18 they encouraged it by allowing the state to possess it; attaching thereby a sort of dignity to it over and above its ordinary utility. Neither was it possible, that what they saw was so much esteemed publicly, they should privately despise as unprofitable; and that every one should think that a thing could be worth nothing for his personal use, which was so extremely valued and desired for the use of the state. And moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and slips of individuals are in infecting the city at large. For it is probable that the parts will be rather corrupted by the whole if that grows bad; while the vices which flow from a part into the whole, find many correctives and remedies from these which remain sound. Terror and the law were now to keep guard over the citizens' houses, to prevent any money entering into them; but their minds could no longer be expected to remain superior to the desire of it, when wealth in general was thus set up to be striven after, as a high and noble object. On this point, however, we have given our censure of the Lacedæmonians in one of our other writings. Lysander erected out of the spoils brazen statues at Delphi of himself and of every one of the captains of the fleet*, as also figures of the golden stars of Castor * Pausanias gives a long list of their names, as he saw them in the temple; among them was Erianthus, the Boeotian, mentioned above in Chap. 15. The figures were placed behind that of Lysander, who was represented as receiving a crown from Neptune. There were also figures of Hermon, who steered his ship, and of Abas his diviner. HIS POWER IN GREECE. 203 and Pollux, which were lost before the battle at Leuctra. In the treasury of Brasidas and the Acanthians there was a trireme, made of gold and ivory, of two cubits, which Cyrus sent Lysander in honour of his victory. But Anaxandrides of Delphi writes that there was also a deposit of Lysander's, a talent of silver and fifty-two minas, besides eleven staters; a statement not consistent with the generally received account of his poverty. And at that time Lysander, being in fact of greater power than any Greek before, was yet thought to show a pride and to affect a superiority greater even than his power warranted. He was, as Duris relates, the first among the Greeks, to whom the cities reared altars as to a god, and sacrificed; to him were songs of triumph first sung, the beginning of one of which still remains recorded: Great Greece's general from spacious Sparta we And the Samians decreed that their solemnities of Juno should be called the Lysandria. And out of the poets he had Chœrilus always with him, to extol his achievements in verse; and to Antilochus, who had made some verses of no great merit, in his commendation, being pleased with them, he gave a hat full of silver. And when Antimachus of Colophon and one Niceratus of Heraclea competed with each other in a poem on the deeds of Lysander, he, acting as judge, gave the garland to Niceratus; at which Antimachus in vexation destroyed his poem; but Plato, being then a young man, and admiring Antimachus for his poetry, consoled him 19 for his defeat by telling him that it is the ignorant who are the sufferers by ignorance, as truly as the blind by want of sight. And when Aristonus the musician, who had been a conqueror six times at the Pythian games, told him as a piece of flattery, that if he were successful again, he would proclaim himself in the name of Lysander; "that is,” he answered, “as his slave.” This ambitious temper was indeed only burdensome to the highest personages and to his equals; but through having so many people devoted to serve him, an extreme haughtiness and contemptuousness grew up, together with ambition, in his character. He observed none of moderation befitting a private man, in rewarding or in punishing; the recompense of his friends and associates was absolute power over cities and the irresponsible authority of tyrants, and the only satisfaction of his wrath was the death of his enemy; banishment would not do. As for example, at a later period, fearing lest the popular leaders of the Milesians* should fly, and desiring also to discover those who lay hid, he swore he would do them no harm, and on their believing him and coming forth, he delivered them up to the oligarchical leaders to be slain, being in all no less than eight hundred. And indeed the slaughter in general of those of the popular party in the towns exceeded all computation; as he did not kill only for offences against *For Milesians read, perhaps, Thasians. It is not likely that Plutarch is repeating here, in a different form, the fact which he narrated, probably in the proper place as regards time, before the battle of Egos-potami, in Chap. 8; and a similar account to this is given elsewhere, as what happened, after Egos-potami, at Thasos. HIS PRIDE AND CRUELTY. 205 himself, but granted these favours without sparing, and joined in the execution of them, to gratify the many hatreds, and the much cupidity of his friends in all the various cities. From whence the saying of Eteocles the Lacedæmonian came to be famous, that Greece could not have borne two Lysanders. Theophrastus says, that Archestratus said the same of Alcibiades. But in his case what had given most offence was a certain licentious and wanton self-will; Lysander was made an object of fear and terror by his unmerciful disposition. The Lacedæmonians did not much concern themselves for any other accusers; but when Pharnabazus, whose country he had pillaged and wasted, sent some to Sparta to inform against him, the Ephors took the matter up, and put one of his friends and fellowcaptains, Thorax, to death, finding some silver privately in his possession; and sent Lysander a scroll, commanding him to return home. The scroll is made up thus: when the Ephors sent out an admiral or general on his command, they take two round pieces of wood, both exactly of a length and thickness and cut even to one another; they keep one themselves, and the other they give to the person they send forth; and these pieces of of wood they call scytalas. When therefore they have occasion to communicate any secret or important matter, making a scroll of parchment long and narrow like a leathern thong, they wind it about their own wooden roller, leaving no space void between, but covering the surface of the staff with the scroll all over. When they have done this, they write what they please on the scroll, as it is wrapped about the staff; and when they have written, they take off the scroll, and send it to the 20 general without the wood. He, when he has received it, can read nothing of the writing, because the words and letters are not connected, but all broken up; but taking his own staff, he winds the slip of the scroll about it, so that this folding, restoring all the parts into the same order that they were in before, and putting what comes first into connection with what follows, brings the whole consecutive contents to view round the outside. And this scroll is called a staff, after the name of the wood, as a thing measured is by the name of the measure. But Lysander, when the staff came to him to the Hellespont, was troubled, and fearing Pharnabazus's accusations most, made haste to confer with him, hoping to end the difference by a meeting. When they met, he desired him to write another letter to the magistrates, stating that he had not been wronged and had no complaint to prefer. But he was ignorant that Pharnabazus, as the proverb says, played Cretan against Cretan*; for pretending to do all that was desired, openly he wrote such a letter as Lysander wanted, but kept by him another, written privately, and when they came to put on the seals, changed the tablets, which differed not at all to look upon, and gave him the letter which had been written privately. Lysander accordingly, coming to Lacedæmon, and going, as the custom is, to the magistrates' office, gave Pharnabazus's letter to the Ephors, being persuaded that the greatest accusation against him was now withdrawn; for Pharna *Or "cheat against cheat," the Cretans being famous for their mendacity; "the Cretans are always liars." |