[673] Alexander in Media, when informed of the whole affair after the death of Agis, spoke of it with contempt as a battle of frogs and mice, if we are to believe the dictum of Plutarch, Agesilaus, 15.
[674] Æschines adv. Ktesiphont. p. 553. ὁ δ᾽ Ἀλέξανδρος ἔξω τῆς ἄρκτου καὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης ὀλίγου δεῖν πάσης μεθειστήκει, etc.
[675] Diodor. xvii. 62; Deinarchus cont. Demosthen. s. 35.
[676] Plutarch, Reipubl. Gerend. Præcept. p. 818.
[677] This is what we make out, as to the conduct of Demosthenes, from Æschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 553.
It is however difficult to believe, what Æschines insinuates, that Demosthenes boasted of having himself got up the Lacedæmonian movement—and yet that he made no proposition or suggestion for countenancing it. Demosthenes can hardly have lent any positive aid to the proceeding, though of course his anti-Macedonian feelings would be counted upon, in case things took a favorable turn.
Deinarchus (ut suprà) also accuses Demosthenes of having remained inactive at this critical moment.
[678] Curtius, vi. 1, 15-20; Diodor. xvii. 63-73. After the defeat, a suspensive decree was passed by the Spartans, releasing from ἀτιμία those who had escaped from the battle—as had been done after Leuktra (Diodor. xix. 70).
[679] Æschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 524.
[680] Curtius, vii. 4, 32.