Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
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 no
sort of moderation, such as befitted a private man, either in
rewarding or in punishing; the recompense of his friends and guests
was absolute power over cities, and irresponsible authority, and the
only satisfaction of his wrath was the destruction of his enemy;
banishment would not suffice. 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 offenses against himself,
but granted these favors without sparing, and joined in the execution
of them, to gratify the many hatreds, and the much cupidity of his
friends everywhere round about him. From whence the saying of
Eteocles, the Lacedaemonian, came to be famous, that "Greece could
not have borne two Lysanders." Theophrastus says, that Archestratus
said the same thing concerning Alcibiades. But in his case what had
given most offense was a certain licentious and wanton self-will;
Lysander's power was feared and hated because of his unmerciful
disposition. The Lacedaemonians did not at all concern themselves
for any other accusers; but afterwards, when Pharnabazus, having been
injured by him, he having pillaged and wasted his country, sent some
to Sparta to inform against him, the Ephors taking it very ill, put
one of his friends and fellow-captains, Thorax, to death, taking him
with some silver privately in his possession; and they sent him a
scroll, commanding him to return home. This scroll is made up thus;
when the Ephors send an admiral or general on his way, 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 wood they
call Scytales. 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 roll it about their own staff of
wood, 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
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 together.
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 it is
in the proverb, 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 Lacedaemon, 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 Pharnabazus was beloved by the
Lacedaemonians, having been the most zealous on their side in the war
of all the king's captains. But after the magistrates had read the
letter they showed it him, and he understanding now that
Others beside Ulysses deep can be,
Not the one wise man of the world is he,
in extreme confusion, left them at the time. But a few days after,
meeting the Ephors, he said he must go to the temple of Ammon, and
offer the god the sacrifices which he had vowed in war. For some
state it as a truth, that when he was besieging the city of Aphytae
in Thrace, Ammon stood by him in his sleep; whereupon raising the
siege, supposing the god had commanded it, he bade the Aphytaeans
sacrifice to Ammon, and resolved to make a journey into Libya to
propitiate the god. But most were of opinion that the god was but
the presence, and that in reality he was afraid of the Ephors, and
that impatience of the yoke at home, and dislike of living under
authority, made him long for some travel and wandering, like a horse
just brought in from open feeding and pasture to the stable, and put
again to his ordinary work. For that which Ephorus states to have
been the cause of this traveling about, I shall relate by and by.
And having hardly and with difficulty obtained leave of the
magistrates to depart, he set sail. But the kings, while he was on
his voyage, considering that keeping, as he did, the cities in
possession by his own friends and partisans, he was in fact their
sovereign and the lord of Greece, took measures for restoring the
power to the people, and for throwing his friends out. Disturbances
commencing again about these things, and, first of all, the Athenians
from Phyle setting upon their thirty rulers and overpowering them,
Lysander, coming home in haste, persuaded the Lacedaemonians to
support the oligarchies and to put down the popular governments, and
to the thirty in Athens, first of all, they sent a hundred talents
for the war, and Lysander himself, as general, to assist them. But
the kings envying him, and fearing lest he should take Athens again,
resolved that one of themselves should take the command. Accordingly
Pausanias went, and in words, indeed, professed as if he had been for
the tyrants against the people, but in reality exerted himself for
peace, that Lysander might not by the means of his friends become
lord of Athens again. This he brought easily to pass; for,
reconciling the Athenians, and quieting the tumults, he defeated the
ambitious hopes of Lysander, though shortly after, on the Athenians
rebelling again, he was censured for having thus taken, as it were,
the bit out of the mouth of the people, which, being freed from the
oligarchy, would now break out again into affronts and insolence; and
Lysander regained the reputation of a person who employed his command
not in gratification of others, nor for applause, but strictly for
the good of Sparta.
His speech, also, was bold and daunting to such as opposed him. The
Argives, for example, contended about the bounds of their land, and
thought they brought juster pleas than the Lacedaemonians; holding
out his sword, "He," said Lysander, "that is master of this, brings
the best argument about the bounds of territory." A man of Megara,
at some conference, taking freedom with him, "This language, my
friend," said he, "should come from a city." To the Boeotians, who
were acting a doubtful part, he put the question, whether he should
pass through their country with spears upright, or leveled. After
the revolt of the Corinthians, when, on coming to their walls, he
perceived the Lacedaemonians hesitating to make the assault, and a
hare was seen to leap through the ditch: "Are you not ashamed," he
said, "to fear an enemy, for whose laziness, the very hares sleep
upon their walls?"
When king Agis died, leaving a brother Agesilaus, and Leotychides,
who was supposed his son, Lysander, being attached to Agesilaus,
persuaded him to lay claim to the kingdom, as being a true descendant
of Hercules; Leotychides lying under the suspicion of being the son
of Alcibiades, who lived privately in familiarity with Timaea, the
wife of Agis, at the time he was a fugitive in Sparta. Agis, they
say, computing the time, satisfied himself that she could not have
conceived by him, and had hitherto always neglected and manifestly
disowned Leotychides; but now when he was carried sick to Heraea,
being ready to die, what by the importunities of the young man
himself, and of his friends, in the presence of many he declared
Leotychides to be his; and desiring those who were present to bear
witness of this to the Lacedaemonians, died. They accordingly did so
testify in favor of Leotychides. And Agesilaus, being otherwise
highly reputed of, and strong in the support of Lysander, was, on the
other hand, prejudiced by Diopithes, a man famous for his knowledge
of oracles, who adduced this prophecy in reference to Agesilaus's
lameness:
Beware, great Sparta, lest there come of thee,
Though sound thyself, an halting sovereignty;
Troubles, both long and unexpected too,
And storms of deadly warfare shall ensue.
When many, therefore, yielded to the oracle, and inclined to
Leotychides, Lysander said that Diopithes did not take the prophecy
rightly; for it was not that the god would be offended if any lame
person ruled over the Lacedaemonians, but that the kingdom would be a
lame one, if bastards and false-born should govern with the posterity
of Hercules. By this argument, and by his great influence among
them, he prevailed, and Agesilaus was made king.
Immediately, therefore, Lysander spurred him on to make an expedition
into Asia, putting him in hopes that he might destroy the Persians,
and attain the height of greatness. And he wrote to his friends in
Asia, bidding them request to have Agesilaus appointed to command
them in the war against the barbarians; which they were persuaded to,
and sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon to entreat it. And this would
seem to be a second favor done Agesilaus by Lysander, not inferior to
his first in obtaining him the kingdom. But with ambitious natures,
otherwise not ill qualified for command, the feeling of jealousy of
those near them in reputation continually stands in the way of the
performance of noble actions; they make those their rivals in virtue,
whom they ought to use as their helpers to it. Agesilaus took
Lysander, among the thirty counselors that accompanied him, with
intentions of using him as his especial friend; but when they were
come into Asia, the inhabitants there, to whom he was but little
known, addressed themselves to him but little and seldom; whereas
Lysander, because of their frequent previous intercourse, was visited
and attended by large numbers, by his friends out of observance, and
by others out of fear; and just as in tragedies it not uncommonly is
the case with the actors, the person who represents a messenger or
servant is much taken notice of, and plays the chief part, while he
who wears the crown and scepter is hardly heard to speak, even so was
it about the counselor, he had all the real honors of the government,
and to the king was left the empty name of power. This
disproportionate ambition ought very likely to have been in some way
softened down, and Lysander should have been reduced to his proper
second place, but wholly to cast off and to insult and affront for