But perhaps, my lord,' replied Lysander, I have been injured by false reports, and things I never did have been imputed to me. I must beg therefore, if it be only upon account of the strangers, who have all of them their eyes upon us, that you would give me an employment in your army, wherein you shall think me least capable of displeasing, and most of serving you effectually.'

The result of this conversation was, that Agesilaus gave him the lieutenancy of the Hellespont. In this employment he retained all his resentment, without however neglecting any part of his duty, or omitting any step that might conduce to the success of affairs. Some short time after he returned to Sparta, without any marks of honour or distinction, extremely incensed against Agesilaus, and trusting to make him feel his resentment very sensibly.

It must be allowed that Lysander's conduct, as we have here represented it, denotes a vanity and narrowness of mind on his side, highly unworthy of his reputation. Perhaps Agesilaus carried too far his sensibility and delicacy on the point of honour, and was a little too severe upon a friend and benefactor, whom a secret reprimand, attended with frankness and expressions of kindness, might have reclaimed to his duty. But, brilliant as Lysander's merit, and considerable as the services he had rendered Agesilaus, might be, they could not all of them give him a right, not only to an equality with his king and general, but to the superiority he affected, which in some measure tended to make the other insignificant. He ought to have remembered, that it is never allowable for an inferior to forget himself, and to exceed the bounds of a just subordination.

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Upon his return to Sparta he had it seriously in his thoughts to execute a project, which he had many years revolved in his mind. At Sparta there were only two families, or rather branches, of the posterity of Hercules, who had a right to the throne. When Lysander had attained to that high degree of power which his great actions had acquired him, he began to see with pain a city, whose glory had been so much augmented by his exploits, under the government of

• Plut. Lysand. p. 447, 448. Diod. 1. xiv. p. 244, 245.

princes to whom he was inferior neither in valour nor birth; for he was descended, as well as themselves, from Hercules. He therefore sought means to deprive those two houses of the sole succession to the crown, and to extend that right to all the other branches of the Heraclidæ, and even, according to some, to all the natives of Sparta; flattering himself, that if his design took effect, no Spartan could be capable of disputing that honour with him, and that he should have the preference over all others.

This ambitious project of Lysander shows, that the greatest captains are often those from whom a republic has most to apprehend. Those haughty, valiant spirits, accustomed to absolute power in armies, bring back with victory a daring loftiness of mind, always to be dreaded in a free state. Sparta, in giving Lysander unlimited power, and leaving it for so many years in his hands, did not sufficiently consider, that nothing is more dangerous than to confide to persons of superior merit and abilities employments which confer supreme authority, which naturally exposes them to the temptation of rendering themselves independent, and retaining in their own hands absolute power. Lysander was not proof against it, and practised secretly to open himself a way to the throne.

The undertaking was bold, and required long preparations. He thought it impossible to succeed without he could first, through fear of the divinity and the terrors of superstition, amaze and subdue the citizens into a more easy disposition to receive what he wanted to have them understand; for he knew that at Sparta, as well as throughout all Greece, nothing of the least importance was determined, without the oracle's being previously consulted. He strove by great presents to influence the priests and priestesses of Delphi, Dodona, and Ammon; though ineffectually at that time; and the latter even sent ambassadors to Sparta, to accuse him of impiety and sacrilege; but he extricated himself from that difficulty by his credit and address.

It was necessary to set other engines at work. A woman in the kingdom of Pontus, affirming that she was with child by Apollo, had been delivered some years before of a son, to whom the name of Silenus was given, and the greatest persons

›f that nation had contended with eagerness for the honour of nursing and educating him. Lysander, taking this wondrous birth for the commencement, and in a manner the groundwork, of the plot he was meditating, supplied the rest himself, by employing a good number of persons, and those of no inconsiderable station, to spread abroad, by way of prologue to the piece, the miraculous birth of this infant; and, as they did this without the appearance of any affectation, people were disposed to believe it. This being done, they brought certain rumours from Delphi to Sparta, which were industriously spread abroad every where: that the priests of the temple had in their custody some books of very ancient oracles, which they kept concealed from all the world, and of which it was not permitted, either for them or any other persons whatsoever, to have any knowledge; and that only a son of Apollo, whc was to come in process of time, after having given undoubted proofs of his birth to those who had the books in their keeping, was to take and carry them away.

All this being well arranged, Silenus was to present himself to the priests, and to demand those oracles as the son of Apollo; and the priests, who were in the secret, as actors well prepared and fully instructed in their parts, were on their side to make the most exact and circumstantial inquiry into every thing, not without affecting great difficulty, and asking endless questions for the full proof of his birth. At length, as absolutely convinced that this Silenus was the real son of Apollo, they were to produce the books, and deliver them to him; after which, this son of Apollo was to read the prophecies contained in them, in the presence of all the world; and particularly that for which the whole contrivance had been fabricated. The purport of this prediction was, 'That it was more expedient and advantageous for the Spartans to elect no king for the future but the most worthy of their citizens.' Lysander in consequence was to mount the tribunal, to harangue the citizens, and induce them to make this alteration. Cleon of Halicarnassus, a celebrated rhetorician, had composed a very eloquent discourse for him upon the subject, which he had got by heart.

Silenus, when grown up, having repaired to Greece in order

to play his part, Lysander had the mortification to see his piece miscarry, by the timidity and desertion of one of his principal actors, who broke his word, and disappeared at the very instant it was to have been performed. Though this intrigue had been carried on a great while, it was transacted with so much secresy to the very time that it was to have made its appearance, that nothing of it was known during the life of Lysander. How it came to light after his death we shall soon relate, but must at present return to Tissaphernes.

SECT. III. EXPEDITION OF AGESILAUS IN ASIA. DISGRACE AND DEATH OF TISSAPHERNES. SPARTA GIVES AGESILAUS THE COMMAND OF ITS ARMIES BY SEA AND LAND. HE DEPUTES PISANDER TO COMMAND THE FLEET. INTERVIEW OF AGESILAUS WITH PHARNABASUS.- When Tissaphernes had received the troops sent to him by the king, and drawn together all his forces, he sent to command Agesilaus to retire out of Asia, and declared war against him in case of refusal. His officers were all alarmed, not believing him in a condition to oppose the great army of the Persian king. For himself, he heard Tissaphernes's heralds with a gay and easy countenance, and bade them tell their master, that he was under a very great obligation to him for having made the gods, by his perjury, the enemies of Persia and the friends of Greece.' He promised himself great things from this expedition, and would have thought it an exceeding disgrace for him, that ten thousand Greeks, under the command of Xenophon, should have passed through the heart of Asia to the Grecian sea, and beaten the king of Persia as often as he appeared against them; and that he who commanded the Lacedæmonians, whose empire extended all over Greece by sea and land, should not execute some brilliant exploit worthy of remembrance.

At first, therefore, to take vengeance for the perfidy of Tissaphernes by a just and allowable deceit, he made a feint of marching his army into Caria, the residence of that satrap; and as soon as the barbarian had caused all his troops to march that way, he turned short, and fell upon Phrygia, where

Xenoph. Hist. Græc, 1. iii. p. 497--502. De Agesil. p. 652-656. Agesil. p. 600.

Plut. in

he took many towns, and amassed immense treasures, which he distributed amongst the officers and soldiers; letting his friends see, says Plutarch, that to break a treaty, and violate an oath, is to despise the gods themselves: and that, on the contrary, to deceive an enemy by the stratagems of war, is not only just and glorious, but a sensible delight attended with the greatest advantages.

The spring being come, he assembled all his forces at Ephesus; and to exercise his soldiers, he proposed prizes both for the horse and foot. This small inducement set every thing in motion. The place for exercises was perpetually full of all kinds of troops, and the city of Ephesus seemed only a palæstra, and a school of war. The whole market-place was filled with horses and arms, and the shops with different kinds of military equipages. Agesilaus was seen returning from the exercises, followed by a crowd of officers and soldiers, all of them crowned with wreaths, which they were going to deposit in the temple of Diana, to the great admiration and delight of every one. For, says Xenophon, where piety and discipline are seen to flourish, the best hopes must be conceived.

To give his soldiers new valour by inspiring them with contempt for their enemies, he made use of this contrivance. He one day ordered the commissaries, who had charge of the booty, to strip the prisoners and expose them to sale. There were abundance who were ready to buy their habits; but as to the prisoners, their bodies were so soft, white, and delicate, having been nurtured and brought up in the shade, that they laughed at them, as of neither service nor value. Agesilaus took this occasion to approach and say to his soldiers, pointing to the men, See there against whom you fight;' and showing them their rich spoils, and there for what you fight.

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When the season for taking the field returned, Agesilaus gave out that he would march into Lydia. Tissaphernes, who had not forgotten the first stratagem he had used in regard to him, and was not willing to be deceived a second time, made his troops march directly for Caria; not doubting but at this time Agesilaus would turn his arms that way; the rather because it was natural for him, as he wanted cavalry, to endeavour to make a rough and difficult country the seat of action,