Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/310

 28* HISTORY OF GREECE. wants of the army), 1 or to that which the satrap Tiribazus gave to Antalkidas afterwards, 2 also for public objects. Xenophon af- firms, that Ismenias and the rest, having received these presents from Timokrates, accused the Lacedaemonians and rendered them odious, each in his respective city. 3 But it is certain, from his own showing, that the hatred towards them existed in these cities, before the arrival of Timokrates. In Argos, such hatred was of old standing ; in Corinth and Thebes, though kindled only since the close of the war, it was not the less pronounced. Moreover, Xenophon himself informs us, that the Athenians, though they received none of the money, 4 were quite as ready for war as the other cities. If we therefore admit his statement as a matter of fact, that Timokrates gave private presents to various leading poli- ticians, which is by no means improbable, we must dissent from the explanatory use which he makes of this fact by setting it out prominently as the cause of the war. What these leading men would find it difficult to raise was, not hatred to Sparta, but confi- dence and courage to brave the power of Sparta. And for this purpose the mission of Timokrates would be a valuable aid, by conveying assurances of Persian cooperation and support against Sparta. He must have been produced publicly either before the people, the senate, or at least the great body of the anti-Laconian party in each city. And the money which he brought with him, though a portion of it may have gone in private presents, would serve to this party as the best warrant for the sincerity of the satrap. Whatever negotiations may have been in progress between the cities visited by Timokrates, no union had been brought about between them when the war, kindled by an accident, broke out as 1 Xen. Hellen. iii, 4, 26. 2 Xen. Hellen. ir, 8, 16. 3 Xen. Hellen. iii, 5, 2. Ol fiev drj Segapevoi T& xPW ara &C r "f oiKEiay To/letf <5te/3aA/W TOV^ AjttKeStUftoviovf inel <5e ravraf if /uaof aiiTuv Trpofj- fdyov, avvicraaav Kal ruf (ityifiTaq -Kiiktiq Trpbf dAA^Aaf. 4 Xenophon, ut sup. Pausanias (iii, 9, 4) names some Athenians as having received part of th money. So Plutarch also, in general terms (Agesil. c. 15). Diodorus mentions lot'-iing respecting either the mission or the preeeati of Timokrates.