Hellenica

They sent out Diphridas also on board these ships, and ordered him to cross over into Asia and to keep safe the cities which had received Thibron, and then, after assuming command of that part of Thibron’s army which was left alive, and after gathering another army from wherever he could, to make war upon Struthas. Diphridas accordingly set about these things, and he was successful not only in his other undertakings, but particularly in capturing Tigranes, the husband of Struthas’ daughter, and his wife also, as they were journeying to Sardis, and in obtaining a large ransom for their release, so that he was at once able to hire mercenaries with the money thus obtained.

This Diphridas was as a man no less attractive than Thibron, and as a general he was more self-controlled and enterprising. For the pleasures of the body did not hold the mastery over him, but in whatever task he was engaged, he always gave himself wholly to it.As for Ecdicus, after sailing to Cnidos and learning that the commons in Rhodes were in possession of everything, and were masters both by land and by sea, having twice as many triremes as he had himself, he remained quiet in Cnidos.

The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, when they found that he had too[*](391 B.C.) small a force to be of service to their friends, ordered Teleutias, with the twelve ships which he had under his command in the gulf round Achaea and Lechaeum,[*](Cp. 11.) to sail around to Ecdicus, send him back home, and himself look after the interests of those who wished to be their friends, and do whatever harm he could to their enemies. And when Teleutias arrived at Samos he obtained from there seven more ships and sailed on to Cnidos, while Ecdicus returned home.

Then Teleutias continued his voyage to Rhodes, having now twenty-seven ships; and while sailing thither he fell in with Philocrates, the son of Ephialtes, sailing with ten triremes from Athens to Cyprus for the purpose of aiding Euagoras, and captured all ten. Both parties were acting in this affair in a manner absolutely opposed to their own interests; for the Athenians, although they had the King for a friend, were sending aid to Euagoras who was making war upon the King, and Teleutias, although the Lacedaemonians were at war with the King, was destroying people who were sailing to make war upon him. Then Teleutias, after sailing back to Cnidos and selling there the booty which he had captured, arrived at Rhodes on his second voyage and proceeded to aid those who held to the side of the Lacedaemonians.

Meanwhile the Athenians, coming to the belief[*](390 B.C.) that the Lacedaemonians were again acquiring power on the sea, sent out against them Thrasybulus, of the deme Steiria, with forty ships. When he had sailed out, he gave up his plan of an expedition to Rhodes, thinking on the one hand that he could not easily punish the friends of the Lacedaemonians,[*](390 B.C.) since they held a fortress and Teleutias was there with a fleet to support them, and, on the other hand, that the friends of his own state would not fall under the power of the enemy, since they held the cities, were far more numerous, and had been victorious in battle.

Accordingly he sailed to the Hellespont, and, since there was no adversary there, thought that he could accomplish some useful service for his state. In the first place, therefore, learning that Amedocus, the king of the Odrysians, and Seuthes, the ruler of the coast region, were at variance, he reconciled them to one another and made them friends and allies of the Athenians, thinking that if they were friendly, the Greek cities situated on the Thracian coast would also show a greater inclination towards the Athenians.

Then, with this matter successfully arranged, and the cities in Asia in a favourable attitude on account of the King’s being a friend of the Athenians, he sailed to Byzantium and farmed out the tithe-duty on vessels sailing out of the Pontus.[*](cp. I. i. 22 and note.) He also changed the government of the Byzantines from an oligarchy to a democracy, so that the commons of Byzantium were not sorry to see the greatest possible number of Athenians present in their city.

Now after he had accomplished these things and had won over the Calchedonians also as friends, he sailed back out of the Hellespont. And finding that all the cities in Lesbos except Mytilene were on the side of the Lacedaemonians, he went against none of them until he had marshalled in Mytilene the four hundred hoplites from his own ships and all the exiles from the Lesbian cities who had fled for refuge to Mytilene, and had also added[*](390 B.C.) to this force the stoutest of the Mytilenaeans themselves; nor, furthermore, until he had suggested hopes, firstly to the Mytilenaeans, that if he captured the cities they would be the leaders of all Lesbos, secondly to the exiles, that if they proceeded all together against each single one of the cities, they would be able, acting in unison, to accomplish their restoration to their native states, and again to his marines, that by making Lesbos likewise friendly to their state they would at once obtain a great abundance of money. Then, after giving them this encouragement and marshalling them in line of battle, he led them against Methymna.

Therimachus, however, who chanced to be the Lacedaemonian governor, on hearing that Thrasybulus was coming against him, took the marines from his own ships, the Methymnaeans themselves, and all the Mytilenaean exiles who chanced to be there, and went to meet the enemy at the borders. A battle was fought in which Therimachus was killed on the spot and many of the others were killed as they fled.

After this Thrasybulus brought over some of the[*](389 B.C.) cities, and was busy collecting money for his soldiers by plundering from those which refused to come over; meanwhile he was eager to arrive at Rhodes. But to the end that there also he might make his army as strong as possible, he collected money from various cities, and came to Aspendus in particular and anchored in the Eurymedon river. And after he had already received money from the Aspendians, his soldiers wrongfully did some plundering from their lands; the Aspendians therefore in anger fell upon him during the night and cut him down in his tent.

This, then, was the end of Thrasybulus, who was[*](389 B.C.) esteemed a most excellent man. And the Athenians chose Agyrrhius in his place, and sent him out to take command of the ships. The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, learning that the tithe-duty on the vessels sailing out of the Pontus had been sold at Byzantium by the Athenians, that they were in possession of Calchedon, and that the other Hellespontine cities were in a favourable attitude toward them because Pharnabazus was their friend, concluded that they must attend to this situation.

They did not, indeed, find any fault with Dercylidas; but Anaxibius, inasmuch as the ephors had become friends of his, succeeded in having himself sent out to Abydus as governor. And he promised that if he received money and ships, he would also make war upon the Athenians, so that matters might not stand so well with them in the Hellespont.

Accordingly the ephors gave Anaxibius three triremes and money enough for a thousand mercenaries, and sent him out. When he had reached Abydus, his operations by land were as follows: after collecting a mercenary force, he proceeded to detach some of the Aeolian cities from Pharnabazus, take the field in retaliatory expeditions against the cities which had made expeditions against Abydus, march upon them, and lay waste their territory. On the naval side, in addition to the ships which he had he fully manned three others from Abydus, and brought into port whatever merchant vessel he found anywhere belonging to the Athenians or their allies.

The Athenians, however, learning of these things, and fearing that the results of all Thrasybulus’ work in the Hellespont might be ruined for them, sent out against Anaxibius Iphicrates, with eight ships and about one[*](389 B.C.) thousand two hundred peltasts. The greater part of these were the men whom he had commanded at Corinth.[*](See chaps. iv. and v.) For when the Argives had incorporated Corinth in Argos, they said that they had no need of them; for Iphicrates had put to death some of the partisans of Argos; accordingly he had returned to Athens and chanced to be at home at this time.

Now when he reached the Chersonese, at first Anaxibius and he made war upon one another by sending out raiding parties; but as time went on Iphicrates found out that Anaxibius had gone to Antandrus with his mercenaries, the Lacedaemonians who were with him, and two hundred hoplites from Abydus, and heard that he had brought Antandrus into relations of friendship with him. Whereupon, suspecting that after he had also established his garrison there he would return again and bring the Abydenes back home, Iphicrates crossed over by night to the most deserted portion of the territory of Abydus, and going up into the mountains, set an ambush. Furthermore, he ordered the triremes which had brought him across the strait to sail at daybreak along the coast of the Chersonese, up the strait, in order that it might seem that he had sailed up the Hellespont to collect money, as he was wont to do.

Having done all these things he was not disappointed, for Anaxibius did come marching back, even though—at least, as the story ran—his sacrifices on that day had not proved favourable; but despite that fact, filled with disdainful confidence because he was proceeding through a friendly country and to a friendly city, and because he heard from those who met him that Iphicrates had sailed up in the direction[*](389 B.C.) of Proconnesus, he was making his march in a rather careless fashion.

Nevertheless, Iphicrates did not rise from ambush so long as the army of Anaxibius was on the level ground; but when the Abydenes, who were in the van, were now in the plain of Cremaste, where their gold mines are, and the rest of the army as it followed along was on the downward slope, and Anaxibius with his Lacedaemonians was just beginning the descent, at this moment Iphicrates started his men up from their ambush and rushed upon him on the run.

Then Anaxibius, judging that there was no hope of safety, inasmuch as he saw that his army extended over a long and narrow way, and thought that those who had gone on ahead would clearly be unable to come to his assistance up the hill, and since he also perceived that all were in a state of terror when they saw the ambush, said to those who were with him: Gentlemen, it is honourable for me to die here, but do you hurry to safety before coming to close engagement with the enemy.

Thus he spoke, and taking his shield from his shieldbearer, fell fighting on that spot. His favourite youth, however, remained by his side, and likewise from among the Lacedaemonians about twelve of the governors, who had come from their cities and joined him, fought and fell with him. But the rest of the Lacedaemonians fled and fell one after another, the enemy pursuing as far as the city. Furthermore, about two hundred of the other troops of Anaxibius were killed, and about fifty of the Abydene hoplites. And after accomplishing these things Iphicrates went back again to the Chersonese.