Sparta was under no small difficulty to know how to act in regard to those who had fled from the battle. As they were numerous, and of the most powerful families in the city, it was not safe to inflict upon them the punishments assigned by the laws, lest their despair should induce them to take some violent resolution fatal to the state: for such as fled were not only excluded from all offices and employments, but it was a disgrace to contract any alliance with them by marriage. Any body that met them in the streets might buffet them, which they were obliged to suffer. They were besides to wear dirty and ragged habits, full of patches of different colours. And lastly, they were to shave half their beards, and to let the other half grow. It was a great loss to the Spartans to be deprived of so many of their soldiery, at the time they had such pressing occasion for them. To remove this difficulty, they chose Agesilaus legislator, with absolute power to make such alterations in the laws as he should think fit. Agesilaus, without adding, retrenching, or changing any thing, found means to save the fugitives without prejudice to the state. In a full assembly of the Lacedæmonians, be decreed, “that for the present day, the laws should be "suspended, and of no effect; but ever after to remain in full force and "authority." By those few words he preserved the Spartan laws entire, and at the same time restored to the state a great number of its members, in preventing their being for ever degraded, and consequently useless to the republic. *After the battle of Leuctra the two parties were industriously employed, the one in retrieving, and the other in improving their victory. † Agesilaus, to revive the courage of his troops, marched them into Arcadia; but with a full resolution carefully to avoid a battle. He confined himself to attacking some small towns of the Mantineans, which he took, and laid the country waste. This gave Sparta some joy, they began to take courage from believing their condition not entirely desperate. and The Thebans, soon after this victory, sent an account of it to Athens, and to demand aid at the same time against the common enemy. The senate was then sitting, which received the courier with great coldness, did not make him the usual presents, and dismissed him without taking any notice of aid. The Athenians, alarmed at the considerable advantage which the Thebans had gained over the Lacedæmonians, could not dissemble the umbrage and dissatisfaction which so sudden and unexpected an increase of a neighbouring power gave them, which might soon render itself formidable to all Greece. At Thebes, Epaminondas and Pelopidas had been elected joint governours of Bootia. Having assembled all the troops of the Boeotians and their allies, whose number daily increased, they entered Peloponnesus, and made abundance of places and people revolt from the Lacedæmonians; Elis, Argos, Arcadia, and the greatest part of Laconia itself. It was then about the winter solstice, and towards the end of the last month of the year, so that in a few days they were to quit their offices; the first day of the next month being assigned by law for their resigning them to the persons appointed to succeed them, upon pain of death if they held them beyond that term. Their colleagues, apprehending the badness of the season, and more, the dreadful consequences of infringing that law, were for marching back the army immediately to Thebes. Pelopidas was Xenoph. I. vi. p. 598. Diod. 1. xv. p. 375-378. Plut. in Agesil. p. 613-615. Id. in Pelop. p. 290. the first, who, entering into the opinion of Epaminondas, animated the citizens, and engaged them to take the advantage of the enemy's alarm, and to pursue their enterprise in neglect of a formality, from the observance of which they might justly believe themselves dispensed by the state itself, as the service of the state, when founded in justice, is the sovereign law and rule of the people's obedience. They entered Laconia therefore at the head of an army of 70,000 good soldiers, of which the twelfth part were not Thebans. The great reputation of the two generals was the cause that all the allies, even without order or public decree, obeyed them with respectful silence, and marched with entire confidence and courage under their command. It was 600 years since the Dorians had established themselves at Lacedæmon, and in all that time they had never seen an enemy upon their lands; none daring till then to set foot in them, and much less to attack their city, though without walls. The Thebans and their allies, finding a country hitherto untouched by an enemy, ran through it with fire and sword, destroying and plundering as far as the river Eurotas, without any opposition whatsoever. Parties had been posted to defend some important passes. Ischolas the Spartan, who commanded one of these detachments, distinguished himself in a peculiar manner. Finding it impossible, with his small body of troops, to support the enemy's attack, and thinking it below a Spartan to abandon his post, he sent back the young men who were of age and condition to serve their country effectually, and kept none with him but such as were advanced in years. With these devoting himself, after the example of Leonidas, to the public good, they sold their lives dear; and after having defended themselves a long time, and made a great slaughter of their enemies, they all perished to a man. Agesilaus acted upon this occasion with great address and wisdom. He looked upon this irruption of the enemy as an impetuous torrent, which it was not only in vain, but dangerous to oppose, whose rapid course would be but of short duration, and after some ravages subside of itself. He contented himself with distributing his best troops into the middle, and all the most important parts of the city, strongly securing all the posts. He was determined not to quit the town, nor to hazard a battle, and persisted in that resolution, without regard to all the raillery, in sults, and menaces of the Thebans, who defied him by name, and called upon him to come out and defend his country, who had alone beer the cause of all its sufferings, in kindling the war. But far greater afflictions to Agesilaus were the commotions and disorders excited within the city, the murmurs and complaints of the old men in the highest affliction and despair from being witnesses of what they saw, as well as of the women, who seemed quite distracted with hearing the threatening cries of the enemy, and seeing the neighbouring country all on fire, whilst the flames and smoke, which drove almost upon them, seemed to denounce a like misfortune to themselves. Whatever courage Agesilaus might express in his outward behaviour, he could not fail of bebeing sensibly affected with so mournful an object, to which was added, the grief of losing his reputation; who, having found the city in a most flourishing and potent condition, when he came to the government, now saw it fallen to such a degree, and all its ancient glory lost under him! He was, besides, secretly mortified at so mournful a contradiction of a boast he had often made," that no woman of Sparta had ever seen the "sinoke of an enemy's camp." Whilst he was giving different orders in the city, he was informed, that a certain number of mutineers had seized an important post, with a resolution to defend themselves in it. Agesilaus ran immediately thither, and as if he had been entirely unacquainted with their bad design, he said to them, "comrades, it is not there I sent you." At the same time, he pointed to different posts to divide them; to which they went, believing their enterprise had not been discovered. This order, which he gave without emotion argues a great presence of mind in Agesilaus, and shows, that in times of trouble it is not proper to see too much, that the culpable may not want time to reflect and repent. He thought it more advisable to suppose that small troop innocent, than to urge them to a declared revolt by a too rigorous inquiry. The Eurotas was at that time very much swoln by the melting of the snows, and the Thebans found more difficulty in passing it than they expected, as well from the extreme coldness of the water as its rapidity. As Epaminondas passed at the head of his infantry, some of the Spartans showed him to Agesilaus; who, after having attentively considered and followed him with his eyes a long time, said only, "wonderful man ! *” in admiration of the valour that could undertake such great things. Epaminondas would have been glad to have given battle in Sparta, and to have erected a trophy in the midst of it. He did not however think proper to attempt the forcing of the city, and not being able to induce Agesilaus to quit it, chose to retire. It would have been difficult for Sparta, without aid, and unfortified, to have defended itself long against a victorious arny. But the wise captain who commanded it apprehended that he should draw upon his hands the whole force of Peloponnesus, and still more, that he should excite the jealousy of the Greeks, who would never have pardoned his destroying so potent a republic, and “pulling out," as Leptinus says, "one of the eyes of Greece," as a proof of his skill. He confined himself therefore to the glory of having humbled the proud, whose laconic language added new haughtiness to their commands, and of having reduced them to the necessity, as he boasted himself, of enlarging their style, and lengthening their monosyllables. At his return he again wasted the country. In this expedition the Thebans reinstated Arcadia into one body, and took Messenia from the Spartans, who had been in possession of it & very long after having expelled all its inhabitants. It was a country equal in extent to Laconia, and as fertile as the best in Greece. Its ancient inhabitants, who were dispersed in different regions of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, on the first notice given them, returned with incredible joy; animated by the love of their country, natural to all men, and almost as much by their hatred of the Spartans, which the length of time had only increased. They built themselves a city, which, from the ancient name was called Messene. Amongst the bad events of this war, none gave the Lacedæmonians more sensible displeasure, or rather more lively grief; because * Ω τε μεγαλποςαγμονος ανθρωπο. The Greek expression is not easy to be translated; it signifies, "Oh the actor of great deeds!" Arist. Rhet. l. iii. c. 10. The Lacedæmonians sometimes answered the most important dispatches by a single monosyllable. Philip having wrote to them, "if I enter your country i shall put all to fire and sword;" they replied, "if;" to signify they should take all possible care to put it out of his power. Paus. I. iv. p. 267, 268. The Messenians had been driven out of their country 287 years. from immemorial time an irreconcileable enmity had subsisted between Sparta and Messene, which seemed incapable of being extinguished but by the final ruin of the one or the other. * Polybius reflects upon an ancient error in the conduct of the Messenians with regard to Sparta, which was the cause of all their misfortunes. This was their too great solicitude for the present tranquility, and through an excessive love of peace, their neglecting the means of making it sure and lasting. Two of the most powerful states of Greece were their neighbours, the Arcadians and Lacedæmonians. The latter, from their first settlement in the country, had declared open war against them; the others, on the contrary, always joined with them, and entered into all their interests. But the Messenians had neither the courage to oppose their violent and irreconcileable enemies with valour and constancy, nor the prudence to treat with due regard their faithful and affectionate allies. When the two states were either at war with each other, or carried their arms elsewhere, the Messenians, little provident for the future, and regarding only their present repose, made it a rule with them never to engage in the quarrel on either side, and to observe an exact neutrality. On such conjunctures they congratulated themselves upon their wisdom and success in preserving their tranquility, whilst their neighbours all around them were involved in trouble and confusion. But this tranquility was of no long duration. The Lacedæmonians, having subdued their enemies, fell upon them with all their forces; and finding them unsupported by allies, and incapable of defending themselves, they reduced them to submit either to the yoke of a rigid slavery, or to banish themselves from their country. And this was several times their case. They ought to have reflected, says Polybius, that as there is nothing more desirable or advantageous than peace, when founded in justice and honour; so there is nothing more shameful, and at the same time more pernicious, when attained by bad measures, and purchased at the price of liberty. SECTION V. THE TWO THEBAN GENERALS, AT THEIR RETURN, ARE ACCUSED AND AB; SOLVED.-SPARTA IMPLORES AID OF ATHENS. IT might be expected, that the two Theban captains, on their return to their country after such memorable actions, should have been received with the general applause, and all the honours that could be conferred upon them. Instead of which they were both summoned to answer as criminals against the state; in having, contrary to the law, whereby they were obliged to resign their command to new officers, retained it four months beyond the appointed term; during which they had executed in Messenia, Arcadia, and Laconia, all those great things we have related. A behaviour of this kind is surprising, and the relation of it cannot be read without a secret indignation: but such a conduct had a very plausible foundation. The zealous assertors of a liberty lately regained were apprehensive that the example might prove very pernicious, in authorizing some future magistrate to maintain himself in command beyond the established term, and in consequence to turn his arms against his country. It is not to be doubted but the Romans would have acted in the same manner; and if they were so severe, to put an officer to death, though victo* Polyb. I. iv. p. 299, 800. rious, for giving battle without his general's orders, how would they have behaved to a general who should have continued four months in the supreme command, contrary to the laws, and upon his own authority? * Pelopidas was the first cited before the tribunal. He defended himself with less force and greatness of mind than was expected from a man of his character, by nature warm and fiery. That valour, haughty and intrepid in fight, forsook him before the judges. His air and discourse, which had something timid and creeping in it, denoted a man who was afraid of death, and did not in the least incline the judges in his favour, who acquitted him not without difficulty. Epaminondas appeared, and spoke with a quite different air and tone. He seemed, if I may be allowed the expression, to charge danger in front without emotion. Instead of justifying himself, he made a panegyric upon his actions, and repeated in a lofty style in what manner he had ravaged Laconia, re-established Messenia, and reunited Arcadia into one body. He concluded with saying, that he should die with pleasure, if the Thebans would renounce the sole glory of those actions to him, and declare that he had done them by his own authority, and without their participation. All the voices were in his favour; and he returned from his trial, as he used to return from battle, with glory and universal applause. Such dignity has true valour, that in a manner seizes the admiration of mankind by force. He was by nature designed for great actions, and every thing he did haď an air of grandeur in it. His enemies, jealous of his glory, and with design to affront him, got him elected telearch; an office very unworthy of a person of his merit. He however thought it no dishonour to him, and said, that he would demonstrate, that "the office did not show the "man, but the man the office." He accordingly raised that employment to very great dignity, which before consisted in only taking care that the streets were kept clean, the dirt carried away, and the drains and common sewers in good order. The Lacedæmonians, having every thing to fear from an enemy, whom the late successes had rendered still more haughty and enterprising than ever, and seeing themselves exposed every moment to a new irruption, had recourse to the Athenians, and sent deputies to them to implore their aid. The person who spoke, began with describing in the most pathetic terms the deplorable condition and extreme danger to which Sparta was reduced. He enlarged upon the insolent haughtiness of the Thebans, and their ambitious views, which tended to nothing less than the empire of all Greece. He insinuated what Athens in particular had to fear, if they were suffered to extend their power by the increase of allies, who every day went over to their party, and augmented their forces. He called to mind the happy times, in which the strict union betwixt Athens and Sparta had preserved Greece to the equal glory of both states; and concluded with saying, how great an addition it would be to the Athenian name, to aid a city, its ancient friend and ally, which more than once had generously sacrificed itself for the common interest and safety. The Athenians could not deny all that the deputy advanced in his discourse, but at the same time they had not forgot the bad treatment which *Plut. de sui laude, p. 540. + Plut. de præcept. rein. ger. p. 811. † Ου μόνον αρχη ανδρα δεικνυσιν, αλλα και αρχην ανης. Xenoph. 1. vi. p. 609–613. |