Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/121

FAILURE OF SPHODRIAS. 99 failed, it has been considered, by critics as well as by contem- poraries, not merely as a crime but as a fault, and its author Sphodrias as a brave man, but singularly weak and hot-headed.' Without admitting the full extent of this censure, we may see that his present aggression grew out of an untoward emulation of the glory which Phrebidas, in spite of the simulated or transient dis- pleasure of his countrymen, had acquired by seizing the Kadmeia. That Sphodrias received private instructions from Kleombrotus (as Diodorus states) is not sufficiently proved ; while the suspicion, intimated by Xenophon as being abroad, that he was wrought upon by secret emissaries and bribes from his enemies the Thebans, for the purpose of plunging Athens into war with Sparta, is altogether improbable ; 2 and seems merely an hypothesis suggested by the consequences of the act, which were such, that if his enemies had bribed him, he could not have served them better. captain Menas, when the latter asked his permission to cut the cables of the ship, while Octavius and Antony were dining on board, and to seize their persons, "I cannot permit any such thing ; but you ought to have done it without asking my permission.' A reply familiar to the readers of Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra. 1 Kallisthenes, Frag. 2, ed. Didot, apud. Harpokration, v, 2<j>o6piaf ; Dio- dor. xv, 29 ; Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 14 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 24. The mis- calculation of Sphodrias as to the time necessary for his march to Peiraeus is not worse than other mistakes which Polybius (in a very instructive dis- course, ix, 12, 20, seemingly extracted from his lost commentaries on Tac- tics) recounts as having been committed by various other able command- ers. 2 He'f&ovai rbv ev ralf Qeaiualf upfj.oaTr)v 2(j>o6pi.av, xf>W<iTci dovref, wf vKUTTTevsTo Xenoph. Hellen. v, 4, 20 ; Diodor. xv, 29; Plutarch, Pelopid. c. 14; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 24, 25. Diodorus affirms private orders from Kleombrotus to Sphodrias. In rejecting the suspicion mentioned by Xenophon, that it was the Theban leaders who instigated and bribed Sphodrias, we may remark 1. That the plan might very possibly have succeeded; and its success would have been ruinous to the Thebans. Had they been the instigators, they would not have failed to give notice of it at Athens at the same time which they certainly did not do. 2. That if the Lacedcemonians had pun- ished Sphodrias, no war would have ensued. Now every man would have predicted, that assuming the scheme to fail, they certainly would punish him. 3. The strong interest taken by Agesilaus afterwards in the fate of Sphodrias, and the high encomium which he passed on the general character of the latter, are quite consistent with a belief on his part that Sphodriv