Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/280

258 HISTORY OF GREECE. on the side of Corinth that the Phliasians had a friendly neigliboi to afford them the means of purchasing provisions. 1 Amidst general success, the Thebans experienced partial reverses. Their march carrying them near to Corinth, a party of them had the boldness to rush at the gates, and to attempt a surprise of the town. But the Athenian Chabrias, then commanding within it, disposed his troops so skilfully, and made so good a resistance, that he defeated them with loss and reduced them to the necessity of asking for the ordinary truce to bury their dead, which were lying very near to the walls. 2 This advantage over the victorious The- bans somewhat raised the spirits of the Spartan allies ; who were still farther encouraged by the arrival in Lechseum of a squadron from Syracuse, bringing a body of two thousand mercenary Gauls and Iberians, with fifty horsemen, as a succor from the despot Dio- nysius. Such foreigners had never before been seen in Pelopon- nesus. Their bravery, and singular nimbleness of movement, gave them the advantage in several partial skirmishes, and discon- certed the Thebans. But the Spartans and Athenians were not bold enough to hazard a general battle, and the Syracusan detach- ment returned home after no very long stay, 3 while the Thebans also went back to Bceotia. 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 2. 17. 2 Xen. Hellen. vii, 1, 19; Diodor. xv. 69. 3 Xen. Hellen. vii, 1, 22 : Diodor. xv, 70. Diodorus states that these mercenaries had been furnished with pay for five months ; if this is correct, I presume that we must understand it as comprehending the time of their voyage from Sicily and back to Sicily. Nevertheless, the language of Xenophon would not lead us to suppose that they remained in Peloponnesus even so long as three months. I think it certain however that much more must have passed in this cam- paign than what Xenophon indicates. Epaminondas would hardly hav forced the passage of the Oneium for such small objects as we find men- tioned in the Hellenica. An Athenian Inscription, extremely defective, yet partially restored and published by M. Boeckh (Corp. Inscr. No. 85 a. Addenda to vol. i, p. 8!)7), records a vote of the Athenian people and of the synod of Athenian con- federates. praising Dionysius of Syracuse, and recording him with his two sons as benefactors of Athens. It was probably passed somewhere near this time : and we know from Demosthenes that the Athenians granted the freedom of their city to Dionysius and his descendants (Demosthenes ad Philipp. Epistol. p. 161, as well as the Epistle of Philip, on which this is a comment). The Inscription is too defective to warrant any other ia ferences