Lysander

Upon this, he was sent as ambassador to the Hellespont; and though he was angry with Agesilaus, he did not neglect to do his duty, but induced Spithridates the Persian, a high-minded man with forces at his command, to revolt from Pharnabazus, with whom he was at odds, and brought him to Agesilaus.[*](Cf. Plut. Ages. 8.3; Xen. Hell. 3.4.10.)

The king made no further use of Lysander, however, in the war, and when his time had expired, he sailed back to Sparta without honor, not only enraged at Agesilaus, but hating the whole form of government more than ever, and resolved to put into execution at once, and without delay, the plans for a revolutionary change which he is thought to have devised and concocted some time before.

They were as follows. Of the Heracleidae who united with the Dorians and came down into Peloponnesus, there was a numerous and glorious stock flourishing in Sparta; however, not every family belonging to it participated in the royal succession, but the kings were chosen from two houses only, and were called Eurypontidae and Agiadae. The rest had no special privileges in the government because of their high birth, but the honors which result from superior excellence lay open to all who had power and ability.

Now Lysander belonged to one of these families, and when he had risen to great fame for his deeds, and had acquired many friends and great power, he was vexed to see the city increased in power by his efforts, but ruled by others who were of no better birth than himself. He therefore planned to take the government away from the two houses, and restore it to all the Heracleidae in common,

or, as some say, not to the Heracleidae, but to the Spartans in general,[*](Cf. Plut. Ages. 8.3 ) in order that its high prerogatives might not belong to those only who were descended from Heracles, but to those who, like Heracles, were selected for superior excellence, since it was this which raised him to divine honors. And he hoped that when the kingdom was awarded on this principle, no Spartan would be chosen before himself.

In the first place, then, he undertook and made preparations to persuade the citizens by his own efforts, and committed to memory a speech written by Cleon, the Halicarnassian, for the purpose. In the second place, seeing that the novelty and magnitude of his innovation demanded a more audacious support, he brought stage machinery to bear upon the citizens,[*](In the Greek theater, gods were swung into view, above the plane of the action, by means of a huge crane. Cf. Plut. Them. 10.1.) as it were,

by collecting and arranging responses and oracles of Apollo; convinced that Cleon’s clever rhetoric would not help him at all unless he should first terrify and subdue his countrymen by vague religious fear and superstitious terror, and then bring them under the influence of his argument.

Well, then, Ephorus tells us that after an attempt to corrupt the Pythian priestess, and after a second failure to persuade the priestesses of Dodona by means of Pherecles, he went up to the temple of Ammon and had a conference with that god’s interpreters there, at which he offered them much money, but that they took this ill, and sent certain messengers to Sparta to denounce him; and further, that when Lysander was acquitted of their charges, the Libyans said, as they went away, But we will pass better judgments than yours, O Spartans, when ye come to dwell with us in Libya; for they knew that there was a certain ancient oracle bidding the Lacedaemonians to settle in Libya.

But since the whole plot and concoction was no insignificant one, nor yet carelessly undertaken, but made many important assumptions, like a mathematical demonstration, and proceeded to its conclusion through premises which were difficult and hard to obtain, we shall follow, in our description of it, the account of one who was both a historian and a philosopher.[*](Probably Ephorus.)