Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/293

HE VOLT OF RHODES. 271 (in most cases) of a present hostile force, by the contrivance of a local party, and without privity or previous consent of the bulk of the citizens. The present revolt of Rhodes, forming a re- markable contrast on all these points, occasioned the utmost sur- prise and indignation among the Lacedaemonians. They saw them- selves about to enter upon a renewed maritime war, without that aid which they had reckoned on receiving from Egypt, and with aggravated uncertainty in respect to their dependencies and tribute. It was under this prospective anxiety that they took the step of nominating Agesilaus to the command of the fleet as well as of the army, in order to ensure unity of operations ; l though a dis- tinction of functions, which they had hitherto set great value upon maintaining, was thus broken down, and, though the two com- mands had never been united in any king before Agesilaus. 9 Pharax, the previous admiral, was recalled. 3 But the violent displeasure of the Lacedemonians against the revolted Rhodians was still better attested by another proceeding. Among all the great families at Rhodes, none were more dis- tinguished than the Diagoridae. Its members were not only generals and high political functionaries in their native island, but had attained even Pan-hellenic celebrity by an unparalleled series of victories at the Olympic and other great solemnities. Dorieus, a member of this family, had gamed the victory in the pankration at Olympia on three successive solemnities. He had obtained seven prizes in the Nemean, and eight in the Isthmian games. He had carried off the prize at one Pythian solemnity without a contest, no one daring to stand up against him in the fearful struggle of the pankration. As a Rhodian, while Rhodes was a subject ally of Athens during the Peloponnesian war, he had been so pronounced in his attachment to Sparta as to draw on himself a sentence of banishment ; upon which he had retired to Thurii, and had been active in hostility to Athens after the Syracusau 1 Xen. Hcllen. iii, 4, 27. 2 Plutarch, Agesil. c. 10 ; Aristotel. Politic, ii, 6, 22. 3 The Lacedaemonian named Pharax, mentioned oy Theopomptis (Frngm. 218, ed. Didot: compare Athenaeus, xii, p. 536) as a profligate and extravagant person, is more probably an officer who served under Di- onysius in Sicily and Italy, about forty years after the revolt of Ehodes. The difference of time appears so great, that we must probably suppose tro different men bearing the same name.