Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (89 page)

Thereupon Pausanias set up a trophy and returned to his camp; and despite what had happened he was not angry with them, but sent secretly and instructed the men in Piraeus to send ambassadors to him and the ephors who were with him, telling them also what proposals these ambassadors should offer; and they obeyed him. He also set about dividing the men in the city, and gave directions that as many of them as possible should gather together and come to him and the ephors and say that they had no desire to be waging war with the men in Piraeus, but rather to be reconciled with them and in common with them to be friends of the Lacedaemonians.
[36]
Now Naucleidas also, who was an ephor, was pleased to hear this. For, as it is customary for two of the ephors to be with a king on a campaign, so in this instance Naucleidas and one other were present, and both of them held to the policy of Pausanias rather than to that of Lysander. For this reason they eagerly sent to Lacedaemon both the envoys from Piraeus, having the proposals for peace with the Lacedaemonians, and the envoys from the city party as private individuals, namely, Cephisophon and Meletus.
[37]
When, however, these men had departed for Lacedaemon, the authorities in the city also proceeded to send ambassadors, with the message that they surrendered both the walls which they possessed and themselves to the Lacedaemonians, to do with them as they wished; and they said they counted it only fair that the men in Piraeus, if they claimed to be friends of the Lacedaemonians, should in like manner surrender Piraeus and Munichia.
[38]
When the ephors and the members of the Lacedaemonian assembly had heard all the ambassadors, they dispatched fifteen men to Athens and commissioned them, in conjunction with Pausanias, to effect a reconciliation in the best way they could. And they effected a reconciliation on these terms, that the two parties should be at peace with one another and that every man should depart to his home except the members of the Thirty, and of the Eleven, and of the Ten who had ruled in Piraeus. They also decided that if any of the men in the city were afraid, they should settle at Eleusis.
[39]

When these things had been accomplished, Pausanias disbanded his army and the men from Piraeus went up to the Acropolis under arms and offered sacrifice to Athena. When they had come down, the generals convened an Assembly. There Thrasybulus spoke as follows:
[40]
“I advise you,” he said, “men of the city, to `know yourselves.’ And you would best learn to know yourselves were you to consider what grounds you have for arrogance, that you should undertake to rule over us. Are you more just? But the commons, though poorer than you, never did you any wrong for the sake of money; while you, though richer than any of them, have done many disgraceful things for the sake of gain. But since you can lay no claim to justice, consider then whether it is courage that you have a right to pride yourselves upon.
[41]
And what better test could there be of this than the way we made war upon one another? Well then, would you say that you are superior in intelligence, you who having a wall, arms, money, and the Peloponnesians as allies, have been worsted by men who had none of these? Is it the Lacedaemonians, then, think you, that you may pride yourselves upon? How so? Why, they have delivered you up to this outraged populace, just as men fasten a clog upon the necks of snapping dogs and deliver them up to keepers, and now have gone away and left you.
[42]
Nevertheless, my comrades, I am not the man to ask you to violate any one of the pledges to which you have sworn, but I ask you rather to show this virtue also, in addition to your other virtues, — that you are true to your oaths and are god-fearing men.” When he had said this and more to the same effect, and had told them that there was no need of their being disturbed, but that they had only to live under the laws that had previously been in force, he dismissed the Assembly.
[43]

So at that time they appointed their magistrates and proceeded to carry on their government; but at a later period, on learning that the men at Eleusis were hiring mercenary troops, they took the field with their whole force against them, put to death their generals when they came for a conference, and then, by sending to the others their friends and kinsmen, persuaded them to become reconciled. And, pledged as they were under oath, that in very truth they would not remember past grievances, the two parties even to this day live together as fellow-citizens and the commons abide by their oaths.

BOOK III.

1.
So ended the civil strife at Athens. Shortly after this Cyrus sent messengers to Lacedaemon and asked that the Lacedaemonians should show themselves as good friends to him as he was to them in the war against the Athenians. And the ephors, thinking that what he said was fair, sent instructions to Samius, at that time their admiral, to hold himself under Cyrus’ orders, in case he had any request to make. And in fact Samius did zealously just what Cyrus asked of him: he sailed round to Cilicia at the head of his fleet, in company with the fleet of Cyrus, and made it impossible for Syennesis, the ruler of Cilicia, to oppose Cyrus by land in his march against the Persian king.
[2]
As to how Cyrus collected an army and with this army made the march up country against his brother, how the battle was fought, how Cyrus was slain, and how after that the Greeks effected their return in safety to the sea — all this has been written by Themistogenes the Syracusan.
[3]

Now when Tissaphernes, who was thought to have proved himself very valuable to the King in the war against his brother, was sent down as satrap both of the provinces which he himself had previously ruled and of those which Cyrus had ruled, he straightway demanded that all the Ionian cities should be subject to him. But they, both because they wanted to be free and because they feared Tissaphernes, inasmuch as they had chosen Cyrus, while he was living, instead of him, refused to admit him into their cities and sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon asking that the Lacedaemonians, since they were the leaders of all Hellas, should undertake to protect them also, the Greeks in Asia, in order that their land might not be laid waste and that they themselves might be free.
[4]
Accordingly, the Lacedaemonians sent them Thibron as governor, giving him an army made up of a thousand emancipated Helots and four thousand of the other Peloponnesians. Thibron also asked from the Athenians three hundred cavalrymen, saying that he would provide pay for them himself. And the Athenians sent some of those who had served as cavalrymen in the time of the Thirty, thinking it would be a gain to the democracy if they should live in foreign lands and perish there.
[5]
Furthermore, when they arrived in Asia, Thibron also gathered troops from the Greek cities of the mainland; for at that time all the cities obeyed any command a Lacedaemonian might give. Now while he was at the head of this army, Thibron did not venture to descend to level ground, because he saw the enemy’s cavalry, but was satisfied if he could keep the particular territory where he chanced to be from being ravaged.
[6]
When, however, the men who had made the march up country with Cyrus joined forces with him after their safe return, from that time on he would draw up his troops against Tissaphernes even on the plains, and he got possession of cities, Pergamus by voluntary surrender, and likewise Teuthrania and Halisarna, two cities which were under the rule of Eurysthenes and Procles, the descendants of Demaratus the Lacedaemonian; and this territory had been given to Demaratus by the Persian king as a reward for accompanying him on his expedition against Greece. Furthermore, Gorgion and Gongylus gave in their allegiance to Thibron, they being brothers, one of them the ruler of Gambrium and Palaegambrium, the other of Myrina and Grynium; and these cities also were a gift from the Persian king to the earlier Gongylus, because he espoused the Persian cause, — the only man among the Eretrians who did so, — and was therefore banished.
[7]
On the other hand, there were some weak cities which Thibron did actually capture by storm; as for Larisa (Egyptian Larisa, as it is called), when it refused to yield he invested and besieged it. When he proved unable to capture it in any other way, he sunk a shaft and began to dig a tunnel therefrom, with the idea of cutting off their water supply. And when they made frequent sallies from within the wall and threw pieces of wood and stones into the shaft, he met this move by making a wooden shed and setting it over the shaft. The Larisaeans, however, sallied forth by night and destroyed the shed also, by fire. Then, since he seemed to be accomplishing nothing, the ephors sent him word to leave Larisa and undertake a campaign against Caria.
[8]

When, in pursuance of his intention to march against Caria, he was already at Ephesus, Dercylidas arrived to take command of the army, a man who was reputed to be exceedingly resourceful; indeed, he bore the nickname “Sisyphus.” Thibron accordingly went back home, and was condemned and banished; for the allies accused him of allowing his soldiers to plunder their friends.
[9]
And when Dercylidas took over the command of the army, being aware that Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus were suspicious of each other, he came to an understanding with Tissaphernes and led away his army into the territory of Pharnabazus, preferring to make war against one of the two rather than against both together. Besides, Dercylidas was an enemy of Pharnabazus from earlier days; for after he had become governor at Abydus at the time when Lysander was admiral, he was compelled, as a result of his being slandered by Pharnabazus, to stand sentry, carrying his shield — a thing which is regarded by Lacedaemonians of character as a disgrace; for it is a punishment for insubordination. On this account, then, he was all the more pleased to proceed against Pharnabazus.
[10]
And from the outset he was so superior to Thibron in the exercise of command that he led his troops through the country of friends all the way to the Aeolis, in the territory of Pharnabazus, without doing any harm whatever to his allies.

This Aeolis belonged, indeed, to Pharnabazus, but Zenis of Dardanus had, while he lived, acted as satrap of this territory for him; when Zenis fell ill and died, and Pharnabazus was preparing to give the satrapy to another man, Mania, the wife of Zenis, who was also a Dardanian, fitted out a great retinue, took presents with her to give to Pharnabazus himself and to use for winning the favour of his concubines and the men who had the greatest influence at the court of Pharnabazus, and set forth to visit him. And when she had gained an audience with him, she said:
[11]
“Pharnabazus, my husband was not only a friend to you in all other ways, but he also paid over the tributes which were your due, so that you commended and honoured him. Now, therefore, if I serve you no less faithfully than he, why should you appoint another as satrap? And if I fail to please you in any point, surely it will be within your power to deprive me of my office and give it to another.”
[12]
When Pharnabazus heard this, he decided that the woman should be satrap. And when she had become mistress of the province, she not only paid over the tributes no less faithfully than had her husband, but besides this, whenever she went to the court of Pharnabazus she always carried him gifts, and whenever he came down to her province she received him with far more magnificence and courtesy than any of his other governors;
[13]
and she not only kept securely for Pharnabazus the cities which she had received from her husband, but also gained possession of cities on the coast which had not been subject to him, Larisa, Hamaxitus, and Colonae — attacking their walls with a Greek mercenary force, while she herself looked on from a carriage; and when a man won her approval she would bestow bounteous gifts upon him, so that she equipped her mercenary force in the most splendid fashion. She also accompanied Pharnabazus in the field, even when he invaded the land of the Mysians or the Pisidians because of their continually ravaging the King’s territory. In return for these services Pharnabazus paid her magnificent honours, and sometimes asked her to aid him as a counsellor.
[14]
Now when she was more than forty years old, Meidias, who was the husband of her daughter, was disturbed by certain people saying that it was a disgraceful thing for a woman to be the ruler while he was in private station, and since, although she guarded herself carefully against all other people, as was proper for an absolute ruler, she trusted him and gave him her affection, as a woman naturally would to a son-in-law, he made his way into her presence, as the story goes, and strangled her. He also killed her son, a youth of very great beauty about seventeen years old.
[15]
When he had done these things, he seized the strong cities of Scepsis and Gergis, where Mania had kept the most of her treasure. The other cities, however, would not admit him into their walls, but the garrisons that were in them kept them safe for Pharnabazus. Then Meidias sent gifts to Pharnabazus and claimed the right to be ruler of the province, even as Mania had been. And Pharnabazus in reply told him to take good care of his gifts until he came in person and took possession of them and of him too; for he said that he would not wish to live if he failed to avenge Mania.
[16]

It was at this juncture that Dercylidas arrived, and he forthwith took possession in a single day of Larisa, Hamaxitus, and Colonae, the cities on the coast, by their voluntary act; then he sent to the cities of Aeolis also and urged them to free themselves, admit him into their walls, and become allies. Now the people of Neandria, Ilium, and Cocylium obeyed him, for the Greek garrisons of those cities had been by no means well treated since the death of Mania;
[17]
but the man who commanded the garrison in Cebren, a very strong place, thinking that if he succeeded in keeping the city for Pharnabazus he would receive honours at his hands, refused to admit Dercylidas. Thereupon the latter, in anger, made preparations for attack. And when the sacrifices that he offered did not prove favourable on the first day, he sacrificed again on the following day. And when these sacrifices also did not prove favourable, he tried again on the third day; and for four days he kept persistently on with his sacrificing, though greatly disturbed by the delay; for he was in haste to make himself master of all Aeolis before Pharnabazus came to the rescue.
[18]
Now a certain Athenadas, a Sicyonian captain, thinking that Dercylidas was acting foolishly in delaying, and that he was strong enough of himself to deprive the Cebrenians of their water supply, rushed forward with his own company and tried to choke up their spring. And the people within the walls, sallying forth against him, inflicted many wounds upon him, killed two of his men, and drove back the rest with blows and missiles. But while Dercylidas was in a state of vexation and was thinking that his attack would thus be made less spirited, heralds came forth from the wall, sent by the Greeks in the city, and said that what their commander was doing was not to their liking, but that for their part they preferred to be on the side of the Greeks rather than of the barbarian.
[19]
While they were still talking about this, there came a messenger from their commander, who sent word that he agreed with all that the first party were saying. Accordingly Dercylidas, whose sacrifices on that day, as it chanced, had just proved favourable, immediately had his troops take up their arms and led them toward the gates; and the people threw them open and admitted him. And after stationing a garrison in this city also, he marched at once against Scepsis and Gergis.
[20]