the democratic power. His character of complacency for his friends, and indulgence to all their faults, suited much better with their ambitious and injurious views, than the austere equity of Callicratidas. For Lysander was a man of the most corrupt heart, and gloried in having no principles in point of virtue or the most sacred duties. He made no scruple to employ artifice and deceit upon all occasions, and esteemed justice only as far as it served his measures, When it did not promote them, he never failed to prefer the useful, which with him was alone laudible and excellent; from a persuasion that truth had in its own nature no advantage over falsehood, and that the value of both one and the other, was to be determined by the conven. ience resulting from them. And for those who represented to him, that it was unworthy the descendants of Hercules to make use of fraud and treachery, he laughed at them; "For," said he," where the lion's skin is not long enough, it is necessary to tack the fox's tail to it."

An expression ascribed to him, sufficiently denotes how small an account he made of perjury. He used to say, "Children are amused with baubles, and men with oaths;" showing by so professed a want of religion, that the gods were more inconsiderable with him than his enemies; for he who deceives with a false oath, plainly declares in so doing, that he fears his enemies, but that he despises God.

< The Greek text admits of another sense, which is perhaps no less good: Children may use art, and cheat one another in their games, and men in their oaths. Εκέλευε τες μεν παιρας αςραγαλοις, της δανδρας, ορκούς

εξαπατα.

d Here ends the twenty sixth year of the Peloponnesian war. In this year it was, that young Cyrus, dazzled with the unusual splendour of supreme authority, and jealous of the least omission in point of ceremonial homage, discovered by a remarkable action the secret of his heart. Brought up from his infancy in the reigning house, nurtured under the shade of the throne, amidst the submissions and prostrations of the cour tiers, entertained long by the discourses of an ambitious mother, who idolized him, in the desire and hope of empire, he began already to affect the rights of sovereignty, and to exact the honours paid to it with surprising haughtiness and rigor. Two Persians of the royal family, his cousin germans by their mother, his father Darius's sister, had omitted to cover their hands with their sleeves in his presence, according to a ceremonial observed only to the kings of Persia. Cyrus, resenting that neglect as a capital crime, condemned them both to die, and caused them to be executed at Sardis without mercy. Darius, at whose feet their relations threw themselves to demand justice, was very much affected with the tragical end of his two nephews, and looked upon this action of his son's as an attempt upon himself, to whom alone that honour was due. He resolved therefore to take his government from him, and ordered him to court upon the pretext of being sick, and having a desire to see him.

Cyrus, before his departure, sent for Lysander to Sardis, and put into his hands great sums of money for the payment of his fleet, promising him still more for the future; and with the ostentation of a young man, to let him see how much he desired to oblige him, he

d Xenoph. Hellen. l. ii. p. 454.

assured him, that though the king his father should cease to afford him any supplies, he would furnish him the more willingly out of his own coffers; and that, rather than he should want the necessary provisions, he would even cause the throne of massy gold and silver, upon which he sat in judgment, to be melted down. At length, when he was upon the point of setting out, he empowered him to receive the tributes and revenues of the cities, confided the government of his provinces to him, and conjured him with embraces not to give battle in his absence, unless superior in force; because the king neither wanted the will nor the power to give him that superiority to the enemy; promising at the same time, with the strongest assurances of affection, to bring him a great number of ships from Phenicia and Cilicia.

The

After that prince's departure, Lysander sailed towards the Hellespont, and laid siege to Lampsacus. Torax, having marched thither with his land forces at the same time, assaulted the city on his side. place was carried by storm, and abandoned by Lysander to the mercy of the soldiers. The Athenians, who followed him close, came to an anchor in the port of Eleontum in the Chersonesus, with one hundred and eighty galleys. But upon the news of the taking of Lampsacus, they immediately steered for Sestos, and after having taken in provisions, they stood away from thence, sailing along the coast to a place called

e Xenoph. Hellen. 1. ii. p. 455–458.

Plut. in Lysand. p. 437. et 440. Idem. in Alcib. p. 212. Diod. l. xiii. p. 225, 226.

Egospotamos, where they halted over against the enemy, who were then at anchor before Lampsacus. The Hellespont is not above two thousand paces. broad in that place. The two armies, seeing themselves so near each other, expected only to rest that day, and were in hopes of coming to a battle on the

next.

But Lysander had another design in view. He commanded the seamen and pilots to go on board their galleys, as if they were in reality to fight the next morning at break of day, to hold themselves in readiness, and to wait his orders with profound silence. He ordered the land army in like manner to draw up in battle upon the coast, and to wait the day without any noise. On the morrow, as soon as the sun was risen, the Athenians began to row towards them with their whole fleet in one line, and to bid them defiance. Lysander, though his ships were ranged in order of battle, with their heads towards the enemy, lay still without making any movement. In the evening, when the Athenians withdrew, he did not suffer his soldiers to go ashore, till two or three galleys, which he had sent out to observe them, were returned with advice that they had seen the enemy land. The next day passed in the same manner, as did the third and fourth. Such a conduct, which argued reserve and appréhension, extremely augmented the security and boldness of the Athenians, and inspired them with an extreme contempt for an army, which fear, in their sense, prevented from showing themselves, and attempting any thing.

Whilst this passed, Alcibiades, who was near the fleet, took horse, and came to the Athenian generals; to whom he represented, that they kept upon a very disadvantageous coast, where there were neither ports nor cities in the neighbourhood; that they were obliged to bring their provisions from Sestos with great danger and difficulty; and that they were very much in the wrong, to suffer the soldiers and mariners of the fleet, as soon as they were ashore, to straggle and disperse themselves at their own pleasure, whilst the enemy's fleet faced them in view, accustomed to execute the orders of their general with instant obedience, and upon the slightest signal. He offered also to attack the enemy by land with a strong body of Thracian troops, and to force them to a battle. The generals, especially Tydeus and Menander, jealous of their command, did not content themselves with refusing his offers, from the opinion, that if the event proved unfortunate, the whole blame would fall on them, and if favourable, that Alcibiades would engross the honour of it; but rejected also with insult his wise and salutary council, as if a man in disgrace lost his sense and abilities with the favour of the commonwealth. cibiades withdrew.

Al

The fifth day the Athenians presented themselves again, and offered him battle; retiring in the evening according to custom with more insulting airs than the days before. Lysander, as usual, detached some galleys to observe them, with orders to return with the utmost diligence, when they saw the Athenians landed, and to put a brazen buckler at each ship's head as soon as they reached the middle of the channel. Himself