Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Lysander
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Lysander
(legendary, died 395 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
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 any one 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 honoured 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 any one 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 ere long 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 favourable 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 for 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 affection of the young
prince, and greatly roused him to carry on and when he would depart, Cyrus
gave him a banquet, and desired him not to refuse his goodwill, 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, invited 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 government, 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, honours, 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 be 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 behaviour 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 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
when his friends and connections, whom he had promised, raised 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 honourable 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 favour 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 island into
Asia. And finding the Hellespont without any defence, 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, excepting 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, though he had had his ships all drawn up and
manned before daybreak, nevertheless did not stir. He merely sent some
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 harbour 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 answered 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 fore-deck, 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 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 the 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 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 Evagoras. 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 in 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 held 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 to 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 blood-shed and massacre,
and aiding his friends to expel their opponents, he did not give the Greeks
a favourable 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 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
favour, 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 endeavouring 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 any one 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 so much esteemed publicly
they should privately despise as unprofitable; and that every one 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 honour of his victory. But Alexandrides of Delphi write's, 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 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 offences against himself, but
granted these favours 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 offence 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 pretence, 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 travelling 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 tyrant 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 hope
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, not
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 levelled. 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 Leontychides,
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;
Leontychides lying under the suspicion of being the soil 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 Leontychides; but now when he was carried
sick to Heraea, being ready to die, what by importunities of the young
man himself, and of his friends, in the presence of many he declared Leontychides
to be his; and desiring those who were present to bear witness to this
to the Lacedaemonians, died. They accordingly did so testify in favour
of Leontychides. 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 Leontychides, 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 favour 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 counsellors 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 counsellor, he had all the real honours 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 honour; 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 honour, 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 honours 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 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 honour 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 for 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 endeavoured to corrupt
the oracle of Apollo, and had again failed to persuade the priestess 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 aftertimes
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 more 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 despatched
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 birth; the water of it is of a bright wine-colour,
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 favouring
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 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
solace 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 any one 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 subtilely. Other honours, 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.
THE END
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