

that impatience of the yoke at home, and dislike of living under

authority, made him long for some travel and wandering, like a horse

just brought in from open feeding and pasture to the stable, and put

again to his ordinary work. For that which Ephorus states to have

been the cause of this traveling about, I shall relate by and by.

And having hardly and with difficulty obtained leave of the

magistrates to depart, he set sail. But the kings, while he was on

his voyage, considering that keeping, as he did, the cities in

possession by his own friends and partisans, he was in fact their

sovereign and the lord of Greece, took measures for restoring the

power to the people, and for throwing his friends out. Disturbances

commencing again about these things, and, first of all, the Athenians

from Phyle setting upon their thirty rulers and overpowering them,

Lysander, coming home in haste, persuaded the Lacedaemonians to

support the oligarchies and to put down the popular governments, and

to the thirty in Athens, first of all, they sent a hundred talents

for the war, and Lysander himself, as general, to assist them. But

the kings envying him, and fearing lest he should take Athens again,

resolved that one of themselves should take the command. Accordingly

Pausanias went, and in words, indeed, professed as if he had been for

the tyrants against the people, but in reality exerted himself for

peace, that Lysander might not by the means of his friends become

lord of Athens again. This he brought easily to pass; for,

reconciling the Athenians, and quieting the tumults, he defeated the

ambitious hopes of Lysander, though shortly after, on the Athenians

rebelling again, he was censured for having thus taken, as it were,

the bit out of the mouth of the people, which, being freed from the

oligarchy, would now break out again into affronts and insolence; and

Lysander regained the reputation of a person who employed his command

not in gratification of others, nor for applause, but strictly for

the good of Sparta.

His speech, also, was bold and daunting to such as opposed him. The

Argives, for example, contended about the bounds of their land, and

thought they brought juster pleas than the Lacedaemonians; holding

out his sword, "He," said Lysander, "that is master of this, brings

the best argument about the bounds of territory." A man of Megara,

at some conference, taking freedom with him, "This language, my

friend," said he, "should come from a city." To the Boeotians, who

were acting a doubtful part, he put the question, whether he should

pass through their country with spears upright, or leveled. After

the revolt of the Corinthians, when, on coming to their walls, he

perceived the Lacedaemonians hesitating to make the assault, and a

hare was seen to leap through the ditch: "Are you not ashamed," he

said, "to fear an enemy, for whose laziness, the very hares sleep

upon their walls?"

When king Agis died, leaving a brother Agesilaus, and Leotychides,

who was supposed his son, Lysander, being attached to Agesilaus,

persuaded him to lay claim to the kingdom, as being a true descendant

of Hercules; Leotychides lying under the suspicion of being the son

of Alcibiades, who lived privately in familiarity with Timaea, the

wife of Agis, at the time he was a fugitive in Sparta. Agis, they

say, computing the time, satisfied himself that she could not have

conceived by him, and had hitherto always neglected and manifestly

disowned Leotychides; but now when he was carried sick to Heraea,

being ready to die, what by the importunities of the young man

himself, and of his friends, in the presence of many he declared

Leotychides to be his; and desiring those who were present to bear

witness of this to the Lacedaemonians, died. They accordingly did so

testify in favor of Leotychides. And Agesilaus, being otherwise

highly reputed of, and strong in the support of Lysander, was, on the

other hand, prejudiced by Diopithes, a man famous for his knowledge

of oracles, who adduced this prophecy in reference to Agesilaus's

lameness:

Beware, great Sparta, lest there come of thee,

Though sound thyself, an halting sovereignty;

Troubles, both long and unexpected too,

And storms of deadly warfare shall ensue.

When many, therefore, yielded to the oracle, and inclined to

Leotychides, Lysander said that Diopithes did not take the prophecy

rightly; for it was not that the god would be offended if any lame

person ruled over the Lacedaemonians, but that the kingdom would be a

lame one, if bastards and false-born should govern with the posterity

of Hercules. By this argument, and by his great influence among

them, he prevailed, and Agesilaus was made king.

Immediately, therefore, Lysander spurred him on to make an expedition

into Asia, putting him in hopes that he might destroy the Persians,

and attain the height of greatness. And he wrote to his friends in

Asia, bidding them request to have Agesilaus appointed to command

them in the war against the barbarians; which they were persuaded to,

and sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon to entreat it. And this would

seem to be a second favor done Agesilaus by Lysander, not inferior to

his first in obtaining him the kingdom. But with ambitious natures,

otherwise not ill qualified for command, the feeling of jealousy of

those near them in reputation continually stands in the way of the

performance of noble actions; they make those their rivals in virtue,

whom they ought to use as their helpers to it. Agesilaus took

Lysander, among the thirty counselors that accompanied him, with

intentions of using him as his especial friend; but when they were

come into Asia, the inhabitants there, to whom he was but little

known, addressed themselves to him but little and seldom; whereas

Lysander, because of their frequent previous intercourse, was visited

and attended by large numbers, by his friends out of observance, and

by others out of fear; and just as in tragedies it not uncommonly is

the case with the actors, the person who represents a messenger or

servant is much taken notice of, and plays the chief part, while he

who wears the crown and scepter is hardly heard to speak, even so was

it about the counselor, he had all the real honors of the government,

and to the king was left the empty name of power. This

disproportionate ambition ought very likely to have been in some way

softened down, and Lysander should have been reduced to his proper

second place, but wholly to cast off and to insult and affront for

glory's sake, one who was his benefactor and friend, was not worthy

Agesilaus to allow in himself. For, first of all, he gave him no

opportunity for any action, and never set him in any place of

command; then, for whomsoever he perceived him exerting his interest,

these persons he always sent away with a refusal, and with less

attention than any ordinary suitors, thus silently undoing and

weakening his influence.

Lysander, miscarrying in everything, and perceiving that his

diligence for his friends was but a hindrance to them, forbore to

help them, entreating them that they would not address themselves to,

nor observe him, but that they would speak to the king, and to those

who could be of more service to friends than at present he could

most, on hearing this, forbore to trouble him about their concerns;

but continued their observances to him, waiting upon him in the walks

and places of exercise; at which Agesilaus was more annoyed than

ever, envying him the honor; and, finally, when he gave many of the

officers places of command and the governments of cities, he

appointed Lysander carver at his table, adding, by way of insult to

the Ionians, "Let them go now, and pay their court to my carver."

Upon this, Lysander thought fit to come and speak with him; and a

brief laconic dialogue passed between them as follows: "Truly, you

know very well, O Agesilaus, how to depress your friends;" "Those

friends," replied he, "who would be greater than myself; but those

who increase my power, it is just should share in it." "Possibly, O

Agesilaus," answered Lysander, "in all this there may be more said on

your part than done on mine, but I request you, for the sake of

observers from without, to place me in any command under you where

you may judge I shall be the least offensive, and most useful."

Upon this he was sent ambassador to the Hellespont; and though angry

with Agesilaus, yet did not neglect to perform his duty, and having

induced Spithridates the Persian, being offended with Pharnabazus, a

gallant man, and in command of some forces, to revolt, he brought him

to Agesilaus. He was not, however, employed in any other service,

but having completed his time, returned to Sparta, without honor,

angry with Agesilaus, and hating more than ever the whole Spartan

government, and resolved to delay no longer, but while there was yet

time, to put into execution the plans which he appears some time

before to have concerted for a revolution and change in the

constitution. These were as follows. The Heraclidae who joined with

the Dorians, and came into Peloponnesus, became a numerous and

glorious race in Sparta, but not every family belonging to it had the

right of succession in the kingdom, but the kings were chosen out of

two only, called the Eurypontidae and the Agiadae; the rest had no

privilege in the government by their nobility of birth, and the

honors which followed from merit lay open to all who could obtain

them. Lysander, who was born of one of these families, when he had

risen into great renown for his exploits, and had gained great

friends and power, was vexed to see the city which had increased to

what it was by him, ruled by others not at all better descended than

himself, and formed a design to remove the government from the two

families, and to give it in common to all the Heraclidae; or as some

say, not to the Heraclidae only, but to all the Spartans; that the

reward might not belong to the posterity of Hercules, but to those

who were like Hercules, judging by that personal merit which raised

even him to the honor of the Godhead; and he hoped that when the

kingdom was thus to be competed for, no Spartan would be chosen

before himself.

Accordingly he first attempted and prepared to persuade the citizens

privately, and studied an oration composed to this purpose by Cleon,

the Halicarnassian. Afterwards perceiving so unexpected and great an

innovation required bolder means of support, he proceeded as it might

be on the stage, to avail himself of machinery, and to try the

effects of divine agency upon his countrymen. He collected and

arranged for his purpose, answers and oracles from Apollo, not

expecting to get any benefit from Cleon's rhetoric, unless he should

first alarm and overpower the minds of his fellow-citizens by

religious and superstitious terrors, before bringing them to the

consideration of his arguments. Ephorus relates, after he had

endeavored to corrupt the oracle of Apollo, and had again failed to

persuade the priestesses of Dodona by means of Pherecles, that he

went to Ammon, and discoursed with the guardians of the oracle there,

proffering them a great deal of gold, and that they, taking this ill,

sent some to Sparta to accuse Lysander; and on his acquittal the

Libyans, going away, said, "You will find us, O Spartans, better

judges, when you come to dwell with us in Libya," there being a

certain ancient oracle, that the Lacedaemonians should dwell in

Libya. But as the whole intrigue and the course of the contrivance

was no ordinary one, nor lightly- undertaken, but depended as it went

on, like some mathematical proposition, on a variety of important

admissions, and proceeded through a series of intricate and difficult

steps to its conclusion, we will go into it at length, following the

account of one who was at once an historian and a philosopher.

There was a woman in Pontus, who professed to be pregnant by Apollo,

which many, as was natural, disbelieved, and many also gave credit

to, and when she had brought forth a man-child, several, not

unimportant persons, took an interest in its rearing and bringing up.

The name given the boy was Silenus, for some reason or other.

Lysander, taking this for the groundwork, frames and devises the rest

himself, making use of not a few, nor these insignificant champions

of his story, who brought the report of the child's birth into credit

without any suspicion. Another report, also, was procured from

Delphi and circulated in Sparta, that there were some very old

oracles which were kept by the priests in private writings; and they

were not to be meddled with neither was it lawful to read them, till

one in after times should come, descended from Apollo, and, on giving

some known token to the keepers, should take the books in which the

oracles were. Things being thus ordered beforehand, Silenus, it was

intended, should come and ask for the oracles, as being the child of

Apollo and those priests who were privy to the design, were to

profess to search narrowly into all particulars, and to question him

concerning his birth; and, finally, were to be convinced, and, as to

Apollo's son, to deliver up to him the writings. Then he, in the

presence of many witnesses, should read amongst other prophecies,

that which was the object of the whole contrivance, relating to the

office of the kings, that it would be better and more desirable to

the Spartans to choose their kings out of the best citizens. And

now, Silenus being grown up to a youth, and being ready for the

action, Lysander miscarried in his drama through the timidity of one

of his actors, or assistants, who just as he came to the point lost

heart and drew back. Yet nothing was found out while Lysander lived,

but only after his death.

He died before Agesilaus came back from Asia, being involved, or

perhaps more truly having himself involved Greece, in the Boeotian

war. For it is stated both ways; and the cause of it some make to be

himself, others the Thebans, and some both together; the Thebans, on

the one hand, being charged with casting away the sacrifices at

Aulis, and that being bribed with the king's money brought by

Androclides and Amphitheus, they had with the object of entangling

the Lacedaemonians in a Grecian war, set upon the Phocians, and

wasted their country; it being said, on the other hand, that Lysander

was angry that the Thebans had preferred a claim to the tenth part of

the spoils of the war, while the rest of the confederates submitted

without complaint; and because they expressed indignation about the

money which Lysander sent to Sparta, but most especially, because

from them the Athenians had obtained the first opportunity of freeing

themselves from the thirty tyrants, whom Lysander had made, and to

support whom the Lacedaemonians issued a decree that political

refugees from Athens might be arrested in whatever country they were

found, and that those who impeded their arrest should be excluded

from the confederacy. In reply to this the Thebans issued counter

decrees of their own, truly in the spirit and temper of the actions

of Hercules and Bacchus, that every house and city in Boeotia should

be opened to the Athenians who required it, and that he who did not

help a fugitive who was seized, should be fined a talent for damages,

and if any one should bear arms through Boeotia to Attica against the

tyrants, that none of the Thebans should either see or hear of it.

Nor did they pass these humane and truly Greek decrees, without at

the same time making their acts conformable to their words. For

Thrasybulus and those who with him occupied Phyle, set out upon that

enterprise from Thebes, with arms and money, and secrecy and a point

to start from, provided for them by the Thebans. Such were the

causes of complaint Lysander had against Thebes. And being now grown

violent in his temper through the atrabilious tendency which

increased upon him in his old age, he urged the Ephors and persuaded

them to place a garrison in Thebes, and taking the commander's place,

he marched forth with a body of troops. Pausanias, also, the king,

was sent shortly after with an army. Now Pausanias, going round by

Cithaeron, was to invade Boeotia; Lysander, meantime, advanced

through Phocis to meet him,

with a numerous body of soldiers. He took the city of the

Orchomenians, who came over to him of their own accord, and plundered

Lebadea. He dispatched also letters to Pausanias, ordering him to

move from Plataea to meet him at Haliartus, and that himself would be

at the walls of Haliartus by break of day. These letters were

brought to the Thebans, the carrier of them falling into the hands of

some Theban scouts. They, having received aid from Athens, committed

their city to the charge of the Athenian troops, and sallying out

about the first sleep, succeeded in reaching Haliartus a little before

Lysander, and part of them entered into the city. He, upon this,

first of all resolved, posting his army upon a hill, to stay for

Pausanias; then as the day advanced, not being able to rest, he bade

his men take up their arms, and encouraging the allies, led them in a

column along the road to the walls. but those Thebans who had

remained outside, taking the city on the left hand, advanced against

the rear of their enemies, by the fountain which is called Cissusa;

here they tell the story that the nurses washed the infant Bacchus

after his birth; the water of it is of a bright wine color, clear,

and most pleasant to drink; and not far off the Cretan storax grows

all about, which the Haliartians adduce in token of Rhadamanthus

having dwelt there, and they show his sepulchre, calling it Alea.

And the monument also of Alcmena is hard by; for there, as they say,

she was buried, having married Rhadamanthus after Amphitryon's death.

But the Thebans inside the city forming in order of battle with the

Haliartians stood still for some time, but on seeing Lysander with a

party of those who were foremost approaching, on a sudden opening the

gates and falling on, they killed him with the soothsayer at his

side, and a few others; for the greater part immediately fled back to

the main force. But the Thebans not slackening, but closely pursuing

them, the whole body turned to fly towards the hills. There were one

thousand of them slain; there died, also, of the Thebans three

hundred, who were killed with their enemies, while chasing them into

craggy and difficult places. These had been under suspicion of

favoring the Lacedaemonians, and in their eagerness to clear

themselves in the eyes of their fellow-citizens, exposed themselves

in the pursuit, and so met their death. News of the disaster reached

Pausanias as he was on the way from Plataea to Thespiae, and having

set his army in order he came to Haliartus; Thrasybulus, also, came

from Thebes, leading the Athenians.

Pausanias proposing to request the bodies of the dead under truce,

the elders of the Spartans took it ill, and were angry among

themselves, and coming to the king, declared that Lysander should not

be taken away upon any conditions; if they fought it out by arms

about his body, and conquered, then they might bury him; if they were

overcome, it was glorious to die upon the spot with their commander.

When the elders had spoken these things, Pausanias saw it would be a

difficult business to vanquish the Thebans, who had but just been

conquerors; that Lysander's body also lay near the walls, so that it

would be hard for them, though they overcame, to take it away without

a truce; he therefore sent a herald, obtained a truce, and withdrew

his forces, and carrying away the body of Lysander, they buried it in

the first friendly soil they reached on crossing the Boeotian

frontier, in the country of the Panopaeans; where the monument still

stands as you go on the road from Delphi to Chaeronea. Now the army

quartering there, it is said that a person of Phocis, relating the

battle to one who was not in it, said, the enemies fell upon them

just after Lysander had passed over the Hoplites; surprised at which

a Spartan, a friend of Lysander, asked what Hoplites he meant, for he

did not know the name. "It was there," answered the Phocian, "that

the enemy killed the first of us; the rivulet by the city is called

Hoplites." On hearing which the Spartan shed tears and observed, how

impossible it is for any man to avoid his appointed lot; Lysander, it

appears, having received an oracle, as follows: --

Sounding Hoplites see thou bear in mind,

And the earthborn dragon following behind.

Some, however, say that Hoplites does not run by Haliartus, but is a

watercourse near Coronea, falling into the river Philarus, not far

from the town in former times called Hoplias, and now Isomantus.

The man of Haliartus who killed Lysander, by name Neochorus, bore on

his shield the device of a dragon; and this, it was supposed, the

oracle signified. It is said, also, that at the time of the

Peloponnesian war, the Thebans received an oracle from the sanctuary

of Ismenus, referring at once to the battle at Delium, and to this

which thirty years after took place at Haliartus. It ran thus: --

Hunting the wolf, observe the utmost bound,

And the hill Orchalides where foxes most are found.

By the words, "the utmost bound," Delium being intended, where

Boeotia touches Attica, and by Orchalides, the hill now called

Alopecus, which lies in the parts of Haliartus towards Helicon.

But such a death befalling Lysander, the Spartans took it so

grievously at the time, that they put the king to a trial for his

life, which he not daring to await, fled to Tegea, and there lived

out his life in the sanctuary of Minerva. The poverty also of

Lysander being discovered by his death, made his merit more manifest,

since from so much wealth and power, from all the homage of the

cities, and of the Persian kingdom, he had not in the least degree,

so far as money goes, sought any private aggrandizement, as

Theopompus in his history relates, whom anyone may rather give

credit to when he commends, than when he finds fault, as it is more

agreeable to him to blame than to praise. But subsequently, Ephorus

says, some controversy arising among the allies at Sparta, which made

it necessary to consult the writings which Lysander had kept by him,

Agesilaus came to his house, and finding the book in which the

oration on the Spartan constitution was written at length, to the

effect that the kingdom ought to be taken from the Eurypontidae and

Agiadae, and to be offered in common, and a choice made out of the

best citizens, at first he was eager to make it public, and to show

his countrymen the real character of Lysander. But Lacratidas, a

wise man, and at that time chief of the Ephors, hindered Agesilaus,

and said, they ought not to dig up Lysander again, but rather to bury

with him a discourse, composed so plausibly and subtlety. Other

honors, also, were paid him after his death; and amongst these they

imposed a fine upon those who had engaged themselves to marry his

daughters, and then when Lysander was found to be poor, after his

decease, refused them; because when they thought him rich they had

been observant of him, but now his poverty had proved him just and

good, they forsook him. For there was, it seems, in Sparta, a

punishment for not marrying, for a late, and for a bad marriage; and

to the last penalty those were most especially liable, who sought

alliances with the rich instead of with the good and with their

friends. Such is the account we have found given of Lysander.