Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/301

 AGESILAUS AND PHARNABAZUS. 279 Absence of Pharnabazus in Egypt, was compelled to take refuge in Greece ; where Agesila.us provided him with protection and a home, and even went so far as to employ influence in favor of an Athenian youth, to whom the son of Pharnabazus was attached. This Athenian youth had outgrown the age and size of the boy runners in the Olympic stadium ; nevertheless Agesilaus, by strenuous personal interference, overruled the reluctance of the Eleian judges, and prevailed upon them to admit him as a com- petitor with the other boys. 1 The stress laid by Xenophon upon this favor illustrates the tone of Grecian sentiment, and shows us the variety of objects which personal ascendency was used to com- pass. Disinterested in regard to himself, Agesilaus was unscru- pulous both in promoting the encroachments, and screening the injustices, of his friends. 2 The unfair privilege which he pro- cured for this youth, though a small thing in itself, could hardly fail to offend a crowd of spectators familiar with the established conditions of the stadium, and to expose the judges to severe censure. Quitting the satrapy of Pharnabazus, which was now pretty well exhausted, while the armistice concluded with Tithraustes must have expired, Agesilaus took up his camp near the temple of Artemis, at Astyra in the plain of Thebe (in the region com- monly known as JEolis, near the Gulf of Elaeus. He here em- ployed himself in bringing together an increased number of troops, with a view to penetrate farther into the interior of Asia Minor during the summer. Recent events had greatly increased the be- lief entertained by the Asiatics in his superior strength ; so that he received propositions from various districts in the interior, inviting his presence, and expressing anxiety to throw off the Persian yoke. He sought also to compose the dissensions and misrule which had arisen out of the Lysandrian dekarchies in the Greco-Asiatic cities, avoiding as much as possible sharp inflictions of death or exile. How much he achieved in this direction, we cannot tell, 3 nor can it have been possible, indeed, to achieve 1 Xen. Hellen. iv, 1, 40. truvr 1 e^oiriaev. 6^-wf uv 61' IKCI.VOV e-yKpideir] el( ro ff-udiov iv 'O^v/Airia, fisyiaroi; uv naidijv. 2 Plutarch, Agesil. c. 5-13. 3 Xen. Hellen. iv, 1, 41 ; Xen. AgesU. i, 85-38 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 14, 15 titrates. Or. v, (Philipp.) 8. 100.