Antalcidas

in secret, however, he gave money to Antalcidas, to the end that a fleet might be manned by the Lacedaemonians and thus the Athenians and their allies be made more desirous of peace, and he also imprisoned Conon, on the ground that he was wronging the King and that the charges made by the Lacedaemonians were true.

Having come to this conclusion, they sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus with instructions to inform Tiribazus of these facts, and to endeavour to make peace between the state and the King.

When they had reached their destination, Antalcidas said to Tiribazus that he had come desiring peace between his state and the King, and, furthermore, just such a peace as the King had wished for.

For this reason Antalcidas the Spartan, we are told, when Agesilaüs came back from Boeotia with a wound, said to him:

And yet he is thought to have shown Antalcidas the Lacedaemonian more honour than any other Greek, in that he took the chaplet which he had worn at a banquet, dipped it in perfume, and sent it to him.

Now, however, they say that Antalcidas, who was an ephor, secretly sent his children away to Cythera, so full of fear was he.

It is said also that Antalcidas, when an Athenian was disputing with him over the valour of the two peoples and said, Yet we have often driven you away from the Cephisus, replied:

To that end, they sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus, and in the most shameful and lawless fashion handed over to the King the Greeks resident in Asia, in whose behalf Agesilaüs had waged war.

When he had fought often with the Thebans and was wounded in the battle, Antalcidas, as it is reported, said to him:

Antalcidas, when he was to be initiated in the Samothracian mysteries, and was asked by the priest what great sin he had committed in all his life, replied, If I have committed any, the Gods know it already.

When Conon and Pharnabazus with the king’s navy were masters of the sea and wasted the coasts of Laconia, and Athens — Pharnabazus defraying the charges — was surrounded with a wall, the Lacedaemonians made a peace with the Persian;

Now Antalcidas was a Spartan, son of Leon, and acting in the interests of the king he induced the Lacedaemonians to surrender to the king all the Greek cities of Asia, and all the islands adjacent to Asia, to possess them on payment of tribute;

but after the Spartans had been defeated at Leuctra, they fell so low as to beg for money, and sent Agesilaüs to Egypt, while Antalcidas went up to Artaxerxes to ask him to supply the wants of the Lacedaemonians.

But Antalcidas was a fit person, as it would seem, to be exquisitely treated and to receive such a wreath, now that he had danced away among the Persians the fair fame of Leonidas and Callicratidas.

And therefore, when Antalcidas saw the king wounded, he said:

Accordingly, many years after, when Agesilaus was wounded, Antalcidas told him the Thebans had rewarded him worthily for teaching and accustoming them to war, whether they would or no.

ANTALCIDAS.