Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER IX.

So Agesilaus the son of Archidamus was king, and the Lacedæmonians resolved to cross over into Asia with their fleet to capture Artaxerxes the son of Darius: for they had learnt from several people in authority, and especially from Lysander, that it was not Artaxerxes that had helped them in the war against the Athenians, but Cyrus who had supplied them with money for their ships. And Agesilaus, after being instructed to convey the expedition to Asia as commander of the land forces, sent round the Peloponnese to all the Greeks except at Argos and outside the Isthmus urging them to join him as allies. The Corinthians for their part, although they had been most eager to take part in the expedition to Asia, yet, when their temple of Olympian Zeus was suddenly consumed by fire, took it as an evil omen, and remained at home sorely against their will. And the Athenians urged, as pretext for refusing their aid, the strain of the Peloponnesian war and the city’s need of recovery from the plague: but their having learnt from envoys that Conon the son of Timotheus had gone to the great king, was their main motive. And Aristomenidas was sent as ambassador to Thebes, the father of Agesilaus’ mother, who was intimate with the Thebans, and had been one of the judges who, at the capture of Platæa, had condemned the garrison to be put to the sword. The Thebans however cried off like the Athenians, declining their aid. And Agesilaus, when his own army and that of the allied forces was mustered and his fleet ready to sail, went to Aulis to sacrifice to Artemis, because it was there that Agamemnon had propitiated the goddess when he led the expedition to Troy. And Agesilaus considered himself king of a more flourishing state than Agamemnon, and that like him he was leading all Greece, but the success would be more glorious, the happiness greater, to conquer the great King Artaxerxes, and to be master of Persia, than to overthrow the kingdom of Priam. But as he was sacrificing some Thebans attacked him, and threw the thigh-bones of the victims that were burning off the altar, and drove him out of the temple. And Agesilaus was grieved at the non-completion of the sacrifice, but none the less he crossed over to Asia Minor and marched for Sardis. Now Lydia was at this period the greatest province in Lower Asia Minor, and Sardis was the principal city for wealth and luxury, and it was the chief residence of the satrap by the sea, as Susa was the chief residence of the great king. And fighting a battle with Tissaphernes, the satrap of Ionia, in the plain near the river Hermus, Agesilaus defeated the Persian cavalry and infantry, though Tissaphernes’ army was the largest since the expedition of Xerxes against Athens, and earlier still the expedition of Darius against the Scythians. And the Lacedæmonians, delighted at the success of Agesilaus by land, readily made him leader of the fleet also. And he put Pisander his wife’s brother, a very stout soldier by land, in command of the triremes. But some god must have grudged his bringing things to a happy conclusion. For when Artaxerxes heard of the victorious progress of Agesilaus, and how he kept pushing on with his army, not content with what he had already gained, he condemned Tissaphernes to death, although he had in former times done him signal service, and gave his satrapy to Tithraustes, a longheaded fellow and very able man, who greatly disliked the Lacedæmonians. Directly he arrived at Sardis, he forthwith devised means to compel the Lacedæmonians to recall their army from Asia Minor. So he sent Timocrates a native of Rhodes into Greece with money, bidding him stir up war against the Lacedæmonians in Greece. And those who received Timocrates’ money were it is said Cylon and Sodamas among the Argives, and at Thebes Androclides and Ismenias and Amphithemis: and the Athenians Cephalus and Epicrates had a share, and the Corinthians with Argive proclivities as Polyanthes and Timolaus. But the war was openly commenced by the Locrians of Amphissa. For the Locrians had some land which was debated between them and the Phocians, from this land the Phocians, at the instigation of the Thebans and Ismenias, cut the ripe corn and drove off cattle. The Phocians also invaded Locris in full force, and ravaged the territory. Then the Locrians invited in the Thebans as their allies, and laid Phocis waste. And the Phocians went to Lacedæmon and inveighed against the Thebans, and recounted all that they had suffered at their hands. And the Lacedæmonians determined to declare war against the Thebans, and among other charges which they brought against them was their insult at Aulis to the sacrifice of Agesilaus. And the Athenians, having heard of the intention of the Lacedæmonians, sent to Sparta, begging them not to war against Thebes, but to submit their differences to arbitration. And the Lacedæmonians angrily dismissed the embassy. And what happened subsequently, viz. the expedition of the Lacedæmonians and the death of Lysander, has been told by me in reference to Pausanias. And what is known to history as the Corinthian war began with this march into Bœotia of the Lacedæmonians, and grew into a big war, and compelled Agesilaus to bring his army home from Asia Minor. And when he had crossed over in his ships from Abydos to Sestos, and marched into Thessaly through Thrace, the Thessalians attempted to bar his way to ingratiate themselves with the Thebans, partly also in consequence of their long standing friendship with Athens. And Agesilaus having routed their cavalry marched through Thessaly, and then through Bœotia, having conquered the Thebans and their allies at Coronea. And when the Bœotians were routed, some of them fled to the temple of Athene Itonia: and though Agesilaus was wounded in the battle, he did not for all that violate their sanctuary.