power. He permitted the Grecian cities to dedicate altars to him as to a god, and to offer sacrifices, and sing hymns and canticles in honour of him. The Samians ordained by a public decree, that the feasts celebrated in honour of Juno, and which bore the name of that goddess, should be called "the feasts of Lysander." He had always a crowd of poets about him, 'who are often a tribe of venal flatterers, who emulated each other in singing his great exploits, for which they were magnificently paid. Praise is undoubtedly due to noble deeds, but diminishes their lustre when either forged or excessive.

This sort of vanity and ambition, had he stopt there, would have hurt only himself, by exposing him to envy and contempt; but a natural consequence of it was, that through his arrogance and pride, in conjunction with the incessant flatteries of those around him, he carried the spirit of command and authority to an insupportable excess, and observed no longer any measures, either in rewarding or punishing. The absolute government of cities with tyrannic power were the fruits of his friendship, and the ties of hospitality with him; and only the death of those he hated, could put an end to his resentment and displeasure, without its being possible to escape his vengeance. What Sylla caused to be inscribed upon his tomb, might with equal propriety have been engraved upon Lysander's: That no man had ever surpassed him in doing good to his friends, or evil to his enemies.

Treachery and perjury cost him nothing whenever they promoted his designs; nor was he less cruel than revengeful; of which what he did at Miletus is a VOL. 3.

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sufficient proof. Apprehending that those who were at the head of the people would escape him, he swore not to do them any hurt. Those unfortunates gave credit to his oath, and no sooner appeared in public, than they were put to the sword with his consent by the nobility, who killed them all, though no less than eight hundred. The number of those in the party of the people, whom he caused to be massacred in other cities, is incredible; for he did not only destroy to satiate his own resentments, but to serve in all places the enmity, malice, and avarice of his friends, whom he supported in gratifying their passions by the death of their enemies.

There was no kind of injustice and violence which the people did not suffer under the government of Lysander; whilst the Lacedemonians, who were sufficiently informed of his conduct, gave themselves no trouble to prevent its effects. It is too common for those in power to be little affected with the vexations and oppressions laid upon persons of low condition and credit, and to be deaf to their just complaints, though authority is principally confided in them for the defence of the weak and poor, who have no other protectors. But if such remonstrances are made by a great or powerful person, from whom they may have any thing to hope or fear, the same authority that was slow and drowsy, becomes immediately warm and officious; a certain proof that it is not the love of justice that actuates it. This appears here in the conduct of the Lacedemonian magistrates. Pharnabasus, weary of Lysander's repeated injustice, who ravaged and pillaged the provinces under his command, having sent ambassadors to Sparta, to complain of the wrongs he had

received from that general, the Ephori recalled him. Lysander was at that time in the Hellespont. The letter of the Ephori threw him into great consternation. As he principally feared the complaints and accusations of Pharnabasus, he made all the haste he could to come to an explanation with him, from the hope of softening him, and making his peace. He went for that purpose to him, and desired that he would write another letter to the Ephori, intimating a satisfaction in his conduct. But Lysander, says Plutarch, in such an application to Pharnabasus, forgot the proverb,' "Set a thief to catch a thief." The satrap promised all he desired, and accordingly wrote such a letter in Lysander's presence as he had asked of him, but prepared another to a quite different effect. When he was to seal it, as both letters were of the same size and form, he dexterously put that he had wrote in secret into the place of the other, without being observed, which he sealed, and gave him.

Lysander departed well satisfied, and being arrived at Sparta, alighted at the palace where the senate was assembled, and delivered Pharnabasus's letter to the Ephori. But he was strangely surprised when he heard the contents, and withdrew in extreme confusion and disorder. Some days after he returned to the senate, and told the Ephori, that he was obliged to go to the temple of Ammon to acquit himself of the sacrifices he had vowed to that god before his battles. That pilgrimage was no more than a pretence to cover the pain it gave him to live as a private person in Sparta, and to submit

The Greek proverb is, Cretan against Cretan, from the people of Crete, who passed for the greatest cheats and liars in the world.

to the yoke of obeying; he, who till then had always governed. Accustomed long to commanding armies, and to the flattering distinctions of a kind of sovereignty exercised by him in Asia, he could not endure the mortifying equality with the multitude, nor restrain himself to the simplicity of a private life. Having obtained permission, not without great difficulties, he embarked,

As soon as he was gone, the kings, reflecting that he held all the cities in his dependence, by the means of their governors and magistrates established by him, to whom they were also indebted for their unlimited authority, and that he was thereby effectually lord and master of all Greece, applied themselves vigorously to restore the government of the people, and to depose all his creatures and friends from any share in it. This alteration occasioned great tumults at first. About the same time Lysander, being apprized of the design of Thrasybulus, to reestablish the liberty of his country, returned with the utmost diligence to Sparta, and endeavoured to engage the Lacedemonians to support the party of the nobility at Athens. We have before observed, that Pausanias, from a more noble spirit of équity and generosity, gave peace to Athens, and by that means, says Plutarch, clipped the wings of Lysander's ambition.

CHAPTER II.

YOUNG CYRUS, WITH THE AID OF THE GRECIAN TROOPS, ENDEAVOURS TO DETHRONE HIS BROTHER ARTAXERXES.

HE IS KILLED. FAMOUS RETREAT OF

THE TEN THOUSAND.

ANTIQUITY has few events so memorable as those I am about to relate in this place. We see on one side a young prince, abounding otherwise with excellent qualities, abandoned to his violent ambition, carry the war from far against his brother and sovereign, and go and attack him almost in his own palace, with the view of depriving him at once of his crown and life. We see him, I say, fall dead in the battle at the feet of that brother, and terminate, by so unhappy a fate, an enterprise equally glaring and criminal. On the other hand, the Greeks who follow him," destitute of all succour, after the loss of their chiefs, without allies, provisions, money, horse, or archers, reduced to less than ten thousand men, with no resource but in their own persons and valor, supported only by the warm desire of preserving their liberty, and of returning to their native countries; these Greeks, with bold and intrepid resolution, make their retreat before a victorious army of a million of men, traverse five or six hundred leagues, notwithstanding vast rivers, and innumerable passes, and arrive at last in their own country through a thousand fierce and barba

■ Post mortem Cyri, neque armis a tanto exeroitų vinci, neque dolo capi potuerunt; revertentesque inter tot indomitas nationes et barbaras gentes per tanta itineris spatia, virtute se usque terminos patriæ defenderunt. Justin. l. v. c. 11.