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 Plutarch Lives. Revised/translated by A. H. Clough. Revised from Dryden's version. Also known as “Parallel Lives”, written in Greek ~100 AD. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1859.

====== Plutarch: Life of 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.