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
Then the Argives, filled with overweening confidence on account of their numbers, advanced at once; and they defeated the Sicyonians, and breaking through the stockade pursued them to the sea and there killed many of them. But Pasimachus, the Lacedaemonian[*](392 B.C.) commander of horse, at the head of a few horsemen, when he saw the Sicyonians hard pressed, tied his horses to trees, took from the Sicyonians their shields, and advanced with a volunteer force against the Argives. The Argives, however, seeing the Sigmas upon the shields, did not fear these opponents at all, thinking that they were Sicyonians. Then, as the story goes, Pasimachus said: By the twin gods,[*](Castor and Pollux.) Argives, these Sigmas will deceive you, and came to close quarters with them; and fighting thus with a few against many he was slain, and likewise others of his party.
Meanwhile the Corinthian exiles, being victorious over the troops opposed to them, pushed their way through in the inland direction and got near the wall which surrounded the city. As for the Lacedaemonians, when they perceived that the forces opposed to the Sicyonians were victorious, they issued forth from the stockade and went to the rescue, keeping the stockade on their left. But when the Argives heard that the Lacedaemonians were in their rear, they turned around and burst out of the stockade again on the run. And those upon their extreme right were struck on their unprotected sides by the Lacedaemonians and killed, but those who were near the wall, crowded together in a disorderly mass, continued their retreat towards the city. When, however, they came upon the Corinthian exiles and discovered that they were enemies, they turned back again. Thereupon some of them, climbing up by the steps to the top of the wall, jumped down on the other side and were killed, others perished around the steps, being shoved and struck by the enemy, and still others[*](392 B.C.) were trodden under foot by one another and suffocated.
And the Lacedaemonians were in no uncertainty about whom they should kill; for then at least heaven granted them an achievement such as they could never even have prayed for. For to have a crowd of enemies delivered into their hands, frightened, panic-stricken, presenting their unprotected sides, no one rallying to his own defence, but all rendering all possible assistance toward their own destruction,—how could one help regarding this as a gift from heaven? On that day, at all events, so many fell within a short time that men accustomed to see heaps of corn, wood, or stones, beheld then heaps of dead bodies. Furthermore, the Boeotians of the garrison in the port were also killed, some upon the walls, and others after they had climbed up on the roofs of the ship-houses.
After this the Corinthians and Argives carried of their dead under a truce, and the allies of the Lacedaemonians came to their aid. And when they were gathered together, in the first place Praxitas decided to tear down a portion of the walls[*](I.e., the walls which connected Corinth with Lechaeum. cp. 7.) so as to make a passage through wide enough for an army, and secondly, putting himself at the head of his army, he advanced by the road to Megara and captured by storm, first Sidus and then Crommyon. And after stationing garrisons in these strongholds he marched back again; then he fortified Epieiceia, in order that it might serve as an outpost to protect the territory of his allies,[*](I.e., the Sicyonians.) and then disbanded his army and himself withdrew by the road to Lacedaemon.
From this time on large armies of citizens were no[*](391 B.C.) longer employed on either side, for the states merely sent out garrisons, the one party to Corinth, the other to Sicyon, and guarded the walls of these cities. Each side, however, had mercenaries, and with these prosecuted the war vigorously.
It was at this time also that Iphicrates invaded the territory of Phlius, set an ambush, meanwhile plundering with a few followers, and when the men from the city came out against him in an unguarded way, killed so many of them that the Phliasians, although before this they had refused to receive the Lacedaemonians within their wall, from fear that the latter would bring back to the city the people who said that they were in exile on account of their Lacedaemonian sympathies, were then seized with such panic fear of the men from Corinth that they sent for the Lacedaemonians and put the city and the citadel in their hands to guard. And the Lacedaemonians, although they were well minded toward the exiles, during all the time that they held their city made not so much as the least mention of a restoration of exiles, but when the city seemed to have recovered its courage, they departed, after giving over to the Phliasians both their city and their laws unchanged, precisely as they were when they took the city in charge.
Again, Iphicrates and his troops invaded many districts of Arcadia also, where they plundered and made attacks upon the walled towns; for the hoplites of the Arcadians did not come out from their walls at all to meet them; such fear they had conceived of the peltasts. But the peltasts in their turn were so afraid of the Lacedaemonians that they did not approach within a javelin’s cast of the hoplites; for it had once happened that the younger[*](391 B.C.) men among the Lacedaemonians, pursuing even from so great a distance as that, overtook and killed some of them.
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.
After this the Lacedaemonians, upon hearing[*](390 B.C.) from the Corinthian exiles that the people in the city had all their cattle in Piraeum[*](A mountainous peninsula of considerable extent on the north-western side of the isthmus of Corinth (see note 2, below). At its western extremity was the Heraeum, or temple of Hera (see 5, below), near which was a small lake (6). In the north-eastern part of the peninsula was the fortress of Oenoe (5).) and there kept them safe, and that many were being maintained from this supply, made another expedition to the territory of Corinth, Agesilaus being in command this time also. And first he came to the Isthmus[*](The term was used by the Greeks, not (as in the preceding note) of the entire neck of land connecting Peloponnesus with northern Greece, but only of its narrowest part, some three or four miles north-east of the city of Corinth. Toward the eastern side of this Isthmus proper was the famous sanctuary of Poseidon where, every two years, the Isthmian games were celebrated.); for it was the month during which the Isthmian games are celebrated, and the Argives chanced at the time to be offering the sacrifice there to Poseidon, as though Argos were Corinth. But when they learned that Agesilaus was approaching, they left behind both the victims that had been offered and the breakfast that was being made ready and retired to the city in very great fear, along the road leading to Cenchreae.
Agesilaus, however, did not pursue them, even though he saw them, but encamping in the sacred precinct offered sacrifice himself to the god and waited until the Corinthian exiles had conducted[*](390 B.C.) the sacrifice and the games in honour of Poseidon. But when Agesilaus had left the Isthmus, the Argives celebrated the Isthmian games all over again. In that year, accordingly, in some of the contests individual competitors were beaten twice, while in others the same competitors were twice proclaimed victors.
On the fourth day Agesilaus led his army against Piraeum. But seeing that it was guarded by many, he withdrew after breakfast in the direction of the capital, as though the city were going to be betrayed to him; so that the Corinthians, in fear that the city was to be betrayed by some one, summoned Iphicrates with the greater part of his peltasts. Agesilaus, however, upon perceiving that they had passed by during the night, turned about, and at daybreak proceeded to lead his army to Piraeum. And he himself advanced by way of the hot springs[*](Situated near the shore on the road leading from the Isthmus to Piraeum.), but he sent one regiment up the heights to proceed along the topmost ridge. On that night, accordingly, he was in camp at the hot springs, while the regiment bivouacked, holding possession of the heights.
It was then that Agesilaus won credit by a trifling but timely expedient. For since no one among those who carried provisions for the regiment had brought fire, and it was cold, not only because they were at a high altitude, but also because there had been rain and hail towards evening—and besides, they had gone up in light clothing suitable to the summer season—and they were shivering and, in the darkness, had no heart for their dinner, Agesilaus sent up not less than ten men carrying fire in earthen pots. And when these men had climbed up by one way and another and many large fires had been[*](390 B.C.) made, since there was a great deal of fuel at hand, all the soldiers anointed themselves and many of them only then began their dinner. It was on this night also that the temple of Poseidon[*](See note 2, p. 323.) was seen burning; but no one knows by whom it was set on fire.
Now when the people in Piraeum perceived that the heights were occupied, they gave no further thought to defending themselves, but fled for refuge to the Heraeum,[*](See note 1, p. 323.) men and women, slaves and freemen, and the greater part of the cattle. And Agesilaus with the army proceeded along the sea shore; while the regiment, descending at the same time from the heights, captured Oenoe,[*](See note 1, p. 323.) the stronghold which had been fortified in Piraeum, and took possession of all that was within it, and in fact all the soldiers on that day possessed themselves of provisions in abundance from the farms. Meanwhile those who had taken refuge in the Heraeum came out, with the purpose of leaving it to Agesilaus to decide as he chose in regard to them. He decided to deliver over to the exiles all those who had a part in the massacre,[*](c.p. 4.4.2) and that all else should be sold.
Thereupon the prisoners came forth from the Heraeum, a very great number of them, together with their property; and many embassies from various states presented themselves, while from the Boeotians in particular ambassadors had come to ask what they should do in order to obtain peace. Agesilaus, however, in a very lofty way affected not even to see these ambassadors, although Pharax, diplomatic agent for the Thebans at Lacedaemon, was standing beside them for the purpose of presenting them to him; but sitting in the circular structure[*](The reference is uncertain.) near the lake,[*](See note 1, p. 323) he occupied himself in watching the great quantity of[*](390 B.C.) prisoners and property that was being brought out. And some Lacedaemonians from the camp followed with their spears to guard the prisoners, and were much regarded by the bystanders; for somehow men who are fortunate and victorious seem ever to be a noteworthy spectacle.
But while Agesilaus was still sitting there in the attitude of a man who exulted in what had been accomplished, a horseman rode up, his horse sweating profusely. And being asked by many people what news he brought, he made no reply to anyone, but when he was near Agesilaus, he leaped down from his horse, ran up to him, and with a very gloomy face told him of the disaster[*](Described in 11-17, below.) to the regiment stationed in Lechaeum. When Agesilaus heard this, he immediately leaped up from his seat, seized his spear, and ordered the herald to summon the commanders of regiments and of fifties and the leaders of the allies.
When they came running together, he told the rest of them to follow along as quickly as possible after swallowing what they could—for they had not yet breakfasted—while he himself with his tent companions[*](The tent companions of a Spartan king were the six polemarchs, or commanders of regiments, and three other Spartiatae. Xen. de Rep. Lac. xiii. 1.) went on ahead breakfastless. And the spearmen of his body-guard, fully armed, accompanied him with all speed, he leading the way and his tent companions following after him. But when he had already passed the hot springs and come to the plain of Lechaeum, three horsemen rode up and reported that the bodies of the dead had been recovered. When he heard this, he gave the order to ground arms, and after resting the army for a short time, led it back again to the Heraeum; and on the following day he exposed the prisoners and[*](390 B.C.) captured property for sale.
The ambassadors of the Boeotians were now summoned and asked for what purpose they had come. They made no further mention of peace, but said that if there were nothing to hinder, they desired to pass into the city to join their own soldiers. And Agesilaus said with a laugh, On the contrary, I know that you are not desirous of seeing your soldiers, but of beholding the good fortune of your friends, that you may see how great it has been. Wait, therefore, he said, for I will conduct you myself, and by being with me you will find out better what manner of thing it is that has happened.
And he did not belie his words, but on the next day, after offering sacrifice, he led his army to the city. He did not throw down the trophy, but by cutting down and burning any fruit-tree that was still left, he showed that no one wanted to come out against him. When he had done this, he encamped near Lechaeum; as for the ambassadors of the Thebans, although he did not let them go into the city, yet he sent them home by sea to Creusis.[*](A Boeotian port on the Corinthian Gulf.) Now inasmuch as such a calamity had been unusual with the Lacedaemonians, there was great mourning throughout the Laconian army, except among those whose sons, fathers, or brothers had fallen where they stood; they, however, went about like victors, with shining countenances and full of exultation in their own misfortune.