Hellenica

But since none of the Arcadians appeared, he continued his march as rapidly as possible to Eutaea, even though it was very late, with the desire of getting his hoplites away before they even saw the enemy’s fires, so that no one could say that he had withdrawn in flight. For he seemed to have brought the state some relief from its former despondency, inasmuch as he had invaded Arcadia and, though he laid waste the land, none had been willing to fight with him. And after he had arrived in Laconia, he let the Spartiatae go home and dismissed the Perioeci to their several cities.

As for the Arcadians, since Agesilaus had departed and they learned that his army had been disbanded, while they themselves were still gathered together, they made an expedition against the Heraeans, not only because they refused to be members of the Arcadian League, but also because they had joined with the Lacedaemonians in invading Arcadia. And after entering the territory of Heraea they proceeded to burn the houses and cut down the trees.It was not until the Thebans with their supporting force were reported to have arrived in Mantinea that the Arcadians departed from Heraea and united with the Thebans.

When they had joined forces, the[*](370 B.C.) Thebans thought that matters stood well with them, inasmuch as they had come to bring aid and there was no longer an enemy to be seen in the land; they accordingly made their preparations for going back. But the Arcadians, Argives, and Eleans urged them to lead the way with all speed into Laconia, pointing out the number of their own troops[*]( The Theban army according to Plutarch (Ages. 31) numbered 40,000 hoplites, while Diodorus (xv. 62) puts the combined forces at more than 70,000 men.) and praising beyond measure the army of the Thebans. For all the Boeotians were now training themselves in the craft of arms, glorying in their victory at Leuctra; and they were reinforced by the Phocians, who had become their subjects, the Euboeans from all their cities, both the Locrian peoples,[*](cp. iv. ii. 17.) the Acarnanians, the Heracleots, and the Malians; they were also reinforced by horsemen and peltasts from Thessaly. The Arcadians, then, seeing all this and describing the dearth of men in Lacedaemon, begged them by no means to turn back before invading the country of the Lacedaemonians.

But while the Thebans listened to this request, they took into account, on the other hand, the fact that Laconia was said to be exceedingly difficult to enter, and that they believed garrisons were posted at the points of easiest access. For Ischolaus was at Oeum, in Sciritis, commanding a garrison composed of emancipated Helots and about four hundred of the youngest of the Tegean exiles; and there was another garrison also at Leuctrum, above Maleatis. The Thebans likewise weighed this consideration, that the force of the Lacedaemonians would gather quickly and that they would fight nowhere better[*](370 B.C.) than in their own country. Therefore, taking into account all these things, they were by no means eager to proceed into Lacedaemon.

But when people had come from Caryae telling of the dearth of men, promising that they would themselves act as guides, and bidding the Thebans slay them if they were found to be practising any deception, and when, further, some of the Perioeci appeared, asking the Thebans to come to their aid, engaging to revolt if only they would show themselves in the land, and saying also that even now the Perioeci when summoned by the Spartiatae were refusing to go and help them — as a result, then, of hearing all these reports, in which all agreed, the Thebans were won over, and pushed in with their own forces by way of Caryae, while the Arcadians went by way of Oeum, in Sciritis.

Now if Ischolaus had advanced to the difficult part of the pass and had made his stand there, no one, by all accounts, could have accomplished the ascent by that route at least; but in fact, since he wished to employ the Oeans as allies, he remained in the village, and the Arcadians ascended the pass in very great numbers. There, in the face-to-face fighting, the troops with Ischolaus were victorious; but when the enemy showered blows and missiles upon them from the rear, on the flank, and from the houses upon which they mounted, then Ischolaus was killed and all the rest as well, unless one or another slipped through unrecognized.

After achieving this deed the Arcadians marched to join the Thebans at Caryae; and when the Thebans heard what had been accomplished by the Arcadians, they proceeded to make the descent with far greater boldness. Coming[*](370 B.C.) to Sellasia, they at once burned and pillaged it; but when they arrived in the plain, they encamped there, in the sacred precinct of Apollo. The next day they marched on.Now they did not even make the attempt to cross over by the bridge against Sparta, for in the sanctuary of Athena Alea the hoplites were to be seen, ready to oppose them; but keeping the Eurotas on their right they passed along, burning and plundering houses full of many valuable things.

As for the people in the city, the women could not even endure the sight of the smoke, since they had never seen an enemy; but the Spartiatae, their city being without walls, were posted at intervals, one here, another there, and so kept guard, thought they were, and were seen to be, very few in number. It was also determined by the authorities to make proclamation to the Helots that if any wished to take up arms and be assigned to a place in the ranks, they should be given a promise that all should be free who took part in the war.

And it was said that at first more than six thousand enrolled themselves, so that they in their turn occasioned fear when they were marshalled together, and were thought to be all too numerous; but when the mercenaries from Orchomenus remained true, and the Lacedaemonians received aid from the Phliasians, Corinthians, Epidaurians, Pelleneans, and likewise some of the other states, then the Spartiatae were less fearful of those who had been enrolled.

Now when, in its onward march, the army of the enemy came opposite Amyclae, at this point they crossed the Eurotas. And wherever the Thebans encamped they at once threw down in front of their lines the greatest possible quantity of the trees which[*](370 B.C.) they cut down, and in this way guarded themselves; the Arcadians, however, did nothing of this sort, but left their camp behind them and turned their attention to plundering the houses. After this, on the third or fourth day of the invasion, the horsemen advanced to the race-course in the sanctuary of Poseidon Gaeaochus by divisions, the Thebans in full force, the Eleans, and all the horsemen who were there of the Phocians, Thessalians, or Locrians.

And the horsemen of the Lacedaemonians, seemingly very few in number, were formed in line against them. Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians had set an ambush of the younger hoplites, about three hundred in number, in the house of the Tyndaridae,[*]( See note on iii. 6.) and at the same moment these men rushed forth and their horsemen charged. The enemy, however, did not await their attack, but gave way. And on seeing this, many of the foot-soldiers also took to flight. But when the pursuers stopped and the army of the Thebans stood firm, the enemy encamped again.

It now seemed somewhat more certain that they would make no further attempt upon the city; and in fact their army departed thence and took the road toward Helos and Gytheium. And they burned such of the towns as were unwalled and made a three days’ attack upon Gytheium, where the Lacedaemonians had their dockyards. There were some of the Perioeci also who not only joined in this attack, but did regular service with the troops that followed the Thebans.[*]( A most striking indication of Xenophon’s pro-Spartan feeling (see Introd. p. x) is found in the fact that he here omits all reference to the greatest of the humiliations which Sparta suffered at this time: (1) the re-establishment by Epaminondas, the Theban general, of the independence of Messenia, which for centuries had been subject to the Spartans; and (2) the founding of the great city, Megalopolis, as the capital of an independent Arcadia. Nevertheless, Xenophon alludes several times in the following book to the accomplished fact of Messenian independence and to Megalopolis.)

When the Athenians heard of all these things, they[*](370 B.C.) were in a state of concern as to what they should do in regard to the Lacedaemonians, and by resolution of the Senate they called a meeting of the Assembly. Now it chanced that there were present ambassadors of the Lacedaemonians and of the allies who still remained to them. Wherefore the Lacedaemonians spoke — Aracus, Ocyllus, Pharax, Etymocles, and Olontheus — almost all of them saying much the same things. They reminded the Athenians that from all time the two peoples had stood by one another in the most important crises for good ends; for they on their side, they said, had aided in expelling the tyrants[*]( The house of the Peisistratidae, in 511 B.C.) from Athens, while the Athenians, on the other hand, gave them zealous assistance at the time when they were hard pressed by the Messenians.[*]( In the so-called Third Messenian War, 464-455 B.C.)

They also described all the blessings which were enjoyed at the time when both peoples were acting in union, recalling how they had together driven the barbarian back, recalling likewise how the Athenians had been chosen by the Greeks as leaders of the fleet and custodians of the common funds,[*]( Referring to the formation of the Confederacy of Delos, 477 B.C.) the Lacedaemonians supporting this choice, while they had themselves been selected by the common consent of all the Greeks as leaders by land, the Athenians in their turn supporting this selection.

And one of them even said something like this: But if you and we, gentlemen, come to agreement, there is hope now that the Thebans will be decimated, as the old saying has it. The Athenians, however, were not very much inclined to accept all this, and a murmur went round to the effect that this is what they say now, but in the time when[*](370 B.C.) they were prosperous they were hostile to us. The weightiest of the arguments urged by the Lacedaemonians seemed to their hearers to be, that at the time when they subdued the Athenians, though the Thebans wanted to destroy Athens utterly, it was they who had prevented it.

Most stress was laid, however, upon the consideration that the Athenians were required by their oaths to come to their assistance; for it was not because the Lacedaemonians had done wrong that the Arcadians and those with them were making an expedition against them, but rather because they had gone to the aid of the Tegeans for the reason that the Mantineans, in violation of their oaths, had taken the field against them. At these words an uproar again ran through the Assembly; for some said that the Mantineans had done right in avenging the followers of Proxenus who had been slain by the followers of Stasippus, while others said that they were in the wrong because they had taken up arms against the Tegeans.

While the Assembly itself was trying to determine these matters, Cleiteles, a Corinthian, arose and spoke as follows: Men of Athens, it is perhaps a disputed point who began the wrong-doing; but as for us, can anyone accuse us of having, at any time since peace was concluded, either made a campaign against any city, or taken anyone’s property, or laid waste another’s land? Yet, nevertheless, the Thebans have come into our country, and have cut down trees, and burned down houses, and seized property and cattle. If, therefore, you do not aid us, who are so manifestly wronged, will you not surely be acting in violation of your oaths? They were the same oaths, you remember, that you yourselves took care to[*](370 B.C.) have all of us swear to all of you. Thereupon the Athenians shouted their approval, saying that Cleiteles had spoken to the point and fairly.

Then Procles, a Phliasian, arose after Cleiteles and said: Men of Athens, it is clear to everyone, I imagine, that you are the first against whom the Thebans would march if the Lacedaemonians were got out of the way; for they think that you are the only people in Greece who would stand in the way of their becoming rulers of the Greeks.

If this is so, I, for my part, believe that if you undertake a campaign, you would not be giving aid to the Lacedaemonians so much as to your own selves. For to have the Thebans, who are unfriendly to you and dwell on your borders, become leaders of the Greeks, would prove much more grievous to you, I think, than when you had your antagonists far away. Furthermore, you would aid yourselves with more profit if you should do so while there are still people who would fight on your side, than if they should perish first and you should then be compelled to enter by yourselves upon a decisive struggle with the Thebans.

Now if any are fearful that in case the Lacedaemonians escape this time, they may again in the future cause you trouble, take thought of this, that it is not those whom one benefits, but those whom one injures, of whom one has to fear that they may some day attain great power. And you should bear in mind this likewise, that it is meet both for individuals and for states to acquire a goodly store in the days when they are strongest, in order that, if some day they become powerless, they may draw upon their previous labours for succour.