men were of great service to Agesilaus, and may be said to have saved his life; for they fought around him with exceeding ardour, and exposed themselves foremost in all dangers for the safety of his person. They could not, however, prevent his receiving several wounds through his armour from pikes and swords. Notwithstanding, after an exceeding warm dispute, they brought him off alive from the enemy, and making their bodies a rampart for him, sacrificed a great number of Thebans to his defence; many of those young men were also left upon the field. At length, finding it too difficult to break the Thebans in front, they were forced to have recourse to what they had at first rejected. They opened their phalanx to let them pass; which when they had done, as they marched afterwards in more disorder, they charged them again upon the flanks and rear. They could, however, neither break them, nor put them to flight. Those brave Thebans made their retreat continually fighting, and gained Helicon, elate with the success of the battle, wherein on their side they had always remained invincible. Agesilaus, though very much weakened by the great number of his wounds, and the quantity of blood he had lost, would not retire to his tent, till he had been carried to the place where his phalanx was drawn up, and had seen all the dead bodies removed even upon their own arms. He was informed there, that many of the enemy had taken refuge in the temple of Minerva Itoniensis, which was not very distant from the field of battle, and asked what he would have done with them. As he was full of veneration for the gods, he gave orders to let them go, and even sent them a guard to escort them in safety wherever they thought fit. The next morning, Agesilaus, to try whether the Thebans would have the courage to renew the battle, commanded his troops to crown themselves with flowers, and the music of the army to play, whilst a trophy was erected and adorned in honour of his victory. At the same instant the enemy sent heralds to demand his permission to bury their dead: which he granted, with a truce; and having confirmed his victory by that act of a conqueror, he caused himself to be carried to Delphos, where the Pythian games were then celebrated. He made there a solemn procession, which was followed by a sacri fice, and consecrated the tenth part of the booty taken in Asia to the god, which amounted to 100 talents*. These great men, no less religious than brave, never failed to express by presents their gratitude to the gods for their successes in arms; declaring, by that public homage, that they believed them selves indebted for their victories to their protection. * 100,000 crowns, about 22,5001 SECTION V. AGESILAUS RETURNS VICTORIOUS TO SPARTA.-A PEACE SHAMEFUL TO THE GREEKS, CONCLUDED. AFTER the festival †, Agesilaus returned to Sparta. His citizens received him with all the marks of the most real joy, and beheld him with admiration, when they observed the simplicity of his manners, and the constant frugality and temperance of his life. At his return from foreign countries, where pomp, luxury, sloth, and the love of pleasure entirely prevailed, he was not infected with the manners of the barbarians, as most of the other generals had been: he made no alteration in his diet, baths, equipage of his wife, ornaments of his arms, or furniture of his house. In the midst of so shining a reputation, and the universal applause, always the same, or rather more modest than before, he distinguished himself from the rest of the citizens, only by a greater submission to the laws, and a more inviolable attachment to the customs of his country; convinced, that he was only king, to be the brighter example of those virtues to others. He made greatness consist in virtue only. Hearing the great king (so the kings of Persia used to call themselves) spoken of in magnificent terms, and his power extremely extolled; "I cannot conceive," said he, "wherein he is "greater than me, unless he be more virtuous." There were at Sparta some citizens, who, vitiated by the prevailing taste of Greece, made their merit and glory consist in keeping a great number of horses for the race. He persuaded his sister Cynisca to dispute the prize in the Olympic games, in order to show the Greeks, that those victories, on which they set so high a value, were not the effects of valour and bravery, but of riches and expence. She was the first of her sex who shared in this honour. He had not the same opinion of the exercises which contributed to render the body more robust, and inure it to labour and fatigue; and to place them in greater estimation, would often honour them with his presence. Some time after Lysander's death, he discovered the conspiracy formed by that captain against the two kings, which till then had not been heard of, and came to light by a kind of accident, in the following manner: † Upon some affairs, which related to the government, it was necessary to consult Lysander's papers, and Agesilaus went to his house for that purpose. In running them over, he fell upon the sheets which contained at large the harangue of Cleon, for the new method of proceed Plut. in Agesil. p. 606. Plut. de sui laud. P. 555. * Τί δ ̓ ἐμῶ γε μείζον ἐκεῖνος, εἰ μή καὶ δικαιότερος. Plut. in Agesil. p. 606. ing in the election of kings. Surprised at perusing it, he gave over his search, and went away abruptly, to communicate that oration to the citizens, and to let them see what manner of man Lysander was, and how much they had been deceived in regard to him. But Lacratidas, a wise and prudent person, and president of the Ephori, interposed, by telling him, That it was highly improper to raise Lysander from the dead; on the contrary, that it was necessary to bury his harangue in the same grave with him, as of dangerous tendency, from the great art with which it was composed, and the force of persuasion that universally prevailed in it, against which it might prove no easy matter to resist. Agesilaus was of the same opinion, and the pièce was consigned to silence and oblivion, as the best use that could be made of it. As his credit was very high in the city, he caused Teleutias, his brother by the mother's side, to be declared admiral of the fleet. It were to be wished, that history, to justify this choice, had mentioned any other qualities in that commander, than his nearness of blood to the king. Agesilaus soon after set out with his land-army to besiege Corinth, and took the long walls, as they were called, whilst his brother Teleutias attacked it by sea. He did several other exploits against the people of Greece at war with Sparta, which always argue indeed the valour and experience of the general, but are neither very important nor decisive, and which we thought for that reason might be omitted. * At the same time Pharnabasus and Conon, having made themselves masters at sea, ravaged the whole coast of Laconia. That satrap, returning to his government of Phrygia, left Conot the command of the naval army, with very considerable sums for the re-establishment of Athens. Conon, victorious and crowned with glory, repaired thither, where he was received with universal applause. The sad prospect of a city formerly so flourishing, and at that time reduced to so melan choly a condition, gave him more grief, than he felt joy in seeing his beloved country again, after so many years absence. He lost no time, but fell immediately to work, employing, besides masons and the usual artisans, the soldiers, mariners, citizens, allies, in a word, all who were well inclined to Athens; providence decreeing, that this city, formerly destroyed by the Persians, should be rebuilt by their own hands, and that having been dismantled and demolished by the Lacedæmonians, it should be reinstated at their own cost, and by the spoils taken from them. What a vicissitude and alteration was this! Athens at this time had those for its allies, which had formerly been * A. M. 9611. Ant. J. C. 363. Xenoph. hist. Græc. 1. iv. p. 534 -537. Diod. 1. xiv. p. 303. Justin. 1. vi. e. 5. its most violent enemies, and for enemies, those with whom before it had contracted the most strict and most confirmed union. Conon, seconded by the zeal of the Thebans, soon rebuilt the walls of Athens, restored the city to its ancient splendour, and rendered it more formidable than ever to its enemies. † After having offered to the gods a whole hecatomb, that is to say, a sacrifice of 100 oxen, as a thanksgiving for the happy re-establishment of Athens, he made a feast, to which all the citizens without exception were invited. ‡ Sparta could not see without extreme affliction so glorious a revolution. It looked upon the grandeur and power of a city, its ancient rival and almost continual enemy, as its own ruin; which made the Lacedæmonians take the mean resolution of avenging themselves at once upon Athens, and Conon its restorer, by making peace with the king of Persia. With this view they dispatched Antalcides to Tiribasus. His commission consisted of two principal articles. The first was, to accuse Conon to that satrap of having defrauded the king of the money which he had employed in the re-establishment of Athens; and of having formed the design of depriving the Persians of Eolia and Ionia, and to subject them anew to the republic of Athens, upon which they had formerly depended. By the second, he had orders to make the most advantageous proposals to Tiribasus his master could desire. Without giving himself any manner of trouble in regard to Asia, he stipulated only, that all the islands and other cities should enjoy their laws and liberty. The Lacedæmonians thus gave up to the king, with the greatest injustice and the utmost baseness, all the Greeks settled in Asia, for whose liberty Agesilaus had so long fought. It is true he had no share in this most infamous negociation, the whole reproach of which ought to fall on Antalcides, who, being the sworn enemy of the king of Sparta, hastened the peace by all manner of means, because the war augmented the authority, glory, and reputation of Agesilaus. The most considerable cities of Greece had sent deputies at the same time to Tiribasus, and Conon was at the head of those from Athens. All of them were unanimous in rejecting such proposals. Without speaking of the interests of the Greeks of Asia, with which they were extremely affected, they saw them. selves exposed by this treaty; the Athenians to the loss of the isles of Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros; the Thebans to abandon the cities of Boeotia, of which they were in possession, and which would thereby regain their independence; and the Argives to renounce Corinth, with the loss of which Argos Athen. 1. i. p. 3. Xenoph. hist. Græc. l. iv. p. 537, 538. Plut. in Agesil. p. 608. VOL. II. : D itself would soon in all probability be attended. The deputies therefore withdrew without concluding any thing. Tiribasus seized Conon, and put him in prison. Not daring to declare openly for the Lacedæmonians, without an express order to that purpose, he contented himself with supplying them underhand with considerable sums of money for fitting out a fleet, in order that the other cities of Greece might not be in a condition to oppose them. After having taken these precautions, he set out directly for the court, to give the king an account of the state of his negociation. That prince was well satisfied with it, and directed him in the strongest terms to put the last hand to it. Tiribasus also laid before him the Lacedæmonians' accusation of Conon. Some authors, according to Cornelius Nepos, have written that he was carried to Susa, and there executed by the king's order. The silence of Xenophon, who was his contemporary, in regard to his death makes it doubtful whether he did not escape from prison, or suffer, as has been said. Whilst this treaty was negociating, several actions little considerable passed between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians. It was also at the same time that Evagoras extended his conquests in the island of Cyprus, of which we shall soon treat. *Tiribasus at length, upon his return, summoned the deputies of the Grecian cities to be present at the reading of the treaty. It imported, that all the Grecian cities of Asia should remain dependent on the king, and that the rest, as well small as great, should have full possession of their liberty. The king further reserved to himself the isles of Cyprus and Clazomena, and left those of Scyros, Lemnos, and Imbros, to the Athenians, to whom they had long appertained. By the same treaty he engaged to join with such people as came into it, in order to make war by sea and land against all who should refuse to agree to it. We have already said it was Sparta itself proposed these conditions. All the other cities of Greece, or at least the greatest part of them, rejected so infamous a treaty with horror. However, as they were weakened and exhausted by domestic divisions, and not in a condition to support a war against so powerful a prince, who threatened to fall with all his forces upon those who should refuse to come into this peace, they were obliged against their will to comply with it, except the Thebans, who had the courage to oppose it openly at first, but were at length reduced to accept it with the others, by whom they found themselves universally abandoned. Such was the fruit of the jealousy and divisions which armed the Grecian cities against each other, and was the end pro A. M. 9617. Ant. J. C. 287. Xenoph. 1. v. p. 548-551, |