Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/42

20 HISTORY Of GREECE. different parts of Greece, crowded to Salamis. 1 Many Athenian women, during the years of destitution and suffering which pre- ceded as well as followed the battle of JEgospotami, were well pleased to emigrate and find husbands in that city ; 2 while through- out the wide range of the Lacedaemonian empire, the numerous victims exiled by the harmosts and dekarchies had no other re treat on the whole so safe and tempting. The extensive plain of Salamis afforded lands for many colonists. On what conditions, indeed, they were admitted, we do not know ; but the conduct of Evagoras as a ruler, gave universal satisfaction. During the first years of his reign, Evagoras doubtless paid his tribute regularly, and took no steps calculated to offend the Per- sian king. But as his power increased, his ambition increased also. We find him towards the year 390 B. c., engaged in a strug- gle not merely with the Persian king, but with Amathus and Ki- tium in his own island, and with the great Phoenician cities on the mainland. By what steps, or at what precise period, this war be- gan, we cannot determine. At the time of the battle of Knidus (394 B. c.) Evagoras had not only paid his tribute, but was mainly instrumental in getting the Persian fleet placed under Konon to 1 Isokrates, Or. ix, (Evag.) s. 59-61 ; compare Lysias, Or. xix, (De Axis toph. Bon.) s. 38-46 ; and Diodor. xiv, 98. 2 Isokrates, I. c. TraidoTroiEia&ai J Toi>e ^darovq O.VTCJV yvvaiKa^ Aa/z/3av ovref Trap' r/fj.uv, etc. For the extreme distress of Athenian women during these trying time* consult the statement in Xenophon, Memorab. ii, 7, 2-4. The Athenian Andokides is accused of having carried out a young wo man of citizen family, his own cousin, and daughter of an Athenian named Aristeides, to Cyprus, and there to have sold her to the despot of Kitium for a cargo of wheat. But being threatened with prosecution for this act before the Athenian Dikastery, he stole her away again and brought her back to Athens ; in which act, however, he was detected by the prince, and punished with imprisonment from, which he had the good fortune to escape. (Plutarch, Vit. X, Orat. p. 834; Photius, Cod. 261 ; Tzctzes, Chi- liad, vi, 367). How much there may be of truth in this accusation, we have no meant of determining. But it illustrates the way in which the Athenian maidens, who had no dowry at home, were provided for by their relatives elsewhere. Probably Andokides took this young woman out, under the engagement to find a Grecian husband for her in Cyprus. Instead of doing this, he sold her for his own profit to the harem of the prince ; or at least, is accused of having BO sold her