Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/198

176 HISTORY OF GREECh. Having thus become an exile, Xenophon was albwed by the Lacedaemonians to settle at Skillus, one of the villages of Triphy- lia, near Olympia in Peloponnesus, which they had recently eman- cipated from the Eleians. At one of the ensuing Olympic festi- vals, Megabyzus, the superintendent of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, came over as a spectator ; bringing with him the money which Xenophon had dedicated therein to the Ephesian Artemis. This money Xenophon invested in the purchase of lands at Skil- lus, to be consecrated in permanence to the goddess ; having pre- viously consulted her by sacrifice to ascertain her approval of the site contemplated, which site was recommended to him by its resemblance in certain points to that of the Ephesian temple. Thus, there was near each of them a river called by the same name SelinQs, having in it fish and a shelly bottom. Xenophon constructed a chapel, an altar, and a statue of the goddess made of cypress-wood : all exact copies, on a reduced scale, of the tem- ple and golden statue at Ephesus. A column near them was inscribed with the following words, " This spot is sacred to Artemis. Whoever possesses the property and gathers its fruits, must sacrifice to her the tithe every year, and keep the chapel Lastly, Diogenes Laertius (ii, 52) states, what I believe to be the main truth, that the sentence of banishment was passed against Xenophon by the Athenians on the ground of his attachment to the Lacedaemonians M Kriiger and others seem to think that Xenophon was banished because he took service under Cyrus, who had been the bitter enemy of Athens. It is true that Sokrates, when first consulted, was apprehensive beforehand that this might bring upon him the displeasure of Athens (Xen. Anab. iii, 1, 5). But it is to be remembered that at this time, the king of Persia was just as much the enemy of Athens as Cyrus was ; and that Cyrus in fact had made war upon her with the forces and treasures of the king. Artaxerxes and Cyras being thus, at that time, both enemies of Athens, it was of little con- sequence to the Athenians whether Cyrus succeeded or failed in his enter- prise. But when Artaxerxes, six years afterwards, became their friend, their feelings towards his enemies were altered. The passage of Pausanias as above cited, if understood as asserting the main cause of Xenophon's banishment, is in my judgment inaccurate. Xenophon was banished for Laconism, or attachment to Sparta against hil country ; the fact of his having served under Cyrus again t counted at best only as a secondary motive.