INTERVIEW WITH PHARNABAZUS. on the by-standers. A young son of Pharnabazus, when his father rode away, lingered behind, and running up to Agesilaus, proposed to become his guest. Agesilaus accepted the offer, and the engagement was immediately sealed by an interchange of presents. The youth gave a javelin of beautiful workmanship, and in return received the rich caparisons of a horse on which one of the king's officers rode. He then set off to overtake his father. The friendship of Agesilaus was afterward useful to him when he was driven out of his father's dominions by one of his brothers, and was forced to take refuge in Greece. ed to him of gaining a much more valuable ally. I would enable him to make at the expense of his Pharnabazus, in anA Greek of Cyzicus, who was connected by the fellow-subjects, who would then be forced to ties of hospitality with Pharnabazus, and had own him as their master. recently entered in the same relation with swer to these overtures, said that he would Agesilaus, proposed to him to bring about an in-frankly declare his mind to them. If the king terview between him and the satrap. The pre-should attempt to place any other general in liminaries were arranged, and a place of meet-authority over him, he would renounce his alleing appointed in the open air, to which Agesi-giance, and ally himself to Sparta; but if his laus came, accompanied by the Thirty, and they master intrusted him with the supreme comAgesilaus grasped seated themselves on the grass to wait for mand in that part of his dominions, he would Pharnabazus. He came attended by a train of do his best to defend them. servants, who, according to the Persian fashion, his hand, and assured him of his warmest reproceeded to lay down a carpet and cushion for gard, and, under the excitement of a generous But the intelligent Persian, feeling, forgetting the excuse he had just before their master. struck by the contrast of the Spartan simplicity, made for his past conduct, promised to within a fortune at present so much more prosper- draw immediately from his territories, and, ous than his own, ordered these instruments of though they should continue at war, to abstain Juxury to be removed, and, in his splendid at- from invading them, as long as there was any tire, took his seat without ceremony on the other quarter in which he could employ his So the interview ended. It was followed by green sward by the side of Agesilaus. After forces. the forms of a friendly greeting had been interchanged, Pharnabazus opened the conference a little scene which Xenophon seems to have with an expostulation on the hard treatment described in order to show the prepossessing which he had suffered. He reminded his hear-effect produced by the demeanour of Agesilaus ers of the zeal and constancy with which he had espoused the cause of Sparta in the war with Athens; that he had spared no expense, and shrunk from no risk, not even from that of his life, in her behalf, and that he had never, in any of their transactions, subjected himself, like Tissaphernes, to the reproach of double-dealing. Nevertheless, Spartan hostility had now reduced him to such a condition that even in his own territory he did not know how to find a meal, except such as he could collect, like a dog, from the orts and leavings of their 1apine; while his fair patrimonial mansions, his pleasAgesilaus kept his word, and withdrew his ant woods and parks, had been all burned, and felled, and spoiled. If, he concluded, it was his ignorance that made him unable to reconcile forces from the satrapy of Pharnabazus, where, such conduct with the obligations of justice and indeed, it is probable he would not otherwise gratitude, he desired that the Spartans would have stayed much longer, as the spring was enlighten him. This address, Xenophon says, coming on, and he was meditating a new expestruck the Thirty with shame, and it was some dition, in which he meant to advance as far as time before Agesilaus broke the silence that he could into the interior. By this movement, ensued. Yet the complaint, as Xenophon re- if he gained no more decisive advantage, he exports it, falls very far short of the real hardship pected that he should at least separate all the of the case; for Pharnabazus might have ob- provinces which he left behind him from the served, not only that he had not been exempted Persian Empire. With this design, he proceedby his old allies from any of the evils of war, as ed to the plain of Thebe, where he encamped, his former services might have entitled him to and began to collect all the forces he could raise expect, but that their hostility had been direct- from the allied cities. He was in the midst of ed with a special preference against him, and these preparations, when he received a message that Agesilaus himself had spared the faithless from the ephors, which was brought by a SparTissaphernes, stained as he was with Grecian tan named Epicydidas, who apprized him of the blood, in order to fall upon the ancient and tried new turn which affairs had taken in Greece, ally of Sparta. Such a charge Agesilaus might and summoned him to march with the utmost have found it difficult to answer; but for that speed for the defence of his country. Agesilaus which Xenophon attributes to Pharnabazus he received this intelligence with fortitude, though had a ready and fair reply. Private friendship it stopped him at the outset of the most brilliant must always give way to reasons of state. The career that had ever yet been opened by a Greek, Spartans being at war with the king of Persia, and obeyed the command of the ephors with as were compelled to treat all his subjects as their much promptness as if he had been present in enemies; and Pharnabazus among the rest, their council-room at Sparta. But he first callhowever glad they might be to gain him for ed an assembly of the allies, and announced his their friend. And what they had now to pro-approaching departure to them; adding, howpose was not that he should exchange one mas-ever, a promise that he would not forget them, ter for another, but that he should at once be- but as soon as he should have despatched the come their ally, and independent of every supe- business which called him away, would return rior. Nor was it a poor or barren independence that they held out to him, but a rich addition 10 his hereditary possessions, which their aid to protect them. The assembly received these tidings with marks of deep concern, but unanimously determined to send their forces with him to Greece, that, if affairs there should come | 6000 infantry and 600 cavalry. Argos appears to a prosperous issue, they might escort him as the most powerful, or the most zealous in back to Asia. But it seems that the spirit in the anti-Laconian cause; she furnished 7000 which this vote was passed by the assembly heavy infantry, while the Thebans, weakened was not that which prevailed among the troops, by the revolt of Orchomenus, sent but 5000, and who were generally averse to the expedition; Corinth no more than 3000. But the want of and Agesilaus, having appointed Euxenus, with union, or of an efficient control, was felt no less 4000 men, to guard the Greek cities, thought it in the field than it had been in the council. The necessary to rouse their emulation, and that of Thebans were not so desirous of victory as the principal officers, by prizes proportioned to they were concerned for their own safety; and the numbers and condition of the forces which to secure this, did not scruple to sacrifice their should follow him to Greece. The more effect- allies, and to endanger the common cause ually to secure the result of their competition, Xenophon at least-whose prejudices, howhe appointed a place on the European side of ever, render his testimony still more suspicions the Hellespont for the review of the army, and against them than against his own countrymen the distribution of the prizes, which consisted-sarcastically charges them with having deof ornamented armour and weapons, and golden layed to engage so long as they occupied the crowns, to the value, in the whole, of not less left wing, which faced the Lacedæmonians; than four talents. A small sum, as Xenophon and he intimates that they alleged the sinister observes, in comparison with those which the aspect of the victims as a pretext to cloak their competitors laid out upon their various equip- timidity; but when either by means of some ments for the sake of the reward. The prizes manœuvre, or according to an established order were awarded by a tribunal composed of three-the Athenians succeeded to the left wing, and Spartan judges, and one from each of the allied cities. Agesilaus then set forward on his march, along the road which Xerxes had taken on his expedition to Greece. But in the mean while the Spartan government found itself compelled to take active measures for counteracting the movements of the hostile confederacy. About the same time that Agesilaus received the order which recalled him from Asia, a congress was held at Corinth by the states leagued against Sparta,* to deliberate on the plan of the next campaign; and Timolaus, a Corinthian deputy, reminding the assembly that a stream was weakest near its sources, advised that they should carry their arms at once to the border of Laconia, and meet the enemy before he had swelled his forces with the contingents of the tributary cities of Peloponnesus: "it would be easiest and safest to stifle the hornets in their nest." This advice was adopted; but its execution was prevented by the causes which usually retard the operations of confederate armies, where there is no supreme authority. While the allies were debating on the mode of sharing the command among them, and on their order of battle, the Lacedæmonian army, under Aristodemus, the guardian of the young king Agesipolis, had crossed the frontier, had been strengthened by the forces of Tegea and Mantinea, and reached the territory of Sicyon without opposition. Here, indeed, it found the defile called Epieicea guarded by a body of light troops, which gave it some annoyance on its passage; but it descended safely into the maritime plain, which it ravaged as it pursued its march eastward, and finally encamped at the distance of little more than a mile from the enemy, who had taken up a position behind the bed of the torrent or rivulet called the Nemea.t In numbers the northern allies were considerably superior; for they had brought 24,000 heavy-armed into the field, while on the other side the regular infantry amounted only to 13,500. Their cavalry, also, was more than twice as numerous as the enemy's. Sparta and Athens, we may observe, contributed each precisely the same number of foot and horse * Diodor., xiv., 82. + See Leake, Morea, iii., p. 374. they found themselves in the other, and opposed to the Achæans, then, says the historian, they immediately announced that the sacrifices were propitious, and issued orders to prepare for battle. Yet, even in their dispositions for the aetion, they neglected the regulations which had been previously adopted by common consent, according to which the line of battle was to have been uniformly sixteen deep, and, adhering to their own practice, gave a much greater depth to their phalanx; probably not less than five-and-twenty, as at Delium.* But, besides thus contracting the length of their line, as they advanced towards the enemy, they leaned more and more to the right; the constant usage, as we have seen, in the ancient battles,† while the Lacedæmonians, with the like object, inclined no less in the opposite direction. The result was that, when the engagement began, the Athenians found four out of their ten divisions, answering to the tribes, in front of the Tegeans, while the remaining six were left to sustain the whole force of the Lacedæmonians. In every other part of the line victory was at first on the side of the northern allies, who broke and pursued the enemy; but the Lacedæmonians outflanked, and easily overpowered the Athenians opposed to them, who were little more than half as numerous, and, at the expense of a very few lives on their own side, made a great slaughter. Having driven their immediate antagonists off the field with so little effort and loss, they advanced, untired and in good order, to meet the other divisions of the enemy as they returned from the pursuit of their defeated opponents; and falling in with them separately, before they had recovered from their disorder, overcame them, nearly as the surviving Horatius, in the Roman legend, vanquishes the victorious Curiatii. The four Athenian tribes, which had routed the Tegeans, were alone fortunate enough to escape. The fugitives sought shelter in Corinth, but found the gates closed against them through a temporary ascendency of the Laconian party. They then returned to * P. 381. 1 P. 403. Demosthenes, Leptin., p. 473, speaks of the struggla of the parties, but describes the result very differen-5. According to him, the fugitives were admitted. CONON. tect the rear. the position which they had left in the morning phon-occupied with the exploits of Agesilaus on the Nemea. This victory cost the Lacedæ--passes over the steps that led to this event, monians only eight lives, though their allies lost which produced a most important change in the in total silence; though the successful endeav 1100, the enemy 2800.* It seems as if the ter- whole aspect of affairs both in Asia and Europe, ror of their name stifled all resistance. The news of the battle of Corinth reached ours of one of his most illustrious countrymen Agesilaus on his march homeward, at Amphip- to restore the independence and power of Ath olis, where he had arrived after having made ens, might have seemed not less interesting his way, partly by threats, partly by force, than the marauding adventures of his Spartan through the Thracian tribes.† Dercyllidas was hero. Conon, after his escape from Ægos-potathe bearer; and, at the request of Agesilaus, un- mi, had been hospitably welcomed at Cyprus by dertook to convey it to the Greek cities in Asia, Evagoras, who had taken advantage of a revowith a renewal of the promise which he had lution which overthrew a preceding dynasty at made to them at parting, to return as soon as Salamis, and had raised himself by his courage the state of affairs in Greece should permit. and prudence to the throne, which, as a deAgesilaus then continued his march through scendant of Teucer, he might claim with some Macedonia, where his bold countenance over- show of a legitimate title. Here Conon conawed all opposition, as it had done in Thrace. tinued, it seems, for some years to watch the But when he arrived in Thessaly he found the progress of events, waiting for an opportunity Thessalians, who, as the hereditary enemies of of rendering such service to his country as The war in which Sparta soon afterward the Phocians, were all in alliance with the Boo- might enable him to return to it as its benefactians, bent on obstructing his passage. He had tor. to triumph over Athens, opened a fairer prosformed his infantry in a hollow square, and engaged with the power which had enabled her placed half of his cavalry in front and half in the rear. The charges of the Thessalian horse, pect; and it is clear that he actively availed which hovered on his rear, grew more and himself of it for the accomplishment of his main more annoying; and he was at length induced end. But the confused and contradictory stateto send the foremost division of his cavalry, all ments of the later writers render it difficult to but those who guarded his own person, to pro- fill up the blank which Xenophon has left. Here they drew up as for a reg- Many of them mention a journey made by Coular action; but the enemy, seeing them sup- non to the Persian court, and some in such a ported by the infantry, did not choose to risk a manner that it seems as if it could only be rebattle, and, wheeling round, began slowly to re-ferred to the period preceding the death of Tistreat, and were followed by them at an equally gentle pace. Agesilaus saw at once the error which the enemy had committed, and the opportunity which his own men were flinging away, and despatched the troop of horse which remained with him to give the word for a vigorous pursuit, and to set the example themselves. The Thessalians were now so warmly pressed that they had no time to wheel round and face the enemy. Many did not attempt it, and sought safety only in flight. But those who made the attempt, and among them their commander Polymachus, were taken in flank before they could complete their evolution, and were most of them slain. The flight became a mere rout, and did not cease until the fugitives had reached Mount Narthacium, part of the range of hills which skirt the Gulf of Pagasa. Agesilaus pursued his march without farther interruption, well pleased with the victory he had gained over the most renowed cavalry of Greece with squadrons formed entirely by his own training. His success, indeed, was owing less to their skill and courage than to the enemy's oversight. But the impression which the report would produce might not be the less favourable. The next day he crossed the chain of Othrys, and had a friendly country to traverse as far as the borders of Boeotia. saphernes. It appears, indeed, to have been Still, it must be owned that it is not easy to reconcile these accounts with the more authentic narrative of Ctesias, who, in the meager epitome of his Persian History now extant, appears to represent Conon as for the first time opening a correspondence with Artaxerxes while he remained at Salamis.+ Ctesias himself was intrusted with a share in the management of the negotiation, and he is said to have forged an addition to Conon's letter, by which the king was requested to send down his phynaval affairs. But, according to his own acsician, as a man who might be useful in his count, Artaxerxes, of his own accord, employed him to bear a letter to Conon, and he was probably chosen for this purpose to give Conon the stronger assurance of the king's favour and He here received intelligence of an event which deeply affected him, both as a private and a public calamity, and, while it wounded his domestic feelings, threatened ruin to the Paus., ., 9, 2. Nepos, Conon, 3. Wesseling, on most cherished of his ambitious projects: this 81, censures his author for referring CoDiodorus, xiv., was the defeat and death of his brother-in-law, Pisander, whom, as we have seen, he had in-non's journey to a later period, in contradiction to these trusted with the command of the fleet. Xeno- statements, of which he says, " omnibus aperta atque explo rata sunt." This appears also to have been Plutarch's impression, confidence. The letter seems to have contain- | he himself went up to Babylon, where he had ed a commission empowering Conon to raise a fleet at the expense of the Persian treasury, and to act as admiral in the king's service under Pharnabazus. Ctesias was also charged with a letter, the contents of which cannot be so easily divined, to the Spartan government, and he ran some risk in carrying it; for he was put upon his trial, perhaps on the charge of conspiring with Conon against the Spartan interest, but was acquitted. an interview with Artaxerxes, who granted all his requests, and, at his own desire, appointed Pharnabazus his colleague. Pharnabaans appears to have taken command of the Phoenician galleys; the Greek squadron remained under the immediate orders of Conon. As they sailed westward along the coast of Syria. Conon's squadron being some way ahead, they fell in with Pisander coming from Cnidus. According to Diodorus, his fleet consisted of eighty-fre galleys, and that of the enemy amounted alto gether to no more than ninety. But Xenophon informs us that Conon's squadron alone was so much stronger than Pisander's fleet as to spread dismay among the enemy, and that on his approach many of the allies in the left wing of the Peloponnesians immediately took to fight The rest were driven on shore, where Pisander, remaining with his ship to the last, fell, Spartanlike, sword in hand. Agesilaus thought it necessary to guard by a stratagem against the effect which the tidings of this disaster might have produced on his Asiatic troops, who had followed him with reluctance, and had now cause to be disheartened and uneasy for the safety of their homes. He therefore announced that, though Pisander himself had been slain, his fleet had been victorious; and he proceeded to offer a thanksgiving sacrifice for this joyful news. The success of this artifice, Xenophon says, was visible in the first skirmish that took place between his men and the enemy. It appears from the narrative of Diodorus, compared with that of Xenophon,† that Conon must have entered the Persian service before Agesilaus took the command in Asia. For we find that Pharax, the Spartan admiral, in the course of the expedition which he made in conjunction with Dercyllidas against Caria, laid siege to Caunus, where Conon was then lying with forty galleys, but was forced to retire by Tissaphernest and Pharnabazus, who marched with a strong force to its relief. It seems to have been not long after that Conon, having increased his fleet to eighty galleys, sailed to the Lycian Chersonesus, to take advantage of some movements which he had himself excited in Rhodes. The democratical Rhodians, animated by the assurance of his support, notwithstanding the presence of the Peloponnesian armament under Pharax, revolted from Sparta, expelled their political adversaries, compelled Pharax to withdraw, and received Conon and his fleet into their harbour. This important acquisition was attended by another of considerable value. The Spartans had concluded an alliance with Ne- He found the whole force of the hostile conphereus, or Nepherites, who at this time held federacy-perhaps not inferior in numbers to Egypt in revolt against the Persian king; and the army which had been defeated near Corinth he had sent them a present of rigging for a hun--assembled in the plain of Coronea. He had dred galleys and a large quantity of corn. The collected some re-enforcements from the Greek Egyptian convoy was on its passage to Greece cities that lay on his road; and he was now when the revolution took place at Rhodes, and, joined by the forces of Phocis and Orchomenus, sailing in ignorance of the event along the coast and received the still more welcome addition of the island, was intercepted by Conon. We of a Lacedæmonian mora from Corinth, and of have already had occasion to notice the manner half a one which had been in garrison at Orin which the revolt of Rhodes appears to have chomenus. Xenophon, however, does not venbeen connected with the fate of Dorieus.§ ture to determine the proportion which his heavy infantry bore to those of the enemy, but observes, that in light troops he was far superior, and that the numbers of the cavalry on both sides were about equal. Agesilaus himself commanded the right wing, which was op posed to the Argives. The Orchomenian troops in his extreme left fronted the Thebans. The two armies advanced towards each other in deep silence, until they were about a furlong apart. The Thebans then raised the war shout, and ran forward to the charge; and at a shorter interval the Asiatic troops of Agesilaus likewise rushed out from the body of the phalanx to meet the enemy. Their onset, as well as that of the Thebans, broke through the opposite part of the hostile line. But the Argives did not even wall to receive the charge of Agesilaus, but fled to wards Helicon, leaving him master of the field. and some of his followers were on the point of crowning him as victor, when he was informed that the Thebans, having dispersed the Orcho It was perhaps not before the following spring -that of 396, in which Agesilaus began his expedition to Asia-that Conon was re-enforced by an armament of ten Cilician and eighty Phonician galleys, commanded by a prince of Sidon. But we do not learn that he made any use of his powerful navy during the campaigns of Agesilaus; and we are informed that the want of money kept him for a time inactive. It seems most probable that he now made a journey to the Persian court for the purpose of obtaining supplies. Diodorus distinctly relates that he left the fleet in the care of two Athenians, named Hieronymus and Nicodemus,¶ while * xiv., 79. + Hell., ii., 2. Diodorus, xiv., 79, has the name of Artaphernes. But when it is considered that Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus were at this time acting together in Caria, it can scarcely be doubted that either Diodorus has made one of his usual mistakes about the name, or that his text is corrupt. Above, p. 472. Isocr., Paneg., p. 79, says that, for three years preceding the battle of Cnidus, Artaxerxes suffered his navy to be blockaded by a fleet of no more than 100 galleys, and kept his troops fifteen months without their pay; and that the armament under Conou was frequently on the point of being broken up (πολλάκις ἂν διελύθησαν). Perhaps the Nicophemus who will afterward be mentioned as Conon's intimate friend. * Diodorus, xiv., 83, may have mistaken the number ◄ Conon's Greek squadron for that of the whole Pharma fleet. It is, however, also possible that Xenophon adopted the Spartan official account of the battle without instr gating the details. Indeed, a difference of five would harey satisfy his πολὺ ἐλαττόνων. MASSACRE AT CORINTH. menians, had fallen upon his baggage. He im- tians, and Athenians, had an equal share in the mediately marched against them; and the The-conspiracy, or whether he is only speaking of bans, seeing the battle lost, were only anxious the foreign garrison. His horror is chiefly exto rejoin their allies, who had taken refuge in cited by the impiety of the murderers, who sethe hills, and for this purpose consolidated their lected a holyday for the deed, that they might ranks in the hopes of breaking through his line. be the more likely to find their enemies out of He would have acted, Xenophon thinks, more doors, and in the execution of their purpose like a prudent general, if he had opened a pas- paid no regard to the most sacred things and sage for them, and then cut them down as they places, but stained even the altars and images fled. He was perhaps swayed by personal re- of the gods with the blood of their victims. sentment, and in the hope of a more complete, Unhappily, this was no new excess of party though a less cheap and easy victory, stopped rage; but perhaps few scenes of this kind had their retreat. An obstinate conflict ensued, in been planned with more ferocious coolness, or which he received some severe wounds, but accompanied with a greater number of shockdefeated the enemy, and scattered them in all ing circumstances, though it must not be fordirections. He had just been carried back to gotten that it is Xenophon who describes it. his camp, when he was informed that some Suspicions, however, had been previously eneighty of the fugitives had taken shelter in the tertained of the plot by Pasimelus, one of the neighbouring sanctuary of the Itonian Athene. persecuted party, and at the time of the tumult Xenophon considers it as a memorable triumph a body of the younger citizens was assembled of piety over revenge, that he respected the with him, in a place of exercise, outside the asylum, and dismissed the suppliants in safety. walls. They immediately ran up to seize the Though the victory was clear, the enemy still Acrocorinthus, where they maintained themremained at hand in sufficient force to have re- selves for a time against the attacks of their newed the combat. The next day, therefore, enemies; but an unpropitious omen, probably Ages "aus ordered Gylis, the officer next in strengthening the consciousness of their weakcommand, to draw up the army in battle array, ness, made them resolve to withdraw, and to wearing their crowns in token of victory, and seek safety in exile. Yet, notwithstanding the But the impious treachery of their enemies, they were to erect the trophy to martial music. Thebans were not disposed to contest his tri-induced by the persuasions of their friends and umph, and applied for a truce to bury their slain. relatives, and by the oaths of the leading men Agesilaus then proceeded with a few followers of the opposite party, to abandon this intention to Delphi, to sacrifice a tenth of the spoil which and return to their homes. he had collected in the course of his Asiatic expedition. It amounted to not less than 100 talents. Gylis was ordered to invade Locris, which had given the first occasion or pretext of the war. But after a day's plunder, the Lacedæmonian troops returning last to their camp, were attacked by the Locrians, and having to make their way in the dark, over difficult and unknown ground, suffered some loss; Gylis himself was slain, with many of his officers; and it was only by the timely succour of their allies that they were saved from a more serious disaster. The army was then disbanded, and The reputaAgesilaus returned home by sea. tion which he had gained by his victories was heightened, when it was observed that they had wrought no change in his habits, and that he conformed to the laws and fashions of Sparta with as much simplicity as if he had never been in a foreign land. But Corinth still continued to be the theatre But their fears for their personal safety had no sooner subsided than the state of public affairs again began to appear insupportable, and they were ready to run any risk for the sake of a change. The opposite party had gone so far in their enmity to Sparta, or in their zeal for democracy, as to do their utmost towards establishing a complete unity, both of civil rights and of territory, between Corinth and Argos. The landmarks which separated the two states had been removed, so that the name either of Corinth or of Argos might be applied to the whole. But since it was Argive influence that had brought about this union-since the Argive institutions had been adopted, and the Argive franchise communicated to the Corinthiansthe discontented had some reason to complain that Corinth had lost her independence and dignity, while Argos had gained an increase of territory by the transaction. But what they bore still more impatiently was the loss of their own rank and influence, which were totally extinguished by the union; they no longer enjoyed any exclusive privileges-any rights which they did not share with the whole Argive-Corinthian commonalty; and this was a franchise which they valued no more than the condition of an alien. They therefore resolved on a desperate effort for restoring Corinth to her former station in Greece, and for recovering their own station in Corinth. Pasimelus and Alcimenes took the lead in this enterprise. They obtained a secret interview with Praxitas, the Spartan commander at Sicyon, and proposed to admit him and his troops within the walls that joined Corinth with Lechæum, her port on the western gulf. He knew the men, and embraced their offer; and, at an appointed hour of night, came, with a |