Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/271

 CHARACTER OF KINADON. 249 equality, and that contempt of privilege, which its theory as well as its practice suggested. Notwithstanding all exactness of duty performed, he found that the constitution, as practically worked. excluded him from the honors and distinctions of the state ; re- serving them for the select citizens known under the name of Peers. And this exclusion had become more marked and galling since the formation of the Spartan empire after the victory of /Egospotami ; whereby the number of lucrative posts (harmosties and others) all monopolized by the Peers, had been so much multi- plied. Debarred from the great political prizes, Kinadon was still employed by the ephors, in consequence of his high spirit and military sufficiency, in that standing force which they kept for maintaining order at home. 1 He had been the agent ordered on several of those arbitrary seizures which they never scrupled to employ towards persons whom they regarded as dangerous. But this was no satisfaction to his mind ; nay, probably, by bringing him into close contact with .the men in authority, it contributed to lessen his respect for them. He desired " to be inferior to no man in Sparta," 2 and his conspiracy was undertaken to realize this object by breaking up the constitution. It has already been mentioned that amidst the general insecurity which pervaded the political society of Laconia, the ephors main- tained a secret police and system of espionage which reached its height of unscrupulous efficiency under the title of the Krypteia. Such precautions were now more than ever requisite ; for the changes in the practical working of Spartan politics tended to multiply the number of malcontents, and to throw the Inferiors as well as the Perireki and the Neodamodes (manumitted Helots), into one common antipathy with the Helots, against the exclusive partnership of the Peers. Informers were thus sure of encourage- ment and reward, and the man who now came to the ephors either 1 Xen. Hellen. iii, 3, 9. '^nr]perf]KeL 6e Kal dAA' rjdr) 6 ~K.ivu.duv rolf 'E06- ?oif roiavra. iii, 3, 7. Oi avvreTayuevoi f}jj.<Jv (Kinadon says) avrol bi 2 Xen. Hell'en. iii, 3, 11. fj.rj6EVf f/rruv elvat TUV i-v Aa.Kedatfj.ovi was the declaration of Kinadon when seized and questioned by the ephors con cerning his purposes. Substantially it coincides with Aristotle (Polit. v, 6, 2) Jj orav uvdpudrjr r/,f uv firi fiETE^y ruv rifiuv, olov Kivuduv 6 TTJV kit uov avarr/aa^ knideav ETTI rovf ~2TrapTtuTaf. 11*