Hellenica

Now Agesilaus, on learning these things, at first was overcome with sorrow; but when he had considered that the most of his troops were the sort of men to share gladly in good fortune if good fortune came, but that if they saw anything unpleasant, they were under no compulsion to share in it,[*](I.e., being practically volunteers (cp. ii. 4).)—thereupon, changing the report, he said that word had come that Peisander was dead, but victorious in the naval battle.

And at the moment of saying these things he offered sacrifice as if for good news, and sent around to many people portions of the victims which had been offered; so that when a skirmish with the enemy took place, the troops of Agesilaus won the day in consequence of the report that the Lacedaemonians were victorious in the naval battle.

Those who were now drawn up against Agesilaus were the Boeotians, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, Aenianians, Euboeans, and both[*](Cp. ii. 17.) the Locrian peoples; while with Agesilaus was a regiment of Lacedaemonians which had crossed over from Corinth, half[*](394 B.C.) of the regiment from Orchomenus, furthermore the emancipated Helots from Lacedaemon who had made the expedition with him, besides these the foreign contingent which Herippidas commanded, and, furthermore, the troops from the Greek cities in Asia and from all those cities in Europe which he had brought over as he passed through them; and from the immediate neighbourhood there came to him hoplites of the Orchomenians and Phocians. As for peltasts, those with Agesilaus were far more numerous; on the other hand, the horsemen of either side were about equal in number.

This, then, was the force on both sides; and I will also describe the battle, and how it proved to be like no other of the battles of our time. They met on the plain of Coronea, those with Agesilaus coming from the Cephisus, and those with the Thebans from Mount Helicon. And Agesilaus occupied the right wing of the army under his command, while the Orchomenians were at the extreme end of his left wing. On the other side, the Thebans themselves were on the right and the Argives occupied their left wing.

Now as the opposing armies were coming together, there was deep silence for a time in both lines; but when they were distant from one another about a stadium, the Thebans raised the war-cry and rushed to close quarters on the run. When, however, the distance between the armies was still about three plethra, the troops whom Herippidas commanded, and with them the Ionians, Aeolians, and Hellespontines, ran forth in their turn from the phalanx of Agesilaus, and the whole mass joined in the charge and, when they came within spear thrust, put to flight the force in their front. As for the Argives, they[*](394 B.C.) did not await the attack of the forces of Agesilaus, but fled to Mount Helicon.

Thereupon some of the mercenaries were already garlanding Agesilaus, when a man brought him word that the Thebans had cut their way through the Orchomenians and were in among the baggage train. And he immediately wheeled his phalanx and led the advance against them; but the Thebans on their side, when they saw that their allies had taken refuge at Mount Helicon, wishing to break through to join their own friends, massed themselves together and came on stoutly.

At this point one may unquestionably call Agesilaus courageous; at least he certainly did not choose the safest course. For while he might have let the men pass by who were trying to break through and then have followed them and overcome those in the rear, he did not do this, but crashed against the Thebans front to front; and setting shields against shields they shoved, fought, killed, and were killed. Finally, some of the Thebans broke through and reached Mount Helicon, but many were killed while making their way thither.

Now when the victory had fallen to Agesilaus and he himself had been carried, wounded, to the phalanx, some of the horsemen rode up and told him that about eighty of the enemy, still armed, had taken shelter in the temple of Athena, and asked him what they should do. And he, although he had received many wounds, nevertheless did not forget the deity, but ordered them to allow these men to go away whithersoever they wished, and would permit them to commit no wrong. Then—it was already late—they took dinner and lay down to rest.

And in the morning[*](394 B.C.) Agesilaus gave orders that Gylis, the polemarch, should draw up the army in line of battle and set up a trophy, that all should deck themselves with garlands in honour of the god,[*](The Dorian Apollo.) and that all the flute-players should play. And they did these things. The Thebans, however, sent heralds asking to bury their dead under a truce. In this way, accordingly, the truce was made, and Agesilaus went to Delphi and offered to the god a tithe of the amount derived from his booty, an offering of not less than one hundred talents; but Gylis, the polemarch, withdrew with the army to Phocis and from there made an invasion of Locris.

And for most of the day the soldiers busied themselves in carrying off portable property and provisions from the villages; but when it was towards evening and they were withdrawing, the Lacedaemonians being in the rear, the Locrians followed after them throwing stones and javelins. And when the Lacedaemonians, turning about and setting out in pursuit, had struck down some of them, after that, although the Locrians no longer followed in their rear, they threw missiles upon them from the heights upon their right.

Then the Lacedaemonians again undertook to pursue them, even up the slope; but since darkness was coming on and, as they were retiring from the pursuit, some of them fell on account of the roughness of the country, others because they could not see what was ahead of them, and still others from the missiles of the enemy, under these circumstances Gylis, the polemarch, and Pelles, one of his comrades, were slain, and in all about eighteen of the Spartiatae, some by being stoned to death, some by javelin[*](394 B.C.) wounds. And if some of those who were in the camp at dinner had not come to their aid, all of them would have been in danger of perishing.

After this the various contingents of the army were dismissed to their several cities and Agesilaus also sailed back home. And from that time on the[*](393 B.C.) Athenians, Boeotians, Argives, and their allies continued the war, making Corinth their base, and the Lacedaemonians and their allies from Sicyon. As the Corinthians, however, saw that their own land was being laid waste and that many of them were being killed because they were continually near the enemy, while the rest of the allies were living in peace themselves and their lands were under cultivation, the most and best of them came to desire peace, and uniting together urged this course upon one another.

But the Argives, Athenians, Boeotians, and[*](392 B.C.) those among the Corinthians who had received a share of the money from the King, as well as those who had made themselves chiefly responsible for the war, realizing that if they did not put out of the way the people who had turned toward peace, the state would be in danger of going over to the Lacedaemonians again, undertook, under these circumstances, to bring about a general massacre. And in the first place, they devised the most sacrilegious of all schemes; for other people, even if a man is condemned by process of law, do not put him to death during a religious festival; but these men chose the last day of the Euclea,[*](The festival of Artemis Euclea.) because they thought they would catch more people in the market-place, so as to kill them.

Then again, when the signal was given to those who had been told whom they were to[*](392 B.C.) kill, they drew their swords and struck men down,—one while standing in a social group, another while sitting in his seat, still another in the theatre, and another even while he was sitting as judge in a dramatic contest. Now when the situation became known, the better classes immediately fled, in part to the statues of the gods in the market-place, in part to the altars; then the conspirators, utterly sacrilegious and without so much as a single thought for civilized usage, both those who gave the orders and those who obeyed, kept up the slaughter even at the holy places, so that some even among those who were not victims of the attack, being right-minded men, were dismayed in their hearts at beholding such impiety.

In this way many of the older men were killed; for it was they especially who chanced to be in the market-place; while the younger men, since Pasimelus suspected what was going to happen, had remained quietly in the gymnasium of Craneium. But when they heard the outcry and some had come to them in flight from the massacre, thereupon, rushing up on the slopes of Acrocorinthus,[*](The citadel of Corinth.) they beat off an attack which the Argives and the rest made upon them.

While they were deliberating, however, as to what they should do, the capital fell from a column, although there had been neither earthquake nor wind. Likewise, when they sacrificed, the omens from the victims were such that the seers said it was better to descend from the place. And at first they retired beyond the territory of Corinth with the intention of going into exile; but when their friends and mothers and sisters kept coming to them and trying to dissuade them, and,[*](392 B.C.) further, some of the very men who were in power promised under oath that they should suffer no harm, under these circumstances some of them returned home.

They saw, however, that those who were in power were ruling like tyrants, and perceived that their state was being put out of existence, inasmuch as boundary stones had been removed and their fatherland was called Argos instead of Corinth; and, while they were compelled to share in the rights of citizenship at Argos, for which they had no desire, they had less influence in their state than aliens. Some of them, accordingly, came to the belief that life under such conditions was not endurable; but if they endeavoured to make their fatherland Corinth again, even as it had been from the beginning, and to make it free, and not only pure of the stain of the murderers, but blest with an orderly government, they thought it a worthy deed, if they could accomplish these things, to become saviours of their fatherland, but if they could not do so, to meet a most praiseworthy death in striving after the fairest and greatest blessings.

Accordingly two men, Pasimelus and Alcimenes, undertook by wading through a torrent to effect a meeting with Praxitas, the Lacedaemonian polemarch, who chanced to be on garrison duty with his regiment at Sicyon, and told him that they could give him entrance to the walls which reached down to Lechaeum.[*](The port of Corinth.) And Praxitas, since even before this he had known the two men to be trustworthy, trusted them, and after arranging that the regiment which was about to depart from Sicyon should also remain, made plans for his entrance.

And when the two men, partly by[*](392 B.C.) accident and partly by contrivance, had been made sentinels at the very gate where the trophy stands, then Praxitas came with his regiment, the Sicyonians, and all the Corinthians who chanced to be exiles. But when he was at the gate, being afraid to make the entry, he wished to send in one of his trusted men to examine the situation inside. Then the two Corinthians led him in and showed him everything in so straightforward a manner that the man who went in reported that all was truly just as they said. Thereupon Praxitas entered.

The walls, however, are a long distance from each other; his troops, in consequence, when they formed in line for battle, thought themselves to be few in number, and therefore made a stockade and as good a trench as they could in front of them, to protect them until their allies should come to their aid. Besides, there was a garrison of Thebans in their rear, at the port.Now the day after the night on which they entered they passed without a battle; but on the following day came the Argives, hurrying with all speed to the rescue; and finding the Lacedaemonians stationed on the right of their own line, the Sicyonians next to them, and the Corinthian exiles, about one hundred and fifty in number, by the eastern wall, the enemy formed in line against them with the mercenaries under Iphicrates close to the eastern wall, and next to them the Argives; while the Corinthians from the city occupied their left wing.