Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/120

dS HISTORY OF GREECE. altered the Athenian temper. The Lacedaemonian harmost Spho- drias (whom Kleombrotus had left at Thespiae to prosecute the war against Thebes), being informed that Peiraeus on its land side was without gates or night watch, since there was no suspicion of attack, conceived the idea of surprising it by a night-march from Thespiae, and thus of mastering at one stroke the commerce, the wealth, and the naval resources of Athens. Putting his troops under march one evening after an early supper, he calculated on reaching the Peiraeus the next morning before daylight. But his reckoning proved erroneous. Morning overtook him when he had advanced no farther than the Thriasian plain near Eleusis ; from whence, as it was useless to proceed farther, he turned back and retreated to Thespise ; not, however, without committing various acts of plunder against the neighboring Athenian resi- dents. This plan against Peiraeus appears to have been not ill con- ceived. Had Sphodrias been a man competent to organize and execute movements as rapid as those of Brasidas, there is no reason why it might not have succeeded ; in which case the whole face of the war would have been changed, since the Lacedaemo- nians, if once masters of Peiraeus, both could and would have maintained the place. But it was one of those injustices, which no one ever commends until it has been successfully consummated, " consilium quod non potest laudari nisi peractum. 1 " As it marks which the Lacedaemonian envoys make (Xen. Hellen. v, 4, 23) o? the conduct of Sphodrias. To turn from one severe sentence to another, whoever believes the nar- rative of Diodorus in preference to that of Xenophon, ought to regard the execution of those two Lacedaemonian commanders who surrendered the Kadmeia as exceedingly cruel. According to Diodorus, these officers had done everything which brave men could do ; they had resisted a long time, repelled many attacks, and were only prevented from farther holding out by a mutiny among their garrison. Here again, we see the superiority of the narrative of Xenophon ovci that of Diodorus. According to the former, these Lacedaemonian com manders surrendered the Kadmeia without any resistance at all. Theii condemnation, like that of the Athenian two generals, becomes a matter easy to understand and explain. 1 Tacit. Histor. i, 38. Compare (in Plutarch, Anton, c. 32) the remark of Sextus Pompey to his