Lysander

There was a woman in Pontus who declared that she was with child by Apollo. Many disbelieved her, as was natural, but many also lent an ear to her, so that when she gave birth to a male child, many notable persons took an interest in its care and rearing. For some reason or other, the name given to the boy was Silenus. Lysander took these circumstances for his foundation, and supplied the rest of his cunning fabric himself, making use of not a few, nor yet insignificant, champions of the tale,

who brought the story of the boy’s birth into credit without exciting suspicion. They also brought back another response from Delphi, and caused it to be circulated in Sparta, which declared that sundry very ancient oracles were kept in secret writings by the priests there, and that it was not possible to get these, nor even lawful to read them, unless someone born of Apollo should come after a long lapse of time, give the keepers an intelligible token of his birth, and obtain the tablets containing the oracles.

The way being thus prepared, Silenus was to come and demand the oracles as Apollo’s son, and the priests who were in the secret were to insist on precise answers to all their questions about his birth, and finally, persuaded, forsooth, that he was the son of Apollo, were to show him the writing. Then Silenus, in the presence of many witnesses, was to read aloud the prophecies, especially the one relating to the kingdom, for the sake of which the whole scheme had been invented, and which declared that it was more for the honor and interest of the Spartans to choose their kings from the best citizens.

But when at last Silenus was grown to be a youth, and was ready for the business, Lysander’s play was ruined for him by the cowardice of one of his actors, or co-workers, who, just as he came to the point, lost his courage and drew back. However, all this was actually found out, not while Lysander was alive, but after his death.

And he died before Agesilaus returned from Asia, after he had plunged, or rather had plunged Hellas, into the Boeotian war.[*](In 395 B.C., the aggressions of Sparta led to an alliance between Thebes and Athens against her. In the following year Corinth and Argos joined the alliance, and the whole war, which dragged along until 387 B.C., is usually known as the Corinthian war. ) For it is stated in both ways; and some hold him responsible for the war, others the Thebans, and others both together. It is charged against the Thebans that they cast away the sacrifices at Aulis,[*](In the spring of 396, when Agesilaus vainly tried to sacrifice there, in imitation of Agamemnon (Plut. Ages. 6.4-6; Xen. Hell. 3.4.3 f., and Xen. Hell. 3.5.5).) and that, because Androcleides and Amphitheus[*](Cf. Xen. Hell. 3.5.1 and 4.) had been bribed with the King’s money to stir up a war in Greece against the Lacedaemonians, they set upon the Phocians and ravaged their country.

It is said, on the other hand, that Lysander was angry with the Thebans because they alone laid claim to a tenth part of the spoils of the war, while the rest of the allies held their peace; and because they were indignant about the money which he sent to Sparta; but above all, because they first put the Athenians in the way of freeing themselves from the thirty tyrants whom he had set up, whose terrorizing power the Lacedaemonians had increased by decreeing that fugitives from Athens might be brought back from every place of refuge, and that all who impeded their return should be declared enemies of Sparta.

In reply to this the Thebans issued counter decrees, akin in spirit to the beneficent deeds of Heracles and Dionysus, to the effect that every house and city in Boeotia should be open to such Athenians as needed succour; and that whosoever did not help a fugitive under arrest, should be fined a talent; and that if any one should carry arms through Boeotia against the tyrants in Athens, no Theban would either see him or hear about it.

And they did not merely vote such Hellenic and humane decrees, without at the same time making their deeds correspond to their edicts; but Thrasybulus and those who with him occupied Phyle, set out from Thebes to do so,[*](Cf. Xen. Hell. 2.4.1 f.) and the Thebans not only provided them with arms and money, but also with secrecy and a base of operations. Such, then, were the grounds of complaint which Lysander had against the Thebans.

And since he was now of an altogether harsh disposition, owing to the melancholy which persisted into his old age, he stirred up the ephors, and persuaded them to fit out an expedition against the Thebans; and assuming the command, he set out on the campaign.[*](Lysander was commissioned to raise a force of allies in Phocis and the neighboring country, with which Pausanias was to unite his troops (Xen. Hell. 3.5.6). Plutarch’s language is obscure.) Afterwards the ephors sent out Pausanias the king also with an army.