Hellenica

When the winter had passed, at the very[*](388 B.C.) beginning of spring Agesilaus again called out the ban against the Acarnanians, in accordance with his promise to the Achaeans. But the Acarnanians, learning of this and thinking that inasmuch as their cities were in the interior they would be just as truly besieged by the people who destroyed their corn as if they were besieged by an army encamped around them, sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon and concluded peace with the Achaeans and an alliance with the Lacedaemonians. Thus ended the affair of the Acarnanians.

After this it seemed to the Lacedaemonians that it was not safe for them to undertake a campaign against the Athenians or against the Boeotians while leaving in their rear a hostile state bordering upon Lacedaemon and one so large as that of the Argives; they accordingly called out the ban against Argos. Now when Agesipolis learned that he was to lead the ban, and when the sacrifices which he offered at the frontier proved favourable, he went to Olympia and consulted the oracle of the god, asking whether[*](388 B.C.) it would be consistent with piety if he did not acknowledge the holy truce claimed by the Argives; for, he urged, it was not when the appointed time came, but when the Lacedaemonians were about to invade their territory, that they pleaded the sacred months.[*](The calendars of different Greek states varied so much that sharp practice of the sort here alleged, i.e., shifting the times of religious festivals to meet an emergency, was not difficult or unusual. Cp. ii. 16 and Thuc. v. 54.) And the god signified to him that it was consistent with piety for him not to acknowledge a holy truce which was pleaded unjustly. Then Agesipolis proceeded straight from there to Delphi and asked Apollo in his turn whether he also held the same opinion as his father Zeus in regard to the truce. And Apollo answered that he did hold quite the same opinion.

Under these circumstances Agesipolis led forth his army from Phlius—for it had been assembling for him there while he was away visiting the holy places—and entered the territory of Argos by way of Nemea. And when the Argives realized that they would not be able to hinder the invasion, they sent, as they were wont to do, two heralds, garlanded, pleading a holy truce. But Agesipolis in reply said that the gods did not think they were making this plea justly, and so he refused to acknowledge the truce, but advanced into their territory and caused great distress and terror both in the country and in the city.

Now while he was at dinner in the land of the Argives, on the first evening of his stay there, and when the after-dinner libations had just been made, the god sent an earthquake; and all the Lacedaemonians, those in the royal tent taking the lead, struck up the paean to Poseidon[*](To whom earthquakes were ascribed by the Greeks.); and the rest of the soldiers expected to retire from the country, because Agis likewise, on an occasion when an earthquake[*](888 B.C.) took place, had withdrawn his army from Elis.[*](Cp. III. ii. 24.) But Agesipolis said that if the god had sent an earthquake when he was about to invade, he should have thought that he was forbidding the invasion; but since he sent it after he had invaded, he believed that he was urging him on;

accordingly, on the next day, after offering sacrifices to Poseidon, he again led on his forces, advancing far into the country. And inasmuch as Agesilaus had lately made an expedition into Argos, Agesipolis, finding out from the soldiers how far Agesilaus had led his army in the direction of the wall, and how far he had laid waste the land, endeavoured, like an athlete in the pentathlum, to go beyond him at every point.

On one occasion it was only when he was being pelted with missiles from the towers that he recrossed the trenches around the city wall; and once, when most of the Argives were away in Laconia, he approached so near the gates that the Argives who were at the gates shut out the horsemen of the Boeotians who wanted to enter, through fear that the Lacedaemonians would rush in at the gates along with them; so that the horsemen were compelled to cling, like bats, tight to the walls beneath the battlements. And if it had not chanced that the Cretans were off on a plundering expedition to Nauplia at that time, many men and horses would have been shot down by their arrows.

After this, while Agesipolis was encamping near the enclosed space,[*](The reference is unknown.) a thunderbolt fell into his camp; and some men were killed by being struck, others by the shock. After this, desiring to fortify a garrison post at the entrance to the Argive country which leads past Mount Celusa,[*](388 B.C.) he offered sacrifice; and the livers of the victims were found to be lacking a lobe. When this happened, he led his army away and disbanded it, having inflicted very great harm upon the Argives because he had invaded their land unexpectedly.

As for the war by land, it was being waged in the manner described. I will now recount what happened by sea and in the cities on the coast while all these things were going on, and will describe such of the events as are worthy of record, while those which do not deserve mention I will pass over. In the first place, then, Pharnabazus and Conon, after defeating the Lacedaemonians in the naval battle,[*](Cp. iii. 10 f.) made[*](394 B.C.) a tour of the islands and the cities on the sea coast, drove out the Laconian governors, and encouraged the cities by saying that they would not establish fortified citadels within their walls and would leave them independent.

And the people of the cities received this announcement with joy and approval, and enthusiastically sent gifts of friendship to Pharnabazus. Conon, it seems, was advising Pharnabazus that if he acted in this way, all the cities would be friendly to him, but if it should be evident that he wanted to enslave them, he said that each single city was capable of making a great deal of trouble and that there was danger that the people of Greece also, if they learned of this, would become united.

Pharnabazus was accordingly accepting this counsel. Then, disembarking at Ephesus, he gave Conon forty triremes and told him to meet him at Sestus, while he himself proceeded by land along the coast to his own province. For Dercylidas, who had long been an enemy of his,[*](Cp. III. i. 9.) chanced to be in Abydus at the[*](394 B.C.) time when the naval battle took place, and he did not, like the other Lacedaemonian governors, quit the city, but took possession of Abydus and was keeping it friendly to the Lacedaemonians. For he called together the people of the town and spoke as follows:

Gentlemen, at this moment it is possible for you, who even in former days have been friends of our state, to show yourselves benefactors of the Lacedaemonians. For showing loyalty in the midst of prosperity calls for no particular admiration, but always, if men show themselves steadfast when friends have fallen upon misfortunes, this is remembered for all time. Do not suppose that just because we have been defeated in the naval battle, we are therefore ever afterward to be counted for naught. Nay, even in former times, you recall, when the Athenians were rulers of the sea, our state was able both to confer benefit upon friends and to inflict harm upon enemies. And the greater the extent to which the other cities have, along with fortune, turned away from us, by so much the greater in reality would your fidelity be made manifest. But if anyone is afraid that we may be besieged here both by land and by sea, let him reflect that there is not yet a Greek fleet on the sea, and if the barbarians shall undertake to rule the sea, Greece will not tolerate this; so that in helping herself she will also become your ally.

Upon hearing these words, the Abydenes yielded compliance, not unwillingly, but with enthusiasm, and they received kindly the Lacedaemonian governors who came to Abydus[*](i.e., in flight from their several towns.) and sent for those who were elsewhere. Then, after many good men had been[*](394 B.C.) collected in the city, Dercylidas crossed over to Sestus, which is opposite Abydus and distant not more than eight stadia, gathered together all who had obtained land in the Chersonese[*](Cp. III. ii. 10.) through the Lacedaemonians, and received also all those governors who had been driven out in like fashion from the cities on the European side, saying to them that they ought not to be discouraged, either, when they reflected that even in Asia, which had belonged from all time to the King, there was Temnus—not a large city—and Aegae and other places in which people were able to dwell without being subject to the King. In any event, he said, what stronger place could you find than Sestus, what place harder to capture by siege? For it is a place which requires both ships and troops if it is to be besieged. By such words he kept these men also from being panic-stricken.

Now when Pharnabazus found both Abydus and Sestus in this condition, he made proclamation to their inhabitants that if they did not expel the Lacedaemonians he would make war upon them. And upon their refusing to obey, he directed Conon to prevent them from sailing the sea, while he himself proceeded to lay waste the territory of the Abydenes. But failing to make any progress toward subduing them, he himself went back home, ordering Conon to try to win over the cities along the Hellespont, to the end that as large a fleet as possible might be gathered together by the coming of the spring. For he was angry with the Lacedaemonians on account of what he had suffered at their hands, and therefore desired above all things to go to their country and take what vengeance upon them[*](394 B.C.) he could.

In such occupations, accordingly, they passed the winter; but at the opening of spring,[*](393 B.C.) having fully manned a large number of ships and hired a force of mercenaries besides, Pharnabazus, and Conon with him, sailed through the islands to Melos, and making that their base, went on to Lacedaemon. And first Pharnabazus put in at Pherae and laid waste this region; then he made descents at one point and another of the coast and did whatever harm he could. But being fearful because the country was destitute of harbours, because the Lacedaemonians might send relief forces, and because provisions were scarce in the land, he quickly turned about, and sailing away, came to anchor at Phoenicus in the island of Cythera.