Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/347

 LAEGE PLANS }F KONON. 325 CHAP1ER LXXV. FROM THE REBUILDING OF THE LONG WALLS OF ATHENS TO THE PEACE OF ANTALKIDAS. THE presence of Pharnabazus and Konon with their command- ing force in the Saronic Gulf, and the liberality with which the ibrmer furnished pecuniary aid to the latter for rebuilding the full fortifications of Athens, as well as to the Corinthians for the pro- secution of the war, seem to have given preponderance to the confederates over Sparta for that year. The plans of Konon 1 were extensive. He was the first to organize for the defence of Corinth, a mercenary force which was afterwards improved and conducted with greater efficiency by Iphikrates ; and after he had finished the fortifications of Peiraeus with the Long Walls, he employed himself in showing his force among the islands, for the purpose of laying the foundations of renewed maritime power for Athens. We even hear that he caused an Athenian envoy to be despatched to Dionysius at Syracuse, with the view of detaching that despot from Sparta, and bringing him into connection with Athens. Evagoras, despot of Salamis in Cyprus, the steady friend of Konon, was a party to this proposition, which he sought to strengthen by offering to Dionysius his sister in marriage. 3 There was a basis of sympathy between them arising from the fact that Evagoras was at variance with the Phenicians both in Phenicia and Cyprus, while Dionysius was in active hostilities with the Carthaginians (their kinsmen and Colonists) in Sicily. Never- theless, the proposition met with little or no success. We find Dionysius afterwards still continuing to act as an ally of Sparta, Profiting by the aid received from Pharnabazus, the Corintliiana strengthened their fleet at Lechoaum (their harbor in the Corinth- ian Gulf) so considerably, as to become masters of the Gulf, and 1 Harpokration, v. t-EviKbi> kv Kopivfty. Philochorus, Fragm. ] 5T, cd. Di- dot.
 * Lysias, Orat. xix, (De Bonis Aristophanis) s. 21.