ties; which he strongly opposed, giving for his reason, that all he had undertaken had no other principle than that the laws might have their due course. He was accused of malversation during his command of the army. Timoleon, without giving himself the trouble to refute those calumnies, only replied," that he thanked the gods, who had heard his prayers, and "that he at length saw the Syracusans enjoy an entire liberty of saying every thing; a liberty absolutely unknown to them under the tyrants, but "which it was just to confine within due bounds."

66

That great man had given Syracuse wise laws, had purged all Sicily of the tyrants who had so long infested it, had re-established peace and security universally, and supplied the cities ruined by the war with the means of reinstating themselves. After such glorious actions, which had acquired him an unbounded credit, he quitted his authority to live in retirement. The Syracusans had given him the best house in the city in gratitude for his great services, and another very fine and agreeable one in the country, where he generally resided with his wife and children, whom he had sent for from Corinth; for he did not return thither, and Syracuse was become his country. He had the wisdom, in resigning every thing, to abstract himself entirely also from envy, which never fails to attend exalted stations, and pays no respect to merit, however great and substantial. He shunned the rock on which the greatest men, through an insatiate lust of honours and power, are often shipwrecked; that is, by engaging to the end of their lives in new cares and troubles, of which age renders them incapable, and by choosing rather to sink under, than to lay down the weight of them.

Timoleon, who knew all the value of a noble and glorious leisure, acted in a different manner. He passed the rest of his life as a private person, enjoying the grateful satisfaction of seeing so many cities, and such a numerous people indebted to him for their happiness and tranquility but he was always respected and consulted as the common oracle of Sicily. Neither treaty of peace, institution of law, division of land, nor regulation of government, seemed well done, if Timoleon had not been consulted, and put the last hand to it.

His age was tried with a very sensible affliction, which he supported with astonishing patience; it was the loss of sight. That accident, far from lessening him in the consideration and regard of the people, served only to augment them. The Syracusans did not content themselves with paying him frequent visits; they conducted all strangers both in town and country to see their benefactor and deliverer. When they had any important affair to deliberate upon in the assembly of the people, they called him in to their assistance, who came thither in a chariot drawn by two horses, which crossed the public place to the theatre; and in that manner he was introduced into the assembly, amidst the shouts and acclamations of joy of the whole people. After he had given his opinion, which was always religiously observed, his domestics re-conducted him across the theatre, followed by all the citizens beyond the gates with continual shouts of joy and clapping of hands.

Nothing was

He had still greater honours paid to him after his death. wanting that could add to the magnificence of the procession which followed his bier, of which the tears that were shed, and the blessings uttered by every body in honour of his memory, were the noblest ornaments. Those tears were neither the effect of custom and the formality of mourning, nor exacted by a public decree, but flowed from a native source, sincere affection, lively gratitude, and inconsolable sorrow. A law was also made, that annually for the future, upon the day of his death, the music

and gymnastic games should be celebrated with horse races in honour of him. But what was still more honourable for the memory of that great man, was the decree of the Sysacusan people, that whenever Sicily should be engaged in a war with foreigners, they should send to Corinth for a general.

I do not know that history has any thing more great and accomplished than what it says of Timoleon. I speak not only of his military exploits, but the happy success of all his undertakings. Plutarch observes a characteristic in them, which distinguishes Timoleon from all the great men of his times, and makes use upon that occasion of a very remarkable comparison. There are, says he, in painting and poetry, pieces which are excellent in themselves, and which at the first view may be known to be the works of a master, but some of them denote their having cost abundance of pains and application; whereas in others an easy and native grace is seen, which adds exceedingly to their value; and amongst the latter he places the poems of Homer. There is something of this sort occurs when we compare the great actions of Epaminondas and Agesilaus with those of Timoleon. In the former, we find them executed with force and innumerable difficulties; but in the latter, there is an easiness and facility which distinguish them as the work not of fortune, but of virtue, which fortune seems to have taken pleasure in seconding. It is Plutarch who still speaks. But not to mention his military actions, what I admire most in Timoleon, is his warm and disinterested passion for the public good, and his reserving only for himself the pleasure of seeing others happy by his services; his extreme remoteness from ambition and haughtiness; his honourable retirement into the country; his modesty, moderation, and indifference for the honours paid him; and what is still more uncommon, his aversion for all flattery, and even just praises. When somebody extolled in his presence his wisdom, valour, and glory, in having expelled the tyrants, he made no answer, but that he thought himself obliged to express his gratitude to the gods, who, having decreed to restore peace and liberty to Sicily, had vouchsafed to make choice of him in preference to all others for so honourable a ministration; for he was fully persuaded that all human events are guided and disposed by the secret decrees of divine providence. What a treasure, what a happiness for a state is such a minis

ter !

For the better understanding his value, we have only to compare the condition of Syracuse under Timoleon with its state under the two Dionysiuses. It is the same city, inhabitants, and people; but how different is it under the different governments we speak of! The two tyrants had no thoughts but of making themselves feared, and of depressing their subjects to render them more passive. They were terrible in effect, as they desired to be; but at the same time detested and abhorred, and had more to fear from their subjects than their subjects from them. Timoleon, on the contrary, who looked upon himself as the father of the Syracusan people, and who had no thoughts but of making them happy, enjoyed the refined pleasure of being beloved and revered as a parent by his children; and he was remembered amongst them with blessings, because they could not reflect upon the peace and felicity they enjoyed without calling to mind at the same time the wise legislator to whom they were indebted for those inestimable blessings.

BOOK XII.

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

PERSIANS AND GRECIANS.

CHAPTER I.

THIS book contains principally the history of two very illustrious generals of the Thebans, Epaminondas and Pelopidas; the deaths of Agesilaus, king of Sparta, and of Artaxerxes Mnemon, king of Persia.

SECTION I.

STATE OF GREECE FROM THE TREATY OF ANTALCIDES.

THE peace of Antalcides, * of which mention has been made in the third chapter of the ninth book, had given the Grecian states great matter of discontent and division. In effect of that treaty, the Thebans had been obliged to abandon the cities of Boeotia, and let them enjoy their liberty: and the Corinthians to withdraw their garrison from Argos, which by that means became free and independent. The Lacedæmonians, who were the authors and executors of this treaty, saw their power extremely augmented by it, and were industrious to make further additions to it. They compelled the Mantineans, against whom they pretended to have many causes of complaint in the last war, to demolish the walls of their city, and to inhabit four different places, as they had done before.

The two kings of Sparta, Agesipolis and Agesilaus, were of quite different characters, and as opposite in their opinions upon the present state of affairs. The first, who was naturally inclined to peace, and a strict observer of justice, was for having Sparta, already much exclaimed against for the treaty of Antalcides, suffer the Grecian cities to enjoy their Jiberties, according to the tenor of that treaty, and not disturb their tranquility through an unjust desire of extending their dominions. The other, on the contrary, restless, active, and full of great views of ambition and conquest, breathed nothing but war.

At the same time, deputies arrived at Sparta from Acanthus and * A. M. 3617. Ant. J. C. 387. Xenoph. hist. Græc. l.v. p. 550, 553. + Diod. 1. xv. p. 341. ‡ A. M. 3621. Ant. J. C. 383.

Apollonia, two very considerable cities of Macedonia, in respect to Olynthus, a city of Thrace, inhabited by Greeks, originally of Chalcis in Euboa.* Athens, after the victories of Salamin and Marathon, had conquered many places on the side of Thrace, and even in Thrace itself. Those cities threw off the yoke, as soon as Sparta, at the conclusion of the Peloponnesian war, had ruined the power of Athens. Olynthus was of this number. The deputies of Acanthus and Apollonia, represented in the general assembly of the allies, that Olynthus, situated in their neighbourhood, daily improved in strength in an extraordinary manner; that it perpetually extended its dominions by new conquests; that it obliged all the cities round about to submit to it, and to enter into its measures; and was upon the point of concluding an alliance with the Athenians and the Thebans. The affair being taken into consideration, it was unanimously resolved, that it was necessary to declare war against the Olynthians. It was agreed, that the allied cities should furnish ten thousand troops, with liberty, to such as desired it, to substitute money, at the rate of three oboli a day for each foot soldier, and four times as much for the horse. The Lacedæmonians, to lose no time, made their troops march directly, under the command of Eudamidas, who prevailed with the Ephori, that Phæbidas his brother, might have the leading of those which were to follow, and to join him soon after. When he arrived in that part of Macedonia, which is also called Thrace, he garrisoned such places as applied to him for that purpose, seized upon Potidea, a city in alliance with the Olynthians, which surrendered without making any defence, and began the war against Olynthus, though slowly, as it was necessary for a general to act before his troops were all assembled.

Phæbidas began his march soon after, and being arrived near Thebes, encamped without the walls near the gymnasium, or public place of exercise. Ismenius and Leontides, both polemarchs, that is, generals of the army, and supreme magistrates of Thebes, were at the head of two different factions. The first, who had engaged Pelopidas in his party, was no friend to the Lacedæmonians, nor they to him, because he publicly declared for popular government and liberty. The other, on the contrary, favoured an oligarchy and was supported by the Lacedæmonians with their whole interest. I am obliged to enter into this detail, because the event I am going to relate, and which was a consequence of it, occasions the important war between the Thebans and Spartans.

This being the state of affairs at Thebes, Leontides applied to Phabidas, and proposed to him to seize the citadel called Cadmæa, to expel the adherents of Ismenius, and to give the Lacedæmonians possession of it. He represented to him that nothing could he more glorious for him than to make himself master of Thebes, whilst his brother was endeavouring to reduce Olynthus; that he would thereby facilitate the success of his brother's enterprise; and that the Thebans, who had prohibited their citizens by decree to bear arms against the Olynthians would not fail, upon his making himself master of the citadel, to supply him with whatever number of horse and foot he should think proper for the reinforcement of Eudamidas.

Phabidas, who had much ambition and little conduct, and who had no other view than to signalize himself by some extraordinary action, with

*Diod. 1. xv. p. 554–556.

A. M. 3622. Ant. J. C. 382. Xenoph. p. 556–558. Plut. in Agesil. p. 602, 609. Id. in Pelop. p. 280. Diod. 1. xv. p. 341, 312.