them--helots, enfranchised, inferiors, provincials, one and all.[6] Note their demeanour when Spartans chance to be the topic of their talk. Not one of them can conceal the delight it would give him if he might eat up every Spartan raw.''[7] Then, as the inquiry went on, the question came: 'And where did they propose to find arms?' The answer followed: 'He explained that those of us, of course, who are enrolled in regiments have arms of our own already, and as for the mass--he led the way to the war foundry, and showed me scores and scores of knives, of swords, of spits, hatchets, and axes, and reaping-hooks. 'Anything or everything,' he told me, 'which men use to delve in earth, cut timber, or quarry stone, would serve our purpose; nay, the instruments used for other arts would in nine cases out of ten furnish weapons enough and to spare, especially when dealing with unarmed antagonists.'' Once more being asked what time the affair was to come off, he replied his orders were 'not to leave the city.'
[4] 'Pol. Lac.' xv. 2.
[5] For the {omoioi}, see Muller, 'Dorians,' iii. 5, 7 (vol. ii. p. 84); Grote, 'H. G.' ix. 345, note 2.
[6] For the neodamodes, hypomeiones, perioeci, see Arnold, 'Thuc.' v. 34; Muller, 'Dorians,' ii. 43, 84, 18; Busolt, op. cit. p 16.
[7] See 'Anab.' IV. viii. 14; and Hom. 'Il.' iv. 34.
As the result of their inquiry the ephors were persuaded that the man's statements were based upon things he had really seen,[8] and they were so alarmed that they did not even venture to summon the Little Assembly,[9] as it was named; but holding informal meetings among themselves--a few senators here and a few there--they determined to send Cinadon and others of the young men to Aulon, with instructions to apprehend certain of the inhabitants and helots, whose names were written on the scytale (or scroll).[10] He had further instructions to capture another resident in Aulon; this was a woman, the fashionable beauty of the place--supposed to be the arch- corruptress of all Lacedaemonians, young and old, who visited Aulon. It was not the first mission of the sort on which Cinadon had been employed by the ephors. It was natural, therefore, that the ephors should entrust him with the scytale on which the names of the suspects were inscribed; and in answer to his inquiry which of the young men he was to take with him, they said: 'Go and order the eldest of the Hippagretae[11] (or commanders of horse) to let you have six or seven who chance to be there.' But they had taken care to let the commander know whom he was to send, and that those sent should also know that their business was to capture Cinadon. Further, the authorities instructed Cinadon that they would send three waggons to save bringing back his captives on foot-- concealing as deeply as possible the fact that he, and he alone, was the object of the mission. Their reason for not securing him in the city was that they did not really know the extent of the mischief; and they wished, in the first instance, to learn from Cinadon who his accomplices were before these latter could discover they were informed against and effect their escape. His captors were to secure him first, and having learnt from him the names of his confederates, to write them down and send them as quickly as possible to the ephors. The ephors, indeed, were so much concerned about the whole occurrence that they further sent a company of horse to assist their agents at Aulon.[12] As soon as the capture was effected, and one of the horsemen was back with the list of names taken down on the information of Cinadon, they lost no time in apprehending the soothsayer Tisamenus and the rest who were the principals in the conspiracy. When Cinadon[13] himself was brought back and cross-examined, and had made a full confession of the whole plot, his plans, and his accomplices, they put to him one final question: 'What was your object in undertaking this business?' He answered: 'I wished to be inferior to no man in Lacedaemon.' Let that be as it might, his fate was to be taken out forthwith in irons, just as he was, and to be placed with his two hands and his neck in the collar, and so under scourge and goad to be driven, himself and his accomplices, round the city. Thus upon the heads of those was visited the penalty of their offences.
[8] 'And pointed to a well-concerted plan.'
[9] See Grote, 'H. G.' ix. 348.
[10] See Thuc. i. 131; Plut. 'Lys.' 19 (Clough, iii. p. 125).
[11] 'The Hippagretes (or commander of the three hundred guards called horsemen, though they were not really mounted).' Grote, 'H. G.' vol. ix. p. 349; see 'Pol. Lac.' iv. 3.
[12] Or, 'to those on the way to Aulon.'
[13] See for Cinadon's case, Arist. 'Pol.' v. 7, 3.
IV
B.C. 397.[1] It was after the incidents just recorded that a Syracusan named Herodas brought news to Lacedaemon. He had chanced to be in Phoenicia with a certain shipowner, and was struck by the number of Phoenician triremes which he observed, some coming into harbour from other ports, others already there with their ships' companies complete, while others again were still completing their equipments. Nor was it only what he saw, but he had heard say further that there were to be three hundred of these vessels all told; whereupon he had taken passage on the first sailing ship bound for Hellas. He was in haste to lay this information before the Lacedaemonians, feeling sure that the king and Tissaphernes were concerned in these preparations-- though where the fleet was to act, or against whom, he would not venture to predict.
[1] See Grote, 'H. G.' ix. 353, for chronology, etc.
These reports threw the Lacedaemonians into a flutter of expectation and anxiety. They summoned a meeting of the allies, and began to deliberate as to what ought to be done. Lysander, convinced of the enormous superiority of the Hellenic navy, and with regard to land forces drawing an obvious inference from the exploits and final deliverance of the troops with Cyrus, persuaded Agesilaus, to undertake a campaign into Asia, provided the authorities would furnish him with thirty Spartans, two thousand of the enfranchised,[2] and contingents of the allies amounting to six thousand men. Apart from these calculations, Lysander had a personal object: he wished to accompany the king himself, and by his aid to re-establish the decarchies originally set up by himself in the different cities, but at a later date expelled through the action of the ephors, who had issued a fiat re-establishing the old order of constitution.
[2] Technically, 'neodamodes.'
B.C. 396. To this offer on the part of Agesilaus to undertake such an expedition the Lacedaemonians responded by presenting him with all he asked for, and six months' provisions besides. When the hour of departure came he offered all such sacrifices as are necessary, and lastly those 'before crossing the border,'[3] and so set out. This done, he despatched to the several states[4] messengers with directions as to the numbers to be sent from each, and the points of rendezvous; but for himself he was minded to go and do sacrifice at Aulis, even as Agamemnon had offered sacrifice in that place ere he set sail for Troy. But when he had reached the place and had begun to sacrifice, the Boeotarchs[5] being apprised of his design, sent a body of cavalry and bade him desist from further sacrificing;[6] and lighting upon victims already offered, they hurled them from off the altars, scattering the fragments. Then Agesilaus, calling the gods to witness, got on board his trireme in bitter indignation, and sailed away. Arrived at Geraestus, he there collected as large a portion of his troops as possible, and with the armada made sail for Ephesus.
[3] 'Pol. Lac.' xiii. 2 foll.
[4] Or, 'To the several cities he had already despatched messengers with directions,' etc.; see Paus. III. ix. 1 -3.
[5] See Freeman, 'Hist. of Federal Government,' ch. iv. 'Constitution of the Boeotian League,' pp. 162, 163. The Boeotarchs, as representatives of the several Boeotian cities, were the supreme military commanders of the League, and, as it would appear, the general administrators of Federal affairs. 'The Boeotarchs of course command at Delion, but they also act as administrative magistrates of the League by hindering Agesilaus from sacrificing at Aulis.'
[6] Plut. 'Ages.' vi.; 'Pelop.' xxi. See Breitenb. op. cit. Praef. p. xvi.; and below, III. v. 5; VI. iv. 23.
When he had reached that city the first move was made by Tissaphernes, who sent asking, 'With what purpose he was come thither?' And the Spartan king made answer: 'With the intention that the cities in Asia shall be independent even as are the cities in our quarter of Hellas.' In answer to this Tissaphernes said: 'If you on your part choose to make a truce whilst I send ambassadors to the king, I think you may well arrange the matter, and sail back home again, if so you will.' 'Willing enough should I be,' replied Agesilaus, 'were I not persuaded that you are cheating me.' 'Nay, but it is open to you,' replied the satrap, 'to exact a surety for the execution of the terms . . . 'Provided always that you, Tissaphernes, carry out what you say without deceit, we on our side will abstain from injuring your dominion in any respect whatever during the truce.''[7] Accordingly in the presence of three commissioners--Herippidas, Dercylidas, and Megillus--Tissaphernes took an oath in the words prescribed: 'Verily and indeed, I will effect peace honestly and without guile.' To which the commissioners, on behalf of Agesilaus, swore a counter-oath: 'Verily and indeed, provided Tissaphernes so acts, we on our side will observe the
