Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/316

 294 HISTORY OF GREECE. intolerable, and the unhappy fate of that little town has sad- dened many pages of my preceding volumes; to Orchomenus, on the extreme north, it was also unpalatable, partly because that town stood next in power and importance to Thebes, partly because it had an imposing legendary antiquity, and jlaimed to have been once the ascendant city receiving tribute from Thebes. The Orchomenians now joined Lysander, threw open to him the way into Bccotia, and conducted him with his army, after first ravaging the fields of Lebadeia, into the district belonging to Haliartus. 1 Before Lysander quitted Sparta, the plan of operations con- certed between him and Pausanias, was that they should meet on a given day in the territory of Haliartus. And in execution of this plan Pausanias had already advanced with his Peloponne- sian army as far as Plataea in Boeotia. Whether the day fixed between them had yet arrived, when Lysander reached Haliartus, we cannot determine with certainty. In the imperfection of the Grecian calendar, a mistake on this point would be very conceiva- ble, as had happened between the Athenian generals Hippokra- tes and Demosthenes in those measures which preceded the battle of Delium in 424 B. c. 2 But the engagement must have been taken by both parties, subject to obstructions in the way, since each would have to march through a hostile country to reach the place of meeting. The words of Xenophon, however, rather in- dicate that the day fixed had not arrived ; nevertheless, Lysander resolved at once to act against Haliartus, without waiting for Pau- Bjmias. There were as yet only a few Thebans in the town, and he, probably, had good reasons for judging that he would better succeed by rapid measures, before any more Thebans could arrive, than by delaying until the other Spartan army should join him ; not to mention anxiety that the conquest should belong to himself exclusively, and confidence arising from his previous success at Orchomenus. Accordingly, he sent in an invitation to the Haliar- tians to follow the example of the Orchomenians, to revolt from Thebes, and to stand upon their autonomy under Lacedaemo- nian protection. Perhaps there may have been a party in the town disposed to comply. But the majority, encouraged too by 1 Xen. Hellen. iii, 5, 17; Plutarch, Lysand. c. 28.
 * Thucyd. iv, 89. -yEvo/iKV^ 6iafiapriaf TUV fjfj.epuv, etc.