Hellenica

Xenophon

Xenophon, creator; Xenophon in Seven Volumes Vol 1 and Vol 2; Brownson, Carleton L. (Carleton Lewis), b. 1866, editor; Brownson, Carleton L. (Carleton Lewis), b. 1866, editor, translator

But while the Lacedaemonians felt contempt for the peltasts, they felt even greater contempt for their own allies; for once, when the Mantineans went out against peltasts who had sallied forth from the wall that extends to Lechaeum, they had given way under the javelins of the peltasts and some of them had been killed as they fled; so that the Lacedaemonians were even so unkind as to make game of their allies, saying that they feared the peltasts just as children fear hobgoblins. As for themselves, setting out from Lechaeum as a base with one regiment and the Corinthian exiles, they made expeditions all round about the city of the Corinthians;

but the Athenians, on the other hand, fearing the power of the Lacedaemonians and thinking that they might come against them, now that the long walls of the Corinthians had been destroyed, decided that it was best to rebuild the walls destroyed by Praxitas. So they came with their full force, accompanied by masons and carpenters, and completed within a few days the wall toward Sicyon and the west, making a very excellent wall of it, and then went on to build the eastern wall in more leisurely fashion.

The Lacedaemonians on their side, considering that the Argives were enjoying the fruits of their lands at home and taking pleasure in the war, made an expedition against them. Agesilaus was in command, and after laying waste all their territory he proceeded straight from there across the mountains by way of Tenea to Corinth and captured the walls that had been rebuilt by the Athenians. And his[*](391 B.C.) brother Teleutias also came to his support by sea, with about twelve triremes; so that their mother was deemed happy in that on the same day one of the sons whom she bore captured by land the walls of the enemy and the other by sea his ships and dock-yards. And at that time, after accomplishing these things, Agesilaus disbanded the army of the allies and led his citizen force back home.