the Egos-pot'amos (Goat's river), and totally annihilated their navy, with the exception of eight galleys, which, by the prudent management of Cónon, escaped to the island of Cyprus (B. c. 406). Lysan'der, having thus virtually put an end to the Peloponnesian war, merci lessly butchered his unfortunate prisoners, to the amount of three thousand.

Before sailing against Athens, Lysan'der reduced the principal maritime states, and thus prevented the import of grain into the devoted city. When he deemed that famine had sufficiently prepared the way for success, he appeared before the harbor with a fleet of one hundred and fifty sail, while A'gis, the king of Sparta, attacked the city by land.

The Athenians made an obstinate defence; but they were at length forced to surrender, on the humiliating conditions of abolishing the democracy, and intrusting the chief power to thirty persons named by the Spartans, surrendering all their ships but twelve, resigning all claim to their colonies and foreign possessions, and consenting to follow the Spartan standard in war. Harsh as were these conditions, they were mercy compared to the sanguinary measures proposed by the Thebans and Corinthians. The Athenians submitted in bitter sorrow. On the sixteenth of May (в. c. 404), the anniversary of the memorable victory of Salʼamis, the harbors and forts of Athens were occupied by her enemies, and the demolition of her walls commenced amid loud shouts and flourishes of martial music: while her citizens, broken-hearted, hid themselves from the light of day.

But the Spartans did not believe their triumph secure while Alcibíades lived to reanimate the hopes of the Athenians, and perhaps procure for them the aid of the Persians. He had detected the hostile plans of Cy'rus the younger against his brother Artaxer'xes, which the crafty Lysan'der secretly encouraged, and desired to be escorted to Susa, in order to reveal the plot to the king. Pharnabázus dreaded the consequence of such a discovery: he therefore readily listened to the suggestions of Lysan'der, and sent a body of assassins to murder the illustrious exile. Alcibíades was living in a Phrygian village unconscious of his danger. Such was the fame of his valor, that the murderers were afraid to attack him openly, and set fire to his house. The brave Athenian rushed through the flames, and clove down the foremost of the assassins, but the rest overwhelmed him with showers of darts, and he fell by a multitude of wounds. The Athenians paid an involuntary and extraordinary homage to his talents, for they at once abandoned themselves to despair, and made no effort to retrieve the hapless condition of their country.

SECTION V.-Tyrannical Rule of Sparta.-Third Peloponnesian War.

FROM B. C. 404 TO B. c. 361.

THE Confederates had destroyed the supremacy of Athens, but soon found that they had thereby subjected themselves to the galling tyranny of the Spartans. Lysan'der proved to be the worst oppressor that had

ever been raised to power; and the Greek cities in Asia would have gladly chosen the non-despotism of Persia, in preference to his avarice and cruelty. But, to secure her power, Sparta had established an oli garchy of her creatures in every state, and supported those domestic tyrannies with arms and money. The power of the thirty tyrants at Athens was secured and maintained by a Spartan garrison in the Acrop'olis: thus supported, these despots set no bounds to their cruelty and rapacity, putting to death all who possessed wealth or political influence, and enriching themselves by confiscations.

The city seemed to possess only two classes of inhabitants, the ready instruments of cruelty and the patient victims of tyranny; three thousand miscreants were found to act as a bodyguard to the tyrants; all the other citizens were disarmed, and those who were suspected or attached to the ancient constitution, were either murdered or driven into exile. The dockyards were demolished in order to cripple the commercial enterprise of the Athenians; the bema, or pulpit on the Pnyx, was turned to the land side, that the view of the sea might not awaken glorious recollections, or revive patriotic emotions, and all instruction in oratory was strictly prohibited.

Although the Thebans had been the most inveterate enemies of the Athenians, their hearts were affected by witnessing the evils brought upon their rivals by the cruelty of the tyrants, and they received with generous kindness those who fled from the persecution of the despots. A numerous band of exiles was soon assembled at Thebes, and at its head was placed Thrasyb'ulus, whose daring valor was tempered by prudence and humanity. Under his guidance the exiles seized Phy'le, a strong fortress on the frontiers of At'tica and Baótia, whence they opened a communication with the enemies of the tyrants in the city. Justly terrified, the thirty and their partisans flew to arms, but they suf fered a shameful defeat; and Thrasyb'ulus, strengthened by the accession of new partisans, seized the Peira'us. The aristocratic faction, in great alarm, deposed the thirty and elected ten new magistrates in their stead, who emulated the wickedness of their predecessors, and, to secure their power sought assistance from Sparta. Lysan'der quickly advanced to their aid, and blockaded the Peiræ'us; but his pride and ambition had given deep offence in Sparta; and Pausanias, the most popular of the Lacedæmonian princes, hastily marched with a second army to frustrate the plans of Lysan'der. Under the protection of Pausánias the despots were stripped of power, the ancient constitution of Athens restored, and the Spartan garrison withdrawn from the citadel (B. C. 403). Some of the tyrants retired with their followers to Eleus'is; but their unequal hostility was easily defeated by the vigor of the new republic. A few of the most obnoxious were put to death: the rest were pardoned by a general act of amnesty, which was ratified by the people on the motion of Thrasyb'ulus.

Scarcely had the constitution been restored, when the Athenians showed how greatly their national character had been deteriorated, by condemning the virtuous Soc'rates to death on a frivolous charge of impiety (B. C. 400). His death was worthy of his useful and honorable life; he submitted to the injustice of his countrymen without murmuring or repining, and spent his last moments in impressing on the minds of his friends,

who remained faithful to him, those sublime lessons of philosophy which his eloquent disciple Plato has transmitted to posterity.

Another disciple of Soc'rates was at the same time less honorably engaged as a hireling soldier in Asia. Daríus Nóthus, at his death, bequeathed the crown of Persia to his eldest son Artaxerxes, surnamed Mnémon from the strength of his memory. Cy'rus, his younger brother, was stimulated by the queen dowager Parysátis, to claim the kingdom, on the ground of his having been born the son of a king, while the birth of Artaxer'xes took place while Daríus was as yet in a private station. Cy'rus, while governor of lower Asia, had earned the gratitude of Lysan'der and the Spartans, by supplying them with money to carry on the war against Athens, and in return he obtained their permission to raise an auxiliary force in Greece to aid his intended rebellion. Thirteen thousand adventurers soon enrolled themselves under his standard, consisting not only of the Spartans and their allies, but of some renegade Athenians, among whom was Xen'ophon, the celebrated historian. With these auxiliaries, and an army of one hundred thousand of his own provincials, Cy'rus invaded Upper Asia, and advanced with little difficulty into Babylónia (B. c. 400). Here he encountered his brother's immense army, and rashly charging the centre of the royal guards, was slain on the field. His army, according to the usual custom of Asiatics, dispersed immediately; and the Greeks were left almost alone in the midst of a hostile country, to effect a difficult retreat of more than a thousand miles. Their leaders proposed terms of accommodation to the Persians. They were invited to a conference, under the pretence of arranging the preliminaries, and were mercilessly butchered. Undismayed, they chose new commanders; and after enduring incredible hardships, succeeded in fighting their way to their native country. Thus gloriously ended "the retreat of the ten thousand;" but nothing can excuse the original guilt of the expedition.

The remnant of the ten thousand entered into the service of the Spartans, who had sent an army to protect the Greek cities of Asia from the threatened vengeance of Artaxerxes. A desultory war ensued, productive of no important result, until the command of the Greek forces was given to Agesilaus, who had been raised to the throne of Lacónia by the influence and intrigues of Lysan'der. Agesiláus departed for Asia just as the Spartans had escaped from the peril of a plot formed for their destruction by the subject Lacedæmonians, at the instigation of the ambitious Cin'adon (B. c. 396). Lysan'der, the author of his greatness, accompanied Agesiláus, hoping to re-establish the influence which he had formerly possessed in the Asiatic cities. But Agesilaus treated him with the most mortifying neglect, and Lysan'der returned home, unpitied, to bewail his friend's ingratitude. The Spartan monarch, thus freed from a dangerous rival, then directed his entire attention to the war, and defeated the Persians in several battles. It is very probable that Agesiláus would have shaken the throne of Artaxer'xes, had not the atrocious tyranny of his countrymen provoked the general enmity of all the Greek states, and kindled a new Peloponnesian war.

Under the most frivolous pretences, Lysan'der and the Spartan king Pausanias were sent to invade the Theban territories. The former laid

siege to Haliar'tus, the latter encamped in the neighborhood of Platæ'æ. The garrison of Haliar'tus, taking advantage of this division of the hostile forces, made a sudden sally, and defeated the Spartans with great slaughter, Lysan'der himself being slain (B. c. 394). Pausanias obtained leave to bury the dead, on condition of evacuating Bœótia; and he returned disgraced to the Peloponnésus, where he soon died of a broken heart.

The news of this event revived the courage of the enemies of Spar'ta; a league for mutual protection was formed by the republics of Argos, Thebes, Athens, and Corinth, to which most of the colonies in Thrace and Macedon acceded. Agesilaus was immediately recalled from Asia, and he obeyed the summons with great promptitude, leaving his fleet, and a portion of the Asiatic army, under the charge of his kinsman Pisan'der. Cónon, one of the ten admirals, who had been exposed to the anger of the Athenian populace after the seafight at Arginúsæ, found a generous protector in Evag'oras, king of Cy'prus, by whom he was introduced to the notice of Artaxerxes. The Persian monarch, alarmed at the progress of Agesilaus, gladly supplied Cónon with the means of fitting out a fleet which might cope with that of Spar'ta. Knowing the vanity and inexperience of Pisan'der, Cónon sailed in quest of the Lacedæmonians to the Dorian shore; and off the harbor of Cnídus gained a decisive victory, by which the Spartan navy was annihilated, and its empire over the maritime states irretrievably destroyed. With consummate skill Cónon availed himself of this success to restore not only the independence of Athens, but her supremacy in the Ægean sea. He conducted his victorious fleet to the principal islands and colonies, and, either by persuasion or menace, induced them to renew their allegiance to their ancient mistress.

Agesilaus received the intelligence of this unexpected reverse just as he was about to engage a Theban army at Coroneía (B. c. 394). He animated his soldiers by falsely reporting that the Spartan fleet had been victorious; but even this stratagem failed to gain him decisive success. He won the battle, indeed, but at such a heavy cost that his victory was nearly as calamitous as a defeat. The best and bravest of the Spartan veterans fell, and Agesiláus himself was dangerously wounded. The battles of Cnidus and Coroneía were the only important engagements in this war, which lasted nearly eight years; both parties exhausted their strength in petty skirmishes in the neighborhood of Corinth; and that wealthy city was almost wholly destroyed by the rivalry of the Argive and Spartan factions.

Cónon having employed the Persian money to rebuild the walls of Athens, and the Persian fleet to restore its maritime supremacy, became suspected by Artaxer'xes of designing to raise a revolt of the Greeks in Asia; and this suspicion was fostered by Spartan emissaries, who offered to abandon, in the name of their government, the cause of Grecian liberty, provided that the Persian monarch would grant favorable terms of peace. Artaxer'xes listened to the treacherous proposals; Cónon was seized and murdered in prison; articles of peace were arranged with the Spartan Antal'cidas, by which the liberty of the Greek cities was sacrificed, and the independence of all the minor republics proclaimed. The Persian monarch and the Spartan republic took upon

themselves to enforce the latter regulation, which was designed to prevent Athens from maintaining her superiority over the maritime states, and Thebes from becoming mistress of the Boeotian cities (B. c. 387). The disgraceful peace of Antal'cidas, by which the Spartans resigned the free cities of Asia to a barbarian, in order to gratify their unworthy jealousies, sufficiently proves that the selfish policy inculcated by the laws of Lycurgus was as ruinous as it was scandalous.

The city of Olyn'thus, in the Macedonian peninsula, having incurred the resentment of the Spartans, an army was sent to reduce it; but this was found no easy task; and it was not until after a war of four years, in which the Spartans suffered many severe defeats, that the Olynthians were forced to accept a peace on very humiliating conditions. In the course of this war, Pha'bidas, a Spartan general, in violation of the laws of nations, seized the Cadmeía, or citadel of Thebes, then enjoying a profound peace; and his crime was justified and rewarded by Agesiláus (B. c. 383). The chief of the Theban patriots fled to Athens, where they were kindly received; an oligarchy of traitors was established under the protection of the Spartan garrison; and Thebes was doomed to the misery that Athens had endured under the thirty tyrants.

Pelop'idas, one of the Theban exiles, stimulated by the recent example of Thrasyb'lus, concerted, with a friend who had remained in Thebes, a bold plan for the liberation of his country. The most licentious of the tyrants were invited to a feast; and when they were hot with wine, the conspirators entered disguised as courtesans, and slew them in the midst of their debauchery (B. c. 378). The rest of the traitors met a similar fate; and the patriots being reinforced by an Athenian army, vigorously besieged the citadel, and soon forced the Lacedæmonian garrison to capitulate.

Cleombrótus was sent with a numerous army from Lacedæmon, in the depth of winter, to chastise the Thebans. The Athenians were beginning to repent of their having aided the revolters; but a perfidious attempt having been made by one of the Spartan generals to seize the Peira'us, as Pha'bidas had the Cadmeía, the whole city of Athens was filled with just indignation, and the most vigorous preparations were made for war. Agesilaus himself repeatedly invaded Boótia, without performing anything worthy of his former fame. Pelop'idas, who was chosen general by his grateful countrymen, won two splendid victories at Tanag'ra and Tegy'ra, though in the latter fight he had to encounter a vast disparity of force. The Athenians swept the Spartan navy from the seas, and infested the coasts of the Peloponnésus. The maritime states, disappointed in their expectations of independence, renewed their confederacy under the supremacy of Athens, and the invention of a new system of tactics by Iphic'rates, was fatal to the ancient superiority of the Lacedæmonian phalanx. Nothing, in short, could have saved Spar'ta from destruction, had not the Thebans, intoxicated with success, provoked hostility by their vaunting pride, and the cruelty with which they treated the cities of Bœótia.

A convention of all the Grecian states was summoned to Spar'ta, at the request of the Persian monarch, who wished to obtain aid from the chief republics in subduing an insurrection of the Egyptians (B. C.