Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/312

290 HISTORY OF GREECE. grounds on which the Lacedaemonians rested their displeasure against Thebes, begin from a time immediately succeeding the close of the war against Athens, and the sentiment was now both ectal>- lished and vehement. It was they who now began the Breotiroi war ; not the Thebans, nor the bribes brought by Timokrates. The energetic and ambitious Lysander, who had before insti- gated the expedition of Agesilaus across the -ZEgean, and who had long hated the Thebans, was among the foremost advisers of the expedition now decreed by the ephors against Thebes, 1 as well as the chief commander appointed to carry it into execution. He was despatched with a small force to act on the north of Bceotia. He was directed to start from Herakleia, the centre of Lacedaemonian influence in those regions, to muster the Herakleots, together with the various dependent populations in the neighborhood of CE ta, CEtaeans, Malians, JEnianes, etc. to march towards Brcotia, taking up the Phokians in his way, and to attack Haliartus. Under the walls of this town king Pausanias engaged to meet him on a given day, with the native Lacedaemonian force and the Peloponnesian allies. For this purpose, having obtained favorable border sacrifices, he marched forth to Tegea, and there employed himself in collecting the allied contingents from Peloponnesus. 3 But the allies generally were tardy and reluctant in the cause ; while the Corinthians withheld all concurrence and support, 3 though neither did they make any manifestation in favor of Thebes. Finding themselves thus exposed to a formidable attack on two sides, from Sparta at the height of her power, and from a Spartan officer of known ability, being, moreover, at the same time without a single ally, the Thebans resolved to entreat succor from Athens. A Theban embassy to Athens for any purpose, and especially for this purpose, was itself among the strongest marks of the revolution which had taken place in Grecian politics. and established sentiment between Sparta and Thebes, refutes his alle- gation, that it was the bribes brought by Timokrates to the leading The- bans which first blew up the hatred against Sparta ; and shows farther, that Sparta did not need any circuitous manoeuvres of the Thebans, to furnish her with a pretext for going to war. 1 Plutarch, Lysand. c. 28. * Xen. Hellen. iii, 5, 6, 7. 3 Xen. Hellen. iii, 5, 23. The conduct of the Corinthians here contributes again to refute the ae Btrtion of Xenophon about the eflect of the bribes of Timokrates