Hellenica

Furthermore, it has also been granted you by the gods to be successful in this pursuit. For while you have engaged in very many and very great combats by sea, you have met with an exceedingly small number of misfortunes and have achieved an exceedingly large number of successes. Therefore it is likely that the allies would like best to share in such perils if they were under your leadership.

And that this devotion to the sea is indeed both necessary and proper for you, you must conclude from the following fact: the Lacedaemonians once made war upon you for many years,[*]( The reference is to the Peloponnesian War, which was terminated by the capture of the Athenian fleet by the Lacedaemonians at Aegospotami (Hell. II. i. 20-32).) and though masters of your land could make no progress toward destroying you. But when at length the deity granted them to win the mastery by sea, straightway you fell completely under their power.[*](369 B.C.) In these circumstances, therefore, it is plain to be seen that all your safety depends upon the sea.

Such, then, being the situation ordained by nature, how could you be content to allow the Lacedaemonians to be leaders by sea, when, in the first place, they themselves admit that they are less experienced than you are in this work, and when, in the second place, they do not risk as much as you do in contests by sea, but merely the people on board the triremes, whereas you risk wives and children and the entire state.

This is the situation on your side; consider now that of the Lacedaemonians. Firstly, they dwell in the interior; hence, so long as they are masters of the land, they can lead a comfortable existence even if they are shut off from the sea. Therefore, realizing this fact themselves, they carry on their training from their very boyhood with a view to war by land. Furthermore, in that which is of the greatest importance, obedience to their commanders, they are best by land, as you are by sea.

Again, they on their side can set forth by land, as you can with a fleet, in greatest numbers and with greatest speed; therefore it is to them in turn that the armies of the allies would be likely to attach themselves with greatest confidence. Besides, the deity has granted, as to you success by sea, so to them success by land; for while they on their side have engaged in very many combats on the land, they have incurred an exceedingly small number of defeats, and have won an exceedingly large number of victories.

And that this devotion to the land is no less necessary for them than devotion to the sea for you, one may judge from the results. For you made war upon[*](369 B.C.) them for many years,[*]( The speaker is referring again to the Peloponnesian War.) and though you defeated them many times by sea, could make no progress toward subduing them. But so soon as they incurred one defeat on the land,[*]( At Leuctra (VI. iv. 1-15).) immediately their wives and children and their entire state were at stake.

Hence for them, on their side, it would surely be a dreadful thing to allow others to be leaders by land, when they themselves are best at the administration of affairs by land. As for myself, therefore, the course which has been proposed by your Senate is that which I have urged, and which I believe to be most advantageous to both parties; and may you, for your part, be fortunate in reaching the conclusion that is best for us all.

Thus he spoke, and both the Athenians and those Lacedaemonians who were present applauded his speech vigorously. But Cephisodotus came forward and said: Men of Athens, you do not observe that you are being deceived; but if you will listen to me, I will prove it to you very speedily. As the matter now stands, you are to be leaders by sea. And if the Lacedaemonians are your allies, it is clear that the captains, and perhaps the marines whom they send out, will be Lacedaemonians, but it is also clear that the sailors will be either Helots or mercenaries. You, therefore, will be leaders of these people.

When, however, the Lacedaemonians give you the order for a campaign by land, it is clear that you will send your hoplites and your horsemen. By this plan, therefore, they become leaders of your own selves, while you become leaders merely of their slaves and their men of least account. Answer me, he said,[*](369 B.C.) Timocrates of Lacedaemon, did you not say a moment ago that you had come with intent to make the alliance on terms of full equality? I did say that.

Then, said Cephisodotus, is there anything more equal than that each party in turn should be leader of the fleet, and each in turn leader of the army, and that you, if there is any advantage in the leadership by sea, should share therein, and we likewise in the matter of leadership by land? Upon hearing this the Athenians were led to change their minds, and they voted that each party should hold the leadership in turn for periods of five days.

Now when both peoples and their allies had proceeded to Corinth, it was determined that they should together guard Oneum. Accordingly, while the Thebans and their allies were on the march, they formed their lines and proceeded to keep guard at one point and another of Oneum, but the Lacedaemonians and the Pelleneans at the most assailable point. And the Thebans and their allies, when they were distant thirty stadia from the troops on guard, encamped in the plain. Then, after calculating the time at which they thought they should start in order to finish their journey at dawn, they marched upon the garrison of the Lacedaemonians.

And in fact they did not prove mistaken in the hour, but fell upon the Lacedaemonians and the Pelleneans at the time when the night watches were just coming to an end, and the men were rising from their camp-beds and going wherever each one had to go. Thereupon the Thebans made their attack and laid on their blows — men prepared attacking those unprepared, and men in good order against those in disorder.

And when such as came out of the affair with their[*](369 B.C.) lives had made their escape to the nearest hill, although the polemarch of the Lacedaemonians might have got as many hoplites and as many peltasts as he pleased from the forces of the allies and might have held his position — for supplies might have been brought in safety from Cenchreae — he did not do this, but while the Thebans were in great perplexity as to how they were to descend on the side looking toward Sicyon, failing which they would have to go back again, he concluded a truce which, as most people thought, was more to the advantage of the Thebans than to that of his own side, and under these circumstances departed and led away the troops under his command.

The Thebans, then, after descending in safety and effecting a junction with their allies, the Arcadians, Argives, and Eleans, immediately attacked Sicyon and Pellene; they also made an expedition to Epidaurus, and laid waste the whole territory of the Epidaurians. Returning from there in a manner which showed great disdain for all their adversaries, as soon as they came near the city of the Corinthians they rushed at the double toward the gates through which one passes in going to Phlius, with the intention of bursting in if they chanced to be open.

But some light troops sallied forth from the city against them and met the picked men[*]( The famous Sacred Band.) of the Thebans at a distance of not so much as four plethra from the city walls; then they climbed up on burial monuments and elevated spots, killed a very considerable number of the troops in the front ranks by hurling javelins and other missiles, and after putting the rest to flight, pursued them about three[*](369 B.C.) or four stadia. When this had taken place the Corinthians dragged the bodies to the wall, and after they had given them back under a truce, set up a trophy. In this way the allies of the Lacedaemonians were renewed in their spirits.

Just after these events had happened, the expedition sent by Dionysius to aid the Lacedaemonians sailed in, numbering more than twenty triremes. And they brought Celts, Iberians, and about fifty horsemen. On the following day the Thebans and the rest, their allies, after forming themselves in detached bodies and filling the plain as far as the sea and as far as the hills adjoining the city, destroyed whatever of value there was in the plain. And the horsemen of the Athenians and of the Corinthians did not approach very near their army, seeing that the enemy were strong and numerous.

But the horsemen sent by Dionysius, few though they were, scattering themselves here and there, would ride along the enemy’s line, charge upon them and throw javelins at them, and when the enemy began to move forth against them, would retreat, and then turn round and throw their javelins again. And while pursuing these tactics they would dismount from their horses and rest. But if anyone charged upon them while they were dismounted, they would leap easily upon their horses and retreat. On the other hand, if any pursued them far from the Theban army, they would press upon these men when they were retiring, and by throwing javelins work havoc with them, and thus they compelled the entire army, according to their own will, either to advance or to fall back.

After this, however, the Thebans remained but a few days and then[*](369 B.C.) returned home, and the others likewise to their several homes. Then the troops sent by Dionysius invaded the territory of Sicyon, and they not only defeated the Sicyonians in battle on the plain and killed about seventy of them, but captured by storm the stronghold of Deras. After these exploits the first supporting force sent out by Dionysius sailed back to Syracuse.Up to this time the Thebans and all who had revolted from the Lacedaemonians had been acting and carrying on their campaigns in full accord, under the leadership of the Thebans.

Now, however, there appeared a certain Lycomedes of Mantinea, a man inferior to none in birth, foremost in wealth, and ambitious besides, and filled the Arcadians with self-confidence, saying that it was to them alone that Peloponnesus was a fatherland, since they were the only autochthonous stock that dwelt therein, and that the Arcadian people was the most numerous of all the Greek peoples and had the strongest bodies. He also declared that they were the bravest, offering as evidence the fact that whenever men needed mercenaries, there were none whom they chose in preference to Arcadians. Furthermore, the Lacedaemonians had never, he said, invaded the territory of Athens without their help, nor had the Thebans at present come to Lacedaemon without the help of the Arcadians.