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[2] Others assign the incidents of this whole chapter iv. to B.C. 393.

[3] The festival of Artemis Eucleia.

[4] See Diod. xiv. 86.

[5] See Paus. II. ii. 4.

So they retired, in the first instance prepared to go into exile
beyond the territory of Corinth. It was only upon the persuasion of
their friends and the earnest entreaties of their mothers and sisters
who came out to them, supported by the solemn assurance of the men in
power themselves, who swore to guarantee them against evil
consequences, that some of them finally consented to return home.
Presented to their eyes was the spectacle of a tyranny in full
exercise, and to their minds the consciousness of the obliteration of
their city, seeing that boundaries were plucked up and the land of
their fathers had come to be re-entitled by the name of Argos instead
of Corinth; and furthermore, compulsion was put upon them to share in
the constitution in vogue at Argos, for which they had ltitle
appetite, while in their own city they wielded less power than the
resident aliens. So that a party sprang up among them whose creed was,
that life was not worth living on such terms: their endeavour must be
to make their fatherland once more the Corinth of old days--to restore
freedom to their city, purified from the murderer and his pollution
and fairly rooted in good order and legality.[6] It was a design worth
the venture: if they succeeded they would become the saviours of their
country; if not--why, in the effort to grasp the fairest flower of
happiness, they would but overreach, and find instead a glorious
termination to existence.

[6] {eunomia}. See "Pol. Ath." i. 8; Arist. "Pol." iv. 8, 6; iii. 9,
8; v. 7, 4.

It was in furtherance of this design that two men--Pasimelus and
Alcimenes--undertook to creep through a watercourse and effect a
meeting with Praxitas the polemarch of the Lacedaemonians, who was on
garrison duty with his own division in Sicyon. They told him they
could give him ingress at a point in the long walls leading to
Lechaeum. Praxitas, knowing from previous experience that the two men
might be relied upon, believed their statement; and having arranged
for the further detention in Sicyon of the division which was on the
point of departure, he busied himself with plans for the enterprise.
When the two men, partly by chance and partly by contrivance, came to
be on guard at the gate where the tophy now stands, without further
ado Praxitas presented himself with his division, taking with him also
the men of Sicyon and the whole of the Corinthian exiles.[7] Having
reached the gate, he had a qualm of misgiving, and hesitated to step
inside until he had first sent in a man on whom he could rely to take
a look at things within. The two Corinthians introduced him, and made
so simple and straightforward a representation[8] that the visitor was
convinced, and reported everything as free of pitfalls as the two had
asserted. Then the polemarch entered, but owing to the wide space
between the double walls, as soon as they came to form in line within,
the intruders were impressed by the paucity of their numbers. They
therefore erected a stockade, and dug as good a trench as they could
in front of them, pending the arrival of reinforcements from the
allies. In their rear, moreover, lay the guard of the Boeotians in the
harbour. Thus they passed the whole day which followed the night of
ingress without striking a blow.

[8] Or, "showed him the place in so straightforward a manner."

On the next day, however, the Argive troops arrived in all haste,
hurrying to the rescue, and found the enemy duly drawn up. The
Lacedaemonians were on their own right, the men of Sicyon next, and
leaning against the eastern wall the Corinthian exiles, one hundred
and fifty strong.[9] Their opponents marshalled their lines face to
face in correspondence: Iphicrates with his mercenaries abutting on
the eastern wall; next to them the Argives, whilst the Corinthians of
the city held their left. In the pride inspired by numbers they began
advancing at once. They overpowered the Sicyonians, and tearing
asunder the stockade, pursued them to the sea and here slew numbers of
them. At that instant Pasimachus, the cavalry general, at the head of
a handful of troopers, seeing the Sicyonians sore presed, made fast
the horses of his troops to the trees, and relieving the Sicyonians of
their heavy infantry shields, advanced with his volunteers against the
Argives. The latter, seeing the Sigmas on the shields and taking them
to be "Sicyonians," had not the slightest fear. Whereupon, as the
story goes, Pasimachus, exclaiming in his broad Doric, "By the twin
gods! these Sigmas will cheat you, you Argives," came to close
quarters, and in that battle of a handful against a host, was slain
himself with all his followers. In another quarter of the field,
however, the Corinthian exiles had got the better of their opponents
and worked their way up, so that they were now touching the city
circumvallation walls.

[9] See Grote, ix. p. 333 foll.

The Lacedaemonians, on their side, perceiving the discomfiture of the
Sicyonians, sprang out with timely aid, keeping the palisade-work on
their left. But the Argives, discovering that the Lacedaemonians were
behind them, wheeled round and came racing back, pouring out of the
palisade at full speed. Their extreme right, with unprotected flanks
exposed, fell victims to the Lacedaemonians; the rest, hugging the
wall, made good their retreat in dense masses towards the city. Here
they encountered the Corinthian exiles, and discovering that they had
fallen upon foes, swerved aside in the reverse direction. In this
predicament some mounted by the ladders of the city wall, and, leaping
down from its summit, were destroyed;[10] others yielded up their
lives, thrust through, as they jostled at the foot of the steps;
others again were literally trampled under one another's feet and
suffocated.

[10] Or, "plunged from its summit into perdition." See Thuc. ii. 4.

The Lacedaemonians had no difficulty in the choice of victims; for at
that instant a work was assigned to them to do,[11] such as they could
hardly have hoped or prayed for. To find delivered into their hands a
mob of helpless enemies, in an ecstasy of terror, presenting their
unarmed sides in such sort that none turned to defend himself, but
each victim rather seemed to contribute what he could towards his own
destruction--if that was not divine interposition, I know now what to
call it. Miracle or not, in that little space so many fell, and the
corpses lay piled so thick, that eyes familiar with the stacking of
corn or wood or piles of stones were called upon to gaze at layers of
human bodies. Nor did the guard of the Boeotians in the port
itself[12] escape death; some were slain upon the ramparts, others on
the roofs of the dock-houses, which they had scaled for refuge.
Nothing remained but for the Corinthians and Argives to carry away
their dead under cover of a truce; whilst the allies of Lacedaemon
poured in their reinforcements. When these were collected, Praxitas
decided in the first place to raze enough of the walls to allow a free
broadway for an army on march. This done, he put himself at the head
of his troops and advanced on the road to Megara, taking by assault,
first Sidus and next Crommyon. Leaving garrisons in these two
fortresses, he retraced his steps, and finally fortifying Epieiceia as
a garrison outpost to protect the territory of the allies, he at once
disbanded his troops and himself withdrew to Lacedaemon.

[11] Or, "Heaven assigned to them a work . . ." Lit. "The God . . ."

[12] I.e. "of Lechaeum."

B.C. 392-391.[13] After this the great armaments of both belligerents
had ceased to exist. The states merely furnished garrisons--the one
set at Corinth, the other set at Sicyon--and were content to guard the
walls. Though even so, a vigorous war was carried on by dint of the
mercenary troops with which both sides were furnished.

[13] So Grote and Curtius; al. B.C. 393.

A signal incident in the period was the invasion of Phlius by
Iphicrates. He laid an ambuscade, and with a small body of troops
adopting a system of guerilla war, took occasion of an unguarded sally
of the citizens of Phlius to inflict such losses on them, that though
they had never previously received the Lacedaemonians within their
walls, they received them now. They had hitherto feared to do so lest
it might lead to the restoration of the banished members of their
community, who gave out that they owed their exile to their
Lacedaemonian sympathies;[14] but they were now in such abject fear of
the Corinthian party that they sent to fetch the Lacedaemonians, and
delivered the city and citadel to their safe keeping. These latter,
however, well disposed to the exiles of Phlius, did not, at the time
they held the city, so much as breathe the thought of bringing back
the exiles; on the contrary, as soon as the city seemed to have
recovered its confidence, they took their departure, leaving city and
laws precisely as they had found them on their entry.

[14] Lit. "laconism."

To return to Iphicrates and his men: they frequently extended their
incursions even into Arcadia in many directions,[15] following their
usual guerilla tactics, but also making assaults on fortified posts.
The heavy infantry of the Arcadians positively refused to face them in
the field, so profound was the terror in which they held these light
troops. In compensation, the light troops themselves entertained a
wholesome dread of the Lacedaemonians, and did not venture to approach
even within javelin-range of their heavy infantry. They had been
taught a lesson when, within that distance, some of the younger
hoplites had made a dash at them, catching and putting some of them to
the sword. But however profound the contempt of the Lacedaemonians for
these light troops, their contempt for their own allies was deeper.
(On one occasion[16] a reinforcement of Mantineans had sallied from
the walls between Corinth and Lechaeum to engage the peltasts, and had
no sooner come under attack than they swerved, losing some of their
men as they made good their retreat. The Lacedaemonians were unkind
enough to poke fun at these unfortunates. "Our allies," they said,
"stand in as much awe of these peltasts as children of the bogies and
hobgoblins of their nurses." For themselves, starting from Lechaeum,
they found no difficulty in marching right round the city of Corinth
with a single Lacedaemonian division and the Corinthian exiles.)[17]

[15] See Thuc. ii. 4.

[16] See Grote, ix. 472 note. Lechaeum was not taken by the
Lacedaemonians until the Corinthian long walls had been rebuilt by
the Athenians. Possibly the incidents in this section (S. 17)
occurred after the capture of Lechaeum. The historian introduces
them parenthetically, as it were, in illustration of his main
topic--the success of the peltasts.

[17] Or, adopting Schneider's conjecture, {estratopedeuonto}, add "and
encamping."

The Athenians, on their side, who felt the power of the Lacedaemonians
to be dangerously close, now that the walls of Corinth had been laid
open, and even apprehended a direct attack upon themselves, determined
to rebuild the portion of the wall severed by Praxitas. Accordingly
they set out with their whole force, including a suite of stonelayers,
masons, and carpenters, and within a few days erected a quite splendid
wall on the side facing Sicyon towards the west,[18] and then
proceeded with more leisure to the completion of the eastern portion.

[18] See Thuc. vi. 98.

To turn once more to the other side: the Lacedaemonians, indignant at
the notion that the Argives should be gathering the produce of their
lands in peace at home, as if war were a pastime, marched against
them. Agesilaus commanded the expedition, and after ravaging their
territory from one end to the other, crossed their frontier at
Tenea[19] and swooped down upon Corinth, taking the walls which had
been lately rebuilt by the Athenians. He was supported on the sea side
by his brother Teleutias[20] with a naval force of about twelve
triremes, and the mother of both was able to congratulate herself on
the joint success of both her sons; one having captured the enemy's
walls by land and the other his ships and naval arsenal by sea, on the
same day. These achievements sufficed Agesilaus for the present; he
disbanded the army of the allies and led the state troops home.

[19] Reading {Tenean}, Koppen's emendation for {tegean}. In the
parallel passage ("Ages." ii. 17) the text has {kata ta stena}.
See Grote, "H. G." ix. 471.

[20] See below, IV. viii. 11.

V

B.C. 390.[1] Subsequently the Lacedaemonians made a second expedition
against Corinth. They heard from the exiles that the citizens
contrived to preserve all their cattle in Peiraeum; indeed, large
numbers derived their subsistence from the place. Agesilaus was again
in command of the expedition. In the first instance he advanced upon
the Isthmus. It was the month of the Isthmian games,[2] and here he
found the Argives engaged in conducting the sacrifice to Poseidon, as
if Corinth were Argos. So when they perceived the approach of
Agesilaus, the Argives and their friends left the offerings as they
lay, including the preparations for the breakfast, and retired with
undisguised alarm into the city by the Cenchrean road.[3] Agesilaus,
though he observed the movement, refrained from giving chase, but
taking up his quarters in the temple, there proceeded to offer victims
to the god himself, and waited until the Corinthian exiles had
celebrated the sacrifice to Poseidon, along with the games. But no
sooner had Agesilaus turned his back and retired, than the Argives
returned and celebrated the Isthmian games afresh; so that in this
particular year there were cases in which the same competitors were
twice defeated in this or that contest, or conversely, the same man
was proclaimed victor twice over.

[1] Al. B.C. 392. The historian omits the overtures for peace, B.C.
391 (or 391-390) referred to in Andoc. "De Pace." See Jebb, "Att.
Or." i. 83, 108; Grote, "H. G." ix. 474; Curtius, "H. G." Eng. tr.
iv. 261.

[2] Grote and Curtius believe these to be the Isthmian games of 390
B.C., not of 392 B.C., as Sauppe and others suppose. See Peter,
"Chron. Table," p. 89, note 183; Jowett, "Thuc." ii. 468, note on
VIII. 9, 1.

[3] Lit. "road to Cenchreae."

On the fourth day Agesilaus led his troops against Peiraeum, but
finding it strongly defended, he made a sudden retrograde march after
the morning meal in the direction of the capital, as though he
calculated on the betrayal of the city. The Corinthians, in
apprehension of some such possible catastrophe, sent to summon
Iphicrates with the larger portion of his light infantry. These passed
by duly in the night, not unobserved, however, by Agesilaus, who at
once turned round at break of day and advanced on Piraeum. He himself
kept to the low ground by the hot springs,[4] sending a division to
scale the top of the pass. That night he encamped at the hot springs,
while the division bivouacked in the open, in possession of the pass.
Here Agesilaus distinguished himself by an invention as seasonable as
it was simple. Among those who carried provisions for the division not
one had thought of bringing fire. The altitude was considerable; there
had been a fall of rain and hail towards evening and the temperature
was low; besides which, the scaling party were clad in thin garments
suited to the summer season. There they sat shivering in the dark,
with scarcely heart to attack their suppers, when Agesilaus sent up to
them as many as ten porters carrying fire in earthen pots. One found
his way up one way, one another, and presently there were many
bonfires blazing--magnificently enough, since there was plenty of wood
to hand; so that all fell to oiling themselves and many supped over
again. The same night the sky was lit up by the blaze of the temple of
Poseidon--set on fire no one knows how.

[4] Near mod. Lutraki.

When the men in Piraeum perceived that the pass was occupied, they at
once abandoned all thought of self-defence and fled for refuge to the
Heraion[5]--men and women, slaves and free-born, with the greater part
of their flocks and herds. Agesilaus, with the main body, meanwhile
pursued his march by the sea-shore, and the division, simultaneously
descending from the heights, captured the fortified position of Oenoe,
appropriating its contents. Indeed, all the troops on that day reaped
a rich harvest in the supplies they brought in from various
farmsteads. Presently those who had escaped into the Heraion came out,
offering to leave it to Agesilaus to decide what he would do with
them. He decided to deliver up to the exiles all those concerned with
the late butchery, and that all else should be sold. And so from the
Heraion streamed out a long line of prisoners, whilst from other sides
embassies arrived in numbers; and amongst these a deputation from the
Boeotians, anxious to learn what they should do to obtain peace. These
latter Agesilaus, with a certain loftiness of manner, affected not
even to see, although Pharax,[6] their proxenus, stood by their side
to introduce them. Seated in a circular edifice on the margin of the
lake,[7] he surveyed the host of captives and valuables as they were
brought out. Beside the prisoners, to guard them, stepped the
Lacedaemonian warriors from the camp, carrying their spears--and
themselves plucked all gaze their way, so readily will success and the
transient fortune of the moment rivet attention. But even while
Agesilaus was still thus seated, wearing a look betokening
satisfaction at some great achievement, a horseman came galloping up;
the flanks of his charger streamed with sweat. To the many inquiries
what news he brought, the rider responded never a word; but being now
close beside Agesilaus, he leaped from his horse, and running up to
him with lowering visage narrated the disaster of the Spartan
division[8] at Lechaeum. At these tidings the king sprang instantly
from his seat, clutching his spear, and bade his herald summon to a
meeting the generals, captains of fifties, and commanders of foreign
brigades.[9] When these had rapidly assembled he bade them, seeing
that the morning meal had not yet been tasted, to swallow hastily what
they could, and with all possible speed to overtake him. But for
himself, he, with the officers of the royal staff,[10] set off at once
without breakfast. His bodyguard, with their heavy arms, accompanied
him with all speed--himself in advance, the officers following behind.
In this fashion he had already passed beyond the warm springs, and was
well within the plateau of Lechaeum, when three horsemen rode up with
further news: the dead bodies had been picked up. On receipt of these
tidings he commanded the troops to order arms, and having rested them
a little space, led them back again to the Heraion. The next day he
spent in disposing of the captured property.[11]

[5] Or, "Heraeum," i.e. sanctuary of Hera, on a promontory so called.
See Leake, "Morea," iii. 317.

[6] See "Hell." III. ii. 12, if the same.

[7] Or, "on the round pavilion by the lake" (mod. Vuliasmeni).

[8] Technically "mora."

[9] Lit. the polemarchs, penteconters, and xenagoi.

[10] See "Pol. Lac." xiii. 1.

[11] See Grote, "H. G." ix. 480, in reference to "Ages." vii. 6.

The ambassadors of the Boeotians were then summoned, and, being asked
to explain the object of their coming, made no further mention of the
word "peace," but replied that, if there was nothing to hinder it,
they wished to have a pass to their own soldiers within the capital.
The king answered with a smile: "I know your desire is not so much to
see your soldiers as to feast your eyes on the good fortune of your
friends, and to measure its magnitude. Wait then, I will conduct you
myself; with me you will be better able to discover the true value of
what has taken place." And he was as good as his word. Next day he
sacrificed, and led his army up to the gates of Corinth. The trophy he
respected, but not one tree did he leave standing--chopping and
burning, as proof positive that no one dared to face him in the field.
And having so done, he encamped about Lechaeum; and as to the Theban
ambassadors, in lieu of letting them pass into the city, he sent them
off by sea across to Creusis.

But in proportion to the unwontedness of such a calamity befalling
Lacedaemonians, a widespread mourning fell upon the whole Laconian
army, those alone excepted whose sons or fathers or brothers had died
at their post. The bearing of these resembled that of conquerors,[12]
as with bright faces they moved freely to and fro, glorying in their
domestic sorrow. Now the tragic fate which befell the division was on
this wise: It was the unvaried custom of the men of Amyclae to return
home at the Hyacinthia,[13] to join in the sacred paean, a custom not
to be interrupted by active service or absence from home or for any
other reason. So, too, on this occasion, Agesilaus had left behind all
the Amyclaeans serving in any part of his army at Lechaeum. At the
right moment the general in command of the garrison at that place had
posted the garrison troops of the allies to guard the walls during his
absence, and put himself at the head of his division of heavy infantry
with that of the cavalry,[14] and led the Amyclaeans past the walls of
Corinth. Arrived at a point within three miles or so[15] of Sicyon,
the polemarch turned back himself in the direction of Lechaeum with
his heavy infantry regiment, six hundred strong, giving orders to the
cavalry commandant to escort the Amyclaeans with his division as far
as they required, and then to turn and overtake him. It cannot be said
that the Lacedaemonians were ignorant of the large number of light
troops and heavy infantry inside Corinth, but owing to their former
successes they arrogantly presumed that no one would attack them.
Within the capital of the Corinthians, however, their scant numbers--a
thin line of heavy infantry unsupported by light infantry or cavalry--
had been noted; and Callias, the son of Hipponicus,[16] who was in
command of the Athenian hoplites, and Iphicrates at the head of his
peltasts, saw no risk in attacking with the light brigade. Since if
the enemy continued his march by the high road, he would be cut up by
showers of javelins on his exposed right flank; or if he were tempted
to take the offensive, they with their peltasts, the nimblest of all
light troops, would easily slip out of the grasp of his hoplites.

[12] See Grote, "H. G." ix. 488.

[13] Observed on three days of the month Hecatombaeus (= July). See
Muller's "Dorians," ii. 360. For Amyclae, see Leake, "Morea," i.
ch. iv. p. 145 foll.; Baedeker's "Greece," p. 279.

[14] See below, "Hell." VI. iv. 12; and "Pol. Lac." xi. 4, xiii. 4.

[15] Lit. "twenty or thirty stades."

[16] See Cobet, "Prosop. Xen." p. 67 foll.

With this clearly-conceived idea they led out their troops; and while
Callias drew up his heavy infantry in line at no great distance from
the city, Iphicrates and his peltasts made a dash at the returning
division.

The Lacedaemonians were presently within range of the javelins.[17]
Here a man was wounded, and there another dropped, not to rise again.
Each time orders were given to the attendant shield-bearers[18] to
pick up the men and bear them into Lechaeum; and these indeed were the
only members of the mora who were, strictly speaking, saved. Then the
polemarch ordered the ten-years-service men[19] to charge and drive
off their assailants. Charge, however, as they might, they took
nothing by their pains--not a man could they come at within javelin
range. Being heavy infantry opposed to light troops, before they could
get to close quarters the enemy's word of command sounded "Retire!"
whilst as soon as their own ranks fell back, scattered as they were in
consequence of a charge where each man's individual speed had told,
Iphicrates and his men turned right about and renewed the javelin
attack, while others, running alongside, harassed their exposed flank.
At the very first charge the assailants had shot down nine or ten,
and, encouraged by this success, pressed on with increasing audacity.
These attacks told so severely that the polemarch a second time gave
the order (and this time for the fifteen-years-service men) to charge.
The order was promptly obeyed, but on retiring they lost more men than
on the first occasion, and it was not until the pick and flower of the
division had succumbed that they were joined by their returning
cavalry, in whose company they once again attempted a charge. The
light infantry gave way, but the attack of the cavalry was feebly
enforced. Instead of pressing home the charge until at least they had
sabred some of the enemy, they kept their horses abreast of their
infantry skirmishers,[20] charging and wheeling side by side.

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