Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/320

 298 HISTORY OF GREECE. sisted chiefly of allies who had no heart in the cause, and who were glad to be required by the ThebMis to depart. If he had fought a battle and lost it, the detriment to Sparta would have been most serious in every way ; whereas, if he had gained a victory, no result would have followed except the acquisition of the bodies for burial ; since the execution of the original plan had become impracticable through the dispersion of the army of Lysander. Though a careful examination of the facts leads us (and seems also to have led Xenophon 1 ) to the conclusion that Pausanias was innocent, he was nevertheless found guilty in his absence. He was in great part borne down by the grief felt at Sparta for the loss of Lysander, with whom he had been before in political rivalry, and for whose death he was made responsible. Moreover, the old accusation was now revived against him, 2 for which he had been tried, and barely acquitted, eight years before, of having toler- ated the reestablishment of the Athenian democracy at a time when he might have put it down. Without doubt this argument told prodigiously against him at the present juncture, when the Athe- nians had just now, for the first time since the surrender of their city, renounced their subjection to Sparta and sent an army to as- sist the Thebans in their defence. So violent was the sentiment against Pausanias, that he was condemned to death in his absence, and passed the remainder of his life as an exile in sanctuary at Tegea. His son, Agesipolis, was invested with the sceptre in his place. A brief remark will not be here misplaced. On no topic have Grecian historians been more profuse in their reproaches, than upon the violence and injustice of democracy, at Athens and elsewhere, in condemning unsuccessful, but innocent generals. Out of the many cases in which this reproach is advanced, there are very few 1 The traveller Pausanias justifies the prudence of his regal namesake in avoiding a battle, by saying that the Athenians were in his rear, and the Thebans in his front ; and that he was afraid of being assailed on both sides at once, like Leonidas at Thermopylae, and like the troops enclosed in Sphakteria (Paus. iii, 5, 5). But the matter of fact, on which this justification rests, is contradicted by Xenophon, who says that the Athenians had actually joined the Thebans, anu were in the same ranks Ai96vref t-vfj.TrapTc'i!;avTO (Hellen. iii, 5, 22). 2 Xen. Hellen. iii, 5, 2f. Kal OTI TOV drjpov TUV 'Kdyvaiuv 7.afti>v tv r$ Ihtpaiel uvfiKt, etc. Compare Pausanias, iii, 5, 3.