ἐπεὶ δὲ τοὺς Κύρῳ συναναβάντας Ἕλληνας σπουδάσας λαβεῖν ὁ βασιλεὺς οὐδὲν ἧττον ἢ Κύρου περιγενέσθαι καί τὴν βασιλείαν· κατασχεῖν οὐκ ἔλαβεν, ἀλλὰ Κῦρον τὸν ἡγεμόνα καί τοὺς αὑτῶν στρατηγοὺς ἀποβαλόντες ἐξ αὑτῶν μονονουχὶ τῶν βασιλείων ἐσώθησαν, ἐξελέγξαντες καί ἀποφήναντες τὰ Περσῶν καί βασιλέως πράγματα χρυσὸν ὄντα πολὺν καί τρυφὴν καί γυναῖκας, τὰ δὲ ἄλλα τῦφον καί ἀλαζονείαν,
Now, the king was no less eager to capture the Greeks who had come up with Cyrus than he had been to conquer Cyrus and preserve his throne. Nevertheless, he could not capture them, but though they had lost Cyrus their leader and their own commanders, they rescued themselves from his very palace, as one might say, thus proving clearly to the world that the empire of the Persians and their king abounded in gold and luxury and women, but in all else was an empty vaunt.
πᾶσα μὲν ἡ Ἑλλὰς ἐξεθάρρησε καί κατεφρόνησε τῶν βαρβάρων, Λακεδαιμονίοις δὲ καί δεινὸν ἐφαίνετο μὴ νῦν γε δουλείας ἐξελέσθαι τοὺς τὴν Ἀσίαν κατοικοῦντας Ἕλληνας μηδὲ παῦσαι προπηλακιζομένους ὑπʼ αὑτῶν, πρότερον δὲ διὰ Θίμβρωνος, εἶτα διὰ Δερκυλλίδου πολεμοῦντες, οὐδὲν δὲ πράττοντες ἀξιόλογον, Ἀγησιλάῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ τὸν πόλεμον ἐπέτρεψαν.
Therefore all Greece took heart and despised the Barbarians, and the Lacedaemonians in particular thought it strange if now at least they could not rescue the Greeks that dwelt in Asia from servitude, and put a stop to their outrageous treatment at the hands of the Persians. The war they waged was at first conducted by Thimbron, and then by Dercyllidas, but since they accomplished nothing worthy of note, they at last put the conduct of the war in the hands of their king, Agesilaüs.
ὁ δὲ περαιωθεὶς ναυσὶν εἰς Ἀσίαν εὐθὺς ἦν ἐνεργὸς καί δόξαν εἶχε μεγάλην καί Τισσαφέρνην παραταξάμενος ἐνίκησε καί τὰς πόλεις ἀφίστη. τούτων δὲ γενομένων συμφρονήσας ὁ Ἀρτοξέρξης ὃν τρόπον αὐτοῖς ἐστι πολεμητέον, ἔπεμψε Τιμοκράτην τὸν Ῥόδιον εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα χρυσίον πολὺ κομίζοντα, διδόναι καί διαφθείρειν τοὺς πλεῖστον ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι δυναμένους κελεύσας, καί πόλεμον Ἑλληνικὸν κινεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν Λακεδαίμονα.
He crossed over to Asia with a fleet, went to work at once, won great fame, defeated Tissaphernes in a pitched battle, and set the Greek cities in revolt. This being the case, Artaxerxes considered how he must carry on the war with Agesilaüs, and sent Timocreon the Rhodian into Greece with a great sum of money, bidding him use it for the corruption of the most influential men in the cities there, and for stirring up the Greeks to make war upon Sparta.
τοῦ δὲ Τιμοκράτους ταῦτα πράττοντος καί τῶν μεγίστων πόλεων συνισταμένων καί τῆς Πελοποννήσου διαταραττομένης, μετεπέμποντο τὸν Ἀγησίλαον ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας οἱ ἄρχοντες, ὅτε δὴ καί φασιν αὐτὸν ἀπιόντα πρὸς τοὺς φίλους εἰπεῖν ὡς τρισμυρίοις τοξόταις ἐξελαύνοιτο τῆς Ἀσίας ὑπὸ βασιλέως· τὸ γὰρ Περσικὸν νόμισμα τοξότην ἐπίσημον εἶχεν.
Timocrates did as he was bidden, the most important cities conspired together against Sparta, Peloponnesus was in a turmoil, and the Spartan magistrates summoned Agesilaüs home from Asia. It was at this time, as we are told, and as he was going home, that Agesilaüs said to his friends; The king has driven me out of Asia with thirty thousand archers; for the Persian coin has the figure of an archer stamped upon it.
ἐξέβαλε δὲ καὶ τῆς θαλάττης Λακεδαιμονίους Κόνωνι τῷ Ἀθηναίῳ μετὰ Φαρναβάζου στρατηγῷ χρησάμενος. ὁ γὰρ Κόνων διέτριβε μὲν ἐν Κύπρῳ μετὰ τὴν ἐν Αἰγὸς ποταμοῖς ναυμαχίαν, οὐ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν ἀγαπῶν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων μεταβολὴν, ὥσπερ ἐν πελάγει τροπὴν, περιμένων.
The king also expelled the Lacedaemonians from the sea, employing Conon the Athenian as his commander along with Pharnabazus. For Conon passed the time at Cyprus, after the sea-fight at Aegospotami, not satisfied with mere safety, but awaiting a reversal in the course of affairs, as he would a change of wind at sea.
ὁρῶν δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ λογισμοὺς δυνάμεως καὶ τὴν βασιλέως δύναμιν ἀνδρὸς ἔμφρονος δεομένην, ἔπεμψεν ἐπιστολὴν βασιλεῖ περὶ ὧν διενοεῖτο. καὶ ταύτην ἐκέλευσε τὸν κομίζοντα μάλιστα μὲν ἀποδοῦναι διὰ Ζήνωνος τοῦ Κρητὸς ἢ Πολυκρίτου τοῦ Μενδαίου τούτων δʼ ἦν ὁ μὲν Ζήνων ὀρχηστής, ὁ δὲ Πολύκριτος ἰατρός· ἂν δὲ οὗτοι μὴ παρῶσι, διὰ Κτησίου τοῦ ἰατροῦ.
And seeing that his own plans needed a military force, and the king’s force needed a sagacious leader, he wrote a letter to the king explaining his purposes. This letter he ordered the bearer, if possible, to give the king by the hand of Zeno the Cretan or Polycritus the Mendaean (Zeno was a teacher of dancing, and Polycritus was a physician); but if these were not at court, by the hand of Ctesias the physician.
λέγεται δὲ ὁ Κτησίας τὴν ἐπιστολὴν λαβὼν παρεγγράψαι τοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ Κόνωνος ἐπεσταλμένοις ὅπως καὶ Κτησίαν ἀποστείλῃ πρὸς αὑτόν, ὡς ὠφέλιμον ὄντα ταῖς ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ πράξεσιν. ὁ δὲ Κτησίας αὐτὸν ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ βασιλέα φησὶ προσθεῖναι τὴν λειτουργίαν αὐτῷ ταύτην.
And it is said that Ctesias, on receiving the letter, added to the suggestions which Conon made to the king a request to send Ctesias also to him, as likely to be of service in matters on the sea-coast. Ctesias, however, says that the king of his own accord conferred upon him this new duty.
ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ κρατήσας τῇ περὶ Κνίδον ναυμαχίᾳ διὰ Φαρναβάζου καὶ Κόνωνος ἀφείλετο τὴν κατὰ θάλατταν ἀρχὴν Λακεδαιμονίους, ἐπέστρεψε πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ τὴν Ἑλλάδα πρὸς αὑτόν, ὥστε καὶ τὴν περιβόητον εἰρήνην βραβεῦσαι τοῖς Ἕλλησι τὴν ἐπʼ Ἀνταλκίδου προσαγορευομένην.
But after Artaxerxes, by the sea-fight which Pharnabazus and Conon won for him off Cnidus, had stripped the Lacedaemonians of their power on the sea, he brought the whole of Greece into dependence upon him, so that he dictated to the Greeks the celebrated peace called the Peace of Antalcidas.
ὁ δὲ Ἀνταλκίδας Σπαρτιάτης ἦν, Λέοντος υἱός, καὶ σπουδάσας βασιλεῖ διεπράξατο τὰς ἐν Ἀσίᾳ, πόλεις Ἑλληνίδας ἁπάσας καὶ νήσους, ὅσαι προσκυροῦσιν Ἀσίᾳ, παρεῖναι Λακεδαιμονίους αὐτῷ κεκτῆσθαι φόρων ὑποτελεῖς, εἰρήνης γενομένης τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, εἰ δεῖ τὴν τῆς Ἑλλάδος ὕβριν καὶ προδοσίαν εἰρήνην καλεῖν, ἧς πόλεμος οὐδεὶς ἀκλεέστερον ἤνεγκε τέλος τοῖς κρατηθεῖσι.
Now Antalcidas was a Spartan, son of Leon, and acting in the interests of the king he induced the Lacedaemonians to surrender to the king all the Greek cities of Asia, and all the islands adjacent to Asia, to possess them on payment of tribute; and peace was thus established among the Greeks, if the mockery and betrayal of Greece can be called peace, a peace than which no war ever brought a more inglorious consummation to the defeated.
διὸ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους Σπαρτιάτας ἀεὶ βδελυττόμενος ὁ Ἀρτοξέρξης, καὶ νομίζων, ὥς φησι Δείνων, ἀνθρώπων ἁπάντων ἀναιδεστάτους εἶναι, τὸν Ἀνταλκίδαν ὑπερηγάπησεν εἰς Πέρσας ἀναβάντα. καί ποτε λαβὼν ἕνα τῶν ἀνθινῶν στεφάνων καὶ βάψας εἰς μύρον τὸ πολυτελέστατον, ἀπὸ δείπνου ἔπεμψε τῷ Ἀνταλκίδᾳ καὶ πάντες ἐθαύμασαν τὴν φιλοφροσύνην.
For this reason Artaxerxes, although he always held other Spartans in abomination, and considered them, as Deinon tells us, the most shameless of all mankind, showed great affection for Antalcidas when he came up to Persia. On one occasion he actually took a wreath of flowers, dipped it in the most costly ointment, and sent it to Antalcidas after supper; and all men wondered at the kindness.
ἦν δέ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐπιτήδειος οὗτος ἐντρυφηθῆναι καὶ τοιοῦτον λαβεῖν στέφανον, ἐξορχησάμενος ἐν Πέρσαις τὸν Λεωνίδαν καὶ τὸν Καλλικρατίδαν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Ἀγησίλαος, ὡς ἔοικε, πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα, φεῦ τῆς Ἑλλάδος, ὅπου μηδίζουσιν ἡμῖν οἱ Λάκωνες, οὐ μᾶλλον, εἶπεν, οἱ Μῆδοι λακωνίζουσι ; τοῦ δὲ ῥήματος ἡ κομψότης τὴν τοῦ πράγματος αἰσχύνην οὐκ ἀφεῖλεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν ἡγεμονίαν ἀπώλεσαν ἐν Λεύκτροις ἀγωνισάμενοι κακῶς, ἡ δὲ δόξα τῆς Σπάρτης προαπώλετο ταῖς ὁμολογίαις ἐκείναις.
But Antalcidas was a fit person, as it would seem, to be exquisitely treated and to receive such a wreath, now that he had danced away among the Persians the fair fame of Leonidas and Callicratidas. For Agesilaüs, as it would appear, when someone said to him: Alas for Greece, now that the Spartans are medizing, replied, Are not the Medes the rather spartanizing? However, the wittiness of the speech could not remove the shame of the deed, and the Spartans lost their supremacy in the disastrous battle of Leuctra, though the glory of Sparta had been lost before that by this treaty.
ἄχρι μὲν οὖν ἐπρώτευεν ἡ Σπάρτη, ξένον ἐποιεῖτο καὶ φίλον ὠνόμαζεν ἑαυτοῦ τὸν Ἀνταλκίδαν ἐπεὶ δὲ ἡττήθησαν ἐν Λεύκτροις, ταπεινὰ πράττοντες ἐδέοντο μὲν χρημάτων καὶ τὸν Ἀγησίλαον εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐξέπεμψαν, ὁ δὲ Ἀνταλκίδας ἀνέβη πρὸς τὸν Ἀρτοξέρξην παρακαλῶν ἐπαρκέσαι τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις.
So long, then, as Sparta kept the first place in Greece, Artaxerxes treated Antalcidas as his guest and called him his friend; but after the Spartans had been defeated at Leuctra, they fell so low as to beg for money, and sent Agesilaüs to Egypt, while Antalcidas went up to Artaxerxes to ask him to supply the wants of the Lacedaemonians.
ὁ δʼ οὕτως ἐξημέλησε καὶ παρεῖδε καὶ ἀπέρριψεν αὐτόν, ὥστε καταβάντα καὶ χλευαζόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, φοβούμενον δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἐφόρους, ἀποκαρτερῆσαι. ἀνέβη δὲ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα καὶ Ἰσμηνίας ὁ Θηβαῖος καὶ Πελοπίδας ἤδη τὴν ἐν Λεύκτροις μάχην νενικηκώς. ἀλλʼ οὗτος μὲν οὐδὲν αἰσχρὸν ἐποίησεν· Ἰσμηνίας δὲ προσκυνῆσαι κελευόμενος ἐξέβαλε πρὸ αὑτοῦ χαμᾶζε τὸν δακτύλιον, εἶτα κύψας ἀνείλετο καὶ παρέσχε δόξαν προσκυνοῦντος.
The king, however, so neglected and slighted and rejected him that, when he came back home, being railed at by his enemies, and being in fear of the ephors, he starved himself to death. Ismenias the Theban also, and Pelopidas, who had just been victorious in the battle of Leuctra, went up to the king. Pelopidas did nothing to disgrace himself; but Ismenias, when ordered to make the obeisance to the king, threw his ring down on the ground in front of him, and then stooped and picked it up, thus giving men to think that he was making the obeisance.
Τιμαγόρᾳ δὲ τῷ Ἀθηναίῳ διὰ Βηλούριδος τοῦ γραμματέως εἰσπέμψαντι γραμματίδιον ἀπόρρητον ἡσθεὶς μυρίους τε δαρεικοὺς ἔδωκε, καὶ γάλακτος βοείου δεομένῳ διʼ ἀσθένειαν ὀγδοήκοντα βοῦς ἀμέλγεσθαι παρηκολούθουν ἔτι δὲ κλίνην καὶ στρώματα καὶ τοὺς στρωννύντας ἔπεμψεν, ὡς οὐ μεμαθηκότων Ἑλλήνων ὑποστρωννύναι, καὶ φορεῖς τοὺς κομίζοντας αὐτὸν μέχρι θαλάσσης μαλακῶς ἔχοντα.
With Timagoras the Athenian, however, who sent to him by his secretary, Beluris, a secret message in writing, the king was so pleased that he gave him ten thousand darics, and eighty milk cows to follow in his train because he was sick and required cow’s milk; and besides, he sent him a couch, with bedding for it, and servants to make the bed (on the ground that the Greeks had not learned the art of making beds), and bearers to carry him down to the sea-coast, enfeebled as he was.
παρόντι δὲ δεῖπνον ἐπέμπετο λαμπρότατον, ὥστε καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ βασιλέως, Ὀστάνην, ὦ Τιμαγόρα, φάναι, μέμνησο ταύτης τῆς τραπέζης· οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ μικροῖς οὕτω σοι κεκοσμημένη παράκειται. τοῦτο δʼ ἦν ὀνειδισμὸς εἰς προδοσίαν μᾶλλον ἢ χάριτος ὑπόμνησις. Τιμαγόρου μὲν οὖν διὰ τὴν δωροδοκίαν Ἀθηναῖοι θάνατον κατέγνωσαν.
Moreover, during his presence at court, he used to send him a most splendid supper, so that Ostanes, the brother of the king, said: Timagoras, remember this table; it is no slight return which thou must make for such an array. Now this was a reproach for his treachery rather than a reminder of the king’s favour. At any rate, for his venality, Timagoras was condemned to death by the Athenians.
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