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Darius whole blame would fall on them, and if favourable, Nothus. that Alcibiades would engross the honour of it; but

rejected also with insult his wise and salutary counsel, as if a man in disgrace lost his sense and abilities with the favour of the commonwealth. Alcibiades withdrew.

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 gallies 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 in the mean time ran through the whole line in his galley, exhorting the pilots and officers to hold the seamen and soldiers in readiness to row and fight on the first signal.

As soon as the bucklers were put up in the ships heads, and the admiral galley had given the signal by the sound of trumpet, the whole fleet set forwards in good order. The land-army at the same time made all possible haste to the top of the promontory to see the battle. The streight that separates the two continents in this place, is about fifteen stadia*, or three quarters of a league in breadth, which space was presently cleared through the acti vity and diligence of the rowers. Conon, the Athenian general, was the first who perceived, from shore, the enemy's fleet advance in good order to attack him; upon which he immediately cried out for the troops to embark. In the height of sorrow and perplexity, some he called to by their names, some he conjured, and others he forced to go on board their gallies; but all his endeavours and emotion were ineffectual, the soldiers being dispersed on all sides. For they were no sooner come on shore, than some were ran to the suttlers, some to

* 1875 paces.

walk in the country, some to sleep in their tents, Darius and others had began to dress their suppers. This Nothus. proceeded from the want of vigilance and experience in their generals, who not suspecting the least danger, indulged themselves in taking their repose, and gave their soldiers the same liberty.

The enemy had already fallen on with loud cries and a great noise of their oars, when Conon, disengaging himself with nine gallies, of which number was the sacred ship called the Paralian, stood away for Cyprus, where he took refuge with Evagoras. The Peloponnesians, falling upon the rest of the fleet, took immediately the gallies which were empty, and disabled and destroyed such as began to fill with men. The soldiers, who ran without order or arms to their relief, were either killed in the endeavour to get on board, or flying on shore were cut to pieces by the enemy, who landed in pursuit of them. Lysander took three thousand prisoners, with all the generals, and the whole fleet. After having plundered the camp, and fastened the enemy's gallies to the sterns of his own, he returned to Lampsacus, amidst the sound of flutes and songs of triumph. It was his glory to have atchieved one of the greatest military exploits recorded in history, with little or no loss, and to have terminated a war in the small space of an hour, which had already lasted seven-and-twenty years, and which perhaps, without him, had been of much longer continuance. Lysander immediately sent dispatches with this agreeable news to Sparta.

The three thousand prisoners, taken in this battle, having been condemned to die, Lysander called upon Philocles, one of the Athenian generals, who had caused all the prisoners taken in two gallies, the one of Andros, the other of Corinth, to be thrown from the top of a precipice, and had formerly persuaded the people of Athens to make a decree for cutting off the thumb of the right hand of all the prisoners of war, in order to disable them for hand

Darius ling the pike, and that they might be fit only to Nethus. serve at the oar. Lysander therefore caused him to

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be brought forth, and asked him, what sentence he would pass upon himself, for having induced his city to pass that cruel decree. Philocles, without departing from his haughtiness in the least, notwithstanding the extreme danger he was in, made answer, "Accuse not people of crimes who have no judges, but as you are victor, use your right, and "do by us as we had done by you, if we had con"quered." At the same instant he went into a bath, put on afterwards a magnificent robe, and marched foremost to the execution. All the prisoners were put to the sword, except Adamantus, who had opposed the decree.

After this expedition, Lysander went with his fleet to all the maritime cities, and gave orders for all Athenians in them to withdraw as soon as possi ble to Athens, without permitting them to take any other route; declaring, that after a certain time fixed, all such should be punished with death, as should be found out of Athens. This he did as an able politician, to reduce the city by famine the more easily, and to render it incapable of sustaining a long siege. He afterwards applied himself in subverting the democratick, and all other forms of government throughout the cities; leaving in each of them a Lacedæmonian governor, called harmostes, and ten archons or magistrates, whom he chose out of the societies he had established in them. thereby in some measure secured to himself universal authority, and a kind of sovereignty over all Greece; putting none into power but such as were entirely devoted to his service.

He

SECT. VII. Athens, besieged by Lysander, capitulates, and surrenders. Lysander changes the form of government, and establishes thirty commanders in it. He sends Gylippus before him to Sparta with all the gold and silver taken from the enemy. Decree of Sparta upon the use to be made of it. The Peloponnesian war ends in this manner. Death of Darius Nothus.

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404.

WHEN the news of the entire defeat of the army Darius came to Athens by a ship, which arrived in the night Nothus. at the Piræus, the city was in universal consternation. A. M. Nothing was heard but cries of sorrow and despair 3600. in every part of it. of it. They imagined the enemy al-Ant. J. C. ready at their gates. They represented to themselves the miseries of a long siege, a cruel famine, the ruin and burning of their city, the insolence of a proud victor, and the shameful slavery they were upon the point of experiencing, more afflicting and insupportable to them than the most severe punishments and death itself. The next day the assembly up all was summoned, wherein it was resolved to shut the ports, one only excepted; to repair the breaches in the walls; and mount guard to prepare against a siege.

In effect Agis and Pausanias, the two kings of Sparta, advanced towards Athens with all their troops. Lysander soon after arrived at the Piræus with an hundred and fifty sail, and prevented all ships from going in or coming out. The Athenians, besieged by sea and land, without provisions, ships, hope of relief, or any resource, reinstated all persons attainted by any decree, without speaking the least word of a capitulation however, though many But when their corn already died of the famine. was entirely consumed, they sent deputies to Agis, to propose a treaty with Sparta, upon condition of

441.

Xenoph. Hellen. 1. ii. p. 458-462. Plut. in Lysand. p. 440,

Darius abandoning all their possessions, the city and port Nothus. only excepted. He referred the deputies to Lacedæmon, as not being empowered to treat with them. When they arrived at Salasia, upon the frontier of Sparta, and had made known their commission to the Ephori, they were ordered to retire, and to come with other proposals if they expected peace. The Ephori had demanded, that twelve hundred paces of the wall on each side of the Piræus should be demolished: But an Athenian, for venturing to advise a compliance, was sent to prison, and prohibition made against proposing any thing of that kind for

the future.

In this deplorable condition Theramenes declared in the assembly, that if he were sent to Lysander, he would know, whether the proposal made by the Lacedæmonians for dismantling the city, was intended to facilitate its ruin, or to prevent a revolt. The Athenians having deputed him accordingly, he was more than three months absent; no doubt with the view of reducing them by famine to accept any conditions that should be offered. On his return he told them, that Lysander had detained him all that time, and that at last he had been given to understand, that he might apply to the Ephori. He was therefore sent back with nine others to Sparta, with full powers to conclude a treaty. When they arrived there, the Ephori gave them audience in the general assembly, where the Corinthians and several other allics, especially the Thebans, insisted that it was absolutely necessary to destroy the city without hearkening any farther to a treaty. But the Lacedæmonians, preferring the glory and safety of Greece to their own grandeur, made answer, that they would never be reproached with having destroyed a city that had rendered such great services to all Greece; the remembrance of which ought to have much greater weight with the allies, than the resentment of private injuries received from it. The peace was therefore concluded under these condi

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