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"As to treating you with indifference, men of Thebes, that is not
possible for a man who knows that with you lies the power to deal with
him as you list. Ask rather on what I based my confidence when I slew
the man; and be well assured that, in the first place, I based it on
the conviction that I was doing right; next, that your verdict will
also be right and just. I knew assuredly how you dealt with Archias[6]
and Hypates and that company whom you detected in conduct similar to
that of Euphron: you did not stay for formal voting, but at the first
opportunity within your reach you guided the sword of vengeance,
believing that by the verdict of mankind a sentence of death had
already been passed against the conspicuously profane person, the
manifest traitor, and him who lays to his hand to become a tyrant.
See, then, what follows. Euphron was liable on each of these several
counts: he was a conspicuously profane person, who took into his
keeping temples rich in votive offerings of gold and silver, and swept
them bare of their sacred treasures; he was an arrant traitor--for
what treason could be more manifest than Euphron's? First he was the
bosom friend of Lacedaemon, but presently chose you in their stead;
and, after exchange of solemn pledges between yourselves and him, once
more turned round and played the traitor to you, and delivered up the
harbour to your enemies. Lastly, he was most undisguisedly a tyrant,
who made not free men only, but free fellow-citizens his slaves; who
put to death, or drove into exile, or robbed of their wealth and
property, not malefactors, note you, but the mere victims of his whim
and fancy; and these were ever the better folk. Once again restored by
the help of your sworn foes and antagonists, the Athenians, to his
native town of Sicyon, the first thing he did was to take up arms
against the governor from Thebes; but, finding himself powerless to
drive him from the acropolis, he collected money and betook himself
hither. Now, if it were proved that he had mustered armed bands to
attack you, I venture to say, you would have thanked me that I slew
him. What then, when he came furnished with vile moneys, to corrupt
you therewith, to bribe you to make him once more lord and master of
the state? How shall I, who dealt justice upon him, justly suffer
death at your hands? For to be worsted in arms implies injury
certainly, but of the body only: the defeated man is not proved to be
dishonest by his loss of victory. But he who is corrupted by filthy
lucre, contrary to the standard of what is best,[7] is at once injured
and involved in shame.

[6] See above, V. iv. 2.

[7] Or, as we should say, "in violation of conscience."

"Now if he had been your friend, however much he was my national foe,
I do confess it had been scarce honourable of me to have stabbed him
to death in your presence: but why, I should like to ask, should the
man who betrayed you be less your enemy than mine? 'Ah, but,' I hear
some one retort, 'he came of his own accord.' I presume, sir, you mean
that had he chanced to be slain by somebody at a distance from your
state, that somebody would have won your praise; but now, on the
ground that he came back here to work mischief on the top of mischief,
'he had the right to live'![8] In what part of Hellas, tell me, sir,
do Hellenes keep a truce with traitors, double-dyed deserters, and
tyrants? Moreover, I must remind you that you passed a resolution--if
I mistake not, it stands recorded in your parliamentary minutes--that
'renegades are liable to be apprehended[9] in any of the allied
cities.' Now, here is a renegade restoring himself without any common
decree of the allied states: will any one tell me on what ground this
person did not deserve to die? What I maintain, sirs, is that if you
put me to death, by so doing you will be aiding and abetting your
bitterest foe; while, by a verdict sanctioning the justice of my
conduct, you will prove your willingness to protect the interests not
of yourselves only, but of the whole body of your allies."

[8] Or, "he was wrongfully slain."

[9] For this right of extradition see Plut. "Lys." xxvii.

The Thebans on hearing these pleadings decided that Euphron had only
suffered the fate which he deserved. His own countrymen, however,
conveyed away the body with the honours due to a brave and good man,
and buried him in the market-place, where they still pay pious
reverence to his memory as "a founder of the state." So strictly, it
would seem, do the mass of mankind confine the term brave and good to
those who are the benefactors of themselves.

IV

B.C. 366. And so ends the history of Euphron. I return to the point
reached at the commencement of this digression.[1] The Phliasians were
still fortifying Thyamia, and Chares was still with them, when
Oropus[2] was seized by the banished citizens of that place. The
Athenians in consequence despatched an expedition in full force to the
point of danger, and recalled Chares from Thyamia; whereupon the
Sicyonians and the Arcadians seized the opportunity to recapture the
harbour of Sicyon. Meanwhile the Athenians, forced to act single-
handed, with none of their allies to assist them, retired from Oropus,
leaving that town in the hands of the Thebans as a deposit till the
case at issue could be formally adjudicated.

[1] See above, VII. ii. 23; iii. 3; Diod. xv. 76.

[2] See Thuc. viii. 60.

Now Lycomedes[3] had discovered that the Athenians were harbouring a
grievance against her allies, as follows:--They felt it hard that,
while Athens was put to vast trouble on their account, yet in her need
not a man among them stepped forward to render help. Accordingly he
persuaded the assembly of Ten Thousand to open negotiations with
Athens for the purpose of forming an alliance.[4] At first some of the
Athenians were vexed that they, being friends of Lacedaemon, should
become allied to her opponents; but on further reflection they
discovered it was no less desirable for the Lacedaemonians than for
themselves that the Arcadians should become independent of Thebes.
That being so, they were quite ready to accept an Arcadian alliance.
Lycomedes himself was still engaged on this transaction when, taking
his departure from Athens, he died, in a manner which looked like
divine intervention.

[3] See above, VII. i. 23.

[4] This proves that "the Ten Thousand made war and peace in the name
of all Arkadia"; cf. "Hell." VII. i. 38; Diod. xv. 59. "They
received and listened to the ambassadors of other Greek states";
Demosth. "F. L." 220. "They regulated and paid the standing army
of the Federation"; "Hell." VII. iv. 22, 23; Diod. xv. 62. "They
sat in judgment on political offenders against the collective
majority of the Arkadian League"; "Hell." VII. iv. 33; Freeman,
"Hist. Fed. Gov." 203, note 1.

Out of the many vessels at his service he had chosen the one he liked
best, and by the terms of contract was entitled to land at any point
he might desire; but for some reason, selected the exact spot where a
body of Mantinean exiles lay. Thus he died; but the alliance on which
he had set his heart was already consummated.

Now an argument was advanced by Demotion[5] in the Assembly of Athens,
approving highly of the friendship with the Arcadians, which to his
mind was an excellent thing, but arguing that the generals should be
instructed to see that Corinth was kept safe for the Athenian people.
The Corinthians, hearing this, lost no time in despatching garrisons
of their own large enough to take the place of the Athenian garrisons
at any point where they might have them, with orders to these latter
to retire: "We have no further need of foreign garrisons," they said.
The garrisons did as they were bid.

[5] Of Demotion nothing more, I think, is known. Grote ("H. G." x.
397) says: "The public debates of the Athenian assembly were not
favourable to the success of a scheme like that proposed by
Demotion, to which secrecy was indispensable. Compare another
scheme" (the attempted surprise of Mitylene, B.C. 428), "divulged
in like manner, in Thuc. iii. 3."

As soon as the Athenian garrison troops were met together in the city
of Corinth, the Corinthian authorities caused proclamation to be made
inviting all Athenians who felt themselves wronged to enter their
names and cases upon a list, and they would recover their dues. While
things were in this state, Chares arrived at Cenchreae with a fleet.
Learning what had been done, he told them that he had heard there were
designs against the state of Corinth, and had come to render
assistance. The authorities, while thanking him politely for his zeal,
were not any the more ready to admit the vessels into the harbour, but
bade him sail away; and after rendering justice to the infantry
troops, they sent them away likewise. Thus the Athenians were quit of
Corinth. To the Arcadians, to be sure, they were forced by the terms
of their alliance to send an auxiliary force of cavalry, "in case of
any foreign attack upon Arcadia." At the same time they were careful
not to set foot on Laconian soil for the purposes of war.

The Corinthians had begun to realise on how slender a thread their
political existence hung. They were overmastered by land still as
ever, with the further difficulty of Athenian hostility, or quasi-
hostility, now added. They resolved to collect bodies of mercenary
troops, both infantry and horse. At the head of these they were able
at once to guard their state and to inflict much injury on their
neighbouring foes. To Thebes, indeed, they sent ambassadors to
ascertain whether they would have any prospect of peace if they came
to seek it. The Thebans bade them come: "Peace they should have."
Whereupon the Corinthians asked that they might be allowed to visit
their allies; in making peace they would like to share it with those
who cared for it, and would leave those who preferred war to war. This
course also the Thebans sanctioned; and so the Corinthians came to
Lacedaemon and said:

"Men of Lacedaemon, we, your friends, are here to present a petition,
and on this wise. If you can discover any safety for us whilst we
persist in warlike courses, we beg that you will show it us; but if
you recognise the hopelessness of our affairs, we would, in that case,
proffer this alternative: if peace is alike conducive to your
interests, we beg that you would join us in making peace, since there
is no one with whom we would more gladly share our safety than with
you; if, on the other hand, you are persuaded that war is more to your
interest, permit us at any rate to make peace for ourselves. So saved
to-day, perhaps we may live to help you in days to come; whereas, if
to-day we be destroyed, plainly we shall never at any time be
serviceable again."

The Lacedaemonians, on hearing these proposals, counselled the
Corinthians to arrange a peace on their own account; and as for the
rest of their allies, they permitted any who did not care to continue
the war along with them to take a respite and recruit themselves. "As
for ourselves," they said, "we will go on fighting and accept whatever
Heaven has in store for us,"--adding, "never will we submit to be
deprived of our territory of Messene, which we received as an heirloom
from our fathers."[6]

[6] See Isocr. "Or." vi. "Archidamos," S. 70; Jebb, "Att. Or." ii.
193.

Satisfied with this answer, the Corinthians set off to Thebes in quest
of peace. The Thebans, indeed, asked them to agree on oath, not to
peace only but an alliance; to which they answered: "An alliance
meant, not peace, but merely an exchange of war. If they liked, they
were ready there and then," they repeated, "to establish a just and
equitable peace." And the Thebans, admiring the manner in which,
albeit in danger, they refused to undertake war against their
benefactors, conceded to them and the Phliasians and the rest who came
with them to Thebes, peace on the principle that each should hold
their own territory. On these terms the oaths were taken.

Thereupon the Phliasians, in obedience to the compact, at once retired
from Thyamia; but the Argives, who had taken the oath of peace on
precisely the same terms, finding that they were unable to procure the
continuance of the Phliasian exiles in the Trikaranon as a point held
within the limits of Argos,[7] took over and garrisoned the place,
asserting now that this land was theirs--land which only a little
while before they were ravaging as hostile territory. Further, they
refused to submit the case to arbitration in answer to the challenge
of the Phliasians.

[7] Or, "as a post held by them within the territory of the state."
The passage is perhaps corrupt.

It was nearly at the same date that the son of Dionysius[8] (his
father, Dionysius the first, being already dead) sent a reinforcement
to Lacedaemon of twelve triremes under Timocrates, who on his arrival
helped the Lacedaemonians to recover Sellasia, and after that exploit
sailed away home.

[8] Concerning Dionysius the first, see above, VII. i. 20 foll. 28.

B.C. 366-365. Not long after this the Eleians seized Lasion,[9] a
place which in old days was theirs, but at present was attached to the
Arcadian league. The Arcadians did not make light of the matter, but
immediately summoned their troops and rallied to the rescue. Counter-
reliefs came also on the side of Elis--their Three Hundred, and again
their Four Hundred.[10] The Eleians lay encamped during the day face
to face with the invader, but on a somewhat more level position. The
Arcadians were thereby induced under cover of night to mount on to the
summit of the hill overhanging the Eleians, and at day-dawn they began
their descent upon the enemy. The Eleians soon caught sight of the
enemy advancing from the vantage ground above them, many times their
number; but a sense of shame forbade retreat at such a distance.
Presently they came to close quarters; there was a hand-to-hand
encounter; the Eleians turned and fled; and in retiring down the
difficult ground lost many men and many arms.

[9] See above, VII. i. 26; Freeman, "Hist. Fed. Gov." p. 201.

[10] From the sequel it would appear that the former were a picked
corps of infantry and the latter of cavalry. See Thuc. ii. 25;
Busolt, op. cit. p. 175 foll.

Flushed with this achievement the Arcadians began marching on the
cities of the Acroreia,[11] which, with the exception of Thraustus,
they captured, and so reached Olympia. There they made an entrenched
camp on the hill of Kronos, established a garrison, and held control
over the Olympian hill-country. Margana also, by help of a party
inside who gave it up, next fell into their hands.

[11] The mountainous district of Elis on the borders of Arcadia, in
which the rivers Peneius and Ladon take their rise; see "Dict. of
Anct. Geog." s.v.; above, III. ii. 30, IV. ii. 16. Thraustus was
one of the four chief townships of the district. For Margana, see
above, III. ii. 25, 30, IV. ii. 16, VI. v. 2.

These successive advantages gained by their opponents reacted on the
Eleians, and threw them altogether into despair. Meanwhile the
Arcadians were steadily advancing upon their capital.[12] At length
they arrived, and penetrated into the market-place. Here, however, the
cavalry and the rest of the Eleians made a stand, drove the enemy out
with some loss, and set up a trophy.

[12] I.e. Elis.

It should be mentioned that the city of Elis had previously been in a
state of disruption. The party of Charopus, Thrasonidas and Argeius
were for converting the state into a democracy; the party of Eualcas,
Hippias, and Stratolas[13] were for oligarchy. When the Arcadians,
backed by a large force, appeared as allies of those who favoured a
democratic constitution, the party of Charopus were at once
emboldened; and, having obtained the promise of assistance from the
Arcadians, they seized the acropolis. The Knights and the Three
Hundred did not hesitate, but at once marched up and dislodged them;
with the result that about four hundred citizens, with Argeius and
Charopus, were banished. Not long afterwards these exiles, with the
help of some Arcadians, seized and occupied Pylus;[14] where many of
the commons withdrew from the capital to join them, attracted not only
by the beauty of the position, but by the great power of the
Arcadians, in alliance with them.

[13] See below, VII. iv. 31; Busolt, op. cit. p. 175.

[14] Pylus, a town in "hollow" Elis, upon the mountain road from Elis
to Olympia, at the place where the Ladon flows into the Peneius
(Paus. VI. xxii. 5), near the modern village of Agrapidokhori.--
Baedeker, "Greece," p. 320. See Busolt, p. 179.

There was subsequently another invasion of the territory of the
Eleians on the part of the Arcadians, who were influenced by the
representations of the exiles that the city would come over to them.
But the attempt proved abortive. The Achaeans, who had now become
friends with the Eleians, kept firm guard on the capital, so that the
Arcadians had to retire without further exploit than that of ravaging
the country. Immediately, however, on marching out of Eleian territory
they were informed that the men of Pellene were in Elis; whereupon
they executed a marvellously long night march and seized the Pellenian
township of Olurus[15] (the Pellenians at the date in question having
already reverted to their old alliance with Lacedaemon). And now the
men of Pellene, in their turn getting wind of what had happened at
Olurus, made their way round as best they could, and got into their
own city of Pellene; after which there was nothing for it but to carry
on war with the Arcadians in Olurus and the whole body of their own
commons; and in spite of their small numbers they did not cease till
they had reduced Olurus by siege.

[15] This fortress (placed by Leake at modern Xylokastro) lay at the
entrance of the gorge of the Sys, leading from the Aigialos or
coast-land into the territory of Pellene, which itself lay about
sixty stades from the sea at modern Zougra. For the part played by
Pellene as one of the twelve Achaean states at this period, see
above.

B.C. 365.[16] The Arcadians were presently engaged on another campaign
against Elis. While they were encamped between Cyllene[17] and the
capital the Eleians attacked them, but the Arcadians made a stand and
won the battle. Andromachus, the Eleian cavalry general, who was
regarded as responsible for the engagement, made an end of himself;
and the rest withdrew into the city. This battle cost the life also of
another there present--the Spartan Socleides; since, it will be
understood, the Lacedaemonians had by this time become allies of the
Eleians. Consequently the Eleians, being sore pressed on their own
territory, sent an embassy and begged the Lacedaemonians to organise
an expedition against the Arcadians. They were persuaded that in this
way they would best arrest the progress of the Arcadians, who would
thus be placed between the two foes. In accordance with this
suggestion Archidamus marched out with a body of the city troops and
seized Cromnus.[18] Here he left a garrison--three out of the twelve
regiments[19]--and so withdrew homewards. The Arcadians had just ended
their Eleian campaign, and, without disbanding their levies, hastened
to the rescue, surrounded Cromnus with a double line of trenches, and
having so secured their position, proceeded to lay seige to those
inside the place. The city of Lacedaemon, annoyed at the siege of
their citizens, sent out an army, again under Archidamus, who, when he
had come, set about ravaging Arcadia to the best of his power, as also
the Sciritid, and did all he could to draw off, if possible, the
besieging army. The Arcadians, for all that, were not one whit the
more to be stirred: they seemed callous to all his proceedings.

[16] See Grote, "H. G." x. 429 foll.; al. B.C. 364.

[17] The port town of Elis.

[18] Cromnus, a township near Megalopolis. See Callisthenes, ap.
Athen. 10, p. 452 A. See Schneider's note ad loc.

[19] Lit. "lochi." See Arnold's note to Thuc. v. 68; below, VII. v.
10.

Presently espying a certain rising ground, across which the Arcadians
had drawn their outer line of circumvallation, Archidamus proposed to
himself to take it. If he were once in command of that knoll, the
besiegers at its foot would be forced to retire. Accordingly he set
about leading a body of troops round to the point in question, and
during this movement the light infantry in advance of Archidamus,
advancing at the double, caught sight of the Arcadian Eparitoi[20]
outside the stockade and attacked them, while the cavalry made an
attempt to enforce their attack simultaneously. The Arcadians did not
swerve: in compact order they waited impassively. The Lacedaemonians
charged a second time: a second time they swerved not, but on the
contrary began advancing. Then, as the hoarse roar and shouting
deepened, Archidamus himself advanced in support of his troops. To do
so he turned aside along the carriage-road leading to Cromnus, and
moved onward in column two abreast,[21] which was his natural order.
When they came into close proximity to one another--Archidamus's
troops in column, seeing they were marching along a road; the
Arcadians in compact order with shields interlinked--at this
conjuncture the Lacedaemonians were not able to hold out for any
length of time against the numbers of the Arcadians. Before long
Archidamus had received a wound which pierced through his thigh,
whilst death was busy with those who fought in front of him,
Polyaenidas and Chilon, who was wedded to the sister of Archidamus,
included. The whole of these, numbering no less than thirty, perished
in this action. Presently, falling back along the road, they emerged
into the open ground, and now with a sense of relief the
Lacedaemonians got themselves into battle order, facing the foe. The
Arcadians, without altering their position, stood in compact line, and
though falling short in actual numbers, were in far better heart--the
moral result of an attack on a retreating enemy and the severe loss
inflicted on him. The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, were sorely
down-hearted: Archidamus lay wounded before their eyes; in their ears
rang the names of those who had died, the fallen being not only brave
men, but, one may say, the flower of Spartan chivalry. The two armies
were now close together, when one of the older men lifted up his voice
and cried: "Why need we fight, sirs? Why not rather make truce and
part friends?" Joyously the words fell on the ears of either host, and
they made a truce. The Lacedaemonians picked up their dead and
retired; the Arcadians withdrew to the point where their advance
originally began, and set up a trophy of victory.

[20] So the troops of the Arcadian Federation were named. Diodorus
(xv. 62) calls them "the select troops," {tous kaloumenous
epilektous}.

[21] See above, III. i. 22.

Now, as the Arcadians lay at Cromnus, the Eleians from the capital,
advancing in the first instance upon Pylus, fell in with the men of
that place, who had been beaten back from Thalamae.[22] Galloping
along the road, the cavalry of the Eleians, when they caught sight of
them, did not hesitate, but dashed at them at once, and put some to
the sword, while others of them fled for safety to a rising knoll. Ere
long the Eleian infantry arrived, and succeeded in dislodging this
remnant on the hillock also; some they slew, and others, nearly two
hundred in number, they took alive, all of whom where either sold, if
foreigners, or, if Eleian exiles, put to death. After this the Eleians
captured the men of Pylus and the place itself, as no one came to
their rescue, and recovered the Marganians.

[22] A strong fortress in an unfrequented situation, defended by
narrow passes (Leake, "Morea," ii. 204); it lay probably in the
rocky recesses of Mount Scollis (modern Santameri), on the
frontier of Achaea, near the modern village of Santameri. See
Polyb. iv. 75. See Busolt, op. cit. p. 179.

The Lacedaemonians presently made a second attempt on Cromnus by a
night attack, got possession of the part of the palisading facing the
Argives, and at once began summoning their besieged fellow-citizens to
come out. Out accordingly came all who happened to be within easy
distance, and who took time by the forelock. The rest were not quick
enough; a strong Arcadian reinforcement cut them off, and they
remained shut up inside, and were eventually taken prisoners and
distributed. One portion of them fell to the lot of the Argives, one
to the Thebans,[23] one to the Arcadians, and one to the Messenians.
The whole number taken, whether true-born Spartans or Perioeci,
amounted to more than one hundred.

[23] "The Thebans must have been soldiers in garrison at Tegea,
Megalopolis, or Messene."--Grote, "H. G." x. 433.

B.C. 364. And now that the Arcadians had leisure on the side of
Cromnus, they were again able to occupy themselves with the Eleians,
and to keep Olympia still more strongly garrisoned. In anticipation of
the approaching Olympic year,[24] they began preparations to celebrate
the Olympian games in conjunction with the men of Pisa, who claim to
be the original presidents of the Temple.[25] Now, when the month of
the Olympic Festival--and not the month only, but the very days,
during which the solemn assembly is wont to meet, were come, the
Eleians, in pursuance of preparations and invitations to the Achaeans,
of which they made no secret, at length proceeded to march along the
road to Olympia. The Arcadians had never imagined that they would
really attack them; and they were themselves just now engaged with the
men of Pisa in carrying out the details of the solemn assembly. They
had already completed the chariot-race, and the foot-race of the
pentathlon.[26] The competitors entitled to enter for the wrestling
match had left the racecourse, and were getting through their bouts in
the space between the racecourse and the great altar.

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