Hellenica

And when he had passed this point and arrived at Plataea, he pretended that he was again going to Thespiae first, and sending thither he gave orders that a market should be made ready and that the embassies should await him there; so that the Thebans guarded strongly the pass leading from Thespiae into their country.

But on the following day at daybreak, after offering sacrifices, Agesilaus proceeded by the road to Erythrae. And after accomplishing in one day a two days’ march for an army, he passed the line of the stockade at Scolus before the Thebans returned from keeping guard at the place where he had entered on the previous occasion. Having done this, he laid waste the region to the east of the city of the Thebans, as far as the territory of the Tanagraeans; for at that time Hypatodorus and his followers, who were friends of the Lacedaemonians, still held possession of Tanagra. After this he proceeded to retire, keeping the wall of Tanagra on his left.

Meanwhile the Thebans came up quietly and formed in line of battle against him on the hill called Old Woman’s Breast, with the trench and the stockade in their rear, believing that this was a good place to risk a battle; for the ground at this point was a rather narrow strip and hard to traverse. When Agesilaus observed this, he did not lead his army against them, but turned aside and proceeded in the direction of the city.

The Thebans, on the other hand, being seized with fear for their city, because it was empty of defenders, abandoned the place where they were drawn up and hurried toward the city on the run, by the road which leads to Potniae; for this was the safer route.[*](377 B.C.) And it really seemed that Agesilaus’ expedient proved a clever one, for though he led his army directly away from the enemy, he caused the latter to retire on the run, and while the enemy ran past, some of his polemarchs with their regiments nevertheless succeeded in charging upon them.

The Thebans, however, hurled their spears from the hill-tops, so that Alypetus, one of the polemarchs, was struck and killed; but in spite of that the Thebans were put to flight from this hill also. Consequently the Sciritans and some of the horsemen climbed the hill and showered blows upon the hind-most of the Thebans as they rushed past them toward the city.

As soon as they got near the wall, however, the Thebans turned about; and the Sciritans, upon seeing them, fell back at a faster pace than a walk. Now not one of them was killed; nevertheless, the Thebans set up a trophy, because after climbing the hill the Sciritans had retired.

As for Agesilaus, when it was time for him to do so, he withdrew and encamped at the very spot where he had seen the enemy drawn up; then on the following day he led his army away by the road to Thespiae. But since the peltasts who were mercenaries in the service of the Thebans clung boldly at his heels, and kept calling out to Chabrias because he was not doing the same, the horsemen of the Olynthians — for they were now serving with the Lacedaemonians in accordance with their sworn agreement — wheeled about and, once in pursuit of the peltasts, chased them on up a slope and killed very many of them; for when going up a hill where the riding is good foot-soldiers are quickly overtaken by horsemen.

Now when Agesilaus had arrived at Thespiae, finding[*](377 B.C.) that the citizens were involved in factional strife, and that those who said they were supporters of Lacedaemon wanted to put to death their opponents, of whom Menon was one, he did not allow this proceeding; but he reconciled them and compelled them to give oaths to one another, and then, this being accomplished, he came back again by way of Cithaeron, taking the road leading to Megara. From there he dismissed the allies and led his citizen troops back home.

The Thebans were now greatly pinched for want of corn, because they had got no crops from their land for two years; they therefore sent men and two triremes to Pagasae after corn, giving them ten talents. But while they were buying up the corn, Alcetas, the Lacedaemonian who was keeping guard in Oreus, manned three triremes, taking care that the fact should not be reported. And when the corn was on its way from Pagasae, Alcetas captured both corn and triremes, and made prisoners of the men, who were not fewer than three hundred in number. These men he then shut up in the Acropolis, where he himself had his quarters.

Now since, as the story ran, there was a boy of Oreus, an extremely fine lad too, who was always in attendance upon him, Alcetas went down from the Acropolis and occupied himself with this boy. Accordingly the prisoners, observing his carelessness, seized the Acropolis, and the city revolted; so that thereafter the Thebans brought in supplies of corn easily.

As the spring came on again, Agesilaus was confined[*](376 B.C.) to his bed. For when he was leading his army back from Thebes, and, in Megara, was ascending from the Aphrodisium to the government[*](376 B.C.) building, some vein or other was ruptured, and the blood from his body poured into his sound[*](See III. iii. 3 and note.) leg. Then as the lower part of his leg became immensely swollen and the pain unendurable, a Syracusan surgeon opened the vein at his ankle. But when once the blood had begun to flow, it ran night and day, and with all they could do they were unable to check the flow until he lost consciousness; then, however, it stopped. So it came about that after being carried back to Lacedaemon he was ill the rest of the summer and throughout the winter.

The Lacedaemonians, however, when spring was just beginning, again called out the ban and directed Cleombrotus to take command. Now when he arrived at Cithaeron with the army, his peltasts went on ahead for the purpose of occupying in advance the heights above the road. But some of the Thebans and Athenians who were already in possession of the summit allowed the peltasts to pursue their ascent for a time, but when they were close upon them, rose from their concealment, pursued them, and killed about forty. After this had happened, Cleombrotus, in the belief that it was impossible to cross over the mountain into the country of the Thebans, led back and disbanded his army.

When the allies gathered together at Lacedaemon, speeches were forthcoming from them to the effect that, through slackness in prosecuting the war, they were going to be worn out by it. For they said it was within their power to man far more ships than the Athenians had and to capture their city by starvation; and it was also within their power to transport an[*](376 B.C.) army across to Thebes in these same ships, steering for Phocis if they chose, or, if they chose, for Creusis.

Influenced by these considerations they manned sixty triremes, and Pollis was made admiral of them. And those who had conceived these views were not disappointed, for the Athenians were in fact as good as besieged; for while their corn ships got as far as Gerastus, they would not now venture to sail along the coast from that point, since the Lacedaemonian fleet was in the neighbourhood of Aegina, Ceos, and Andros. Then the Athenians, realizing the necessity that was upon them, went on board their ships themselves, joined battle with Pollis under the leadership of Chabrias, and were victorious in the battle. Thus the corn was brought in for the Athenians.

Again,[*](375 B.C.) while the Lacedaemonians were preparing to transport an army across the gulf to proceed against the Boeotians, the Thebans requested the Athenians to send an expedition around Peloponnesus, believing that if this were done it would not be possible for the Lacedaemonians at one and the same time to guard their own country and likewise the allied cities in their neighbourhood, and also to send across an army large enough to oppose themselves, the Thebans.

And the Athenians, angry as they were with the Lacedaemonians on account of Sphodrias’ act, did eagerly dispatch the expedition around Peloponnesus, manning sixty ships and choosing Timotheus as their commander. Now since the enemy had not invaded the territory of Thebes in the year when Cleombrotus was in command of the army and did not do so in the year when Timotheus made his voyage, the Thebans boldly undertook expeditions against the neighbouring cities of Boeotia and recovered them[*](375 B.C.) a second time.

As for Timotheus, after he had sailed round Peloponnesus he brought Corcyra at once under his control; he did not, however, enslave the inhabitants or banish individuals or change the government. As a result of this he made all the states in that region more favourably inclined to him. The

Lacedaemonians, however, manned a fleet to oppose him, and sent out Nicolochus, a very daring man, as admiral; and as soon as he sighted the ships under Timotheus, he did not delay, even though six of his ships, those from Ambracia, were not with him, but with fifty-five ships he joined battle with those under Timotheus, which numbered sixty. And at that time he was defeated, and Timotheus set up a trophy at Alyzeia.

But when the ships of Timotheus had been hauled up and were being refitted, and meanwhile the six Ambraciot triremes had joined Nicolochus, he sailed to Alyzeia, where Timotheus was. And since the latter did not put out against him, he in his turn set up a trophy on the nearest islands. When, however, Timotheus finished refitting the ships which he had and had manned, besides, others from Corcyra, the whole number of his ships now amounting to more than seventy, he was far superior to the enemy in the size of his fleet. But he kept sending for money from Athens; for he needed a great deal, inasmuch as he had a great many ships.