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cut off his head and burn his body: at any rate, it was but a little while before his death that he had these visions. Those who were sent to assassinate him had not courage enough to enter the house, but surrounded it first, and set it on fire. Alcibiades, as soon as he perceived it, getting together great quantities of clothes and furniture, threw them upon the fire to choke it, and, having wrapped his cloak about his left arm, and holding his naked sword in his right, cast himself into the middle of the fire, and escaped securely through it, before the clothes were burnt. The barbarians, as soon as they saw him, retreated, and none of them durst stay to expect him, or to engage with him, but, standing at a distance, they slew him with their darts and arrows. When he was dead, they departed, and Timandra took up his dead body, and covering and wrapping it up in the clothes that she found remaining, gave it an honourable and respectful burial. It is said, that the famous Lais, who was called the Corinthian, though she was a native of Hyccara, a small town in Sicily, from whence she was brought a captive, was the daughter of this Timandra. There are some who agree with this account of Alcibiades's death in all points, except that they impute the cause of it neither to Pharnabazus, nor Lysander, nor the Lacedæmonians: but say he was keeping with him a young lady of

of Alcibiades on my way from Synada to Metropolis. A yearly sacrifice of an ox is offered there by the orders of the most excellent Emperor Hadrian, who also erected on the tomb a statue of Alcibiades made of Parian marble." Athenæus lived in the century (about A.D. 200) after Plutarch, who probably died soon after the accession (A.D. 117) of the Emperor Hadrian.

a noble house, whom he had dishonoured, and that her brothers not being able to endure the indignity, set fire by night to the house where he was living, and as he endeavoured to save himself from the flames, slew him with their darts, in the manner just related.

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Astragalizontes.

LYSANDER.

N

Persian Daric.

THE treasure-chamber of the Acanthians at Delphi has 1 this inscription: "The spoils which Brasidas and the Acanthians took from the Athenians." And accordingly many take the marble statue, which stands within the building by the door, to be Brasidas's; but indeed it is Lysander's, an actual likeness*, representing him with his hair at full length, after the old fashion, and with an ample flowing beard. For neither is it true, as some have said, that because the Argives after their great defeat† shaved themselves for sorrow, the Spartans, on the other hand, triumphing in their achievements, allowed their hair to grow; nor did they take a passion for wearing long hair, because the Bacchiadæ, who

* Literally an iconic statue; this, from eikon or icon, a likeness, is the technical term used in Latin as well as Greek for real portraits from the life, as distinguished from ideal representations.

This was the account given by Herodotus, who is not a favourite with Plutarch. The battle was a famous one, fought some little time before the Persian wars. Argos before her defeats had been the first state in Peloponnesus, and had claimed a sort of pre-eminence in Greece, to which the Spartans after their victory succeeded.

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