fled from Corinth to Lacedæmon, looked mean and unsightly, having their heads all close cut. But this, also, is in fact one of the ordinances of Lycurgus, who, we are told, used to say, that long hair made goodlooking men more beautiful, and ill-looking men more terrible. 2 Lysander's father is said to have been Aristocritus, who was not indeed of the royal family, but of the stock of the Heraclidæ. He was brought up in poverty, and showed himself obedient and conformable, as ever any one did, to the customs of his country; of a manly spirit also, and superior to all pleasures, excepting only that which their good actions bring to those who are honoured and successful; and it is accounted no base thing in Sparta for their young men to be overcome with this kind of pleasure. For they are desirous to have their youth susceptible from the very first to good and bad repute, to feel pain at disgrace and exultation at being commended; and any one who is insensible and unaffected in these respects is thought poor-spirited and of no capacity for virtue. Ambition and the passion for pre-eminence were thus implanted in his character by his Laconian education, nor, if they continued there, must we blame his natural disposition much for this. But he was, in his own character, submissive to great men beyond the Spartan habit, and, to obtain his ends, would easily endure the haughtiness of a superior; which some indeed regard as no small part of political discretion. Aristotle, who says all great characters are more or less atrabilious, as Socrates and Plato and Hercules were, writes, that Lysander, not indeed early in life, but when he was old, became thus affected.* What is singular in his character is that he bore poverty very well, and was not at all enslaved or corrupted by wealth, and yet he filled his country with riches and the love of them, and took away their glory of not admiring money, importing amongst them an abundance of gold and silver after the Athenian war, though keeping not one drachma for himself. When Dionysius the tyrant sent his daughters Dionysome costly gowns of Sicilian manufacture, he would tyrant at Synot receive them, saying he was afraid they would only racuse, look the less handsome in them. But a while after, being B.C. 406. sent ambassador to the same tyrant, on receiving a couple of robes, and being told to choose which he would, and carry it to his daughter, "she," said he, "will choose best for herself," and went away with both of them. sius from nian The Peloponnesian war having now been carried on 3 a long time, and it being expected after the disaster of Athethe Athenians in Sicily, that they would at once lose defeat in Sicily the mastery of the sea, and ere long be routed every- B.C.413. where, Alcibiades, returning from banishment, and Victotaking the command, produced a great change, and Alcibimade the Athenians again a match for their opponents B.C. 411by sea. And the Lacedæmonians, in alarm at this, and * Aristotle observes that all remarkable men, whether in philosophy or politics, poetry or the arts, have been atrabilious (melan-cholic). He mentions Hercules, who suffered, before his death on Eta, from an eruption of boils on his skin, a thing often caused by black bile. "Lysander," he adds, "suffered from them before his death. Ajax and Bellerophon, among the heroes, are other instances; and, in later times, Empedocles, Plato, Socrates, and many other famous men. Soo, too, the great majority of the poets." ries of ades, 408. der B.C. 407. calling up fresh courage for the conflict, which they saw required an able commander and a powerful armaLysan ment, sent out Lysander to be admiral of the seas. admiral, Coming to Ephesus, and finding the city well affected towards him and favourable to the Lacedæmonian party, but in ill condition, and in danger to become barbarised by adopting the manners of the Persians, who were much mingled among them, the country of Lydia being all about them, and the king's generals spending much of their time there, he made the place his headquarters, and commanded the merchant ships all about to put in thither, and proceeded to build ships of war there; and thus restored their ports by the traffic he created, and their market by the employment he gave, and filled their private houses and their workshops with wealth. So that from that time first the city began, by Lysander's means, to show a likelihood of growing to that stateliness and grandeur which now it enjoys. 4 On hearing that Cyrus the king's son was come to Sardis, he went up to speak with him, and to accuse Tissaphernes, who, receiving a command to help the Lacedæmonians and to drive the Athenians from the sea, was considered on account of Alcibiades to have become remiss and unwilling, and by paying the seamen slenderly to be ruining the fleet. Now Cyrus was willing that Tissaphernes might be found in blame and be ill-reported of, as being indeed a dishonest man, and also privately at feud with himself. By these means, and by their daily intercourse together, Lysander, especially by the submissiveness of his conversation, won the affections of the young prince, and greatly roused him to carry on the war; and when he would depart, Cyrus gave him a banquet, and desired him not to refuse his good-will, but to speak and ask whatever he had a mind to, and that he should not be refused anything whatsoever: "Since you are so kind," replied Lysander, "I earnestly request you to add one penny to the seaman's pay, that instead of three pence, they may now receive four pence."* Cyrus, delighted with his public spirit, gave him ten thousand darics, out of which he added the penny to the seamen's pay, and by the renown of this in a short time emptied the ships of the enemy, as many came over to that side which gave the most pay, and those who re *The obolus may be called the Greek penny, though in actual value it was worth three halfpence; exactly like the Swiss batz. It was the subdivision of the common silver piece, six to the drachma. Battle tium. 5 mained, being disheartened and mutinous, gave daily trouble to the captains. Yet for all Lysander had so distracted and weakened his enemies, he was afraid to engage by sea, Alcibiades being an energetic commander and having the superior number of ships,—and having been hitherto, in all battles, undefeated both by sea and land. But when Alcibiades had sailed from Samos to Phoof No cæa, leaving Antiochus, his pilot, in command of the fleet, this Antiochus, out of vainglory, and to insult Lysander, sailed with two galleys into the port of the Ephesians, and with mocking and laughter proudly rowed along before the place where the ships lay drawn up. Lysander, in indignation, launched at first a few ships only and pursued him; but as soon as he saw the Athenians come to his help, he added some other ships, and at last they fell to a set battle together; and Lysander won the victory, and taking fifteen of their ships, erected a trophy. Upon this the Athenian people at home, being angry, put Alcibiades out of the command, and he finding himself despised by the soldiers in Samos and ill spoken of, sailed away from the army to the Chersonese. And this battle, although not important in itself, was made remarkable by its consequences to Alcibiades. Lysander, meanwhile, inviting to Ephesus such persons in the various towns as he saw to be bolder and haughtier-spirited than their fellow-citizens, proceeded to lay the foundations of that arbitrary government by bodies of ten-and of those revolutions, which afterwards came to pass, stirring up and urging them to unite in clubs, and apply themselves to public affairs, since as soon as ever the Athe |