government, as long as there were any else against whom they might prosecute the war which they had with the Persian king; and then immediately withdrew out of those parts, and thereon formed a design of invading the upper provinces of Asia, and carrying the war into the very heart of the Persian empire. But a while Agesilaus was projecting this expedition, there came messengers to him from Lacedemon, to recall him thither. For the Persian money having procured a very strong confederacy of several of the Grecian states and cities against them, they needed him at home to defend his own country; and accordingly he made all the haste thither that he could, complaining, at his departure out of Asia, that the Persians had driven him thence by thirty thousand archers, meaning so many darics, which were pieces of gold that had the impression of an archer upon them. But so small a sum did not do this job: it cost the Persians much more; and they could not have bestowed their money better to their own advantage; for hereby they saved vastly greater expenses, which otherwise they must have been at in the war, had they not this way got rid of it. And there are instances of other crafty princes who, by following the same methods, have gained the same success, and, in the way of bribery and corruption, have done that by hundreds of pounds in the councils of their adversaries, which they could never bring to pass by millions in the open field.

Conon, on his return from the Persian court, b having brought money enough with him to pay the soldiers and mariners of his fleet all their arrears, and supply it with every thing else that was wanting, took Pharnabazus on board him, and forthwith set sail to seek the enemy; and finding their whole fleet riding near Cnidus, under the command of Pisander, he fell upon them, and obtained a complete victory, having slain Pisander himself in the fight, and taken fifty of

a Plutarchus in Agesilao & Artaxerxe. Xenophon Hellenic. lib. 4. Corn. Nepos in Agesilao Diodor Sic. lib. 14, p. 441. Justin, lib. 6, c. 4.

b Xenophon. Hellenic. lib. 4. Justin, lib. 6, c. 3. Cornelius Nepos in Conone. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 14, p. 441. Isocrates in Euagora, & in Oratione ad Philippum. .

VOL. II.

32

his ships; which did put an end to the empire of the Lacedemonians in those parts, and was a prelude to their losing it every where else; for after this it com tinued to decline, till at length the overthrows which they received at Leuctra and Mantinea put an absolute period to it. But it is not my purpose to treat of what was done in Greece any farther than as the affairs of Greece interfere with what is the main design of this history.

After this victory, Conon and Pharnabazus sailed round the isles and maritime coasts of Asia, and took in most of the cities which the Lacedemonians had in those parts; only Sestus and Abydus, two cities in the mouth of the Hellespont, being under the command of Dercyllidas, held out against them; whereon Pharnabazus assaulted them by land, and Conon by sea; but not succeeding in the attempt, Pharnabazus, on the approach of winter, returned home, and Conon was left to take care of the fleet, with orders to recruit and augment it with as many ships from the cities on the Hellespont as he could get from them against the next spring.

And Conon having, according to this commission, gotten ready a strong fleet of ships by the

An. 393.

Artax. 12.

time appointed, Pharnabazus & went on board of it, and sailing through the islands, landed on Melos, the furthest of them; and having taken in that island, as lying convenient for the invading of Laconia, the country of the Lacedemonians, they from thence made a descent upon its maritime coasts, and, having ravaged them all over, loaded their fleet with the spoils which they there got. After this Pharnabazus being on his return home into his province, Conon obtained of him, to send him with eighty ships of the fleet, and fifty talents of money, to rebuild the walls of Athens, having made him to understand, that nothing could conduce more to the bringing down the pride of the Lacedemonians, than by this means to

c Xenophon Hellenic. lib. 4. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 14, p. 441. d Xenophon. & Diodor. Sic. ibid.

e Corn. Nepos in Conone. Plutarch. in Agesilao. Justin. lib. 6, c. 5 . Isocrates in Euagora. Xenoph. & Diodor. ibid. Pausanias in Atticis.

put Athens again into a condition to rival their power. And therefore, being arrived at Piræus, the port of Athens, he immediately set about the work; and having gotten together a great number of workmen, and made all that could be spared from on board the fleet, as well as the people of the city, to set to their helping hand, he rebuilt both the walls of Athens, and the walls of the port, with the walls also called the Long Walls, leading from the former to the latter, and distributed the fifty talents which he had received from Pharnabazus among his citizens; whereby he restored that city again to its pristine state, and may on this account be reckoned as the second founder of it.

The Lacedemonians, being exceedingly moved at the hearing of this, forthwith despatched Antalcidas, a citizen of theirs, to Tiribazus, then governour for the Persian king at Sardis, to propose terms of peace. And the confederates, on the other hand, on notice hereof, sent their ambassadors thither also, and, among them, Conon was one from the city of Athens. The termsf which Antalcidas proposed were, that the king should have all the Grecian cities in Asia, and that all the rest, both in the isles and in Greece, should be restored to their liberty, and be governed by their own laws. Which being a peace that would be very advantageous to the king, and very disadvantageous and dishonourable to the Greeks in general, none of the other ambassadors would consent to it. And therefore they all returned without effecting any thing, excepting Conon. For the Lacedemonians bearing an implacable spite to him for what he had done in the restoration of Athens, accused him of purloining the king's money for the carrying on of that work, and also of having designs for the taking of olis and Ionia from the Persians, and subjecting them again to the Athenian state; whereon & Tiribazus clapped him in chains, and then, going to the Persian court to communicate to the king the proceedings of this treaty, he acquainted him also of the accusation which he had received against Conon: hereon Conon being ordered f Xenoph. Hellenic. lib. 4. Plutarch. in Agesilao.

Xenoph. ibid. Diod. Sic. lib. 14, p. 442. Corn. Nepos in Conope.

*

to be brought to Susa, was there put to death by the king's command.

Artax. 18.

While Tiribazus was attending the court, Struthas was sent down from thence to take care of An. 392. the maritime coasts of Asia; where, finding the great devastations which the Lacedemonians had made in those parts, he conceived from hence such an aversion against them as carried him wholly over to the Athenian side. Whereon the Lacedemonians sent Thimbro again into Asia to renew the war there; but they not being able at that time to furnish him with strength sufficient for the undertaking, he was soon cut off by the superiour power of the Persians, and all his forces broken and dissipated. After him Dephridas came thither to gather up the remains of this army, and carry on the war; and after him others were sent with the same commission. But all their doings in Asia, after the battle of Cnidus, were only as the faint strugglings of a dying power; and therefore they were forced at length to give up all there, when they could no longer hold it, by a treaty of peace, which was very disadvantageous, as well as very dishonourable to all that were of the Grecian name. And therefore Artaxerxes, being in a manner almost wholly eased of the Grecian war, turned his whole power against Euagoras king of Cyprus, and began a war against him which he had long designed, but was not till now at leisure to prosecute it. How Euagoras seized Salamine, by expelling the Persian governour, and made himself king of that city, and procured, by the means of Conon, to be confirmed herein by Artaxerxes, I have already given an account. But Euagoras, being a man every way qualified for great undertakings, in a little time so enlarged his strength and his power, that he made himself in a manner king of the whole island of Cyprus. The Amathusians, the Solians, and the Citians, were those only that held out against him; and Artaxerxes, becoming jealous of the growing power of this active and wise prince, first countenanced

An. 391.
Artax. 14.

h Corn. Nepos, ibid. Isocrates in Panegyrico.

i Xenoph. ibid. Diodor. Sic. lib. 14, p. 447.

k Isocrates in Euagora. Diodor. Sic. lib. 15, p. 458.

k

them herein, and afterwards openly embraced their cause, and declared war against Euagoras; in which Isocrates tells us he expended above fifty thousand talents, which may be reckoned at ten millions of our

money.

An. 390.

Artax. 15.

The Athenians, notwithstanding the alliance they now had with the Persians, and the benefits they had lately received from them,' would not deny their assistance to Euagoras, who had much befriended them, especially in the kind reception which those who fled with Conon from the battle of the Goats river had found with him; and perchance their resentments against the king, for the death of that gallant Athenian their restorer, did not a little move them to this resolution. And therefore they forthwith equipped ten ships of war, and sent them to the aid of Euagoras, under the command of Philocrates. But a fleet which the Lacedemonians had at sea, under the command of Telautias the brother of Agesilaus, falling in with them in the isle of Rhodes, took them all; whereby it came to pass, that those who were enemies to the king of Persia, destroyed those who were going from his friends to make war against him.

Artax, 16.

Achoris succeeding Psammitichus in the kingdom of Egypt, Euagorasm drew him also and the Barceans, a people of Lybia, into confedera- An. 389. cy with him against the Persians; and all of them engaged in conjunction together, to carry on the war with vigour against them.

An. 388.

Artax. 17.

Philocrates having miscarried in his attempt of carrying succours to Euagoras, in manner as hath been related, the Athenians sent Chabrias" into the same service with another fleet, and a good number of land forces on board of it; who arriving safe in Cyprus, managed the war with that success, that he reduced the whole island under the power of Euagoras, before he again left it; which redounded much to the honour of his own conduct, and also to that of the Athenian arms.

1 Xenophon. Hellenic. lib. 4.

m Theopompus in Excerptis Photii. Diod. Sic. lib. 15, p. 459. n Cornelius Nepos in Chabria. Xenophon. Hellenic. lib. 5.