iles, whose property was given back to them, and those who
had purchased it indemnified out of the public revenue.
An embassy came about this time to Sparta from Acan-
thus and Apollonia in Chalcidice, beseeching aid against
the Olynthians. For the Olynthians, wealthy and powerful
through commerce, had formed the plan of a federation
among the cities of Chalcidice and its vicinity, using the same
laws and having one government. Some cities had volun-
tarily, others forcibly, entered into it. Pella and some other
places in Macedonia joined it; there were ambassadors from
Thebes and Athens at Olynthus; the Olynthians would soon
have the gold mines of Pangseus ; they had plenty of timber
for ship-building ; they could hire abundance of light troops
among the Thracians : it therefore, said the envoys, behoved
the Lacedaemonians to check this federation in time.
These representations had such weight in the assembly of
the Lacedaemonians and their allies, that it was voted at once
to send an army of ten thousand men to Olynthus. Any
state might give money instead of men, at the rate of three
oboles iEginetan a man : if any did not give men or money,
the Lacedaemonians were authorized to find them a stater a
day for each man. As it would take some time, however,
SEIZURE OF THE CADMEIA. 329
to collect so large a force, the envoys suggested that a Spar-
tan officer should be sent off immediately with such troops
as were at hand, for his appearance would confirm the wa-
vering, and damp the ardor of the hasty. This advice
seeming good, Eudamidas was despatched with about two
thousand Neodamodes, Scirites, and Perioecians. On his
departure he begged the Ephors to send the rest of the
Lacedaemonian troops to him under his brother Phcebidas.
When he arrived in Thrace he placed garrisons in some
of the towns, and made Potidsea his head-quarters. (Ol.
99, 3.)
Phcebidas set out soon after, and coming to Thebes, en-
camped without the town. The two Theban polemarchs,
Ismenias and Leontiadas, being of opposite parties, the for-
mer, who was of that adverse to Sparta, took no notice of
Phcebidas. Leontiadas, on the contrary, paid him great
court, and when they became intimate he proposed to put
the Cadmeia or Acropolis into his hands, and thus place
Thebes at the mercy of Sparta. Phcebidas, ambitious of
distinction, yielded a ready assent ; and in the middle of a
sultry day, when the senate was sitting in a portico in the
market, as the women were celebrating the Thesmophoria
in the Cadmeia, and the streets were mostly empty, Leon-
tiadas mounted his horse, rode out, and bringing in Phce-
bidas and his troops, led them to the Cadmeia, and gave it
up to them. He then went to the senate, and being sup-
ported by his faction, seized Ismenias, and took him away to
the Cadmeia. About four hundred of Ismenias' friends left
the city, and retired to Athens. A new polemarch was
chosen in his place from the opposite party. Leontiadas
then proceeded to Sparta, where he found great real or
pretended indignation against Phcebidas for having acted
without orders. Agesilaus said, that if what he had done
was injurious to Sparta, he ought to be punished ; but if
advantageous, the old law authorized a commander to act
of himself: it remained only to be inquired whether what
he had done was advantageous or otherwise. Leontiadas
28* pp
330 HISTORY OF GREECE.
easily showed that it was for the interest of Sparta to hold
the Cadmeia. For the sake of appearance, a fine was im-
posed on Phcebidas. Commissioners, three from Sparta and
one from each of the allies, were sent to try Ismenias, for
taking money from the King, and being the cause of discord
in Greece. He was, of course, found guilty, and executed ;
the government was committed to Leontiadas and his party,
and a Spartan harmost sent to command in the Acropolis.
After this piece of treachery, to which the history of the
Athenians affords no parallel, the Lacedaemonians proceeded
in their task of reducing the Olynthian confederacy. The
command was given to Teleutias ; the allies sent their con-
tingents, and he marched for Thrace. He sent to advise
Amyntas of Macedonia, to hire troops and form alliances, if
he would recover his dominions ; he also sent to Derdas,
prince of Elimia, to remind him that the Olynthians, if not
checked in time, would treat his kingdom like Macedonia.
Having assembled his forces at Potidasa, he entered the
Olynthian territory. An indecisive action was fought under
the walls of Olynthus, in which a body of horse, commanded
by Derdas in person, greatly distinguished itself. Teleutias
then retired, and dismissed his Macedonian and Elimian
allies for the winter.
In the spring, (01. 99, 4,) Teleutias again advanced to
Olynthus. A smart skirmish between his peltasts and the
Olynthian horse brought on a general engagement, in which
Teleutias himself was slain, and his army defeated with con-
siderable loss. When the news of this reverse reached
Lacedaemon, King Agesipolis was ordered to go and take the
command. He was attended, asAgesilaus had been in Asia,
by thirty Spartans : many Pericecians and others cheerfully
went with him, and volunteers came from the allied states.
Thessalian horsemen, ambitious of his acquaintance, joined
him on his march, and Amyntas and Derdas showed more
zeal than ever.
Without loss of time he advanced (Ol. 100, 1) to Olyn-
thus, and offered battle, which was refused. He then de-
REDUCTION OF PHLIUS. 331
stroyed the standing corn, and besieged and took the town
of Torone. But, owing to the extreme heat of the weather,
he was seized with a violent fever : the shady bowers and
cool and limpid waters, which he had a short time before seen
at the temple of Bacchus at Aphytes, came strong on his
imagination, and he requested to be carried thither. His de-
sire was complied with, and he died amidst those shades, on
the seventh day of his illness. His body was, according to
usage, put in honey, and conveyed to Sparta for interment
with those of his fathers. In his room, Polybiadas came out
as harmost. He invested Olynthus so closely, by land and
by sea, that the people were obliged to crave permission to
send deputies to Sparta to sue for peace. Peace was granted,
on condition of their becoming the allies, offensive and de-
fensive, of the Lacedaemonians; and thus theOlynthian con-
federation, which had promised so well, was broken up.
(01. 100, 2.)
Agesilaus had meantime been besieging Phlius; for the
exiles, finding they could not obtain justice against the per-
sons who held their property, had gone to Lacedaemon to
complain. The party at home, knowing that the Spartans
never sent both of their kings out of the country at the same
time, and therefore fearing no hostility, passed a decree
fining all who went unsent to Lacedaemon. They were,
however, mistaken, for the Ephors directed Agesilaus to lead
an army against Phlius. When he was on the frontiers, they
sent, tendering money, and offering to do any thing he
desired, if he would not advance. He required them to
deliver up their Acropolis, and on their refusal advanced and
circumvallated the town. As he had exact information of
the quantity of corn in it, he had calculated on its reduction
by famine against a certain time ; but nearly double the period
was past, and there were no symptoms of surrender. For
a decree had been made to consume daily but half the usual
quantity of food ; and a man named Delphion, of a daring
and energetic character, and supported by a band of three
hundred chosen men, had taken the chief command. He
332 HISTORY OF CREECE.
would not permit any one even to speak of peace ; he forced
all to mount guard in turn, and he constantly made sorties
against the besiegers. At length it was reported to Delphion
that no more food remained; he then gave permission to
treat, and time for deputies to repair to Sparta was requested.
Though indignant at the slight thus put on him, Agesilaus
granted it ; but he directed his friends at home to have all
things left to him. He watched the town more closely than
ever, that none might escape; but, in spite of his vigilance,
the brave Delphion and a faithful slave contrived to get off in
the night. A court of one hundred Phliasians, fifty of each
party, was appointed to decide who should be put to death
and who not, and then to form a constitution. Meantime a
garrison, to be fed and paid by the Phliasians, was left in
the town. The siege had lasted a year and eight months.
(Ol. 100, 2.)
The Lacedaemonian power was now at its height, and ap-
parently so secure that nothing could shake it, when a rev-
olution took place, which Xenophon, with all his partiality,
can only explain by an interference of the gods to punish
perfidy and injustice. Seven men, he declares, delivered
Thebes from the Lacedaemonians !
Phyllidas, the secretary to Archias, one of the Theban
polemarchs, having occasion to go to Athens, met there Mel-
lon, one of the exiles, with whom he was acquainted. He
did not conceal his dissatisfaction at the state of things at
home. The mode of revolution was arranged between them ;
and some time after, Mellon, taking with him six of the best
adapted of the exiles, armed only with daggers, entered the
Theban territory by night. They spent the day in a by-
place, and in the evening went in at the gates along with
those who were returning from their daily labors in the
fields. That night and the following day they staid at the
house of a man named Charon.
It was the custom of the polemarchs to celebrate the festi-
val of the Aphrodisia previous to their going out of office.
They were both men of pleasure ; and Phyllidas, who had
RECOVERY OF THE CADMEIA. 333
long promised to procure them the society of some of the
finest women in Thebes, assured them that he would now
perform his promise. When they had supped and drunk
plentifully, they urged him to keep his engagement. He
went out and brought three of Mellon' s comrades dressed as
mistresses, and three as their maids, into an inner room. He
then told Archias that the ladies would not come in if any
of the attendants remained, These were ordered away,
and Phyllidas gave them wine to take with them. He now
led in the supposed ladies, one of whom sat down beside
each. At the appointed signal, (that of removing their veils,)
they drew their daggers and slew the two polemarchs.
Taking then three of them with him, Phyllidas proceeded
to the house of Leontiadas. He knocked at the door, and
saying he was sent by the polemarchs, was admitted to the
room where he was sitting after supper, his wife spinning
at his side. They slew him, and with threats of death im-
posed silence on his wife ; then went away, ordering the
door to be shut, and vowing to return and put to death
every one in the house if it should be opened. Phyllidas
then proceeded with two of them to the prison, and called
to the keeper that he had brought a prisoner. He opened
the door; they slew him, and released the prisoners; and
giving them arms out of the portico, stationed them in the
Ampheion. Proclamation was then made for the citizens,
both horsemen and hoplites, to come forth, as the tyrants
were dead. None, however, ventured out during the night,
but with day all appeared in arms. Some of the horsemen
were then sent to the frontiers of Attica to tell of their suc-
cess to their friends there. The harmost in the Cadmeia,
when he heard the proclamation in the night, sent off to
Platoea * and Thespine for aid. The Plataeans, who were
coming, were fallen on by the Theban horse, and twenty of
them slain; and the Athenians being now arrived, the Cad-
meia was invested. Seeing their vigor and determination,
* The Plataeans had been restored after the peace of Antalcidas.
334 HISTORY OF GREECE.
and having but few men with him, the harmost offered to
surrender if the garrison were allowed to retire with their
arms. These terms were accepted and sworn to ; but such
of the Thebans as were among them were dragged out and
slain ; some of them, however, were secreted, and saved by
the Athenians. The Thebans, to their disgrace, slew even
the children of those whom they had thus put to death.
Such was the Theban revolution, which, though not equal
in moral purity to that of Athens, with which it was com-
pared, was doubtless a glorious event. It is not, however,
necessary to call, with Xenophon, the gods to aid in ex-
plaining it. It is evident from the preceding narrative that
the oligarchs had but few adherents ; when therefore they
were slain, there only remained the foreign garrison in the
Cadmeia ; and fortunately for Thebes it was composed of
the allies, not of the Lacedaemonians, and the harmost was
not a man of vigor and determination. If he had held out
for a few days, things might have taken a different turn.
The harmost was put to death on his return to Lacedae-
raon ; and, though it was now the depth of winter, an army
was sent against the Thebans. As Agesilaus, pleading his
advanced age, declined the command, it was given to the
young King Cleombrotus of the other house. (Ol. 100, 3.)
At the Isthmus, learning that the easier road by Eleutherae
was guarded by the Athenian general Chabrias, with a
body of peltasts, he took that of Plataea. His peltasts met
on the heights the Thebans who had been freed from prison
by Phyllidas, about one hundred and fifty in number, and
killed them all but a few. From Plataea he went to Thespiae.
Having encamped for sixteen days at Cynoscephalae, in the
Theban territory, he returned to Thespiae ; and leaving there
Sphodrias as harmost, with a third of his troops, and all the
money he had with him, and directing him to hire merce-
naries, he led his army home.
The Athenians, seeing every prospect of a new war, of
which Bceotia, not Corinth, would be the seat, grew terri-
fied ; and in their fears were led, probably by the friends
THE SECOND BffiOTIAN WAR. 335
of oligarchy, to condemn to death the two generals who
had aided the Theban revolution. One was actually exe-
cuted ; sentence of exile was passed on the other, who had
escaped.
But the Thebans were resolved that, if possible, the Athe-
nians should share in the war. They bribed (at least so it
was suspected) Sphodrias to make a sudden march, and try
to seize the Piraeeus, which had as yet no gates : perhaps it
was only the facility of the design that was suggested to him :
at all events he set out from Thespiae early one day, ex-
pecting to reach the Pirseeus before daylight next morning.
Day, however, broke on him at Thria, near Eleusis : he
turned back, and, instead of trying to conceal his intentions,
robbed the houses and drove off the cattle. When the news
reached Athens, all took arms to defend the city. Three
ambassadors from Lacedaemon, who happened to be present,
were taken into custody; but they made it so clear that
they could have known nothing of the design of Sphodrias,
who, they averred, would be punished for it by the govern-
ment, that they were at once set at liberty. Sphodrias was
certainly capitally prosecuted ; but, strange to say, the in-
terest of Agesilaus, influenced by his son, the friend of the
son of Sphodrias, was exerted in his favor, and he was
acquitted. This impolitic weakness and injustice had its
reward : the Boeotian party convinced the Athenian people
that the design on the Piraeeus was of a piece with the sei-
zure of the Cadmeia ; ships were built, gates put up at the
Piraeeus, and heart and hand it was resolved to stand by the
Thebans.
As Agesilaus had been in a great measure the cause of
involving his country in a war with Boeotia and Athens,
he could not, without shame, refuse it the benefit of his
military experience and talents. He accepted, therefore,
the command of the army destined for Bceotia ; and know-
ing that unless he occupied Cithaeron he should find it dif-
ficult to enter it, he looked about for troops fit for that
purpose. Just at this time the Orchomenians and Cleito-
336 HISTORY OF GREECE.
rians in Arcadia were engaged in one of those petty wars
which were evermore going on among the numerous inde-
pendent states of Greece, and the latter had taken a body
of mercenaries into their party. He arranged with the Clei-
torians to let him have the use of these troops ; and having
sent orders to the Orchomenians to suspend hostilities, he
despatched them to occupy Cithaeron. He thus reached
Thespiae in safety : but he found the plain of Thebes and the
most valuable parts of the country secured by a circular
ditch and rampart, which he could not penetrate ; and as
he led away his troops, the Theban horse used to sally out
and fall on them. Observing that the enemy did not
usually appear till after breakfast-time, Agesilaus led his
troops out one morning at daybreak, and penetrated an un-
guarded part of the rampart. The plain was now at his
mercy, and he ravaged it up to the walls of the city. He
then returned to Thespiae ; and having fortified it, and left
Phoebidas as harmost, he led back his army to Pelopon-
nesus.
Phoebidas so harassed the Thebans, by constantly sending
out plundering parties, that they at length marched all their
forces to Thespiae. But he hung on them with his peltasts
wherever they went, so that they could not venture to quit
their phalanx. Wearied and vexed, they were returning in
such haste that their mule-drivers threw the corn they had
taken off their beasts, that it might not impede them. Phoe-
bidas, confident of giving them a defeat, pressed on with
his peltasts, directing the Thespian hoplites to follow. The
Theban horse, happening to come to a deep and apparently
impassable glen, made a halt and turned round ; the few
peltasts who were most in advance fled ; the Theban horse
charged ; Phoebidas himself and some others were slain ; all
the peltasts then fled; the Thespian hoplites caught the
panic, and fled also, and never stopped till they were within
their own walls. The Thebans could now go unopposed
whithersoever they pleased ; the people in all the towns were
in their favor, and the governing parties (dwaarelai) in
THE SECOND BffiOTIAN WAR. 337
them stood in the utmost need of aid. A Spartan polemarch
and a mora came by sea to garrison Thespiae.
In the spring, (Ol. 100, 4,) Agesilaus prepared to invade
Bceotia again. He sent directions to the polemarch at Thes-
piae to occupy Cithaeron ; and having thus safely reached
Plataea, he made as if he were going direct to Thespiae, or-
dering a market to be ready, and the different embassies
to meet him there. The Thebans moved all their forces in
that direction ; but Agesilaus, setting out at daybreak on
the road to Erythrae, and making a two days' march in one,
got within their works at that side, and ravaged all the
country east of Thebes to the borders of Tanagra. The
Thebans hastened to defend their lands : some indecisive
skirmishing of the horse and light troops took place ; but
Agesilaus made his way good to Thespiae, and having set
matters in order in that town, he returned with his troops
to Peloponnesus.
The following spring, (01. 101, 1,) Agesilaus having burst
a blood-vessel in his leg, the command of the army was in-
trusted to Cleombrotus ; but, unlike his able colleague, he
never thought of occupying Cithaeron till he was at its foot.
He then sent forward his peltasts; but it was too late; the
Thebans and Athenians, who were already there, chased
them down. Cleombrotus, thinking a passage now out of
the question, retired, and dismissed his army.
In the congress of the allies which met at Lacedaemon,
great complaint was made of the way in which their means
were squandered away. It was asserted that they might
get a fleet to sea far superior to that of the Athenians, with
which they could blockade Athens and transport troops to
any point of Bceotia. Accordingly, sixty triremes were sent
out under Pollis, which were stationed at .zEgina, Ceos, and
Andros. The Athenian corn-ships stopped at Geraestos in
Euboea, fearing to advance ; and the Athenians, seeing that
they must fight or want food, got on board their ships, and,
led by Chabrias, gave Pollis a defeat off Naxos, and brought
their corn home. The Thebans, as the Lacedaemonians were
29 QQ
338 HISTORY OF GREECE.
preparing to invade their country again, sent to pray that
the Athenians would send a fleet round Peloponnesus to
create a diversion ; and as they were now highly incensed
with the Lacedaemonians, they sent out a fleet of sixty
ships under Timotheus, the son of Conon. Timotheus
directed his course to Corcyra, which he brought over to the
Athenian interest; and the historian remarks, as a thing
worthy of note, that none were made slaves, none exiled,
and no change made in the laws on this occasion. He soon
after defeated a Peloponnesian fleet which was sent out
against him. The Thebans, meantime, took advantage of
the diversion to bring all the neighboring Boeotian towns
to their former state of subjection ; and having accomplished
this, they turned their arms against their old enemies the
Phocians. Unable to resist single-handed, the Phocians
sent to Lacedaemon for aid, and Cleombrotus crossed the
gulf with four morse and a part of the allies to protect them ;
the Thebans retired when they saw this accession of force.
(Ol. 101, 2.)
The Athenians, seeing that all the advantages of the war
fell to the Thebans, who did not even contribute to the ex-
penses of the navy, while all the losses were theirs, grew
weary of it, and sending an embassy to Sparta, concluded
a separate peace. (Ol. 101,3.) Two of the ambassadors
then sailed off to recall Timotheus : he obeyed the summons ;
but as he was passing Zacynthus, he landed the exiles of
that island. The party in power sent off a complaint to
Lacedaemon ; and the government there, jealous perhaps of
any interference with their allies, declared that the Athe-
nians had violated the peace. The allies were called on for
their contingents, and a fleet of sixty ships, under Mnasippus,
sailed to attack Corcyra. This island, after so many years'
tranquillity, was now in a most flourishing condition ; it
was cultivated like a garden, and was covered with large
and handsome buildings of every kind. Mnasippus landed
his troops and committed the usual ravages of war ; he then
encamped on an eminence about five stadia from the town,
THE SECOND B(EOTIAN WAR. 339
on the other side of which he fixed his naval camp, and, when
the weather permitted, he placed a part of his fleet before
the port, thus shutting in the city on all sides.
The Corcyraeans, being reduced to great straits, sent to
Athens, representing how injurious it would be to the Athe-
nian interest if an island so wealthy and so advantageously
situated should fall under the power of their enemies. The
people saw the force of these arguments, and it was re-
solved to aid them. Stesicles was sent off at once with
six hundred peltasts over land, and he got into the town by
night : a fleet of sixty triremes was decreed, and the com-
mand given to Timotheus; but this general, not deeming
such crews as he could get at Athens good enough, went
round the island selecting men. The people, losing patience,
transferred the command to Iphicrates ; and this active gen-
eral, having received permission to press any ship on the
Attic coast, exerted himself so effectually, that he was soon
able to put to sea with a fleet of seventy ships. (Ol. 101, 4.)
Meantime, the Corcyraeans were suffering from famine;
and such numbers of slaves deserted to the enemy in con-
sequence of it, that Mnasippus had proclamation made that
he would sell all deserters. This not checking the practice,
he flogged them and sent them back : the Corcyraeans would
not readmit them, and numbers perished with hunger be-
neath the walls.* Mnasippus was now so confident of re-
ducing the town, that he dismissed a part of his mercenaries,
* It is evident from Xenophon's narrative that the deserters were
none but slaves. Mitford, although Mnasippus was not the general of
a democracy, justly reprehends the barbarous action. He might also
have remembered that Marshal Rosen, the general of the monarch Louis
XIV., commanding for another monarch, James II., at the siege of
Derry, in Ireland, collected the Protestants from the adjoining counties,
and drove them under the walls of Derry to starve. Is the act of
Mnassippus to be compared with this ? Has Grecian history, by the
way, any thing to compete with the wasting of the Palatinate by the