Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/317

 PAUSANIAS IN B<EOTIA. 295 the ThebarjS within, refused the proposition ; upon which Lysander marched up to the walls and assaulted the town. He was here engaged, close by the gates, in examining where he could best ef- fect an entrance, when a fresh division of Thebans, apprised of his proceedings, was seen approaching from Thebes, at their fastest pace, cavalry, as well as hoplites. They were probably seen from the watch-towers in the city earlier than they became visible to the assailants without ; so that the Haliartians, encouraged by the sight, threw open their gates, and made a sudden sally. Ly- sander, seemingly taken by surprise, was himself slain among the first, with his prophet by his side, by a Haliartian hoplite named Neochorus. His troops stood some time, against both the Haliar- tians from the town, and the fresh Thebans who now came up. But they were at length driven back with Considerable loss, and compelled to retreat to rugged and difficult ground at some distance n their rear. Here, however, they made good their position, re- pelling their assailants with the loss of more than two hundred hoplites. 1 The success here gained, though highly valuable as an en- couragement to the Thebans, would have been counterbalanced by the speedy arrival of Pausanias, had not Lysander himself been among the slain. But the death of so eminent a man was an irreparable loss to Sparta. His army, composed of heterogene- ous masses, both collected and held together by his personal ascendency, lost confidence and dispersed in the ensuing night. 2 When Pausanias arrived soon afterwards, he found no second army to join with him. Yet his own force was more than suffi- cient to impress terror on the Thebans, had not Thrasybulus, faith- ful to the recent promise, arrived with an imposing body of Athe- nian hoplites, together with cavalry under Orthobulus 3 and imparted fresh courage as well as adequate strength to the Theban cause. 1 Xen. Hellcn. iii, 5, 18, 19, 20 ; Plutarch, Lysand. c. 28, 29 ; Pausan. iii, 6,4- The two last differ in various matters from Xenophon, whose account, however, though brief, seems to me to deserve the preference. 2 Xen. Hellen. iii, 5, 21. a7reA)7/lv$6raf ev VVKTI roil? re $UK.EO.<; nal roi?< i^Aoi'f uTravraf olnaSe tuaaTovf, etc. 3 Lysias, Or. xvi, (pro Mantitheo) s. 15, 10.