Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/332

 310 HISTORY OF GREECE. of sorrow. He assured them that as soon as he had dissipated the clouds which hung over Sparta at home, he should come back to Asia without delay, and resume his efforts against the Persian satraps ; in the interim he left Euxenus, with a force of four thou- sand men for their protection. Such was the sympathy excited by his communication, combined with esteem for his character, thai the cities passed a general vote to furnish him with contingents of troops for his march to Sparta. But this first burst of zeal abated, when they came to reflect that it was a service against Greeks ; not merely unpopular in itself, but presenting a certainty of hard fighting with little plunder. Agesilaus tried every means to keep up their spirits, by proclaiming prizes both to the civic soldiers and to the mercenaries, to be distributed at Sestus in the Cher- sonesus, as soon as they should have crossed into Europe, prizes for the best equipment, and best disciplined soldiers in every dif- ferent arm. 1 By these means he prevailed upon the bravest and most effective soldiers in his army to undertake the march along with him; among them many of the Cyreians, with Xenophon himself at their head. Though Agesilaus, in leaving Greece, had prided himself on hoisting the flag of Agamemnon, he was now destined against his will to tread in the footsteps of the Persian Xerxes in his march from the Thracian Chersonese through Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, to Thermopylae and Boeotia. Never, since the time of Xerxes, had any army undertaken this march ; which now bore an Oriental impress, from the fact that Agesilaus brought with him some camels, taken in the battle of Sardis. 2 Overawing or defeat ing the various Thracian tribes, he reached Amphipolis on the Strymon where he was met by Derkyllidas, who had come fresh from the battle of Corinth and informed him of the victory. Full as his heart was of Pan-hellenic projects against Persia, he burst into exclamations of regret on hearing of the death of so many Greeks in battle, who could have sufficed, if united, to emancipate Asia Minor. 3 Sending Derkyllidas forward to Asia to make known the victory to the Grecian cities in his alliance, he pursued his march through Macedonia and Thessaly. In the latter 1 Xcn. Hellen. ir, 2, 2-5 ; Xcn. Agesil. i, 38 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 1 f
 * Xen. Hellen. iii, 4, 24.
 * Xenoph. Agesil. vii, 5 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 16.