Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/393

 DEATH OF ANAXIBIUS. 371 Accordingly, desiring his shield-bearer to hand to him his shield, ne said to those around him, " Friends, my honor commands me to die here ; but do you hasten away, and save yourselves, before the enemy close with us." Such order was hardly required to de- termine his panic-stricken troops, who fled with one accord towards Abydos ; while Anaxibius himself awaited firmly the approach of the enemy, and fell gallantly fighting on the spot. No less than twelve Spartan harmosts, those who had been expelled from their various governments by the defeat of Knidus, and who had re- mained ever since under Derkyllidas at Abydos, stood with the like courage and shared his fate. Such disdain of life hardly sur- prises us in conspicuous Spartan citizens, to whom preservation by flight was " no true preservation" (in the language of Xenophon),! but simply prolongation of life under intolerable disgrace at home. But what deserves greater remark is, that the youth to whom An- axibius was tenderly attached and who was his constant companion, could not endure to leave him, stayed fighting by his side, and perished by the same honorable death. 2 So strong was the mutual devotion which this relation between persons of the male sex in- spired in the ancient Greek mind. With these exceptions, no one else made any attempt to stand. All fled, and were pursued by Iphikrates as far as the gates of Abydos, with the slaughter of fifty out of the two hundred Abydene hoplites, and two hundred of the remaining troops. This well-planned and successful exploit, while it added to the reputation of Iphikrates, rendered the Athenians again masters of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, ensuring both the levy of the dues and the transit of their trading vessels. But while the Athenians were thus carrying on naval war at Rhodes and the Hellespont, they began to experience annoyance nearer home, from ^Egina. That island (within sight as the eyesore of Peirseus, as Periklcs was wont to call it) had been occupied fifty years before by a population eminently hostile to Athens, afterwards conquered and 1 See the remarks a few pages back, upon the defeat and destruction of the Lacedaemonian mora by Iphikrates, near Lechseum, page 350. A.aKedai[ioviuv 6s ruv avve^TjTiV&oTuv SK ruv KO^EUV iipfjioarripuv uf dudeica HaxojiEvoi avvaire'&avov oi (5' iM,oi fyEvyovres ETTITTTOV.
 * Xen. Hellen. iv, 8, 39. Kal ra iraidiKa (J.EVTOI aiiru napffiEive, KOI ruv