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PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN
who was therefore arousing the soldiers to louder shouts of
admiration at the Athenian skill.
Rowing back towards the wing occupied by the Peloponnesian allies, of whose loyalty he was assured, Pausanias then
summoned on board their principal officer, and communicated to him his policy of placing the Ionians not only apart from
the Athenians, but under the vigilance and control of Peloponnesian vessels in the immediate neighbourhood.
“Therefore,” said he, “while the Athenians will occupy
this wing, I wish you to divide yourselves; the Lacedaemonian
ships will take the way the Athenians abandon, but the Corinthian triremes will place themselves between the ships of
the Islands and the Athenians. I shall give further orders towards distributing the Ionian navy. And thus I trust either all
chance of a mutiny is cut off, or it will be put down at the first
outbreak. Now give orders to your men to take the places thus
assigned to you. And having gratified the vanity of our friends
the Athenians by their holiday evolutions, I shall send to
thank and release them from the fatigue so gracefully borne.”
All those with whom he here conferred, and who had no
love for Athens or Ionia, readily fell into the plan suggested.
Pausanias then despatched a Laconian vessel to the Athenian
Admiral, with complimentary messages and orders to cease
the manoeuvres, and then heading the rest of the Laconian
contingent, made slow and stately way towards the station
deserted by the Athenians. But pausing once more before
the vessels of the Isles, he despatched orders to their several commanders, which had the effect of dividing their array,
and placing between them the powerful Corinthian service.
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EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
In the orders of the vessels he forwarded for this change, he
took especial care to dislocate the dangerous contiguity of
the Samian and Chian triremes.
The sun was declining towards the west when Pausanias
had marshalled the vessels he headed, at their new stations,
and the Athenian ships were already anchored close and secured. But there was an evident commotion in that part of
the fleet to which the Corinthian galleys had sailed. The Ionians had received with indignant murmurs the command
which divided their strength. Under various pretexts each vessel delayed to move; and when the Corinthian ships came to
take a vacant space, they found a formidable array, — the soldiers on the platforms armed to the teeth. The confusion was
visible to the Spartan chief; the loud hubbub almost reached to
his ears. He hastened towards the place; but anxious to continue the gracious part he had so unwontedly played that day,
he cleared his decks of their formidable hoplites, lest he might
seem to meet menace by menace, and drafting them into other
vessels, and accompanied only by his personal serving-men
and rowers, he put forth alone, the gilded shield and the red
banner still displayed at his stern.
But as he was thus conspicuous and solitary, and midway in
the space left between the Laconian and Ionian galleys, suddenly two ships from the latter darted forth, passed through
the centre of the Corinthian contingent, and steered with
the force of all their rowers, right towards the Spartan’s ship.
“Surely,” said Pausanias, “that is the Chian’s vessel. I recognize the vine tree and the image of the Bromian god; and surely that other one is the Chimera under Uliades, the Samian.
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PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN
They come hither, the Ionian with them, to harangue against
obedience to my orders.”
“They come hither to assault us,” exclaimed Erasinidas;
“their beaks are right upon us.”
He had scarcely spoken, when the Chian’s brass prow
smote the gilded shield, and rent the red banner from its staff.
At the same time, the Chimera, under Uliades, struck the right
side of the Spartan ship, and with both strokes the stout vessel reeled and dived. “Know, Spartan,” cried Antagoras, from
the platform in the midst of his soldiers, “that we Ionians
hold together. He who would separate, means to conquer, us.
We disown thy hegemony. If ye would seek us, we are with
the Athenians.”
With that the two vessels, having performed their insolent
and daring feat, veered and shot off with the same rapidity
with which they had come to the assault; and as they did so,
hoisted the Athenian ensign over their own national standards. The instant that signal was given, from the other Ionian vessels, which had been evidently awaiting it, there came
a simultaneous shout; and all, vacating their place and either
gliding through or wheeling round the Corinthian galleys,
steered towards the Athenian fleet.
The trireme of Pausanias, meanwhile, sorely damaged,
part of its side rent away, and the water rushing in, swayed
and struggled alone in great peril of sinking.
Instead of pursuing the Ionians, the Corinthian galleys
made at once to the aid of the insulted commander.
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EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
“Oh,” cried Pausanias, in powerless wrath, “Oh, the accursed element! Oh that mine enemies had attacked me on
the land!”
“How are we to act?” said Aristides.
“We are citizens of a Republic, in which the majority govern,” answered Cimon. “And the majority here tell us how we
are to act. Hark to the shouts of our men, as they are opening
way for their kinsmen of the Isles.”
The sun sank, and with it sank the Spartan maritime ascendancy over Hellas. And from that hour in which the Samian and the Chian insulted the galley of Pausanias, if we accord
weight to the authority on which Plutarch must have based
his tale, commenced the brief and glorious sovereignty of
Athens. Commence when and how it might, it was an epoch
most signal in the records of the ancient world for its results
upon a civilization to which as yet human foresight can predict no end.
BOOK IV
CHAPTER I
We pass from Byzantium, we are in Sparta. In the Archeion, or office of the Ephoralty, sate five men, all somewhat advanced in years. These constituted that stern and terrible authority which had gradually, and from unknown beginnings,
assumed a kind of tyranny over the descendants of Hercules
themselves. They were the representatives of the Spartan peo-
30
ple, elected without reference to rank or wealth,
and possessing jurisdiction not only over the Helots and Laconians, but
over most of the magistrates. They could suspend or terminate
any office, they could accuse the kings and bring them before
a court in which they themselves were judges upon trial of life
and death. They exercised control over the armies and the embassies sent abroad; and the king, at the head of his forces, was
still bound to receive his instructions from this Council of Five.
29
K. O. Miller (Dorians), Book 3, c. 7, § 2. According to Aristotle, Cicero and others, the Ephoralty was founded by Theopompus
subsequently to the mythical time of Lycurgus. To Lycurgus itself it
is referred by Xenophon and Herodotus. Müller considers rightly
that, though an ancient Doric institution, it was incompatible with
the primitive constitution of Lycurgus and had gradually acquired
its peculiar character by causes operating on the Spartan Slato alone.
30
Aristot. Pol. ii.
29
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EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
Their duty, in fact, was to act as a check upon the kings, and
they were the representatives of that Nobility which embraced
the whole Spartan people, in contradistinction to the Laconians and Helots.
The conference in which they were engaged seemed to
rivet their most earnest attention. And as the presiding Ephor
continued the observations he addressed to them, the rest listened with profound and almost breathless silence.
The speaker, named Periclides, was older than the others.
His frame, still upright and, sinewy, was yet lean almost to
emaciation, his face sharp, and his dark eyes gleamed with
a cunning and sinister light under his grey brows.
“If,” said he, “we are to believe these Ionians, Pausanias meditates some deadly injury to Greece. As for the complaints of
his arrogance, they are to be received with due caution. Our
Spartans, accustomed to the peculiar discipline of the Laws of
Aegimius, rarely suit the humours of Ionians and innovators.
The question to consider is not whether he has been too imperious towards Ionians who were but the other day subjected to
the Mede, but whether he can make the command he received
from Sparta menacing to Sparta herself. We lend him iron, he
hath holpen himself to gold.”
“Besides the booty at Plataea, they say that he has amassed
much plunder at Byzantium,” said Zeuxidamus, one of
the Ephors, after a pause.
Periclides looked hard at the speaker, and the two men exchanged a significant glance.
“For my part,” said a third, a man of a severe but noble
countenance, the father of Lysander, and, what was not usual
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PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN
with the Ephors, belonging to one of the highest families of
Sparta, “I have always held that Sparta should limit its policy to
self-defence; that, since the Persian invasion is over, we have
no business with Byzantium. Let the busy Athenians obtain if
they will the empire of the sea. The sea is no province of ours.
All intercourse with foreigners, Asiatics and Ionians, enervates
our men and corrupts our generals. Recall Pausanias — recall
our Spartans. I have said.”
“Recall Pausanias first,” said Periclides, “and we shall then
hear the truth, and decide what is best to be done.”
“If he has medised, if he has conspired against Greece, let
us accuse him to the death,” said Agesilaus, Lysander’s father.
“We may accuse, but it rests not with us to sentence,” said
Periclides, disapprovingly.
“And,” said a fourth Ephor, with a visible shudder, “what
Spartan dare counsel sentence of death to the descendant of
the Gods?”
“I dare,” replied Agesilaus, “but provided only that the descendant of the Gods had counselled death to Greece. And for
that reason, I say that I would not, without evidence the clearest, even harbour the thought that a Heracleid could meditate
treason to his country.”
Periclides felt the reproof and bit his lips.
“Besides,” observed Zeuxidamus, “fines enrich the State.”
Periclides nodded approvingly.
An expression of lofty contempt passed over the brow and
lip of Agesilaus. But with national self-command, he replied
gravely, and with equal laconic brevity, “If Pausanias hath
committed a trivial error that a fine can expiate, so be it. But
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EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
talk not of fines till ye acquit him of all treasonable connivance with the Mede.”
At that moment an officer entered on the conclave, and approaching the presiding Ephor, whispered in his ear.
“This is well,” exclaimed Periclides aloud. “A messenger from
Pausanias himself. Your son Lysander has just arrived from
Byzantium.”
“My son!” exclaimed Agesilaus eagerly, and then checking himself, added calmly, “That is a sign no danger to Sparta
threatened Byzantium when he left.”
“Let him be admitted,” said Periclides.
Lysander entered; and pausing at a little distance from
the council board, inclined his head submissively to the Ephors;
save a rapid interchange of glances, no separate greeting took
place between son and father.
“Thou art welcome,” said Periclides. “Thou hast done thy
duty since thou hast left the city. Virgins will praise thee as
the brave man; age, more sober, is contented to say thou hast
upheld the Spartan name. And thy father without shame may
take thy hand.”
A warm flush spread over the young man’s face. He stepped
forward with a quick step, his eyes beaming with joy. Calm and
stately, his father rose, clasped the extended hand, then releasing his own placed it an instant on his son’s bended head, and
reseated himself in silence.
“Thou camest straight from Pausanias?” said Periclides.
Lysander drew from his vest the despatch entrusted to
him, and gave it to the presiding Ephor. Periclides half rose as
230
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