usual, detached some galleys, to observe them, with orders to return with the utmost diligence, when they saw the Atheni ans landed, and to put a brown buckler at each ship's head, as soon as they reached the middle of the channel. He 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's galley had given the signal by the sound of trumpet, the whole fleet set forward, 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 strait 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 activity 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 galleys: but all his endeavours and emotions were ineffectual, the soldiers being dispersed on all sides. They had no sooner gone on shore, than some ran to the sutlers; some went to walk in the country; some to sleep in their tents, and others to dress their suppers. This 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 himseif with nine galleys, of which number was the sacred ship, stood away for Cyprus, where he took refuge with Evagoras. The Peloponnesians, falling upon the rest of the fleet, immediately took the galleys 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 enemies' galleys to the sterns of his own, he returned to Lampsacus, amidst the sounds of flutes and songs of triumph. It was his glory to have achieved one of the greatest military exploits recorded in history, with little of no loss; and to have terminated a war, in the small space of

an hour, which had already lasted twenty-seven years, and which, perhaps, without him, had continued much longer. Lysander immediately sent despatches, with this agreeable news, to Sparta.)

The three thousand prisoners taken in this battle, having been condemned to die, Lysander caused to be brought forth Philocles, one of the Athenian generals, who had caused all the prisoners taken in two galleys, 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 from handling the pike; and that they might be fit only to serve at the oar;and asked him what sentence he would pass upon himself, for having induced his city to make 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 victors, use your right, and do, by us, as we had done by you, if we had conquered." 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.

When the news of the entire defeat of the army, came to Athens, by a ship which arrived, in the night, at the Pyræus, the city was in consternation. They naturally expected a siege; and, in fact, Lysander was preparing to besiege them. Nothing was heard, but cries of sorrow and despair. They imagined the enemy already 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 was summoned, wherein it was resolved to shut up all the ports, one only excepted, to repair the breaches in the walls, and mount guard, to prepare against the siege.

Their fears were soon confirmed. Lysander, finding num bers of Athenians dispersed in different cities, commanded them all, on the pain of death, to take shelter in Athens. This, he did, with a design so to crowd the city, as to be able soon to reduce it by famine. In effect, he soon afterwards arrived at the port of Athens, with a hundred and fifty sail. While Agis and Pausanias, the two kings of Sparta, advanced, with their army, to besiege it by land.

The wretched Athenians, thus hemmed in on every side,

without provisions, ships, or hopes of relief, prepared to meet the last extremity, with patience; in this manner, without speaking the least word of a capitulation, and dying in the streets by hundreds, they obstinately continued on the defensive; but, at length, their corn and provisions being entirely consumed, they found themselves compelled to send deputies to Agis, with offers of abandoning all their possessions, their city and port, only, excepted.

The haughty Lacedæmonian referred the deputies to the state itself, and when they had made known their commissions to the ephori, they were ordered to retire, and to come with other proposals, if they expected peace.

At length, Theramenes, an Athenian, undertook to manage the treaty with Lysander; and, after three months of close conference, he received full power to treat at Lacedæmon. When he, attended by nine others, arrived before the ephori, it was there strongly urged, by some of the confederates, that Athens should be totally destroyed, without hearkening to any further proposals.

But the Lacedæmonians told them, they would not destroy a city, which had so eminently rescued Greece in the most critical juncture: that the long walls and the Pyræus should be demolished: that they should deliver up all their ships but twelve: that they should restore all their exiles: that they should make a league, offensive and defensive, with the Lacedæmonians, and serve them in all their expeditions, both by sea and land.

Theramenes, having returned with the articles to Athens, was asked why he acted so contrary to the intentions of Themistocles; and gave those walls into the hands of the Lacedæmonians, which he had built in defiance of them? "I have my eye," says he, "upon Themistocles' design; he raised these walls for the preservation of the city, and I, for the very same reason, would have them destroyed. If walls, only, secure a city, Sparta, which has none, is in a very ill condition.'

The Athenians, at another time, would not have thought this a satisfactory answer; but, being reduced to the last extremity, it did not admit of a long debate, whether or not they should accept the treaty. At last, Lysander coming up to the Pyræus, demolished the walls, with great solemnity, and all the insulting triumphs of music. Thus, a final period was put to this unhappy war, which had continued seven and twenty years; in which heaps of treasure and a deluge of blood were exhausted.

02

CHAPTER XI.

From the Demolition of the Athenian Power, to the Death of Socrates.

THE victory of Lysander was so terrible a shock to Athens, that it survived only to be sensible of the loss of its own power: however, the conquerors were so generous, as not to extinguish the name. They said they would not be guilty of putting out one of the eyes of Greece; but they imposed some farther marks of conquest on it: they obliged the people to demolish the democracy, and submit to the govern ment of thirty men, who were commonly known by the name of the Thirty Tyrants.

Though the Greeks were in the practice of giving that name to men of virtuous characters, these men, who were the creatures of Lysander, in every respect deserved the most opprobrious denomination: instead of compiling and publishing a more perfect body of laws, which was the pretence of their being chosen, they began to exert their power of life and death and though they constituted senators and other magistrates, they made no farther use of them, than to con. firm their authority, and see their commands executed.

However, they at first acted cautiously, and condemned only the most detested and scandalous part of the citizens, such as lived by evidencing and informing: but this was only to give a colour to their proceedings: their design was to make themselves absolute; and, knowing that was not to be done, without a foreign power, their next step was to desire that a guard might be sent them from Sparta, until such time as they could clear the city of all disaffected persons, and thoroughly settle the government.

Lysander accordingly procured them a guard, under the command of Callibius, who, by bribes and artifices was brought over to their designs; and then, they acted without control, filling the city with the blood of those, who, on account of their riches, interest, or good qualities, were most likely to make effectual opposition.

One of the first acts of their cruelty, was in procuring the death of Alcibiades, who had taken refuge in the dominions of Persia. This unfortunate general, still mindful of the debt he owed his country, employed his utmost attention in giving it the earliest notices of what could affect its freedom or its safety. Cyrus, the prince of Persia, having resolved to de throne his brother Artaxerxes, entered into a treaty with the Lacedæmonians, to assist him in his designs,

Alcibiades did all that was in his power, to obstruct the scheme: but the Lacedæmonian partisans at Athens, that is to say, the thirty tyrants, apprehended the intrigues of so superior a genius as his; and represented, to their masters, that they were inevitably ruined, if they did not find means to rid themselves of Alcibiades.

The Lacedæmonians, thereupon, wrote to Pharnabazus, and with an abject meanness, not to be excused, and which showed how much Sparta had degenerated from her ancient manners, made pressing solicitations to him, to deliver them, at any rate, from so formidable an enemy. This satrap complied with their wishes. Alcibiades was then in a small town of Phrygia, where he lived with his concubine Timandra. Those who were sent to kill him, not daring to enter his house, con tented themselves with surrounding and setting it on fire.

Alcibiades having quitted it through the flames, sword-in hand, the barbarians were afraid to come to blows with him but, flying and retreating as he advanced, they poured their darts and arrows upon him from a distance, and he fell dead upon the spot. Timandra took up his body, and, having adorned and covered it with her finest robes, she made as magnificent a funeral for it, as her present condition would admit.

Such, was the end of Alcibiades, whose great virtues were stifled and suppressed by still greater vices. It is not easy to say, whether his good or his bad qualities were more pernicious to his country; for, with the one he deceived, and with the other he oppressed it. In him, distinguished valour was united with nobility of blood. His person was beautiful, and finely made: he was eloquent, of great ability in business, insinuating, and formed for charming all mankind. He loved glory, but without interfering with his inclination for pleasure; nor was he so fond of pleasure, as to neglect his glory: he knew how to submit to, or oppose, the allurements of luxury, according to the situation of his affairs. Never was there ductility of genius, equal to his: he metamorphosed himself, with incredible facility, into the most contrary forms; and supported them all with as much ease and grace, as if each nad been natural to him.

In this manner, the thirty proceeded; and, fearing to be opposed by the multitude, they invested three thousand citizens with some part of their power, and, by their assistance, preserved the rest. But, thoroughly emboldened by such an accession to their party, they agreed to single out every one his man, to put him to death, and seize his estate for the maintenance of their garrison. Theramenes, one of their